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To the throng- of eager <|uestion- 
ing brothers and sisters in the art of 
bee culture, in our own and other 
countries, this work is especially 
dedicated. The Authors. 




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THE 


ABC and XYZ 


OF 


BEE CULTURE 


A Cyclopedia of Everything Pertaining 
to the Care of the Honeybee : Bees, 
Hives, Honey, Implements, Honey 
Plants, etc. Facts Gleaned from the 
Experience of Thousands of Beekeepers, 
and Afterward Verified by the Authors. 


By A. 1. and E. R. Root 

n 



201st Thousand 


MEDINA, OHIO 


THE A, I. ROOT COMPANY 

1923 


Copyright 1923 by The A. I. Root Company 











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MAY - 7 *23 


CH 7 0 5 314 

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| 





1877 Preface 

In preparing' this work I have been much indebted to the books of Langstroth, Moses 
Quinby, Prof. A. J. Cook, and some others, as well as to all of the bee journals; but, 
more than to all these, have I been indebted to the thousands of friends scattered far and 
wide who have so kindly furnished the fullest particulars in regard to all the new improve¬ 
ments as they have come up in our beloved branch of rural industry. Those who ques¬ 
tioned me so much a few years ago are now repaying by giving me such long kind letters 
in answer to any inquiry I may happen to make that I often feel ashamed to think what 
meager answers I have been obliged to give them under similar circumstances. A great 
part of this ABC book is really the work of the people; and the task that devolves on 
me is to collect, condense, verify, and utilize what has been scattered thru thousands of 
letters for years past. My own apiary has been greatly devoted to testing carefully each 
new device, invention, or process as it came up. The task has been a very pleasant one, 
and if the perusal of the following pages affords you as much pleasure I shall feel amply 
repaid. 

November, 1877. A. I. Root. 


Preface to the 1923 Edition 

Little did A. I. Root, when he wrote the preface to the 1877 edition, realize that his 
work of 200 pages, written expressly for beginners, would develop during the following 
45 years into the ABC and X Y Z of Bee Culture, a work which meets the needs of 
both beginners and professional beekeepers. Since 1877 great changes have taken place 
in the bee world. Then beekeeping was hardly recognized as a business, but today it has 
grown to enormous proportions, as is shown in the Foreword following. Thousands of 
colonies are now handled by individuals and syndicates, and honey is shipped by the 
carload to various parts of the world—an achievement which would not have been be¬ 
lieved possible when the first edition of this book was published. Not only has this in¬ 
dustry taken a great stride in a commercial way, but thousands of people are keeping a 
few hives of bees on their farms and back lots. They have discovered that bee culture 
is not only a pleasurable pastime, but an important source of income since both honey 
and more and better fruit are secured. See Bees and Fruit in the body of this work. 

After the third edition, failing health, the cares of a rapidly growing business in 
the manufacture of beekeepers’ supplies and the publication of Gleanings in Bee Culture 
made it impossible for the author, A. I. Root, to keep pace with all the developments of 
beekeeping and make the necessary revisions. An assistant editor was required; and 
this position was naturally taken by Mr. Root’s elder son, the present author and re¬ 
viser, who had been his father’s chief helper in the apiary and who had for many years 
been in constant touch with his experimental work with bees. At the same time he as¬ 
sumed the duties of revising the A B C of Bee Culture, he also became assistant editor 
of Gleanings in Bee Culture and later editor—a position he has held for 35 years. While 
the earlier editions of the A B C of Bee Culture described correctly the methods of bee¬ 
keeping in northern Ohio and in other portions of the Noi'th where the climate and honey 
flora are similar, it soon became evident to the junior editor, as the result of an exten¬ 
sive correspondence, that conditions in other pai*ts of the United States, where climate 
and soil are radically different, required a modified treatment. 


PREFACE 


In 1890, after some nine editions of this work had been published, it became appar¬ 
ent that it was very desirable that the new editor and author should make extensive trips 
among the beekeepers of the different States. The first trip w T as made in 1890. Other 
trips followed in rapid succession continuing up to the present time, reports on which 
have appeared in Gleanings in Bee Culture. The data gathered during the first few 
traps showed conclusively the importance of adapting the teachings to the locality; and 
numerous changes and additions were incorporated giving the experience of the most 
successful beekeepers in every State in the Union. But in all cases the old matter orig¬ 
inally written by A. I. Root has been retained so far as possible. So extensive have been 
the additions that the original work of 200 pages has expanded into the present volume 
of nearly 1,000 pages. Thus three-fourths of the 1923 edition, outside of the scientific 
matter, has been written by the junior author. 

It must not be supposed that all of the changes made and all of the new material 
added are the work of the junior author alone. He has consulted many of the leading 
beekeepers of the country, frequently submitting to them his manuscripts for criticism. 
Among the foremost of these authorities in earlier days were Dr. C. C. Miller, G. M. 
Doolittle, A. C. Miller, and last, but not least, A. I. Root himself; in later years he has 
consulted Dr. E. F. Phillips, in charge of Bee Culture at Washington, and his former 
assistant, Geo. S. Demuth. 

Mr. Demuth is now editor-in-chief of Gleanings in Bee Culture, and chief of the 
Bureau of Information of The A. I. Root Company. For many years he was engaged 
in the production of comb honey at Peru, Indiana. His methods have been so success¬ 
ful that the sum of money he has made with 200 colonies of bees in one month has fre¬ 
quently exceeded the salary he received during the other eleven months. For nine years 
Mr. Demuth was assistant to Dr. Phillips in the Department of Bee Culture at Wash¬ 
ington, D. C. In this position he had exceptional facilities for engaging in research 
work with bees. In the preparation of the 1923 edition of the ABC and X Y Z of Bee 
Culture he has made many valuable suggestions. Several of the articles, as After-Swabm- 
ing. Artificial Swarming, Building Up Colonies, Comb Honey, and Swarming, were 
entirely rewritten by him. On these five subjects he is acknowledged to be one of the 
best living authorities. 

Dr. Phillips, the author of Beekeeping, has likewise offered important suggestions; 
and furnished valuable information in regard to bee diseases, which has been incorpor¬ 
ated under various topics. Assisted by Mr. Demuth he has developed the science of win¬ 
tering bees, and explained most of the reactions that then take place in the colony. (See 
Temperature.) A knowledge of bee behavior in general, or what may be described in 
more popular language as the domestic economy of the beehive, and many problems in 
bee culture, formerly obscure, have also been worked out by Phillips and Demuth. 

In later years H. H. Root, the younger son of A. I. Root, came on the scene of action. 
He inherited all of the enthusiasm of his father for genuine research, and as a result has 
invented and improved many new and useful appliances, which greatly facilitate the 
work of securing a crop of honey. The articles on Extractors and Extracting show 
much of his handiwork. He also wrote a large part of the article on Wax, and helped 
in revising various other articles. 

It was impossible for the author, who for 35 years was editor of Gleanings in Bee 
Culture, in revising the ABC and X Y Z of Bee Culture to specialize in zoology and 
botany. Both of these sciences are so intimately connected with bee culture that the 
author finally employed Mr. John H. Lovell of Waldoboro, Maine, an entomologist, bot¬ 
anist and beekeeper, to write all the articles relating to them. Mr. Lovell has one of the 
largest private collections in the United States of the solitary and social bees, and of in¬ 
sects valuable as agents in the pollination of flowers. For many years he has specialized 
in botany and entomology, and has contributed numerous articles to the scientific journals 
giving the results of original investigations of the biology of flowers, the senses of the 
honeybee and the classification of bees. He has also for nearly a score of years been an 
enthusiastic beekeeper and student of bee economy. Such a combination in one man, who 


PREFACE 


has devoted his entire lifetime to these subjects, could scarcely be found elsewhere. In this 
connection it should also be stated that he is the author of a popular work entitled The 
Flower and the Bee: Plant Life and Pollination , and of The Honey Plants of North 
America, at the present time in manuscript, but which will be published during the current 
year. Among the articles contributed to the present edition by Mr. Lovell are Pollina¬ 
tion of Flowers, Pollination of Fruit Bloom, Honey Plants, Bumblebees, Solitary 
Bees, Locality, Propolis, and with a few partial exceptions all the descriptions and pho¬ 
tographs of honey plants. 

It seemed very desirable that the article discussing the laws relating to bees and bee¬ 
keepers’ rights should be written by one who was both a lawyer and a beekeeper; and, 
therefore, Leslie Burr, formerly a practicing attorney and now a judge, -who has kept bees 
in several States in the Union, was selected to write Laws Relating to Bees. 

The article on the Anatomy of the Honeybee was written by R. E. Snodgrass, for¬ 
merly of the Bureau of Entomology, Washington, D. C. 

Dr. James A. Nelson, likewise formerly of the Bureau of Entomology, and the author 
of a valuable work on the Embryology of the Honeybee, wrote Development of Bees. 

Mrs. J. H. Comstock, an entomologist of national reputation and a backlot beekeeper, 
wrote Beekeeping for Women. 

The topics, Honey and Honey Analysis, have been handled by A. Hugh Bryan, 
formerly chemist in the United States Department of Agriculture, and now an expert on 
sugars for the American Refining Company. Helpful suggestions and additions have 
been made by E. Wynne Boyden, a grandson of A. I. Root, who has specialized in the 
chemistry of honey. Possibly no one in the United States has given more careful and 
thorough investigation to the general subject of honey as a food than Mr. Boyden. The 
articles on Honey Vinegar and Honey as a Food were written by him. Many of the 
fioney recipes and the article on Vitamines in Honey were written by Mrs. A. L. Boyden, 
a daughter of A. I. Root. It will be noticed that the ABC and X 7 Z of Bee Culture still 
remains very much a family affair. 

The discriminating reader may discover in the treatment of the various articles ap¬ 
parent repetitions of what has been said elsewhere under other heads. Where this occurs, 
it is for a purpose. The restatement of a certain proposition from a different angle nec¬ 
essarily clears up a subject that might otherwise be misunderstood.. For example, it will 
be found that the treatment of Windbreaks under Apiaries and under Wintering Out¬ 
doors, while similar, is enough different to require a special restatement under each head¬ 
ing. Again, in so complex a subject as the management of bees the reiteration of the 
same facts in a different form, as well as from a different angle, helps to make plain to 
the beginner a matter that he should not and must not misunderstand, if he would succeed. 
How to open a hive of bees is considered under the heads of A B C OF Beekeeping, Anger 
of Bees, Manipulation of Colonies, Robbing and Stings. Under the general head of 
Swarming there will be found the subhead, The Cause of Swarming, and likewise the 
subhead, Prevention of Swarming. There is some material under both heads that is 
similar. Knowing the cause, one would naturally apply the remedy; but in explaining 
the remedy it is important that many details in connection with the cause be stated. 

The author has traveled over all the United States and given hundreds of lectures on 
beekeeping; and he finds that many important subjects are misunderstood for the simple 
reason that they have not been amplified enough. It requires line upon line, and more or 
less repetition in a different form and from a different viewpoint. For this reason it has 
seemed best to repeat some propositions from different angles, especially when they are 
important. The author, therefore, makes no apology for the repetitions that occur, not¬ 
withstanding which he is convinced that many of his readers will make some mistakes. 

A special feature of the 1923 edition is a very complete index of general subjects which 
will be found in the back of the volume. This is by far the most complete index: that 
the A B C and X T Z of Bee Culture has ever had. It was thought in a work of refer¬ 
ence like this, altho it is arranged in alphabetical order, making it easy for the reader 
to find any general subject, that an index of all subjects could not be too complete. The 


PREFACE 


author therefore believes that this volume will be much more helpful than any previous 
edition, especially as it contains so many new subjects. 

As did A. I. Root in his modest preface of 1877, so the present author feels that he 
is indebted in a very large way to the thousands and thousands, over all this land, who 
have not only shown him their methods and appliances, but have by letter and otherwise 
helped to furnish the material that is given in these pages. 

Feb. 1, 1923. 


ERNEST R. ROOT. 


Introduction to the First Edition 

BY A. I. ROOT. 

About the year 1865, during the month of August, a swarm of bees passed overhead 
where we were at work, and my fellow-workman, in answer to some of my inquiries 
respecting their habits, asked what I would give for them. I, not dreaming he could by 
any means call them down, offered him a dollar, and he started after them. To my 
astonishment, he, in a short time, returned with them, hived in a rough box he had hastily 
picked up, and, at that moment, I commenced learning my A B C in bee culture. Before 
night I had questioned not only the bees but every one I knew, who could tell me anything 
about these strange new acquaintances of mine. Our books and papers were overhauled 
that evening; but the little that I found only puzzled me the more, and kindled anew the 
desire to explore and follow out this new hobby of mine: for, dear reader, I have been 
all my life much given to hobbies and new projects. 

Farmers who had kept bees assured me that they once paid, when the country was 
new, but of late years they were no profit, and everybody was abandoning the business. 
I had some headstrong views in the matter, and in a few days I visited Cleveland, 
ostensibly on other business, but I had really little interest in anything until I could visit 
the book stores and look over the books on bees. I found but two, and I very quickly 
chose Langstroth. May God reward and forever bless Mr. Langstroth for the kind and 
pleasant way in which he unfolds to his readers the truths and wonders of creation to be 
found inside the beehive. 

What a gold mine that book seemed to me as I looked it over on my journey home! 
Never was romance so enticing—no, not even Robinson Crusoe; and, best of all, right at 
my own home I could live out and verify all the wonderful things told therein. Late as it 
was, I yet made an observatory hive and raised queens from worker eggs before winter, 
and wound up by purchasing a queen of Mr. Langstroth for $20.00. I should, in fact, 
have wound up the whole business, queen and all, most effectually, had it not been for 
some timely advice toward Christmas, from a plain practical farmer near by. With his 
assistance, and by the purchase of some more bees, I brought all safely thru the winter. 
Thru Mr. Langstroth I learned of Mr. Wagner, who shortly afterward was induced to 
recommence the publication of the American Bee Journal, and thru this I gave accounts 
monthly of my blunders and occasional successes. 

In 1867, news came across the ocean from Germany, of the honey-extractor; and by 
the aid of a simple homemade machine I took 1,000 lbs. of honey from 20 stocks, and 
increased them to 35. This made quite a sensation, and numbers embarked in the new 
business; but when I lost all but 11 of the 35 the next winter, many said: “There! I 
told you how it would turn out.” 

I said nothing, but went to work quietly and increased the 11 to 48 during the one 
season, not using the extractor at all. The 48 were wintered entirely without loss, and I 
think it was mainly because I took care and pains with each individual colony. From the 
48 I secured 6,162 lbs. of extracted honey, and sold almost the entire crop for 25 cents 
per lb. This capped the climax, and inquiries in regard to the new industry began to 
come in from all sides. Beginners were eager to know what hives to adopt, and where to 
get honev-extractors. As the hives in use seemed very poorly adapted to the use of the 
extractor, and as the machines offered for sale were heavy and poorly adapted to the 
purpose, besides being “patented,” there really seemed to be no other way before me than 
to manufacture these implements. Unless I did this I should be compelled to undertake 
a correspondence that would occupy a great part of my time without affording any 
compensation of any account. The fullest directions I knew how to give for making plain 
simple hives, etc., were from time to time published in the American Bee Journal; but 
the demand for further particulars was such that a circular was printed, and, shortly 


INTRODUCTION 


after, a second edition; then another, and another. These were intended to answer the 
greater part of the queries; and from the cheering 1 words received in regard to them it 
seemed that the idea was a happy one. 

Until 1873 all these circulars were sent out gratuituously; but at that time it was 
deemed best to issue a quarterly at 25 cents per year, for the purpose of answering 1 these 
inquiries. The very first number was received with such favor that it was immediately 
changed to a monthly at 75 cents. The name of it was Gleanings in Bee Culture, and it 
was gradually enlarged, until, in 1876, the price was changed to $1.00. During all this 
time it has served the purpose excellently of answering questions as they came up, both 
old and new; and even if some new subscriber should ask in regard to something that had 
been discussed at length but a short time before, it is an easy matter to refer him to it or 
send him the number containing the subject in question. 

When Gleanings was about commencing its fifth year, inquirers began to dislike 
being referred to something that was published half a dozen years before. Besides, the 
decisions that were then arrived at perhaps needed to be considerably modified to meet 
present wants. Now you can see whence the necessity for this ABC book, its office, and 
the place we propose to have it fill. 

December, 1878. 


A. I. Root. 




A. I. ROOT 



Foreword 


It is hardly necessary to remind the reader that this is an encyclopedia on 
bees. It should not therefore be read consecutively,- but taken up subject by. 
subject in the order indicated later. A preliminary statement should first be 
made in order that the beginner, at least, may be able to form at the very outset 
some idea of the scope and character of the industry which he is to study. 

Bees have been kept from time almost immemorial. References to bees and 
“honey in the honeycomb” appear all thru ancient history. Honey, aside from 
the sugar in fruit, was the only sweet then known, and hence was always highly 
prized. Bees were kept in caves, earthen jars, old logs, straw baskets or skeps. 
When man contrived the art of making boards out of trees he constructed rude 
boxes which were called gums or hives. The skeps were made of braided straw, 
and these are still used'to a considerable extent in Europe among the peasant 
classes who cannot afford modern equipments, and who lack, even more, the 
mental capacity to put into effect modern methods. Bee “Skeps.” 

The keeping of bees in the old days was but little more than an avocation 
or sideline in connection with some other business or profession. While the 
great majority of the beekeepers of today are probably amateurs or backlot- 
ters, those who keep a few bees for pleasure and profit, there are now thousands 
upon thousands who make beekeeping a vocation or business. Their colonies 
are numbered by the hundreds and even thousands, and their annual produc¬ 
tion of honey is measured by the ton and carload. While there were a few, 
both in Europe and America, who had as many as two or three hundred colo¬ 
nies, and produced honey by the ton, beekeeping as a specialty and as an ex¬ 
clusive business was scarcely known until after the advent of the movable- 
frame hive of Langstroth and the honey-extractor of Hruschka. (See “Hives” 
and “Extractors.”) These inventions revolutionized the industry to such an 
extent that it is now possible for the beekeeper to produce tons where he could 
produce only pounds before. 

In addition to the specialist class of beekeepers there are many hundreds 
of thousands who keep a few colonies in the back yard in cities and towns. There 
is also another large class, the farmer beekeepers, who keep a few colonies on 
the farm, not only for the purpose of pollinating their fruit trees, the clovers, 
and buckwheat, but to supply the family table with honey, the purest and best 
sweet in the world. 

The time was when Moses Quinby, in the 50’s, and that was before the 
invention of the movable-frame hive by Langstroth, sent a canalboat-load of 
honey to the city of New York. This was more than the metropolis had ever 
seen before—so much honey,, indeed, that it “broke down the market,” and the 
honey went begging for a customer. In these latter days that same market 
is able to dispose of hundreds and hundreds of carloads of honey that have been 
shipped in from all over the United States, but mainly from the irrigated 
regions of the West. 

A conservative estimate of the total number of persons who keep bees, 
either as a vocation or as an avocation, is 1,000,000 beekeepers in the United 
States alone. 

On a very conservative estimate, based on United States statistics and on 
the records of sales of the largest bee-supply factories in the United States, 
1 


FOREWORD 


2 

there is at least $75,000,000 worth of honey produced annually in the United 
States, and also about $3,000,000 worth of beeswax. The business of keep¬ 
ing bees has grown to be so enormous that there are several large bee-supply 
manufacturers who send out carloads of hives and honey-boxes all over the 
United States and to foreign countries. 

During the great World War, and especially during the years 1917 to 1919. 
the production of honey was enormously increased. This was due to the fact 
that sugar was very scarce and high-priced much of the time, and rationed out 
to families m lots not exceeding two pounds. During this period also sugar 
was almost unobtainable in Europe. 

It is a well-known fact that honey or sugar is a necessary element in food 
in the human dietary. When sugar was obtainable in only very small lots, the 
only substitute of any sweetening value and of good flavor was honey. The 
call was sent over the land to produce more food, and that, of course, in¬ 
cluded honey. Honey began to go to Europe by the shipload, and the price 
rose frbm 6, 7, and 8 cents in carlots for extracted, to 20, 22, and even 27 cents 
in New York; and when it arrived in Europe, the price was from $1.00 to $2.00 
a pound in small bottles. 

Not only the business of honey production was very greatly stimulated in 
the United States, but the price of bees rose from $5.00, $6.00, and $7.00 per 
colony up to $15.00 and $25.00. The bee-pupply factories were rushed almost 
day and night to keep up with orders. In the meantime the housewife was 
obliged in place of sugar to use honey, which she could buy in any quantity if 
she had the price—50 cents per pound in pound bottles. 

After the war was over, prices naturally began to sag, so that they were 
soon down almost to a pre-war basis. But comb honey continued to.be sold at 
its former price, retailing all the way from 40 to 50 cents a pound. The result 
of the late war was to introduce honey as a food into families where it had 
never been eaten before. It was also forced into the arts and trades, so that 
the future of the honey business is greater than ever. Of course it can not run 
at the high pace it did during the war. 

Modern appliances and modern methods have now made it possible for 
specialists, backlotters, and farmers to handle bees with few or no stings; to 
take the honey away without destroying the hives, combs, or bees—indeed, 
they all alike find both pleasure and profit in the study and in the handling of 
these wonderful little insects, that, in the language of the day, ‘ ‘ work for noth¬ 
ing and board themselves.” While this is not literally true, of course, the little 
creatures will toil day in and day out and allow their owner to take the product 
of their toil before their very ej*s, and rob them day after day, without so 
much as offering a single sting, that is, provided, of course, their owner knows 
how. It is the province of this work to show “how” all these things can be 
done and are being done by many thousands scattered all over the United 
States. 

The modern movable frame, as already mentioned, has made it possible 
for the owner of bees to go clear thru his hives, remove the combs, and inspect 
every portion of the hives and the bees. After learning their condition he can 
put the combs back, close the hive up, and, if he follows directions, he will prob¬ 
ably receive no stings. 

The bee-smoker (see “Smoke and Smokers”) will quiet bees, and when neces¬ 
sary, and that is not often, drive them down thru the combs in utter confusion. 
In fact, smoke so diverts their attention from the thought of defense and offense 
that they become passive and tractable. While the smoker may be used as a 
means of control, it also in the hands of an ignorant or careless person may be 
used as an instrument of torture. If instructions are followed there will be no 


FOREWORD 




need of causing any pain to the bees, much less of killing any by its use. See 
“Stings” and “Smoke and Smokers.” 

The use of the bee-smoker and bee-veil to protect the face, and sometimes 
gloves for the hands of the more timid, has made it also possible for the owner 
to play with bees as he might with kittens; to rob them of their honey when¬ 
ever he sees fit; to invade their homes; to take away their queen; to take every¬ 
thing they have, if he is so minded, without a protest and without a sting. 

In this connection it would be unfair to imply that the modern beekeeper 
never receives any stings. He certainly does; but when he knows the modern 
methods that are taught in this work or any other standard book on bees, the 
bugaboo of stings fades away. 

As a matter of fact the beekeeper receives comparatively few stings, and 
what he does get leave no after-effect in swelling, because his system soon 
becomes immune to the poison, and, beyond the sharp prick of pain which lasts 
for a full minute, there is no local, fever nor swelling. 

Honey is being used as a food as it never was before. (See “Honey,” 
“Honey as a Food,” “Extracted Honey,” and “Comb Honey.”) Honey is now 
found in the best hotels and res'taurants, on dining-cars of the great trunk line 
railroads, and in all leading groceries. It is now being put up attractively 
in comb and liquid form. Traveling men are out buying and selling it as a 
regular commodity. Sometimes they will contract for ten or even twenty car¬ 
loads at a time. It is then repacked, put up in small paokages, and sold to the 
consuming trade, either direct or at the large wholesale or retail groceries. See 
“Bottling Honey.” 

Some of the darker and stronger-flavored honeys are being used by the 
large baking concerns in making their cakes and cookies. Honey is an 
invert sugar, and as such it keeps the cakes, cookies, and jumbles soft and moist 
for months at a time. The cakes that contain the most honey are known as 
“honey jumbles,” some- of which have kept for a period of twelve years, and 
were found to be still as good, almost, as the day they were made. See “Honey 
as a Food.” 

As a food, honey merits a rather unique position. In the first place, it is 
the only concentrated sweet found as such in Nature. Perhaps this very fact 
would lead one to expect that which dietitians tell us to be true: that honey 
does not burden the digestion like ordinary sugar. Altho honey is chiefly in¬ 
vert sugar, it differs from the commercial product in several important re¬ 
spects. Among these might be mentioned the occurrence in honey of a variety 
of mineral elements, all of which are essential in proper nutrition. The amounts 
in which these elements are present are not negligible, as some have assumed. 
On the contrary, they are of considerable importance, especially when it is con¬ 
sidered that no other commercial invert contains any available minerals worth 
mentioning. 

It has also been determined that comb honey, at least, and probably ex¬ 
tracted honey, contain vitamines so necessary to life. It is not known at this 
writing just how much extracted honey may contain; but Prof. Phillip B. 
Hawk, of the Jefferson Medical College, Philadelphia, the great food specialist 
and a contributor to scientific and popular journals on foods, shows that comb 
honey, at least, contains “distinct amounts of fat or soluble A” vitamines, and 
that a small amount may be present in extracted honey. For further particu¬ 
lars on vitamines in honey see “Vitamines in Honey,” in the body of the work. 

The question might be raised at this point whether there are not too many 
beekeepers already. The fact is, more nectar goes to waste than is gathered. 
It has been estimated that 75 per cent of it is lost simply because there are no 
bees in the vicinity to gather it. Dr. Phillips, Apicultural Expert of the De- 


4 


FOREWORD 


partment of Agriculture, in his book, 1915, “Beekeeping,” ventures an esti¬ 
mate that ten times the present honey crop could be produced. 

At least it would be conservative to say for the present time (1922) that 
the resources of this country could furnish $300,000,000 worth of honey. If that 
much were produced next year the market would certainly be glutted. But 
experience shows that the increase in the number of beekeepers keeps at about 
an even pace with the increase in the number of honey consumers, so that by 
the time the bees produce $300,000,000 worth of honey there will be a market 
for every pound. 

The farmers of this country are just beginning to discover the value of 
sweet clover as a forage plant for cattle and hogs (see “Sweet Clover”). In 
many localities it is nearly if not quite the equal of alfalfa. This clover will 
grow on poor land, and restore poor soil as almost nothing else will do. The 
farm papers all over the country are already proclaiming the virtues of sweet 
clover. The experiment stations extol it everywhere. So far from being a 
“noxious weed,” it is one of the most valuable legumes ever known. Now, 
sweet clover is a honey plant—one of the best in this country. 

Owing to the fact that many of the former clover soils are not growing 
clover as they formerly did, the experiment stations of the country, as well as 
the general agricultural press, are advocating the use of lime in one and two 
ton lots to the acre. Where this has been applied there has been an enormous 
increase in the production of all the clovers. Alsike clover, on account of the 
practice of liming the soil, is being introduced into localities where it has never 
been known before. So thoroly is the gospel of lime being disseminated over 
the country that the business of honey production, which had been largely de¬ 
pendent on the clover, is being enormously stimulated. See “Clover.” 

The work being done by the Bureau of Entomology, Washington, D. C., 
to stimulate apiculture in the United States, is beginning to have its effect. 
This, coupled with the work done by the various state experiment stations, 
and the extension men of the farm bureaus, is spreading not only the.gospel 
of lime but also the gospel of honey production and the pollination of certain 
legumes and fruits. 

We made the statement that something over $75,000,000 worth of honey is- 
produced annually in the United States alone. If that were all the bees do in 
this country it would be a fine record. From an economic standpoint they do 
far more than this. There is no other agency in the world that does such 
perfect work in pollination—that is, bringing the pollen of one blossom to that 
of another—as the honeybees. There are countless thousands of them at a time 
of the year when comparatively few other insects are present. They therefore 
make it possible to produce more and better fruit. See “Fruit Blossoms,” also 
“Pollination.” 

This in brief is a general survey of the industry. It will now be proper 
to refer the reader to the series of subjects which he should take up. Each 
will be found in its appropriate alphabetical order; and when these have 
been read, the reader can then take up the other subjects as he chooses. But it 
is suggested that, if he can possibly secure a colony of bees, he should do so in 
order that he may study them intelligently and apply the teachings of this book 
•as he goes along. The following course of reading is recommended: 

A B C of Beekeeping; Beginning with Bees; Anger of Bees; Manipulation 
of Colonies: Apiary: Smoke and Smokers; Stings; Hives; Transferring; Rob¬ 
bing ; Feeding; Backlot Beekeeping; Swarming ; Extracting; Comb Honey ; 
Spring Management: Uniting; Wintering. The other subjects may be taken 
up in any order that may se£m best. 


E. R. ROOT. 


A 


A B C OF BEEKEEPING. —In this 
preliminary article it will be assumed that 
the reader knows nothing about bees or 
beekeeping except that “they sting, and 
are ready to sting anywhere at any time 
any one who approaches within a hundred 
yards of their hive.” By reading this ar¬ 
ticle and the one on Stings it will be seen 
that nothing could be further from the 
truth. 

. At the very outset it is important that 
a general bird’s-eye view be taken of the 
whole industry; and to do this it will be 
necessary to make a brief summary of the 
contents of this work. The reader, hav¬ 
ing a comprehensive view of the business, 
the ways and means and wherefores, will 
then be able to take up specifically a course 
of reading as suggested at the close of the 
Foi’eword. 

There are two different kinds of bees— 
solitary bees (see Solitary Bees) and so¬ 
cial bees, those that live in colonies or 
communities. There are many species of 
both kinds; but for the purpose of this 
work we shall concern ourselves with the 
social bees and mainly the species known 
as Apis melliftca, or “honey-makers.” 


same organs in the only true female, known 
as the “queen.” See Pollen. 

A colony of bees may contain anywhere 
from 25,000 to 75,000 individuals, and in 
rare cases as high as 100,000,_ all the daugh¬ 
ters of one queen bee. But the average 
good colony for producing honey will run 
anywhere from 50,000 to 75,000 workers. 
During the winter this number will be 
reduced less than half; for Nature appar¬ 
ently goes on the assumption that it is wise 
not to produce a lot of unnecessary con¬ 
sumers for winter. 

The duties of the worker bees are quite 
varied. Primarily their business is to gath¬ 
er nectar or sucrose, and by some chemi¬ 
cal process, which no one seems to under¬ 
stand fully, change it into invert sugar or 
honey. Since they gather nectar and make 
it over into honey, it is scientifically ac¬ 
curate to say that bees “make honey.” 

Bees also gather pollen from the flowers, 
and store it in combs the same as they 
store honey. The pollen and honey are 
used for making a milky-white nitrogenous 
food to feed the larvse of baby bees. This 
food is very much like thin condensed 
milk. As the larvas develop, this same food 


Queen, drone and worker bee in order from left to right. 


There are three classes of individuals in 
each colony—namely, the queen bee or true 
female, t.lje drones, and the workers, or 
neuter bees as some call them, but more 
correctly undeveloped females. Each work¬ 
er bee is functionally the same as the queen 
bee except that her tongue, mouth parts, 
pollen-gathering bristles on the legs, and 
the sting are more fully developed than the 


or “pap” is made richer and stronger. 
See Development of Bees. 

Bees also gather a kind of glue for mak¬ 
ing up what is called bee glue, or propolis. 
This is used to seal up all cracks that might 
let cold air into the hive. The word “pro¬ 
polis” is derived from two Greek words— 
pro, meaning in front, and polis, a city. In 
ancient times, especially with some strains 





6 


A B C OF BEEKEEPING 


of Apis mellifica, the bees used this sub¬ 
stance in front of the hive to contract the 
entrance in order to keep out other insects 
and rodents, hence the name, in front of 
the city, or propolis. 

Worker bees naturally fall into two divi¬ 
sions-—young bees for taking care of young 
brood, building comb, protecting the en¬ 
trance against robbers, and in other ways 
performing the inside work of the hive. 
The older bees, or “fielders,” are those that 
gather the nectar, pollen, and bee glue. 
When there are few or no young bees the 
older ones can and do assume the duties of 
nurse bees. See Brood. 

The fully developed, or true female, is 
what is called the “queen.” As already 
stated, she functionally is much the same 
as the workers with this difference: Her 
mouth parts, pollen-gathering apparatus, as 
well as her sting, are atrophied or aborted, 
while' her ovaries are highly developed. 
She is capable of laying as many as 5,000 
eggs in a day, but usually 3,000 is the limit. 
During the height of the season she will 
not average, probably, over 1,000 eggs a 
day. At the close of the active season her 
egg-laying diminishes greatly, sometimes 
stopping'mltogether. This seems to be a wise 
provision in nature to prevent the rearing 
of a lot of useless consumers that would 
simply use up all the stores before winter 
comes on. Along in the fall, if there should 
be a fall flow, egg-laying will start again, 
and a lot of young bees will be reared to 
make up a colony that will go into winter 
quarters. The bees that gather the crop 
during an active honey season very seldom, 
if ever, live to go into winter quarters. The 
fruit of their toil goes to their successors. 

Only one queen bee, under normal condi¬ 
tions, is allowed in the hive at a time. The 
worker bees, apparently, are willing to tol¬ 
erate one or more queens ; but evidently the 
queens themselves are jealous of each other, 
and, when they meet, a mortal combat fol¬ 
lows, during which one of them receives a 
fatal sting. The reigning queen bee, then, 
is often the survival of the fittest. Some¬ 
times mother and daughter will get along 
very nicely together and perhaps even win¬ 
ter together, but usually along toward fall 
the mother disappears. Whether the 
daughter helps to make away with her, 
whether she dies of old age, or whether the 


bees take a hand in the matter, is not 
known. 

The average queen bee will remain the 
mother of a colony for from two to three 
years. She may live to be as old as five or 
six years, but these cases are very rare. 



A typical box-hive apiary such as is to he seen all 
over the Southland. 

Usually a queen over two years old is not 
worth much, and most of our best bee¬ 
keepers believe that a queen over a year 
should be replaced by a younger one. See 
Age of Bees. 

The other individuals in the hive are 
male bees or drones. Their mouth parts 
and pollen-gathering apparatus are all very 
much aborted, and they have no sting. They 
are completely at the mercy of their sisters, 
and their only function is to mate the 
queen bee. This act takes place in the air, 
for apparently Nature has designed to pre¬ 
vent in-breeding. After the main honey 



Tipping- up the hives in a box-hive apiary, one after 
another, and looking “up under" to learn their 
condition. This is all the “inspection" with box hives. 


flow is over, the drones are rudely pushed 
out at the entrance by their sisters, where 
they soon starve to death. See Drones. 

The average young queen, when she sal¬ 
lies forth in the air on her wedding trip, 
may or may not find her consort from the 






A R r OF BEEKEEPING 


same hive, but the probabilities are she will 
find one from some other hive. As soon as 
the act of copulation has taken place the 
two whirl around in the air until they 
drop, when the queen tears herself loose, 
carrying with her the drone organs, after 
which the drone dies. Soon after she en¬ 
ters her hive the drone organs are removed 
by the worker bees, but the spermatic fluid 
is retained in the spermatheca, where a 
supply sufficient to last the rest of her life 
is held. The queen is from that time on 
able to lay fertilized eggs that will produce 
worker bees, and infertile eggs that pro¬ 
duce only drones. See Bees and Dzierzon 
Theory. 

The same egg that produces a worker bee, 
strangely enough, will also produce a queen 
bee. The question of whether an egg shall 
be developed into a queen or an ordinary 
worker depends entirely on conditions. If 
the bees desire to raise a queen, or several 
of them, they will build one or more large 
cells, and feed the baby grubs a special 
food. (See Queens and Queen-Rearing.) 
In 16 days a perfect queen will emerge; 
while in the case of a worker, fed on a 
coarse food in small cells, 21 days elapse. 
Such, in brief, is a statement concerning 
the inmates of the hive and their duties. 

Before proceeding any further it will be 
proper to say something about the house 
or hive. In doing this the old box hive of 
our forefathers will be shown, working 
up to the modern hive which has made it 
possible to handle bees with such infinite 
pleasure and profit. 

THE OLD WAY OF KEEPING BEES. 

The old primitive box hive of our grand¬ 
fathers, consisting of a rude box (hence the 
name), was 12 or 15 inches square, and 
from two to three feet deep. Thru the 
center were secured two cross-cleats at right 
angles to each other, to help support the 
combs. (See Box Hives.) This box hive 
standing on a board or slab usually had a 
notch at the bottom in front, to provide an 
entrance and exit' for the bees. The bees, 
when building their combs in such a hive, 
fastened them to the sides and ends over 
and around the cross-cleats before mention¬ 
ed. The combs, when so built, would, of 
course, permit of no examination nor han¬ 
dling, as do the modern hives; and when it 
was desired to take the honey, the bees of 



the heaviest hives in the fall were brim- 
stoned, while those of the lightest were al¬ 
lowed to live over until the next season, to 
provide for swarms to replace those brim- 


The “inards” of a box hive after the bees have been 
drummed out. Notice how immovable the combs 
are. 

stoned. The honey taken from box hives 
was mixed with beebread and brood, and 
was of inferior quality. The combs were 
cut out of the hive and dumped into buck¬ 
ets to be used as necessity required. 

The modern hive lias long since elimin- 



Modern Hive with Hoffman frames for production 
of extracted honey. Between super and hive body 
should be a queen-excluder. (Deep extracting super 
identical with hive body may be substituted for 
shallow extracting super.) 











8 


A B C OF BEEKEEPING 


a ted these crude and cruel methods, and in 
their stead there is accessibility to every 
part; and, so far from destroying the little 
servants, one can take their honey without a 
sting if directions are followed. Every 
comb is now built in movable frames that 
permit of easy examination. (See Frames.)' 
One can open the hive and remove the 
frames, playing with the bees by the hour 
if he knows how. There is no more al¬ 
luring pastime for the business or profes¬ 
sional man or the housewife than the keep¬ 
ing of bees. They all say it’s just fun, and 
it’s “fun” that makes money. See Back- 
lot Beekeeping. 


TILE MODERN HIVE FOR THE PRODUCTION OF 
COMB AND EXTRACTED HONEY. 

The modern hive, or exterior housing, in 
its simplest form consists of a floor or 
bottom-board; a hive body (box without 
cover or bottom) to hold the frames or 
racks to contain the combs; supers (shal¬ 
low box rims) to hold section-holders for 
the sections or extracting frames for ex¬ 
tracted honey; a thin wooden lid, or “super 
cover,” and over the Avhole a “telescope 
cover,” as shown, to shield the hive from 
the weather. In addition there is an en¬ 
trance-contracting cleat that can be re¬ 
moved so that a wide or narrow entrance 
may be used, depending on the season. In 
the best-regulated apiaries, hive-stands are 
used for holding the hives. These protect 
the bottom and hive proper from unneces¬ 
sary exposure to the ground and rot, and 
at the same time provide an easy grade or 
alighting-board for the convenience of 
heavily laden bees as they come in from 
the field. 

Each of the hive parts here enumerated 
is separable. Qne part can be piled on top 
of another in such a way as to accommo¬ 
date the largest colonies and the' largest 
yields of honey that may be secured. 

BROOD-FRAMES. 

Movable frames to hold the combs are 
called “brood-frames.” The tops of these 
have projections resting upon rabbets cut 
in the upper ends of the hive. (See accom¬ 
panying. illustrations.) The end bars of 
the frames have, near the top, projecting 
ends just wide enough so that the combs 
will be spaced the correct distance apart. 


Such self-spacing frames for holding the 
combs are called “Hoffman brood-frames,” 
and any one of them can be removed and 
replaced. A set of frames of the same pat¬ 
tern, but shallower, is sometimes used. Any 
hive containing a set of frames in which 
there is brood (unhatched bees) is called a 
brood-chamber. A hive containing a set of 



Modern Iiive with Hoffman frames for the produc¬ 
tion of comb honey. (Any style of comb-honey 
super may be used.) 


frames used for the storage of surplus 
honey is called a “super.” Brood-cham¬ 
bers are generally deep, but the supers 
may be either deep or shallow. The honey 
may be removed by cutting the combs from 
the frames in the supers and storing them 
in tin cans, or it may be “extracted” from 
the frames of combs by means of a honey- 
extractor. The honey so taken is called 
extracted honey. See Extracting. 

Every comb has a series of honey cells on 
each side, which, when filled with honey, are 
capped over with a thin film of wax. This 
capping is sliced off with a sharp-bladed 
knife made for the purpose, called an “un- 
capping-knife.” The combs, with the cap¬ 
pings removed, are then placed in the bas¬ 
kets, or wire pockets, of a centrifugal hon¬ 
ey-extractor. These baskets, fastened in 
multiples of two or more in a reel, are 









A P. C OF BEEKEEPING 


9 


geared to run at a relatively high rate of 
speed inside of a metal can. The honey is 
thrown out by centrifugal force from the 
side of the comb next to the can. The ma- 







Combs one-fourth, one-half. and three-fourths 
capped. The uppermost is fit for extracting after 
shaving off the cappings as shown by the part in 
white. 


chine is stopped; the combs are reversed, 
when the reel is started revolving, throw¬ 
ing the honey out from the other side 
also. When emptied the combs are put 
back into the hive and refilled with honey, 
after which they are again extracted as 
before. This process may be repeated one 
or more times during the season, or as long 
as the honey flow lasts. 

Extracted honey can be produced for 
less money than that in the comb, because 
the empty combs can be used over and over 
again, year after year. As the bees con¬ 
sume at least 5 to 10 pounds of honey to 
make a pound of wax, the extracted honey, 
or honey separated from the comb, saves 
making comb each time. As a matter of 
fact, before the Great War the market 
price for extracted was but a little more 
than half that of comb honey. 


SECTIONS AND SEPARATORS AS USED IN COMB- 
HONEY PRODUCTION. 

The production of honey in the comb 
requires a different set of fixtures. Comb 
honey is produced in little square boxes 
technically called “sections.” These are 
usually either 4 x 5 x 1% inches wide, or 
414 square by 1% wide. These sections, 
four in number, are placed in a sort of 
frame called a “section-holder.” Between 
each two rows of sections,when placed on the 
hive, is a wooden separator consisting of a 
thin piece of veneer wood a little narrower 
than the section is deep. Sometimes a se¬ 
ries of thin slats, fastened together by 
cross-cleats, are used in place of separators. 
Technically these are called fences. The 
function of the separator or fence is to 
separate the rows of sections from each 
other. Without them the bees would build 
the comb in these sections too fat or too 
lean. So far as possible it is highly im¬ 
portant, from the marketing point of view, 
to have each comb in each section approxi¬ 
mately the same weight—something be¬ 
tween 12 and 14 ounces. While the sec¬ 
tions, including the wood, will hold an even 
pound when filled entirely full, it is very 
seldom that the producer of comb honey 
can get his bees to make his sections run 
uniformly one pound in weight. The aver- 



The honey is thrown out of the comb by centrifugal 
force. 

age market permits and expects that comb- 
honey sections will run slightly less than 
one pound. See Comb Honey. 

COMB FOUNDATION. 

In order to start the bees building their 
combs centrally in the section or brood- 














10, 


A B C OF BEEKEEPING 



ffimm 


The uncapped combs being: lowered into a honey-extractor 


frames, a product known as “comb founda¬ 
tion” (quite generally abbreviated “fdn.”) 
is used. This consists of a thin sheet or 
sheets of pure beeswax embossed or favos- 
ed, so that the surface shall be an exact 
duplicate of the midrib or center of the 
honeycomb with the cells sliced off. In 
other words, comb foundation is a dupli¬ 
cate of the foundation of the natural comb, 
and hence the name. The artificial prod¬ 
uct has more wax in the initial cells than 
the natural product. This surplus is used 
by the bees in building out their combs. 



The empty comb after extracting may be put back 
and refilled by the bees. 


In modern apiculture foundation is al¬ 
most an indispensable article. It is used 


either in narrow strips called “foundation 
starters,” or in full sheets. The latter are 
preferable, because the bees will build more 
nearly perfect combs—combs that are flat 
as a board and a duplicate of the article 



Comb foundation, which the bees have started to 
draw out in the center. 


built wholly by the bees. Without comb 
foundation the bees will show a tendency 
to build their own product in all kinds of 
fantastic shapes, crosswise of the section 
honey-boxes or the brood-frames. Practi¬ 
cally all the combs in modern apiculture 
today are built on comb foundation. This 
is filled with honey by the bees, and cap- 


















ABC OF BEEKEEPING 


11 


ped over, and in all respects is equal and 
even superior to that made by the bees 
without the use of starters. See Comb 
Foundation. 

TOOL'S FOR HANDLING BEES. 

The tools required by a beekeeper for 
opening his hives and doing- other necessary 
work in the production of honey are not. 
elaborate. The total outlay need not ex¬ 
ceed $5.00. First and foremost, there must 
be a bee-smoker—a device consisting of a 
stove and bellows for blowing smoke from 
some slow-burning fuel on the bees. With¬ 
out smoke, many manipulations would be 
very difficult; and the novice, at least, 
would be inclined to give up the business 
after his first experience in trying to han¬ 
dle a colony of bees, especially if weather 
conditions were unfavorable. But with 
smoke, and an instrument for applying it, 
one can, if he knows how, perform all pos¬ 
sible manipulations with bees when weather 
conditions are right. In fact, a large num¬ 
ber of beekeepers, except during a time 
when the weather is bad, do not use a veil, 
gloves, nor any special protection except 
the smoker, as an intelligent use of the 
latter will often put the bees on their good 
behavior, to such an extent that the use of 



other protectors is rendered useless. Per¬ 
haps a majority of honey-producers work 
with a veil on the hat, but not drawn down 
except when an angry bee seems disposed 
to show fight. 

The other tool, if it may be so regarded, 
is designed for face protection. This may 
he in the form of a wire-cloth cylinder with 
suitable cape to protect the neck and shoul¬ 
ders, or it may be made of some sort of 
netting, preferably black, so as to obscure 
the vision as little as possible. The higher- 
priced veils of silk Brussels netting offer 
practically no obstruction to the eyes, and 


at the same time give the wearer a sense of 
security that he cannot otherwise have. 

Some beekeepers wishing to get thru 
with as large an amount of work as possi¬ 
ble, and knowing that rapid manipulation 



Bee-veil. 


has a tendency, in spite of smoke, to make 
bees sting, wear both bee-veil and gloves; 
and a few of the careless bunglers go so far 
as to wear cowhide boots in addition, tuck¬ 
ing the trousers into the boots. Good bee¬ 



keepers do not approve of such bungling, 
slam-bang methods, that only irritate the 
bees. One will accomplish as much or more 
in a day, provided he works cautiously and 
deliberately, using headwork to save mak¬ 
ing a multiplicity of quick moves. A few 
slow movements carefully planned will ac¬ 
complish much with bees. 

Almost the only other tool required is a 
strong screwdriver, a knife with a good stiff 
blade, or, better still, a specially construct¬ 
ed hive-tool made of spring steel with a 



Hive-tool. 


broad, blade for the purpose of a pry or 
scraper. A tool of some sort is indispensa¬ 
ble for separating the frames and the parts 
of a hive, because the bees make use of 
what is known as bee glue, cementing the 
frames together. In warm or hot weather 
this bee glue does not cause as much trouble 










12 


A B C OF BEEKEEPING 


in handling the hives as during cold weath¬ 
er, when it is stiff and hard. Ordinarily 
bees should not be handled at such times. 

One more tool is sometimes used, and 
that is a swarming-box or a swarm-bas¬ 
ket. A wire basket is mounted on the end 
of a long pole so that a majority of the 
bees can be reached and captured from 
the ground. If the wings of the queens 
are clipped, as explained under Queens 
and Swarming, no such appliance is need¬ 
ed except in instances when a second 
swarm comes off with a virgin queen. 

MANIPULATING A COLONY OF BEES. 

Having considered the inmates of a 
hive, the hive itself, and the several parts 
and the tools for manipulating the same, 
it is now in order to take up the manipula¬ 
tion of the hive, or the handling of a colo¬ 
ny of bees. 

The average beginner at this point may 
feel that he has a job on his hands. He 


may get stung, when his face will be dis¬ 
figured so that he will not be presentable 
to company. While it is not denied that he 
may get stung, the one who tries for the 
first time to handle bees should protect his 
hands with gloves and his face with a veil, 
not because they are essential, but because 
it will take away that feeling of fear that 
might cause him to make a false move and 
thus incite the bees to sting. 

If he will follow the directions that are 
now given, he should not receive a single 
sting even in his clothing. First of all, it 
is important that the beginner select a 
warm day, between ten and three o’clock. 


After having lighted his smoker (see 
Smokers), he should put on his veil and 
gloves and approach his hive. He should 
be sure that the smoker delivers a good 
smoke. The best fuel is old rags or greasy 
w 7 aste, which can be had for the asking at 
almost any machine shop. The smoke of 
this is not pungent, but is a bluish White 
and quite opaque. This can be easily ig¬ 
nited with a match. Work the bellows 
until a good volume of smoke is secured. 
Care should be taken not to work the 
smoker bellows too hard, as otherwise the 
.fuel will burst into flame. 

With the smoker just right, blow a light 
puff of smoke into the entrance;. Too 
much smoke will start the bees on a stam¬ 
pede, especially if they are blacks or hy¬ 
brids. While bees will not sting in this 
condition, it renders subsequent manipula¬ 
tion exceedingly difficult. 

The next movement is to take the screw¬ 
driver or hive-tool and pry the cover up 


about a sixteenth of an inch—not wider, 
because the bees would escape. Thru the 
gap so made between the cover and the 
hive itself two puffs of smoke should be 
blown. Next, the cover should be gently 
lifted, the movement being followed with 
perhaps two or three light puffs of smoke. 
It is just as important not to Use too much 
smoke as not enough. 

One may now proceed to lift out individ¬ 
ual frames. If they are stuck together on 
account of the bee glue, a little smoke may 
be required to follow each operation in 
separating the frames; but usually the 
smoker can be set down alongside the hive, 



Smoking thru a narrow gap under inner cover. 




ABSCONDING SWARMS 


13 



A part of the pleastire 
derived from beekeeping 
comes from a thoro un 
derstanding of what is 
going on within the hive. 


and frame after frame be lifted out with¬ 
out receiving a single sting. 

Care should be taken not to pinch any 
bees. The fingers should always be placed 
at some point where there are no bees. If 
they are very numerous, they should be 
gently brushed over to one side by pushing 
the fingers down between them, being care¬ 
ful not to pinch them in doing it. 

After one has opened a hive a few times 
he will be able to discard the gloves, and 
later he can dispense with the veil at 
times, because he will find that an intelli¬ 
gent use of the smoker will do more to 
eliminate stings than any other one thing. 
After one has acquired a sense of freedom 
and knows the bees will not sting, he can 
work over them for hours at a time, getting 
more real joy out of his pets than from 
anything else on the place. See Manipu¬ 
lation of Colonies. 

Before the reader proceeds further he 
should read very carefully the following 
subjects,' found in their alphabetical order, 
viz., Beginning with Bees, Manipula¬ 
tion of Colonies, Brood and Brood-rear¬ 
ing, Anger of Bees, Stings, Smoke and 
Smokers, Apiary, Backlot Beekeeping, 
Farmer Beekeeping, Hives, Transfer¬ 
ring, Robbing, Uniting, and Wintering. 
This order is suggested because the arrange¬ 


ment is progressive, and enables the begin¬ 
ner to pi'oceed from one subject to another. 
After he has read the subjects already in¬ 
dicated he may take up Queen-rearing, 
Comb and Extracted Honey, or any other 
subject in which he may be interested. 


ABNORMALI¬ 
TIES OF BEES.— See 

Hermaphrodite Bees; 
also “D rones with 
Heads of Different 
Colors,” under Drones. 


ABSCONDING 
SWARMS.— No part 
of animated creation 
exhibits a greater love 
of home than do the 
honeybees. No matter 
how humble or unin¬ 
viting the surround¬ 
ings they seem very 
much attached to their 
home; and, as they parade in front of their 
doorway after a hard day’s work, they 
plainly indicate that they have a keen idea 
of the rights of ownership and exhibit a 
willingness to give their lives freely, if need 
be, in defense of their hard-earned stores. 
It is difficult to understand how they can 
ever be willing to abandon it altogether, 
and with such a sudden impulse and 
common consent. No matter if they 
have never seen or heard of such a 
tiling as a hollow tree, and have for in¬ 
numerable bee generations been domesti¬ 
cated in hives made by human hands, none 
the less they have that instinctive longing 
that prompts them to seek the forest or 
rocks in mountainous country as soon as 
they get loose from the chains of civilized 
man. 


It is very unusual for a swarm to go to 
the woods without clustering; the bees usu¬ 
ally hang from la minutes to an hour, 
and many times several hours; in fact, we 
have known them to hang over night, and 
sometimes stay and build comb; but usu¬ 
ally it is better to take care of them 
inside of 15 or 20 minutes to make sure 
of them. Long before swarming tirrm, 
hives should all be in readiness, and they 
should also be located near where the new 
colony is to stand. If one is going to have 




14 


ABSCONDING SWARMS 




As a rule, a swarm' will cluster on a limb of a 
tree or a bush. In a few cases, they will cluster 
on the ground and in the grass. In rare cases, 
they will alight on a fence, as here shown. 

a model apiary, he should not think of 
waiting until the bees swarm before he lays 
it out, but take time by the forelock, and 
with careful deliberation decide where every 
hive shall be before it is stocked with bees, 
if he would keep ahead and prevent his 
bees from taking “French leave.” 

But they sometimes leave, even after they 
have been carefully hived in modern hives 
on frames of foundation. If the swar min g 
mania gets under way in a beeyard, a 
swam is more apt to come out the second 
time, even when hived in a new location in 
a different hive, than where there is only a 
very little swarming. It was once thought 
that giving a frame of unsealed brood to 
these second-time absconders would hold 
them. While this, no doubt, acts as a re¬ 
strainer, yet when a swarm leaves its new 
quarters it should be recaptured, hived 
back into the hive, and then carried down 
cellar, where it should be kept several days 
until it gets over its mania. The bees may 
then be set out on their permanent sum¬ 
mer stands. 

How is one to avoid losing the occasion¬ 


al swarm that goes off without clustering at 
all? or the quite frequent cases of coming 
out unobserved, or when no one is at home? 
There is a very certain and safe remedy for 
all cases of first swarming, in having the 
wings of the queen clipped, or using an 
Alley trap so she cannot fly. (See Queens, 
subhead “How to Clip the Queen’s 
Wings.”) Wing-clipping is in very general 
use, and answers excellently for all first 
swarms; but, alas! the after-swarms are 
the very ones that are most apt to abscond, 
and the wings of their queens cannot be 
clipped, nor should such queens be restrain¬ 
ed by an Alley trap, because they-have not 
yet taken their wedding flight. What shall 
be done? In the first place, second or af¬ 
ter-swarms should not he allowed. If the 
parent hive, after it has cast its first swarm, 
is treated as recommended under the head 
of After-swarming, there will be no fur¬ 
ther swarming from that colony for that 
season. The Heddon method, given at the 
close of After-swarming, is recommended 
for the prevention of after-swarms. 

Clipping the wings of the queen (or put¬ 
ting on drone-traps — see Drones) will 
prevent losing first swarms by absconding; 


A swarm that came back because the queen was 
,held in an Alley .trap. 






ABSCONDING SWARMS 


15 


b\it it does not always prevent losing 1 the 
queen. She goes out with the bees as usual, 
and, after hopping about in front of 
the hive, sometimes gets ready to go back 
at about the same time that the bees do, 
after having discovered she is not in the 
crowd. Even if she goes some little dis¬ 
tance from the hive, the loud hum they 
make as they return will guide her home 
many times; but unless the apiarist is at 
hand' to look after affairs, many queens will 
be lost, and the bees will rear a lot of young- 
queens and go into after-swarming in good 
earnest. 

A friend, who knows but little of 
bee culture, once told us our bees were 



A swarm that clusters on a small limb can be 
easily captured by cutting the limb just above the 
bees with a sharp pocketknife. Care should be 
taken not to jar the cluster in cutting. A sharp 
knife is much better than a saw for this purpose. 

swarming, and if we did not ring the bells, 
they would certainly go to the woods. As 
we quietly picked up the queen in passing 
the hive, we told him if they started to 
go away we would call them back. Sure 
enough they did start for the woods, and 


had gone so far that we really began to be 
frightened ourselves, when, away in the 
distance, we saw them suddenly wheel 
about, and then return to the hive at our 
very feet. While he gave us the credit of 
having some supernatural power over bees, 
we felt extremely glad Ave had taken pre¬ 
cautions to clip all our queens’ wings but 
a few days before. After this we felt a lit¬ 
tle proud of our control over these way¬ 
ward insects, until a fine swarm of Italians 
started off under similar circumstances, and, 
despite our very complacent, positive re¬ 
marks, to the effect that they would soon 
come home, they went off and stayed “off.” 
In a humble and wiser frame of mind, we 
investigated, and found they had joined 
with a very small third swarm of black bees 
that had just come from one of the neigh¬ 
bor’s hives. We tried to “explain,” but 
it required a five-dollar bill to make matters 
so clear that we could carry back our rous¬ 
ing swarm of yellow bees, and sort out the 
black unfertile queen, that they might be 
made to accept their own. 

ABSCONDING FOR WANT OF FOOD. 

Aside from normal swarming perhaps 
bees oftener desert their hives because 
they are short of stores than from any 
other cause; and many times, in the spring, 
they seemed to desert because they were 
nearly out. This generally happens about 
the first spring day that is sufficiently 
warm and sunny. They issue from the hive, 
and alight in a tree very much like a nor¬ 
mal swarm during the swarming season. 
The remedy, or, rather, preventive, is so 
plain that it need not be discussed. After 
they have swarmed out, and are put back 
into the hive, give a heavy comb of sealed 
stores; if that cannot be obtained, feed 
them a little at a time, until they have 
plenty, and be sure that they have brood in 
the* combs. If necessary, give them a comb 
of unsealed larvte from some other hive, 
and then feed them imtil they have a great 
abundance of food. One should be ashamed 
of having bees abscond for want of food. 

ABSCONDING NUCLEUS. 

A very small nucleus—if it contains no 
more than 200 bees—is liable to swarm out. 
Queen-breeders, in attempting to mate 
queens in baby nuclei containing only ono 





16 


ADULTERATION OF HONEY 


or two section boxes, bad considerable trou¬ 
ble in keeping the bees in tbe hive, espe¬ 
cially when the young queen went out to 
mate. Accordingly it was found necessary 
to make the baby hives much larger, with 
frames 5% x 8 inches, and two nuclei to a 
hive. See Queen-rearing. 

With these there will be much less trou¬ 
ble from swarming, provided that they 
have some brood and honey and are not 
too strong, and provided also the queen 
is taken out as soon as she is laying. 

ABSCONDING FOR MORE SATISFACTORY 
QUARTERS. 

There is still another kind of absconding 
that seems to be for no other reason than 
that the bees are displeased with their hive, 
or its surroundings, and, at times, it seems 
rather difficult to assign any good reason 
for their having suddenly deserted. We 
have known a colony to swarm and desert 
their hive because it was too cold and 
open, and we have known them to desert 
because the combs were soiled and filthy 
from dysentery in the spring. We have 
known them to swarm because their en¬ 
trance was too large, and, if we are not 
mistaken, because it was too small. 

We have also known them to swarm be¬ 
cause they were so “pestered” with a 
neighboring ant bill — see Ants — that they 
evidently thought patience ceased to be a 
virtue. 

ABSCONDING IN THE SPRING. 

They often swarm in the spring where 
no other cause can be assigned than that 
they are weak and discouraged, and in such 
cases they usually try to make their wav 
into other colonies. While it may not always 
be possible to assign a reason for such be¬ 
havior with medium or fair colonies, one 
may rest assured that good, strong colo¬ 
nies, with ample supplies of sealed stores, 
seldom, if ever, go into any such foolish¬ 
ness. 

It seems to occur just at a time when 
their owner can ill afford to lose a single 
bee, and worse still, only when his stocks 
are, generally, rather weak) so that he dis¬ 
likes to lose any of them. In this case 
they do not, as a general thing, seem to care 
particularly for going to the woods, but 
rather take a fancy to pushing their way 
into some of the adjoining hives, and, at 


times, a whole apiary will seem so crazy 
with the idea as to become utterly demoral¬ 
ized. 

A neighbor, who made a hobby of small 
hives—less than half the usual size—one 
fine April day had as many as 40 colonies 
leave their hives and cluster together in all 
sorts of promiscuous combinations. To say 
that their owner was perplexed, would be 
stating the matter very mildly. 

Similar cases, tho perhaps not so bad, 
have been reported from time to time, ever 
since novices commenced to learn the science 
of bee culture; and altho cases of swarm¬ 
ing in the spring were known once in a 
great while before the recent improve¬ 
ments, they are nothing like the mania that 
has seemed to possess entire apiaries— 
small ones—since the time of artificial 
-swarming and honey-extractors. 

ACTIVITIES OF BEES.— See Bee Be¬ 
havior. 

ADULTERATION OF HONEY. — The 

adulteration of this product dates back 
many years, but the methods of detecting 
the same are of comparatively recent date. 
Aecum, in his “Treatise on Adulterations 
of Food and Culinary Provisions” (one of 
the earliest works devoted to food adultera¬ 
tion), published in London in 1820, does not 
cover the subject of honey. Hassall in his 
“Adulteration Detected,” published about 
1855, mentions honey. His examinations 
were made with the microscope, and he was 
able from the pollen to tell the kinds of 
flowers visited by the bees. He also noted 
crystals of sucrose intermingled with those 
of dextrose when a honey was evaporated 
to a crystallization point. In his later 
editions he gives methods for detection 
of sucrose and also commercial glucose. 
Tbe two works cited above were written in 
England. Hoskins in his book, “What to 
Eat,” possibly the first book on food adul¬ 
teration written by an American, and pub¬ 
lished in Boston about 1861, states that 
“Factitious and adulterated honey is very 
common in our markets. The substances 
used are generally ordinary sugar, made 
into a syrup with water, and flavored with 
different articles. This preparation is usu¬ 
ally mixed with genuine honey, and so 
extensive is this practice that very little 
‘Strained Honey’ can be found which is 


ADULTERATION OF HONEY 


17 


pure. The only really injurious adultera¬ 
tion as regards health which I have found 
in such honey is alum.” He noted “glu¬ 
cose and starch sugar among the adulter¬ 
ants of honey,” but never verified their 
presence. Later work has brought forth 
the same statement as above, viz., “If one 
wants pure honey, he should purchase it in 
the comb.” This statement was possibly true 
up to the passage of the National Pure- 
food Law, which went into effect January 
1, 1907. Yet just previous to this time 
extracted honey was not as much adulter¬ 
ated as formerly, due in part to the many 
state food laws, and also, in greater part, 
to the fact that chemical methods had ad¬ 
vanced to a point where adulterations with 
glucose, sugar syrup, etc., were easily rec¬ 
ognized. Since 1910 all adulterations of 
honey have practically ceased. One can 
now be sure that any honey he buys is 
pure. 

Part 6, Bulletin 13, of the Division of 
Chemistry, U. S. Department of Agricul¬ 
ture (a report of investigations made under 
direction of Dr. LI. W. Wiley about 1890), 
contains some 75 pages devoted to honey. 
In this are given numerous analyses of 
honey. The adulterants noted were glucose, 
cane sugar, and invert sugar. The number 
of samples containing glucose was very 
large. See Glucose, Cane Sugar, Invert 
Sugar for descriptions of the substances; 
also Analysis of Honey for methods of 
their detection. 

Examining the first 4,000 Notices of 
Judgment given pursuant to Section 4 of 
the Food and Drug Act, published from 
the office of the Secretary, United States 
Department of Agriculture, which repre¬ 
sents the whole published information on 
prosecutions under this act up to October 
21 , 1915, one finds 12 notices referring to 
honey. 

In one. No. 1,123, the product was labeled 
as containing 8 ounces of honey, but exam¬ 
ination showed that the containers were 
short some 4.86 per cent. In another, No. 
352, the label stated the contents as “one 
pint,” but examination showed much less to 
be present. Both cases resulted in favor ot 
the Government. 

In one, No. 269, the product was labeled 
“Compound Pure Comb and Strained 


Honey and Corn Syrup.” Analysis revealed 
that the product was largely composed of 
corn syrup (commercial glucose) with 
some comb honey and strained honey. The 
case was lost by the Government in that 
it was held that “it was impossible to say 
what portion of the label as printed would 
signify greater percentage of the product.” 
In opposition to this, some state laws re¬ 
quire that the substances composing a com¬ 
pound should be stated on the label in the 
order in which they predominate in the 
finished product. 

In the other cases, the adulteration was 
with invert sugar (see Invert Sugar). 
Nos. 18, 19, 20, and 21 refer to shipments 
in barrels where the only mark was a 
capital H enclosed in a square, but this 
product had been consigned as a pure 
strained honey. Examination showed it to 
contain invert sugar and some glucose. The 
case was not fought in court, the claimant 
failing to answer a decree of seizure, and 
condemnation was rendered by the court. 

In the other cases, Nos. 3401, 2, 3, 4, and 
6 , evidence was introduced on each side, 
with the result that the jury returned a 
verdict in favor of the United States. This 
being an important case, it is well to give it 
with some detail. The trial came off in 
Philadelphia on November 20-25, 1913. The 
product was placed on the market in 36- 
. and 60-pound cans labeled “Excelsior 
Choice Pure Strained Honey.” 

The manufacturer claimed that the mix¬ 
ture in the cans consisted of Cuban and 
buckwheat honey, and that he boiled and 
strained this. It was koshered for the 
purpose of selling to the Jewish trade. On 
direct testimony the manufacturer stated 
that the skimming was the koshering, but 
on being recalled to the stand he stated that 
the boiling and the straining—in fact, the 
whole process, was the koshering. The 
judge in his charge to the jury says on this 
point: “He boils this article that is here 
in question (the cans of honey), and 
whether it was for the purpose of kosher¬ 
ing it or not is not very clear in his state¬ 
ment, because honey is cleaned by strain¬ 
ing it, and it is heated to a certain point; 
but he says he boils and skims the top off 
and then strains it, and then he calls it 
koshered honey.” The chemist for the 


18 


ADULTERATION OF HONEY 


manufacturer gave an analysis similar to 
the Government chemists’, but not as full 
as theirs. The Government chemists showed 
that no Cuban nor any buckwheat honey 
ever contained less than .07 per cent ash. 
(The chemist for the manufacturer also 
claimed this.) The sample in question con¬ 
tained only .028 per cent ash, hence there 
could be only 40 parts of these honeys in 
every 100 parts of the mixture, and the 
other 60 was commercial invert sugar which 
had no ash. They also showed that the 
honey in question responded to all the 
color tests indicative of commercial invert 
sugar (the manufacturer’s chemists claimed 
that these color tests were produced by the 
boiling of the pure honey, a point not held 
by the government chemists). The govern¬ 
ment chemists also showed that the sample 
under question contained 0.08 per cent tar¬ 
taric acid, an acid not hitherto found in 
pure honey, and the acid that is used in 
making commercial invert sugar (see In¬ 
vert Sugar). It was also shown that 
Cuban honey at 4% cts. a pound and 
buckwheat honey at 7cts. a pound used 
in the mixture in the proportion of 80 
parts Cuban to 20 parts buckwheat would 
cost $5.10 a hundred pounds, while with 
sugar at 6^ cts. a pound 100 parts of in¬ 
vert sugar would cost $4.55 a hundred 
pounds. Hence a possible motive for the 
use of invert sugar. 

In the course of his charge to the jury 
the judge says: 

“Every man, woman, and child in the 
United States when hungry needs food, and 
when sick needs drugs, but the individual 
citizen is unable to see to it that the food 
purchased or the drugs he must purchase 
are pure, and the Government has taken on 
itself the work of performing that for the 
whole people. So that this is a contest for 
pure food; for the protection of the indi¬ 
vidual citizen who has not the facilities or 
the information to protect himself, and it 
is a very beneficial and commendatory act, 
because we all know that impure foods are 
manufactured and sold, and it is against 
the manufacturer and vendor of these im¬ 
pure foods and the manufacturer and ven¬ 
dor of these impure drugs that this act is 
aimed, and it has no terrors for the man 
who manufactures or sells a pure article 
and brands it what it is. Notwithstanding 


the attempt to throw a very great deal of 
doubt and uncertainty over the work of 
the experts in this case, chemistry has been 
brought to such a high point of efficiency 
that it can be told with certainty, or, at 
any rate, with that degree of certainty 
which should authorize us to act, what is 
contained in almost any substance you put 
into the possession of the expert chemist. 
He can tell whether or not honey is pure, 
or whether it has some substance mixed in 
it, and it may be that he cannot tell it 
with the same degree of certainty that you 
can work a geometrical demonstration, but 
he can say, with a degree of certainty 
that should authorize us to act, in the 
examination of questions which come before 
courts as to whether foods or drugs of a 
specific kind are pure or adulterated or 

misbranded.Now you will notice, 

gentlemen of the jury, that an article is 
adulterated if any substance has been sub¬ 
stituted wholly or in part for the article. 
It is not the dictionary definition of adul¬ 
teration. You must take the statutory def¬ 
inition. It makes no difference what the 
article is; if any substance has been substi¬ 
tuted wholly or in part it is an adulteration. 
There is no question as to whether it is 
deleterious or injurious to health; it may 
or may not be; the substitution may be as 
beneficial as or more beneficial than the 
original article. What the law aims at is to 
guarantee to the consumer that when he 
desires to purchase a certain article, and 
goes to a manufacturer or vendor for that 
article, and states what he wants, he shall 

know that he.gets what he pays for. 

The evidence upon which you will have 
to rely to ascertain whether it was pure or 
adulterated, and, if adulterated, misbranded, 
is the evidence adduced upon the stand by 
the experts for the Government, and by the 
experts and the defendant for the defend¬ 
ant.” 

The jury retired and returned a verdict 
in favor of the United States Government. 
On May 13, 1915, final judgment of con¬ 
demnation and forfeiture was entered, the 
court finding the product adulterated and 
misbranded, and it was ordered that the 
product should be sold by the United States 
Marshal, and the owners should pay all 
costs of the proceedings. 

The winning of this case by the Govern- 


AFTER-SWARMING 


19 


ment has stopped much of the adulteration 
of honey with commercial invert sugar. 
Furthermore, since the passage and gen¬ 
eral enforcement of federal and state pure- 
food laws, honey adulteration, instead of 
being common, is becoming exceedingly rare. 

AFTER-SWARMING. —All swarms that 
come out after the first swarm, or are led 
out by a virgin queen or a plurality of 
them are generally termed after-swarms; 
and all swarms after the first are accom¬ 
panied by such queens. There may be 
from one all the way up to a half-dozen 
swarms, depending on the yield of honey, 
amount of brood or larvae, and the weath¬ 
er; but whatever the number, they are all 
led off by queens reared from one lot of 
queen-cells, and the number of bees ac¬ 
companying them is, of necessity, less each 
time. The last ones frequently contain no 
more than a pint of bees, and, if hived in 
the old way, would be of little use under 
almost any circumstances; yet when sup¬ 
plied with combs already built and filled 
with honey, such as every enlightened api¬ 
arist should always keep in store, they may 
develop into the very best of colonies, for 
they have young and vigorous queens. 

It has been said that when a colony has 
decided to send out no more swarms, all 
the young queens in the hive are sent out, 
or, it may be, allowed to go out with the 
last one. Whether this is time or not is 
uncertain; but during the swarming sea¬ 
son, some novice writes about the wonder¬ 
ful fact of his having found three or four, 
or it may be half a dozen queens in one 
swarm. On one occasion, a friend, who 
weighed something over 200, ascended to 
the top of an apple tree during a hot July 
day to hive a small third swarm. He soon 
came down, in breathless haste, to inform 
us that the swarm was all queens; and, in 
proof of it, he brought two or three in his 
closed-up hands. 

Years ago after-swaiming was considered 
a sort of necessary evil that had to be tol¬ 
erated because it could not be obviated; 
but in no well-regulated apiary should it be 
allowed. Many consider it good practice 
to permit one swarm—the first one. After 
that all others are restrained. Cutting out 
all the queen-cells but one may have the 
effect of preventing a second swarm; but 


the practice is objectionable—chiefly be¬ 
cause one cannot be sure that he destroys 
all but one. If there are two cells not the 
same age the occupant of one of them, 
when she emerges, is likely to bring out an 
after-swarm; indeed, as long as there are 
young queens to hatch, there are likely to 
be after-swarms up to the number of three 
or four. 

But many practical honey-producers con¬ 
sider cell-cutting for the prevention of 
these little swarms as waste of time, altho 
they may and do cut out cells to prevent 
prime or first-swarms. There are some who 
deem it advisable to prevent swarming. The 
plan usually adopted to prevent after¬ 
swarms is about as follows: 

The wings of all laying queens in the api¬ 
ary should be clipped, or entrance guards 
should be placed over the entrances of all 
colonies having laying queens. As soon as 
the first swarm comes forth, and while the 
bees are in the air, the queen, if clipped, is 
found in front of the entrance of the old 
hive. She is caged, and the old hive is 
lifted off the old stand, and an empty one 
containing frames of foundation or empty 
combs is put in its place. A perforated 
zinc honey-board is then put on top, and 
finally the supers, taken from the old 
hive. The queen in her cage is placed in 
front of the entrance, and the old hive is 
next carried to an entirely new location. 
In the meantime the swarm returns to find 
the queen at the old stand; and when the 
bees are well started to running into the 
entrance she is released, and allowed to go 
in with them. Most of the old or flying 
bees that happen to be left in the old colo¬ 
ny, now on the new location, will go back to 
the old stand to strengthen further the 
swarm. This will so depopulate the parent 
colony that there will hardly be bees enough 
left to cause any after-swarming, and the 
surplus of young queens will have to fight 
it out among themselves—the “survival of 
the fittest” being of course, the only one 
left. She will be mated in the regular way. 
and the few bees with her will not, of 
course, follow her. In a short time com¬ 
paratively the old parent colony will be 
strong enough for winter. 

heddon’s method. 

The first swarm is allowed to come forth; 


20 


AGE OF BEES 



and while it is in the air the parent colony 
is removed from its stand and placed a few 
inches to one side, with its entrance point¬ 
ing at right angles to its former position. 
For instance, if the old hive faced the east, 
it will now look toward the north. Another 
hive is placed on the old stand, filled with 
frames of wired foundation. The swarm is 
put in the hive on the old stand, and at the 
end of two days the parent hive is turned 
around so that its entrance points in the 
same direction as the hive that now has the 
swarm. Just as soon as young queens of 
the parent colony are about to emerge, it is 
carried to a new location during the mid¬ 
dle of the day or when the bees are flying- 
thickest. This should be done carefully 
without disturbing the colony, so the bees 
in leaving the hive will not mark the new 



Old hive turned back toward new one after swarm 
' has entered. 


location. Usually this should be done on 
the seventh or eighth day after the prime 
swarm issued. The result is, these flying 
bees will go back to the hive having the 
swarm. This, like the other method de¬ 
scribed, so depletes the parent hive that 


any attempt at after-swarming is effect¬ 
ually forestalled. 

The only reason for turning the en¬ 
trance of the old hive to one side at first 
is to prevent any of the bees entering it 
while the swarm is being hived in the new 
one and until the bees of the new swarm be¬ 
come accustomed to the new order of 
things. In making artificial swarms it is 



not necessary to turn the entrance of the 
old hive away, for in this case there is less 
danger of the bees of the swarm entering 
the old hive. 

AGE OF BEES. —It may be rather diffi¬ 
cult to decide how long a worker bee would 
live if kept from wearing itself out by the 
active labors of the field; six months cer¬ 
tainly, and perhaps a year; but the average 
life during the summer time is not over 
three months, and perhaps during the 
height of the clover bloom not over six or 
eight weeks. The matter is easily deter¬ 
mined by introducing Italian queens to 
hives of black bees at different periods of 
the year. If done in May or June there 
will be all Italians in the fall; and if a 
record is kept when the last black bees 
emerge, and the time when no black bees 
are to be found in the colony, a pretty 
accurate idea of the age of the blacks may 
be secured. The Italians will perhaps hold 
out under the same circumstances a half 
longer. !t the Italian queen be introduced 
in September in the northern States, 
black' bees will be found in the hive until 
the month of May following- — they mav 
disappear a little earlier, or may be found 














































ALFALFA 


21 


a little later, depending largely upon the 
time they commence to rear brood. The 
bees will live considerably longer if no 
brood is reared, as has been several times 
demonstrated in the case of strong queen¬ 
less colonies. It has been said that black 
bees will live longer in the spring than 
Italians—probably because the latter are 
more inclined to push out into the fields 
when the weather is too cool for them to 
do so with safety; they seldom do this, 
however, unless a large amount of brood 
is on hand, and they are suffering for 
pollen or water. 

During the summer months, the life of 
the worker bee is cut short by the wearing- 
out of its wings, and, at the close of a 
warm day, hundreds of these heavily laden, 
ragged-winged veterans will be found mak¬ 
ing their way into the hives slowly and 
painfully, as compared with the nimble 
and perfect-winged young bees. If the 
ground around the apiary be examined at 
nightfall, numbers of these old bees may 
be seen hopping about, evidently recog¬ 
nizing their own inability to be of any fur¬ 
ther use to the community. The author has 
repeatedly picked them up and placed 
them in the entrance, but they usually seem 
bent only on crawling and hopping off out 
of the way where they can die without hin¬ 
dering the teeming rising generation. Dur¬ 
ing the height of a honey flow workers 
probably do not live more than six weeks. 

AGE OF DRONES. 

It is somewhat difficult to decide upon 
the age of drones, because the poor fellows 
are so often hustled out of the way for the 
simple reason that they are no longer want¬ 
ed (see Drones) ; but it may be assumed to 
be something less than the age of a work¬ 
er. If kept constantly in a queenless hive, 
they might live for three or four months. 
Occasionally some live over winter, from 
September to April. 

AGE OF THE QUEEN. 

As the queen seldom if ever leaves the 
hive except at mating and at swarming 
time one would naturally expect her to live 
to a good, old age, and this she does, de¬ 
spite her arduous egg-laving duties. Some 
queens die, seemingly of old age, the second 
season, but generally they live thru the sec¬ 


ond or third, and they have been known to 
lay very well even during the fourth year. 
They are seldom profitable after the sec¬ 
ond or third year, and the Italians will 
sometimes have a young queen “helping” 
mother before the beekeeper recognizes the 
old queen as a failing one. Some good 
beekeepers think it profitable to requeen 
yearly. 

ALFALFA. (Medicago sativa L.).—Al¬ 
falfa belongs to the pulse family, or Legu- 
minosae, which includes more than 5,000 
species. Many of the species are very 
abundant, and valuable for fodder or edi¬ 
ble seeds or dyes, as white and yellow sweet 
clover, the true clovers, sainfoin, and the 
vetches, peas, beans, and lentils, and in¬ 
digo. The cassias and acacias are also 
placed in this family by Gray. Alfalfa is a 
perennial, herbaceous plant with trifoliate 
leaves; violet-purple, irregular flowers in 
short racemes; and spirally twisted pods, 
each containing several kidney-shaped 
seeds. A most important character of al¬ 
falfa is the taproot, which may extend 
downward to a depth of 15 feet, enabling 
the plant to obtain food materials and 
water inaccessible to other field crops. The 
genus Medicago contains more than 100 
species and varieties, natives of the Cau¬ 
casus and western Siberia, the Mediter¬ 
ranean region and northern Africa. One 
species (M. arborea ) is a shrub growing in 
the vicinity of the Mediterranean Sea 10 
feet tall and producing a hard dark wood 
resembling ebony. The foliage furnishes ex¬ 
cellent forage for cattle and sheep. In 
California it is cultivated as an ornamen¬ 
tal shrub for its bright yellow flowers. 

HISTORY. 

The common alfalfa is probably of 
Asiatic origin, as it has been found grow¬ 
ing wild in Afghanistan, Persia, and the 
region south of the Caucasus. In China it 
has been under cultivation from a ■ very 
early date. The plant was brought into 
Greece at the time of the Persian war, 470 
B. C., from Media whence the scientific 
name Medicago. In Italy it has been culti¬ 
vated from about the first century, and is 
well described by Virgil and Pliny. Dur¬ 
ing the Middle Ages it received the vernac¬ 
ular name of lucerne from the Valley of 


22 


ALFALFA 


Luzerne in Piedmont, northern Italy. It 
was long popularly known under this name 
in Europe outside of Spain, and in eastern 
North America. 

This species was also very early intro¬ 
duced in northern Africa, where it was 
called alfalfa, a word of Arabic origin 
signifying “the best fodder.” During the 
Moorish invasion it was carried into Spain, 
and later was brought by the Spaniards to 
Mexico and South America; and finally, in 
1854, was carried from Chile to California. 
It is first heal’d of in England about 1650. 
Under the name of lucerne the early colo- 



Alfalfa blossom. 


nists introduced it into eastern North 
America, where it still grows spontaneously 
in fields and waste places; but the first 
attempts to cultivate it proved unsuccess¬ 
ful. Other common names are Spanish tre¬ 
foil, Burgundy, Brazilian, and Chilian 
clover. It is also known as purple medic 
from the color of the flowers and the Latin 
word medicci (Media) ; and snail clover 
from its twisted pods. 


Other and more hardy strains have been 
discovered in Siberia and northern Europe, 
and brought to this country by Hansen and 
other agricultural explorers. They found 
alfalfa growing under cultivation and also 
growing wild in the extreme northern parts 
of Siberia. From these high latitudes we 
get a type of plant called the Hardy or 
Northern Alfalfa, as distinguished from 
the Southern or Non-hardy Alfalfa. 

The culture of the plant has become 
established in every State in the Union and 
every province in Canada. Its claim to the 
attention of beekeepers lies in its extreme 
importance as a honey plant in the West. 
To discuss alfalfa from the standpoint of 
the beekeeper, this article will first con¬ 
sider the nature of alfalfa honey; second, 
alfalfa as bee pasturage; and, finally, con¬ 
ditions and methods of its culture. 

ALFALFA HONEY. 

Most alfalfa honey has a pleasant slight¬ 
ly minty taste. The best alfalfa honey, 
thick, rich, and delicious, has proved a 
favorite with the public where the honey 
can be eaten before granulation commences. 
Altho difficult to handle on that account, 
dealers hesitate to discard so well-flavored 
an article. It runs 12 to 13 pounds to the 
gallon while other honeys seldom exceed 12 
pounds, its thickness making it difficult to 
extract. 

A marked characteristic of alfalfa honey 
is its tendency to granulate, especially 
that from certain localities. In examining 
a given lot of alfalfa honey it is impossi¬ 
ble to say when granulation will be likely 
to set in. If kept in a warm room some 
alfalfa honey will continue liquid for an 
entire season'; but, on the other hand, it 
may be solid in a very few w’eeks. When 
granulated it is fine and creamy; hence it 
is often retailed in the solid form in car¬ 
tons. See Granulated Honey. 

As with other honeys, low temperatures, 
and especially variable temperature, have 
the same effect in hastening granulation, 
and higher and uniform temperatures in 
retarding. In tests conducted by the Bu¬ 
reau of Chemistry, Washington, D. C., al¬ 
falfa samples shown to be purer than the 
others (that is, freer from other honeys) 
granulated solid. The statement has been 
made that pure alfalfa honey will scarcely 



ALFALFA 


22 


granulate at all, and that when it solidifies 
early it is mixed with honey from wild 
flowers. In view, however, of the uniform 
granulation of samples of known purity 
tested by the government, this statement 
is apparently not generally true. Moreover, 
tests made by the Bureau with other honeys 
show that impure samples, those with a 
high percentage of dextrose and undeter¬ 
mined matter, do not candy readily. A 
hard white lard-like solid seems to be the 
ultimate state of even the best of alfalfa 
honey. 

The color of alfalfa honey varies from 
so-called “water-white” to light amber, 
according to the humidity, the season, and 
the character of the soil. In localities of 
little rainfall or where the soil is sandy the 
color is white. In alluvial soils where the 
water is close to the surface the honey is 
amber and even darker after extracting. 
To the percentage of water in the honey 
itself is largely due directly the shade of 
color, as shown in the government tests 
alluded to above. Parts of California and 
Arizona produce a darker alfalfa honey. 
Alfalfa honey from Inyo County, Calif., 
east of the Sierra Nevadas, and from coun¬ 
try around Reno, Nev., both very dry re¬ 
gions, is water-white. Imperial County, 
Calif., and Yuma County, Ariz., yield a 
darker honey. Usually honey from the 
second and third crops of alfalfa is lighter 
in color than that from the first crop, the 
reason, of course, being the greater amount 
of water present in the plants at the open¬ 
ing of the season. 

The content of nitrogen, protein, dex¬ 
trine, and undetermined matter in alfalfa 
honey is low. Conversely, the sucrose con¬ 
tent is higher than in most other honeys. 
See Honeys. 

BEE PASTURAGE. 

The striking and beautiful appearance 
displayed by the great fields of alfalfa in 
the West, when in bloom, can hardly be 
realized by one who has not 6een them. 
The lilac-purple flowers present a mass of 
color which is measured, not by the acre 
but by the square mile. Such a landscape 
of purple coloring can be found nowhere 
else in the world. One may ride for miles 
and miles thru fields of alfalfa stretching 
away on either side as far as the eye can 


reach. While alfalfa is grown in every 
State in the Union,, less than 6 per cent 
of the acreage in 1910 was east of the Mis¬ 
souri River. New England reported only 
1,255 acres, but in New York there were 
35,343 acres. Near East Syracuse during 
the past dozen years the bloom is reported 
to have yielded from 10 to 30 pounds of 
surplus every other year. Unless the 
weather is very dry and hot little nectar is 
gathered; and it is, therefore, from the 
second bloom in July and August that 
most of the surplus is secured. The fields 
are usually mowed in this State before 
alfalfa begins to bloom. In Ohio there 
were 29,000 acres, and Indiana and Illi¬ 
nois contained about 18,000 acres each. At 
Peru, Tnd., honeybees were observed gath¬ 
ering nectar from the bloom, and it was 
estimated that there* were about ten bees 
to the square rod. But, in general, alfalfa 
rarely secretes nectar east of the Mississippi 
River; it is a good honey plant only in 
arid or semiarid regions under irrigation. 

Pennsylvania, New, Jersey, Delaware, 
Maryland, Virginia, and West Virginia re¬ 
ported 35,000 acres; Kentucky, which has 
a large area of limestone soils, contained 
20,000 acres, and Tennessee 5,000 acres. 
In North Carolina, South Carolina, Geor¬ 
gia, and Florida, where the soils are large¬ 
ly acid, the total acreage was only 1,467 
acres. In the Black Prairie of Alabama 
and Mississippi there were 16,000 acres, 
in Louisiana 12,000, and in Arkansas 16,- 
000 acres. There is a heavy rainfull in 
these States, exceeding 50 inches, and no 
honey is secured from the bloom. There 
were 29,000 acres of alfalfa in Iowa; but, 
according to Pammel, it is of no import¬ 
ance in that State as a honey plant. Many 
beekeepers in Missouri, which has 39,000 
acres of alfalfa, report the bloom as nec¬ 
tarless. 

In the semiarid tier of States west of 
the Missouri River the acreage of alfalfa 
shows an enormous increase; but, as it is 
largely grown by dry farming methods, 
the yield of honey is very variable. In 
South Dakota there were 66,000 acres. In 
the valleys of the Black Hills, as in Belle 
Fourche Valley, a crop of alfalfa honey 
ranging from 100 to 200 pounds per colony 
is obtained nearly every year. There are 
at least 100,000 acres of irrigable land in 


24 


ALFALFA 





THE CELEBRATED ALFALFA PLANT AND ROOT. 

The plant represented in this plate grew in rich, loose soil, with a heavy clay subsoil and an abundant 
supply of water, the water level ranging from 4 to 8 feet from the surface at different seasons of thei year. 
The diameter at the top was 18 inches, and the number of stems 360. The plate shows how these crowns 
gather soil around them, for the length of the underground stems is seen to bei several inches, and this rep¬ 
resents the accumulation of nearly this much material about it. 

This is one of the largest plants that I have yet found. The specimen, as photographed, was dug April 
30, 1896.— Dr. Headden, in Bulletin No. 35 “Alfalfa.” 


this region. Beekeeping is in a very un¬ 
developed state, and thousands of pounds 
of nectar remain ungathered every year. 


In south-central Nebraska, central Kansas, 
and western Oklahoma there were 1,850,- 
000 acres of alfalfa, the densest area in 











ALFALFA 


the United States. Kansas with an acre¬ 
age of nearly a million acres is in advance 
of every other State. Tn the valley of the 
Platte River, Nebraska, where irrigation is 
possible, beekeepirig is almost wholly de¬ 
pendent on alfalfa. Rut where it is grown 
without irrigation the yield varies greatly 
in different years. The surplus comes 
chiefly, from the second crop of bloom 
which opens in July. Sufficient rain in 
May will cause a vigorous growth of the 
plant and ensure a bountiful supply of 
nectar; but during a very rainy season 
little nectar is gathered. The first crop 
blooms in June and the third in August. 
Around Sutherland on the Platte River 
there is a large acreage of irrigated alfalfa 
and sweet clover, and a good opening for 
several apiaries. On the Republican River 
in the southern portion of the State alfalfa 
is the most important source of honey, but 
a crop is not secured evei'y year. 

In Kansas alfalfa is nectarless or nearly 
so in the eastern rain belt. In tbe country 
around Topeka bees work on the bloom 
occasionally. An old resident says that 
one of his neighbors lias fields of alfalfa 
18 years old, but that he has never seen a 
bee on the bloom, nor a pound of alfalfa 
honey produced in eastern Kansas, altho 
he has lived there 35 years. The alfalfa 
belt in the central portion of the State 
occupies six tiers of counties and is about 
160 miles in width. Alfalfa is most de¬ 
pendable in the valleys of the rivers and 
smaller streams, where immense crops of 
forage are harvested from three or four 
cuttings. If the long taproots can reach 
water at a depth of not more than 10 feet, 
the bloom will yield nectar during the en¬ 
tire season. On high ground alfalfa yields 
only after showers. In Jewell County 
during droughts it is reported to fail en¬ 
tirely. Tn the valley of the Arkansas 
River the surplus is gathered from alfalfa, 
sweet clover, and heartsease. Good crops 
are obtained except in very dry or very 
wet seasons., In Oklahoma alfalfa is a 
dependable honey plant under the same 
conditions as have been described in Kan¬ 
sas. It yields nectar most freely near the 
rivers and in soils where underground 
water can be reached by the roots. Both 
in Kansas and Oklahoma the future of 


beekeeping will depend largely on the in¬ 
crease of the acreage of sweet clover. 

In Texas, which reported 55,000 acres 
of alfalfa, it is of value as a honey plant 
only in the irrigated areas of the Trans- 
Pecos region. In the vicinity of El Paso 
there has not been a failure in the crop 
of honey for 10 years, but at Barstow, 
Ward Co., on the Pecos River, it is not 
always dependable. 

In each of the remaining 11 States 
there is an immense acreage of alfalfa— 
the total amounting to 2,445,000 acres. Tn 
general, the crop is always reliable, failure 
being due more often to bad management 
on the part of beekeepers than to non¬ 
secretion of nectar by the bloom. The 
225,000 acres of irrigated alfalfa in Mon¬ 
tana are found chiefly along the Yellow¬ 
stone River and its southern tributaries, 
•especially in Yellowstone County. The 
land away from the rivers is a barren 
waste. The larger part of the 170,000 
acres of alfalfa in Wyoming are in Big 
Horn County in the northern part of the 
State and in the southeast comer around 
Laramie. Immense crops of alfalfa honey 
are produced; but many colonies are lost 
in winter, as they are given no additional 
protection from the cold. 

In the eastern section of Colorado, oc¬ 
cupied by the Great Plains, beekeeping is 
restricted to the valleys of the South 
Platte and Arkansas rivers, where there are 
1,300,000 acres of irrigable land. In Lari- 
mie, Boulder, and Jefferson counties an 
immense surplus of alfalfa honey is pro¬ 
duced nearly every year. There are rela¬ 
tively few bees in the Rocky Mountains in 
the center of the State. Excellent crops 
of honey are also obtained on the Western 
Slope, which is less densely stocked with 
bees than the Great Plains. In this sec¬ 
tion beekeeping is wholly dependent on 
alfalfa, as sweet clover grows only along 
the ditches. Colorado reported 509,000 
acres of alfalfa. In New Mexico in the 
valleys of the Rio Grande, San Juan, and 
Pecos rivers, there were 103,000 acres of 
alfalfa. 

Eight-tenths of the irrigated land in 
Idaho lies in the valley of the Snake River 
where there are 310,000 acres of alfalfa. 
The largest surplus of lionev is produced 
in the Boise Valley and in the vicinity of 


26 


ALFALFA 


Twin Falls and Idaho Falls. It is an ob¬ 
jection to beekeeping in this section that 
the pasturage in the spring is insufficient 
for building up strong colonies. Many 
commercial beekeepers move their bees to 
California for the flow from orange bloom, 
and later bring them back to Idaho in time 
to secure a crop from alfalfa. In Utah 
there are 284,000 acres of irrigated alfalfa 
in the Uinta Basin south of the Uinta 
Mountains, in Emery County, and in the 
central mountainous strip of land, where 
irrigation is extensively practiced. Seri¬ 
ous losses of bees have been sustained here 
in winter, but the crop of honey is seldom 
an entire failure. Western Nevada pro- 



Method of stacking alfalfa hay. 

duces a white alfalfa honey which is re¬ 
garded as the type of the best alfalfa hon¬ 
ey produced in the United States. In 
Arizona the larger part of the irrigated 
alfalfa is in Maricopa County. 

In Washington alfalfa is grown chiefly 
in the irrigated areas of the Yakima Val¬ 
ley. The larger part of the crop comes 
from the second bloom in July. Commer¬ 
cial beekeeping in Oregon is most success¬ 
fully pursued in Umatilla County on the 
Columbia River and in Malheur County 


along the Malheur and Owyhee rivers. In 
California the largest area of alfalfa is 
grown in the Great Central Valley and in 
Imperial Valley in the southern part of 
the State. According to Richter it yields 
no nectar along the coast. In the San Joa¬ 
quin Valley the second and third crops of 
alfalfa are the source of most of the hon¬ 
ey, while the first and last crops yield little 
nectar. The honey is usually more or less 
amber-colored, but in Inyo County it is 
white, similar to that of Nevada. In dry 
seasons, when the sages wither on the 
Coast Range, alfalfa, of which there are 
484,000 acres, becomes the chief depend¬ 
ence of the California beekeeper. 


ACREAGE OF ALFALFA IN THE UNITED STATES 
ACCORDING TO THE 13TH CENSUS. 


Maine . 

174 

Ohio . 

. 29,439 

New Hampshire. 

47 

Michigan . 

, . 6,553 

Vermont . 

252 

Indiana . 

. 17 898 

Massachusetts . . 

232 

Illinois . 

. 18,344 

Rhode Island . . . 

34 

Wisconsin . . . , 

, . 17.986 

Connecticut . . . . 

516 

Minnesota i . . . 

. 2,288 

New York. 

35,343 

Iowa . 

. . 29,143 

Pennsylvania . . . 

4,935 

Missouri . 

, . 35,478 

New Jersey . . . . 

1,386 

North Dakota. 

. . 3,033 

Delaware . 

205 

South Dakota. 

. . 66,183 

Maryland . 

3,188 

Nebraska . 

. 685,282 

Virginia . 

3,126 

Kansas . 

956,962 

West Virginia. . 

696 

Oklahoma. 

, .206,823 

Kentucky . 

20,229 

Montana. 

. .224,226 

Tennessee . 

5,323 

Wyoming . 

, . 170,431 

North Carolina . . 

735 

Colorado . 

, . 508,882 

South Carolina . . 

138 

New Mexico. . 

..102.650 

Georgia . 

545 


308 892 

Florida . 

49 

Utah . 

.284,182 

Alabama. 

6,987 


. 90151 

Mississippi. 

9^245 

Arizona . 

. . 66,102 

Arkansas . 

15,929 

Washington . . 

. . 94,900 

Louisiana. 

12,073 

Oregon . 

..120,427 

Texas . 

55,332 

California . . . 

. .484.134 


The largest surplus of honey is obtained 
from alfalfa in arid or semiarid regions 
where irrigation is practiced. Conditions 
which favor a large crop of seed, will also 
produce a large yield of honey. But irri¬ 
gation alone does not ensure a bountiful 
flow of nectar, for in both Nebraska and 
Kansas there are great fields of irrigated 
alfalfa which are the source of very little 
honey. There must be proper soil and 
climatic conditions as well as irrigation. 
The largest surplus of alfalfa honey is ob¬ 
tained during very warm seasons. With 
ample moisture in the soil, a succession of 
hot days with little wind will cause an 
astonishing flow of nectar. Fields which 
are allowed to go to seed will yield nectar 
abundantly for weeks. In a given acreage 
there is no plant, unless it is basswood, 
tupelo, or logwood, that will support so 
many colonies of bees. In several localities 
in Colorado within a radius of five miles 








































ALFALFA 



An alfalfa haystack on a 5,000-acre farm assumes enormous proportions. 


there are from 2,000 to 7,000 colonies of 
bees—a larger number, probably, than can 
be found elsewhere in an equal area in 
the world. So many beekeepers, indeed, 
have rushed to the great alfalfa-growing 
regions that the apiaries are often located 
less than a mile apart; and it is not profit¬ 
able for a yard to contain more than 100 
or 150 colonies. Other localities will sup¬ 
port from 200 to 300 colonies in a single 
apiary. In Colorado most of the honey is 
obtained from the first and second crops. 
Honey from the third crop is stored not 
once in 10 years, owing to cold nights. But 
occasionally there is warmer weather dur¬ 
ing the last of » August, and much addi¬ 
tional honey is then brought in by the 
bees. 

Land above 7,000 feet is reported to be 
unsuitable for beekeeping. The high alti¬ 
tude affects the temperature, which in turn 
checks the flow of nectar. The nights are 
often cold and frosty, and in the higher 
valleys the days are never as warm as in 
the lower lands. In the Upper Arkansas 
Valley, around Salida, Colo., in the moun¬ 
tains there are large fields of alfalfa, but 
the apiaries are small. In the San Luis 
Valley at an altitude of 7,000 to 8,000 feet 
alfalfa grows well, but bee culture receives 
little attention. A moderate increase in 
elevation is, however, reported in both 


Kansas and Colorado to stimulate the flow 
of nectar. A beekeeper at Grand Junc¬ 
tion, Colo., states that three apiaries in 
1019 in that locality were barely self-sup¬ 
porting, while three others 40 miles away. 
1,800 feet higher, had filled the supers and 
produced a good crop. In eastern Kan¬ 
sas, according to A. V. Small, alfalfa yields 
well above 1,000 feet, but below 850 feet 
nectar- secretion ceases. Since alfalfa se¬ 
cretes nectar most freely in the Imperial 
Valley below the level of the sea, the flow 
of nectar is evidently not necessarily de¬ 
pendent on elevation. 

The lower part of the Arkansas Valley 
in Colorado has in recent years become 
less suitable for bee culture. The les¬ 
sened honey production is due to the more 
general cultivation of other crops, to the 
increase of insect pests, and to the ex-, 
haustion of the soil preventing alfalfa 
from making the luxuriant growth of for¬ 
mer times. Other causes injurious to the 
honey flow from alfalfa are freezing 
weather in late spring, too much water, 
the alfalfa butterfly, and a multitude of 
thrips (more than 40 of these little insects 
are sometimes found in a single flower). A 
few years ago many alfalfa ranges were 
largely used for grazing, and made valu¬ 
able apiary sites; but they have disap¬ 
peared as general farming and fruit-grow- 







28 


ALFALFA 


ing have developed. Where alfalfa is cut 
for hay the beekeeper can secure only a 
part, and often only a small part, of the 
nectar. There lias been much diversity of 
opinion as to the best time for cutting' 
alfalfa; but the general practice is to cut 
in early bloom, or when the new basal 
shoots which produce the succeeding crop 
are just starting, while a few advocate 
waiting until the plants are in full bloom. 
Where alfalfa is cut at the beginning of 
bloom it is of but little value to the bee¬ 
keeper; and it is, therefore, desii’able to 
locate in sections where seed is raised. 
Such fields yield nectar in great abundance 
for several weeks. 

THE CULTIVATION OP ALFALFA. 

When the conditions for its growth are 
favorable, alfalfa is a sturdy plant, and, 
unlike its near relative, sweet clover (which 


is a biennial) it is a perennial. Some fields 
have been reported half a century old. 
While it draws on the fertility of the soil 
it keeps the ground well supplied with 
nitrogen for the use of later crops. Its 
ability to survive dry periods, which would 
kill other plants except sweet clover, 
adapts it to arid and semiarid regions. 
Nothing is superior to it as a forage crop. 
Not only is the food value high, but crop 
after crop can be taken off in a single sea¬ 
son. 

While alfalfa is better adapted to all 
parts of the United States.than was gen¬ 
erally imagined, the varieties thrive best 
where there is plenty of hot sunshine and 
deep, rich soils, and they make their rich¬ 


est growth in the hottest weather. To the 
entire range of elevation in this country, it 
seems to be equally adapted. One can find 
a southern variety flourishing in the Im¬ 
perial Valley, 100 feet below sea level, and 
in the San Luis Valley, 7,500 feet above. 
In Colorado, the Grimm, the Baltic, and 
the Hardy Turkestan grow in altitudes 
higher than 8,000 feet. While alfalfa has 
been most extensively planted in the West, 
particularly in the regions opened to culti¬ 
vation by irrigation projects, its culture 
has been found highly profitable of late 
years in the older soils of the East, in 
places where its habits are understood. It 
does almost equally well in the hilly and 
gravelly land of New England, and the 
clay and loam of the corn belt. 

Most pronounced advantages of its culti¬ 
vation have been observed in alkaline soils 
in the West. Here the long taproot, pierc¬ 


ing layers of subsoil to a depth of 10 to 
20 feet, leaves millions of openings for air 
and moisture and brings up stores of plant 
food to enrich the soil; the roots them¬ 
selves when they decay furnish a heavy 
store of nitrogen. Naturally rich in pot¬ 
ash, lime, and phosphate, the soils lack the 
nitrogen and organic matter, both of which 
are liberally supplied by the growth of al¬ 
falfa. The same is also true of sweet 
clover. See Sweet Clover. 

WELL-DRAINED, WELL-LIMED, FERTILE SOIL. 

On the other hand, wide as the range of 
alfalfa seems to be, there are some distinct 
conditions which must be met before its 
cultivation can be successful. It demands 



ALFALFA GROWING IN NEVADA. , 

In and near Reno it has been found that bees increase the seed crop threefold. 






ALFALFA 


29 


well-drained land, a sweet fertile soil, the 
right kind of bacteria in the soil, and 
freedom from weeds. To get a successful 
stand, a firm, fine seed bed is necessary. 
After- this it demands little attention. In 
general any soil that grows corn or red 
clover successfully will grow alfalfa. 

Wet and soggy land, land where the 
ground water stands within three or four 
feet of the surface, or where water stands 
half a day at a time, are not suitable. In 
springy, seepy soil in the northern parts of 
the country, the alternate freezing and 
thawing heaves out the plant and com¬ 
pletely destroys the stand. In this respect 
a sandy loam is a little better than a clay 
loam. Properly drained soil is again neces¬ 
sary on account of the great depth to which 
the taproot plunges. The roots must get 
nitrogen from the air, but they cannot do 
this if surrounded by water. The plant 
cannot take nitrogen in any other way than 
thru the roots; in fact, alfalfa needs more 
thoro drainage than any other crop. Not 
only must the soil be well drained, but a 
second and equally important essential is 
that it be free from acidity and even have 
an alkaline reaction. Alfalfa does not do 
well on an acid soil. In the East especial¬ 
ly, where very few soils are not acid, it is 
necessary to sweeten very heavily with lime. 
Alfalfa requires more lime than any other 
forage crop. It demands not only a neutral 
soil but one with an excess of lime for its 
own use. 

Before sowing alfalfa one should be sure 
of the state of the soil in this respect. One 
good way is to wrap a moist piece of earth 
in blue litmus paper; if the paper shows a 
tendency to redden, the soil is doubtless 
badly in need of lime. This may be applied 
in two ways: either the ground unburned 
limestone (carbonate of lime), two to four 
tons to the acre; or burned lime, one or two 
tons. (See Clover.) Since the lime stays 
where it is put, thoroly harrow it in. Often 
it is well to apply the lime the year before 
putting in alfalfa, say with corn. 

Alfalfa will thrive only in soils which are 
rich in lime. An acid soil is destructive to 
the bacteria. Humus cannot be formed 
from decaying organic matter without lime. 
It prevents the loss of the nitrogen in the 
soil thru the leaching of rain«; in fact, car¬ 


bonate of lime seems to be the foundation 
of fertility itself. 

Except in the wonderfully rich land of 
the West, one’s treatment of the soil can 
not stop here. While alfalfa has been much 
praised as a restorer of fertility, it is nev¬ 
ertheless true that it makes heavy drafts 
upon the phosphate and potash in the soil. 
As with lime, when these are not present 
they must be supplied. Unlike sweet clover, 
it requires a fertile soil to start with. On 
worn-out. fields, phosphorus should be sup¬ 
plied; 400 to 600 pounds of steamed bone 
meal to the acre or natural rock phosphate 
mixed with manure has been recommended. 
Plenty of well-rotted stable manure should 
be given, or, lacking that, cow peas, crim¬ 
son clover, and soy beans can be planted 
for green manure. When potash may be 
lacking in the soil, wood ashes or commer¬ 
cial potash may be applied. Summing up, 
it is more important, as the late J. E. Wing 
pointed out in his book on alfalfa, to fill 
the soil with plant food than to get the 
seed bed right. 

SOIL INOCULATION-. 

A third essential for successful alfalfa 
cultivation is that the right kind of bacteria 
be present in the soil. Only in compara¬ 
tively recent years has this been understood. 
Minute vegetable organisms inhabit the 
small pale nodules which can be seen with 
the naked eye about the roots of the plant; 
their function is to gather nitrogen from 
the air and convert it into a form in which 
it can be assimilated by the plant. If the 
soil is wet or acid, they will not thrive. 
Where they are not present in the soil al¬ 
ready, they have to be put there. This pro¬ 
cess, known as inoculation, is universally 
demanded where alfalfa and sweet clover 
have not been grown before. 

One of the two or three satisfactory 
methods of inoculation is the soil-transfer. 
Soil should be gathered from a field in 
.which alfalfa has been grown before or 
from about the roots of sweet clover (the 
sweet clover and alfalfa bacteria are iden¬ 
tical), then pulverized and screened thoro¬ 
ly, mixed with the alfalfa seed, and sown 
300 to 400 pounds to the acre. Since the 
sun’s rays are fatal to these germs, the 
mixing should be done in the shade and the 
sowing in the evening or on a cloudy day. 


ALFALFA 


:*o 

If the eai'th is broadcasted it should be 
harrowed in immediately. A smaller quan¬ 
tity of earth is required by wetting the 
seed with water in which enough glue has 
been dissolved to make the water sticky; 
the seed should be mixed with fine earth 
from another field. 

The Department of Agriculture, Wash¬ 
ington, D. C., sends out pure cultures of 
the bacteria in tubes, making inoculation 
convenient where soil is not readily obtain¬ 
ed. Simply follow directions. 

In the humid regions of the country, 
weeds are very troublesome, in many local¬ 
ities being the worst enemy of alfalfa. If 
the soil is fertile, has been well limed, and 
has been placed in proper condition before 
the alfalfa is sown, little need be feared 
from weeds. After alfalfa once gets a 
start it can kill out most of the weeds 
naturally. A clean field can usually be se¬ 
cured by preceding alfalfa with some clean 
cultivation crop., By seeding in the late 
summer the alfalfa plants by spring will 
have the start of the weeds. If weeds 
threaten to injure an old stand, their stalks 
can sometimes be burned out in the spring 
before the alfalfa starts. 

Dodder is one of a few weeds to be 
feared. Especial care should be taken to 
get seed free from dodder. The stems come 
up with the alfalfa, twine around it, and 
finally wither away. From that time until 
the death of both plants the dodder lives 
parasitically on the juices of the alfalfa. 
Therefore if dodder makes its appearance 
in a field of alfalfa and becomes well es¬ 
tablished, the alfalfa should be rooted out 
by using the field for some other crop 
for several years. Wild barley often ruins 
the first crop in irrigated regions of the 
West. Quack or couch grass, Kentucky 
blue grass, and foxtail grass are weeds 
dangerous in other regions. 

PUTTING IN THE SEED. 

A great many facts have been collected 
on seeding alfalfa, not all of which apply 
to a particular locality by any means, nor 
even agree with one another in some cases. 
The time of sowing varies widely between 
one part of the country and another. Mid¬ 
summer sowing is probably most popular 
in the Forth and East. If the seed is put 
in between June and the first of September, 


the young plants are usually strong enough 
to resist winterkilling. Some advise spring 
sowing—the last of May and early June, 
but this is not best where weeds are likely 
to disturb the young plants. In the hot 
irrigated portions seed may be sown any 
time between April and August. Fall seed¬ 
ing is most common—-September, October, 
or November. 

Early maturing crops do well to precede 
alfalfa. The clean culture of potatoes and 
garden truck rids the land of weeds, aerates 
the soil, and makes an introductory appli¬ 
cation of nitrogen unnecessary. Corn in 
the North and cotton in the South are both 
suitable. A crop of crimsOn clover cut for 
hay builds up the soil and gives plenty of 
time to get the land ready for alfalfa. 

Too much care can hardly be given to the 
selection of seed. Not only thru careless¬ 
ness in this respect do weeds get their 
foothold, but failure often comes from 
adulterated seed or seed of poor quality. 
The average quality of alfalfa seed in the 
market is low. A considerable quantity of 
dead seed has been sold and it is sometimes 
adulterated with trefoil. In every case be¬ 
fore buying, samples should be tested for 
germination, either by a home testing-plate 
or sending to the seed laboratory of the 
Department of Agriculture, Washington. 
D. C., which does this testing free of 
charge. A home test should show a ger¬ 
mination of at least 95 per cent. If the ger¬ 
mination is low, a larger quantity should be 
sown than if the germination is high. 

Seed grown in the northern States may 
be planted with success in the southern, 
but the reverse is not true. It is always 
well to get seed grown in the same latitude 
in which it is to be sown. While ordinary’ 
alfalfa is very satisfactory, certain kinds 
have local advantages. Superior resistance 
to the cold, as well as greater tonnage to 
the acre, is claimed for the Grimm alfalfa 
and the commercial sand lucerne. The Bal¬ 
tic has also been found a superior strain. 

It is necessary to plow deeply for alfalfa. 
The roots need all the moisture they can 
get, and the ground should be thoroly stir¬ 
red up, so that air can penetrate to the 
nodules. The seed bed should be fine on 
top, but thoroly settled; for this reason it 
is well to let the land rest for six weeks 
after plowing and then to give it a light 


ALFALFA 


31 


disking. If plowing is done on hot days, it 
should be followed immediately with a 
harrow to break up clods before they 
harden. Then the soil should be pulverized 
with a drag, disk, and smoothing harrow. 
For spring sowing it is not so necessary to 
have a perfect seed bed; the plants have 
a long start by winter. 

Seeding alfalfa in irrigated regions re¬ 
quires an entirely different procedure. In¬ 
oculation is unnecessary; so is fertilizer. 
It is well to level the land, plow deeply, 
follow with the disk and harrow imme¬ 
diately, and let stand a month. It is advis¬ 
able to irrigate before and after seeding, 
and to irrigate again if the young plants 
seem to be suffering for lack of water. 
They should be watered after each cutting. 
Upon the irrigation of alfalfa Mr. Kezer 
of the Colorado Experiment Station writes 
as follows: 

Different soils, different climates, and dif¬ 
ferent sources of water supply would all be 
causes of different methods. In some sec¬ 
tions it is necessary to irrigate two or three 
times for each cutting; in other sections, one 
irrigation to the cutting is sufficient, in 
which case the best practice is to irrigate a 
week or ten days prior to the cutting or the 
expected time of cutting, and then cut as 
soon as the ground is settled enough to bear 
the weight of the haying machinery. This 
water puts the soil in good condition for the 
succeeding crop and causes it to start for¬ 
ward more quickly and more vigorously. Ir¬ 
rigation practice varies quite widely and 
must vary quite widely because of the di¬ 
versity of conditions. A complete statement 
covering the most of the known conditions 
would require several pages. Suffice it to 
say, that in some regions best results are 
obtained by a flooding method, in others by 
a furrow method, and in some regions the 
basin methods give the best results. Climat¬ 
ic and soil conditions chiefly govern. 

The amount of seed to the acre likewise 
varies with the locality. For honey produc¬ 
tion in the West 10 pounds gives a good 
stand; in the Atlantic and southern States, 
24 to 28 pounds; between the Appalachian 
Mountains and the Mississippi, slightly less 
than this. Wing estimates 15 to 20 pounds 
under ordinary circumstances and with or¬ 
dinary soils. One plant to the square foot 
is enough under the best of conditions, but 
they must stand more thickly as a rule. 
Since more come up than can exist, only 
the strongest plants survive. 

Alfalfa may be sown either broadcast or 


with a wheelbarrow seeder or a drill. Broad¬ 
casting requires more seed than drilling, 
and must be followed by a harrow or 
some other implement to cover the seed 
almost an inch deep. In arid lands it is 
covered about an inch and a half. In drill¬ 
ing it is advisable to sow across field in one 
direction and then at right, angles. No 
further treatment need he given the rest of 
the year except for the appearance of dod¬ 
der. Wagons and stock should be carefully 
kept off the field. 

After seeding in the late summer, the 
stand will usually be eight or ten inches 
high by fall. With the spring sowing a 
clipping may need to be given in the late 
summer, but no hay can be taken off until 
the next season. Should the plants show a 
lack of vitality or trace of disease, cutting 
them will often prove salutary, and in the 
East a top dressing of nitrate of soda is 
effective. In a great portion of the West 
this would not be beneficial. If weeds are 
troublesome, the field may be disked with 
the disks set upright. This hinders the 
growth of weed and grass and lets air and 
water into the soil. 

Alfalfa is seldom successful with a nurse 
crop except in irrigated land, for the reason 
that the nurse cr’op often chokes out the 
young plants just as weeds do. Barley 
grown for hay, and hay only, can be made 
a success with spring, sowing of alfalfa, 
and gives a larger return to the acre, but 
to let it grow until it is ready to harvest as 
grain seriously injures the forage stand. In 
irrigated sections with good water rights, 
alfalfa is usually successful with a nurse 
crop, altho more vigorous growth can usu¬ 
ally be obtained without it. Mixtures of 
alfalfa with certain of the grasses are suc¬ 
cessful, the grasses being seemingly more 
vigorous than when alone, and the alfalfa 
almost as good. 

ALFALFA AS HAT. 

Alfalfa is one of the most palatable and 
highly nutritious of all forage crops, either 
green or as hay. One estimate gives alfalfa 
hay slightly more than double the food 
value of timothy. No other forage crop is 
so rich in digestible protein. Wheat bran 
which runs $25 to $30 a ton is about as 
rich, tho more easily fed. While protein is 
hard to get and expensive, it is the one 


32 


ALFALFA 


AVERAGE PERCENTAGE COMPOSITION OF ALFALFA AND OTHER FORAGE CROPS. 


Kind of forage 

Number 

Water 

Ash 

Protein 

Crude 

fiber 

Nitrogen 

free 

extract 

Ether 

extract 

(fat) 

Fresh alfalfa . 

r “ 23 

71.8% 

2.7% 

4.8% 

7.4% _ 

12.3% 

1.0% 

Fresh clover. 

43 

70.8 

2.1 

4.4 

8.1 

13.5 

1.1 

Alfalfa hay. 

21 

8.4 

7.4 

14.3 

25.0 

42.7 

2.2 

Clover hay. 

38 

15.3 

6.2 

12.3 

24.8 

38.1 

3.3 

Timothy hay. 

68 

13.2 

4.4 

5.9 

29.0 

45.0 

2.5 

Cowpea hay. 

8 

10.7 

7.5 

16.6 

20.1 

42.2 

2.2 


thing absolutely necessary for the produc¬ 
tion of stock or milk. While dairymen are 
bankrupting themselves buying bran and 
cottonseed meal to get this necessary pro¬ 
tein, they could feed just as much and make 
enormous saving by growing alfalfa on 
their own farms. Alfalfa has three times 
as much protein as corn, but in fat and 
carbohydrates is decidedly inferior. 

The market price of alfalfa hay is gov¬ 
erned simply by supply and demand. The 
number of cuttings which may be made in 
one season has been as high as eight and 
even nine in the Southwest. In favorable 
years in the North three are possible, but 
two are most common in the eastern part 
of the country. Thirty or forty days of 
hot weather are usually all that are neces¬ 
sary to mature a crop. A good yield 
amounts to two tons to the acre. 

CUTTING BEFORE IT BLOOMS. 

Shall the farmer cut the alfalfa before 
it comes to bloom, or while it is in bloom, 
or wait until the blossoms are all gone? 
This is a matter of decided concern to the 
beekeeper, since his crop of honey depends 
upon it. If the stand is mown before 
bloom, the bees get no nectar at all, and 
the beekeeper may find his colonies starv¬ 
ing in the midst of miles of alfalfa. 

The old rule with alfalfa-growers was to 
cut hay when the stand was about one- 
tenth in blossom. Arizona growers claimed 
that the alfalfa is richer for milk produc¬ 
tion at that time than at any other, but for 
horses and mules it is more nourishing if 
cut in full bloom. The Utah Experiment 
Station after a series of investigations 
reached this conclusion: “To insure a 
large yield of dry matter and the largest 
amount of albuminoids, lucerne should be 
cut not earlier than the period of medium 
bloom, and not much later than the first 
full flower.It is a more serious 


matter to cut too early than to cut too 
late.” On the same point the national bul¬ 
letin says: “The general rule is to cut al¬ 
falfa just as it is coming into bloom. Feed¬ 
ing experiments show that the feeding 
value is highest when alfalfa is cut in 
early bloom.” 

Of late years a new rule has taken the 
place of the old. Authorities now advise 
alfalfa-growers to mow when the shoots of 
the new growth at the base of the plant 
are just showing. In Ohio this comes about 
June 1. When the shoots appear it is time 
to cut immediately. If this is done too soon 
the second growth is retarded; if too late a 
great many of the leaves are lost, and in 
them lies much of the food value. Danger 
of winterkilling is also increased. The net 
result, so far as the beekeeper is con¬ 
cerned, is often more favorable under the 
new plan. 

Another fact to his advantage is the 
habit of men, whatever the rule, of being 
just a little late. In some places the prac¬ 
tice is to cut while the fields are well into 
bloom. The growers fear that if cut too 
early it will cause bloat in cattle, and is 
likely to powder in curing. The state of 
growth at which to mow the alfalfa also 
varies between one crop and another; the 
third cutting is often made when the plants 
are in full flower. 

Immediately after cutting, fields look 
brown and bare for the first few hours, but 
the plants soon rally, and are flourishing 
again in a surprisingly short time. The 
field should not be disturbed until the time 
for the second cutting. 

Making hay with alfalfa in the West is 
a struggle to get it stacked before the leaves 
dry so much that they drop off. In the 
East is a similar struggle to get it cured be¬ 
tween showers. On the ranches the farm¬ 
ers harvest a green hay which is practically 
impossible to get in humid regions. It is 























ALFALFA 


33 


esteemed highly as horse feed, altho for 
cows a brown hay is quite as good. Stacks 
of this green hay keep their color indefi¬ 
nitely. To the Easterner it is surprising to 
cut into a stack and find the interior as 
green as the field itself. 

Curing in windrows is better than in the 
swath. The hay is raked the same day it 
is cut, and as soon as cured is cocked and 
stacked, or baled directly from the cocks. 
The tedder is of little value since it shatters 
the leaves too much. Most of the protein is 
contained in the leaves, which are somewhat 
richer than bran. Where showers are fre¬ 
quent, the alfalfa should be raked into 
windrows soon after being cut, in order to 
avoid damage by rains. Special alfalfa 
rakes are on the market. Of the ordinary 
machinery the side-delivery rake is very 
useful. If the hay is put into the barn too 
green, it may ignite. 

ALFALFA AS PASTURE A^ T D SOILING; SEED 
PRODUCTION. 

Alfalfa pastures, while not uncommon, 
must be grazed sparingly if a good stand 
of the plants is to be maintained. Fields 
should never be used for this purpose the 
first season or two. Horses and sheep graze 
more closely than cattle do, and are there¬ 
fore more destructive to the stand. Hogs 
on alfalfa pasturage should be ringed. In 
the autumn stock should be taken off in 
order to give the plants a start for winter. 
The tendency of cattle and sheep to bloat 
when turned on an alfalfa field can be 
overcome, it has been suggested, by feed¬ 
ing before turning them in, and then keep¬ 
ing them on the pasture all the time, altho 
there are few places east of the Rocky 
Mountains where either sheep or cattle can 
be pastured on alfalfa with safety, except 
when the plants are in a dormant state. 
In the West are great alfalfa ranches for 
horses, cattle, and even ostriches. 

Alfalfa land will support three times as 
many animals by soiling as by pasturing. 
Let the crop mature and then carry it to 
them. A better way even is to combine 
both pasturing and soiling—feed the ani¬ 
mals with alfalfa, then give them access to 
the pasture. Alfalfa makes silage if prop¬ 
erly handled, but the silage is inferior to 
corn, kafir, feterita,, milo, or sorghum. 

In the arid regions of the country where 
9 


seed can be grown, there are great opportu¬ 
nities for profit. Seed now brings $10 to 
$12 a bushel, but the culture would be 
worth while with seed at half that price. 
The crop which matures in the driest sea¬ 
son is always the one saved. A thin stand is 
necessary; for best results the plants are 
set in long rows about 20 inches apart and 
cultivated just as corn. East of the Mis¬ 
sissippi very little seed has been produced. 

POLLINATION. 

The form of the flower is papilionaceous, 
or butterfly-shaped, bearing a general re¬ 
semblance to the flower of the garden pea. 
The manner of pollination is of great inter¬ 
est both to beekeepers and seed-growers. 
The flowers are known as explosive flowers. 
The anthers and stigma are held in the keel 
under elastic tension, which resides in the 
staminal column formed by the union of 
the filaments of 9 of the 10 stamens. When 
a bee presses down the wings and keel, says 
Burkill, it pulls two triggers and fires off 
the flower, that is, the two processes which 
restrain the staminal column in the carina 
separate, and permit the stamens and pistil 
to fly forcibly upward, bringing the pollen 
in contact with the under side of the bee’s 
body. A slight clicking sound may some¬ 
times be heard when the stigma strikes 
against the standard, and a little cloud of 
pollen is visible. The stigma stands a little 
in advance of the anthers, and strikes the 
pollen-brush of the bee first; if the latter is 
covered with pollen from another flower, 
previously visited, cross-pollination is ef¬ 
fected. Both of these organs then move 
upward against the erect petal called the 
standard, where they are out of the way, 
and do not again come in contact with in¬ 
sects. A single normal visit is sufficient to 
effect pollination, and all subsequent visits 
are useless. After the flowers have been 
exploded, or “tripped,” they still continue, 
however, to secrete nectar and receive in¬ 
sect visits. This is clearly an imperfection, 
since the attraction of visitors is no longer 
an advantage. 

In different seasons and different local¬ 
ities there is a wide difference in the quan¬ 
tity of seed produced by alfalfa. In the 
Milk River Valley of Montana a yield of 
from 10 to 12 bushels per acre has been 
obtained in favorable years, while in others 


34 


ALFALFA 


it was almost a complete failure. Contra¬ 
dictory assertions have been repeatedly 
made by various observers that the flowers 
are self-fertile or self-sterile in the ab¬ 
sence of insects. For the purpose of set¬ 
tling this question definitely, numerous ex¬ 
periments were conducted by Piper and his 
assistants, the results of which were pub¬ 
lished by the Bureau of Plant Industry in 
1914. 

More than 24 species of wild bees, be¬ 
sides many butterflies, flies, and beetles, 
have been observed on the flowers; but 
many of these are useless as pollinators. 
In localities where alfalfa is nectarless it is 
almost entirely ignored by honeybees, but 
where it secretes nectar freely they are 
attracted in great numbers. Usually they 
obtain tbe nectar thru a hole in the side of 
the flower without tripping it. Out of 500 
visits observed by Westgate a flower was 
tripped in only one instance. In California, 
according to McKee, few flowers are trip¬ 
ped by honeybees; but in England, Burkill 
saw them tripping the flowers in great 
numbers. Even if an individual honeybee 
tripped a flow-er only oceasionallv, the ag¬ 
gregate exploded in a day over a large area 
of alfalfa would be large. In Colorado, 
western Kansas, and Nevada, where bee 
culture has been greatly developed in recent 
years, it is claimed that the alfalfa seed 
crop in fields near apiaries is much heavier 
and of better quality than that of fields a, 
few miles away. In the former fields the 
amount of seed was at least 50 per cent 
greater than in those which were remote 
from colonies of bees. In one instance in 
Nevada it is claimed that the presence of 
bees increased the crop of seed by over 300 
pei* cent. Bumblebees are more important 
than honeybees, and trip the flowers fre¬ 
quently— in Washington and Montana 
about 30 per cent of the flowers visited. But 
the leaf-cutting bees (Megachile) are the 
most efficient pollinators. M. latimanus 
trips 9 out of every 10 flowers visited, and 
three of these bees were observed to trip 
flowers at the rate of 552 per hour. Butter¬ 
flies are common visitors, especially in Cali¬ 
fornia, where the alfalfa butterfly (Evrg- 
mus eury theme) is abundant; but they ob¬ 
tain the nectar thru the orifice in the side of 
the flower without depressing the caring, Tn 
South America small birds called honey- 


suckers visit the flower for nectar. Pollina¬ 
tion by the wind does not occur. 

Untripped flowers seldom produce seed, 
but in the absence of insects a large per¬ 
centage may explode automatically. At 
Chinook, Montana, 33 out. of 57 marked 
flowers on one plant became self-tripped, 
and set 21 pods; and on a second plant 36 
flowers out of 64 tripped automatically, 
and produced 16 pods. In the first case 
63 per cent of the self-pollinated flowers 
produced pods, and in the second 44 per 
cent. In rare instances flowers develop 
pods without tripping. Variability in self¬ 
tripping is strongly influenced bv climatic 
factors, as temperature, humidity, and 
bright sunshine. A single alfalfa plant 
was screened from insects for 10 days or 
longer until it was in full bloom. The 
screen was then removed for 15 minutes on 
a very warm clear day. The (lowers quick¬ 
ly began exploding with a snapping sound, 
at times three or four being heard simul¬ 
taneously. It was estimated that more than 
one-half of the flowers were self-tripped 
before the screen was replaced. In the 
West, automatic self-tripping probably re¬ 
sults in the production of as many pods as 
insect pollination. This observation is im¬ 
portant since it explains the production of 
a large crop of seed in the absence of in¬ 
sects. 

A series of experiments was conducted 
to test the comparative effects of self-pol¬ 
lination and cross-pollination of alfalfa 
flowers. Nine thousand and seventy-four 
flowers were artificially tripped, and con¬ 
sequently self-pollinated, and set 2,784 
pods. The diffei-ent plants on which the 
flowers were thus self-pollinated varied 
greatly in the production of pods, 68 per¬ 
cent of the flower's in one instance setting 
pods, while others yielded none. Pollina¬ 
tion from a different flower on the same 
plant is of little advantage over self-polli¬ 
nation. Five hundred and thirteen self- 
pollinated flower's set 165 pods, or 32 per¬ 
cent; while 437 flowers pollinated from 
another flower on the same plant set 134 
pods, or 30 per cent. When 446 flowers 
were each cross-pollinated with pollen from 
another plant. 206 pods were produced, or 
46 per cent. The average number of seeds 
per pod of the self-pollinated flowers was 
1.4; of the flowers pollinated from another 


ANATOMY OF THE OFF 


flower on the same plant, 2.02 ; and of the 
cross-pollinated flowers 2.38. Cross-pol¬ 
lination is, therefore, more potent than 
self-pollination, and consequently pollina¬ 
tion by insects is an advantage. 

It is now well established that the pro¬ 
duction of seed is greatly influenced by 
climate; and practical experience has shown 
that it can be raised in paying' quantities 
only in those States which possess a hot, 
dry season. Too much moisture is injuri¬ 
ous, and consequently the eastern portion 
of the country with its larger rainfall is 
not well adapted for this purpose; while in 
the irrigated sections one irrigation is usu¬ 
ally omitted. It is of interest to beekeepers 
to know that most of the seed is raised in 
Arizona, California, Utah, Colorado, Kan¬ 
sas, and Idaho. The best results are ob¬ 
tained with a thin stand of alfalfa, or where 
it is cultivated in rows. The domestic sup¬ 
ply is far below the demand, and millions 
of pounds are annually imported. 

AUTHORITIES. 

While certain general principles can be 
laid down regarding alfalfa for all parts of 
the United States, it has not been possible 
in this article to go into those local details 
with which the well-informed grower should 
be familiar. Any one interested in the 
plant should first find out what his state 
experiment station has published on alfal¬ 
fa-growing in his locality. The literature is 
thoro and comprehensive. 

The best work on the subject is J. E. 
Wing’s “Alfalfa in America” (1912). A 
somewhat more extensive work is F. I). 
Coburn’s “The Book of Alfalfa” (1906). 
The Department of Agriculture, Washing¬ 
ton, publishes Farmers’ Bulletin No. 339, 
entitled “Alfalfa,” by J. M. Westgate. Of 
the various publications by state experi¬ 
ment stations, those by the Colorado, Illi¬ 
nois, Utah, and Kentucky stations are es¬ 
pecially valuable. All of the works cited 
were used in the preparation of this article. 
Grateful acknowledgment is made to Mr. 
Alvin Ivezer, Chief Agronomist at the Col¬ 
orado State Experiment Station, for read¬ 
ing the manuscript and making suggestions. 

ALFILERILLA (Erodium cicutarmm 
(L.) L/Her).—Alfilerilla is derived from 
the Spanish word for pin, also known as 


alfilaria, pin-clover, musk clover, storksbill, 
heron’s bill, and pin-grass. The fruit re¬ 
sembles a heron’s bill, whence the name of 
the genus Erodium the Greek for heron. 
Naturalized from Europe, and widely dis¬ 
tributed; one of the leading honey and 
pollen yielders of California and Arizona. 
It is regarded as an excellent forage plant 
by stockmen, quite equal in feeding value 
to alfalfa, and probably more palatable, 
because much less woody in character. An 
analysis by the chemist of the Arizona Ex¬ 
periment Station shows it is quite equal to 
any clover for feeding. It is being rapidly 
spread by sheep and cattle in the extreme 
Southwest, for it is easily disseminated, 
and requires no particular cultivation. In 
this respect it resembles sweet clover; but 
animals do not have to be educated to eat¬ 
ing it; on the contrary they are fond of it 
from the start. As a honey and pollen 
plant it ranks very high, both as regards 
quantity and quality. 

ALGARROBA. —See Mesquite. 

ALSIKE CLOVER.— See Clover. 

ALUMINUM COMBS. — See Metal 
Combs. 

AMATEUR BEEKEEPING. — See 

Backlot Beekeeping; also ABCof Bee¬ 
keeping. 

ANALYSIS OF HONEY.— See Honey 
and Honey Analysis. 

ANATOMY OF THE BEE.— The three 
parts of the body of the bees are well sepa¬ 
rated by constrictions. The head carries 
the eyes, antenna, and mouth parts; the 
thorax, the wings and legs; and the abdo¬ 
men, the wax-glands and sting. 

The head is flattened and triangular, be¬ 
ing widest crosswise thru the upper corners, 
which are capped by the large compound 
eyes. It carries the antennae, or feelers, on 
the middle of the face (Fig. 2, A, Ant) ; 
the large compound eyes (E) laterally; 
three small simple eyes or ocelli ( 0 ), at the 
top of the face, and the mouth parts ( Md, 
Mx, and Lb) ventrally. Each antenna con¬ 
sists of a long basal joint and of a series of 
small ones hanging downward from the end 
of the first. The antennae are very sensitive 
to touch, and contain the organs of smell. 
At the lower edge of the face is a loose flap 


HtCIs 


THE BEE 


ANATOMY OF 



Ij; 













ANATOMY OF THE BEE. 


37 


(Fig. 2, A, Lm ) forming an upper lip 
called the labrum. On its under surface is 
a small soft lobe called the epipharynx on 
which are located the organs of taste. At 
the sides of the labrum are the two heavy 
jaws, or mandibles (Md) , which work side- 
wise. They are spoon-shaped at their ends 
in the worker, but sharp-pointed and tooth¬ 
ed in the queen and drone. Those of the 
queen are largest, those of the drone small¬ 
est. Behind the labrum and the mandibles 
is a bunch of long appendages, usually 
folded back beneath the head, which to¬ 
gether constitute the proboscis (Fig. 2, A, 
Prb.) These organs correspond with the 
second pair of jaws, or maxillae , and the 
lower lip, or labium, of other insects. In 
Fig. 2 they are cut off a short distance from 
the head and flattened out in Fig. 3, D. The 
middle series of pieces ( Smt-Lbl ) consti¬ 
tutes the labium, the two lateral series 
( Cd-Mx ) the maxillae. The labium consists 
of a basal submentum ( Smt ), and a men- 
tum (Ml) . which supports distally the slen¬ 
der, flexible, tongue-like glossa (Gls) , the 
two delicate paraglossae (Pgl ), and the 
two lateral, jointed labial palpi (Lb, Pip). 
Each maxilla is composed of a basal stalk, 
the car do ( Cd) ; a main plate, the stipes 
(St), and a wide terminal blade (Mx) 
called the galea. At the base of the galea 
is a rudimentary maxillary palpus (M.r- 
Plp) , representing a part which in most 
insects consists of several slender joints. 

As before stated, the part of the maxil¬ 
lae and the labium together constitute the 
proboscis, which, as shown in Fig. 2, is 
suspended from a deep cavity ( PrbFs) on 
the lower part of the back of the head hav¬ 
ing a membranous floor. The nasal stalks 
(Cd) of the maxillae are hinged to knobs 
on the sides of this cavity, while the labium 
is attached to the maxillary stalks by means 
of a flexible band called the lorum (Fig. 3, 
D, Lr). 

When the bee wishes to suck up any 
liquid, especially a thick liquid like honey 
or syrup, provided in considerable quan¬ 
tity, the terminal lobes of the labium and 
maxillae are pressed close together so as to 
make a tube between them. The labium is 
then moved back and forth between the 
maxillae with a pump-like motion produced 
by muscles within the head.. This brings 
the liquid up to the mouth, which is situ¬ 


ated above the base of the proboscis, be¬ 
tween the mandibles and beneath the lab¬ 
rum. The food is then taken into the 
mouth by a sucking action of the pharynx, 
produced by its muscles. 

A more delicate apparatus is probably 
necessary, however, for sucking up minute 
drops of nectar from the bottom of a 
flower. Such a structure is provided within 
the glossa. This organ (Fig. 3, D, Gls), 
ordinarily called the “tongue/’ is termin¬ 
ated by a delicate, sensitive, spoonlike lobe 
known as the labella (Fig. 3, A, B, and D, 
Lbl), and has a groove (Jc) running along 
its entire length on the ventral side. With¬ 
in the glossa this groove expands into a 
double-barrel tube (Fig. 3, E. Lum.) A 
flexible chitinous rod (r) lies along the 
dorsal wall of this channel, which is itself 
provided with a still finer groove (l) along 
its ventral surface. Thus the very smallest 
quantity of nectar may find a channel suit¬ 
ed to its bulk thru which it may run up to 
the base of the glossa by capillary attrac¬ 
tion. But since the glossal channels are 
ventral, the nectar must be transferred to 
the dorsal side of the labium by means of 
the paraglossa3, the two soft lobes (Fig. 3), 
D and F, Pgl) whose bases are on the up¬ 
per side of the mentum, but whose distal 
ends underlap the base of the glossa, and 
thus aflxml conduits for the nectar around 
the latter to the upper side of the labium. 
The glossa is highly extensible and retrac¬ 
tile by means of muscles attached to the 
base of the rod, and its movements when a 
bee is feeding are very conspicuous, and 
interesting to watch. 

The thorax of an insect carries the wings 
and the legs. The two wings of the bees on 
each side are united to each other by a 
series of minute hooks so that they work 
together, and the four wings are thus prac¬ 
tically converted into two. Each wing is 
hinged at its base to the back, and pivoted 
from below upon a small knob of the side 
wall of the thoi'ax. The up-and-down mo¬ 
tion of the wings is produced, not by mus¬ 
cles attached to their bases, but by two sets 
of enormous muscles, one vertical and the 
other horizontal, attached to the walls of 
the thorax, whose contractions elevate and 
depress the back plates of the thorax. 
Since the fulcrum of each wing is outside 
of its attachment to the back, the depres- 


38 


ANATOMY OF THE BEE 




Prb Gls \[ Pgl 


From Bulletin No. 18, “The Anatomy of the Honeybee,” by Snodgrass, Dept, of Ag., Washington, D. C. 

Fig. 2.—Head of worker with parts of proboscis cut off a short distance from their bases. A, anterior; 
B, posterior; a, clypeal suture: Ant, antenna; b, pit in clypeal suture marking anterior end of internal bar 
of head; c, pit on occipital surface of head, marking posterior end of internal bar; Cd, cardo; Clp, clypeus; 
E. compound eye; For, foramen magnum; Ft, front; Oe, gena; Gls, glossa, or “tongue;” k, ventral groove 
of glossa; Lb, labium; LbPlp, labial palpus; Lm, labrum; Md, mandible; Mt, mentum; Hth, mouth; Mx, 
terminal blade of maxilla; MxPlv, maxillary palpus; O. ocelli; Oc, occiput; Pge, postgena ; Pgl, paraglossa; 
Prb, base of proboscis; PrbFs, fossa of proboscis; Smt, submentum ; St, stipes; ten, small bar of tentorium 
arching over foramen magnum; Vx, vertex. 

sion of the latter elevates the wing, and an 
elevation of the back lowers the wing. But 
the bee flies by a propeller-like action,-or 
figure-8 motion of the wing's. This is pro¬ 
duced by two other sets of much smaller 
muscles acting directly upon the wing bases, 
one before and the other behind the ful¬ 
crum of each. The combined result of all 
these muscles is that the down stroke of 
the wing is accompanied by a forward 
movement and a deflection of the anterior 
edge, while the up stroke reverses this. 

The legs of the bee are too familiar to 
need any extensive description here. Their 
special characters, such as the antennas- 
cleaners on the first and pollen-baskets 
and brushes on the last, are illustrated in 
Fig. 4. The tarsi are each provided with 
a pair of terminal claws ( E , Cla) , by means 
of which the bee clings to rough objects, 
while between the claws is a sticky pad. 
the empodium (Emp ), which is brought 
into play when the bee alights on or walks 
over any smooth surface like glass. 

The hind part of the thorax of bees, 
wasps, and their allies is composed of a 
segment, which, in other insects, is a part 


of the abdomen. It is known as the propo- 
deum. The middle division of the body of 
a bee, wasp, or ant, therefore, is not ex¬ 
actly the equivalent of the thorax of a 
grasshopper, fly, or butterfly. 

The abdomen of the bee has no append¬ 
ages corresponding with those of the head 
or thorax; but it bears two important or¬ 
gans, viz., the wax glands and the sting. 
The wax glands are simply specially devel¬ 
oped cells of the skin on the ventral sur¬ 
faces of the last four visible abdominal 
segments of the worker. There are only six 
segments visible in the apparent abdomen; 
but remembering that the propodeum of 
the thorax is really the first, the wax glands 
occur, therefore, on segments four to seven 
inclusive (Fig. 1, IV-V1I). The wax se¬ 
creted by the glands is discharged thru 
minute pores in the ventral plate of each 
segment, and accumulates in the form of a 
little scale in the pocket above the under¬ 
lapping ventral plate of the segment next 
in front. 

The sting is such a complicated organ 
that it is very difficult to describe it clearly 
in a few words. Fundamentallv it consists 








ANATOMY OF THE BEE 


39 


ot three slender, closely appressed pieces 
forming the sharp piercing organ that pro¬ 
jects from the tip of the abdomen (Fig. 1, 
Stn), and of two soft fingerlike lobes, 
sometimes also visible, all of which arise 
from three pairs of plates belonging to the 
eighth and ninth segments of the abdomen. 


but which are concealed within the seventh 
segment. 

Fig. 5 shows, somewhat diagrammatieal- 
ly, all the parts of the left side. The acute 
stinging shaft swells basally into a large 
bulb ( ShB ) which is connected by a basal 
arm on each side with two lateral plates 



From Bulletin No. IS, “The Anatomy of the Honeybee,” by Snodgras, Dcyt. of Ay., Washington, D. C. 

Fig. 3. — Details of mouth parts of worker. A, tip of glossa, ventral; B, tip of glossa, dorsal; C, piece 
of glossal rod (r) showing ventral groove (I) with parts of wall (q) of glossal channel attached; D, parts of 
proboscis (maxill* and labium) flattened out in ventral view; E. cross-section of glossa, showing its channel 
( Lum ) open below along the groove (A), the internal rod (r) in roof of channel, and its groove (i) ; F. 
distal end of men turn ( Mt ), dorsal, showing opening of salivary duct ( SalDO ) on base of ligula; Q, lateral 
view of left half of proboscis; H, glossa (Gts) with its rod (r) partly torn away, showing retractor muscles 
( 2RMcl ) attached to its base; Od, cardo; Fir, long stiff hairs near tip of glossa; k, ventral groove of glossa; 
l, ventral groove of glossal rod; Lbl, labella ; LlPlp, labial palpus; Lg, ligula; Lr, lorum; Lum, channel in 
glossa; Mt, mentum; Mt, terminal blade of maxilla; MtPIp, maxillary palpus; n, basal process of glossal 
rod; o, ventral plate of ligula, carrying base of glossal rod; p, dorsal plates of mentum; Pgl, paraglossa ; 
Ply. palpiger; q, inner wall of glossal channel; r. rod of glossa; SHMrl, retractor muscle of glossal rod; 
SalPO, opening of salivary duct; Smt, submentum; St, Stipes, 




















40 


ANATOMY OP THE BEE 


(Ob and Tri). The fingerlike lobes, called 
the palpi of the sting (StnPlp ) are carried 
also by the lower of these two plates (Ob) 
while the upper (Tri) carries the third and 
largest plate (Qd) whirl) partially overlaps 
the lower (Ob). 

A close examination of the sting proper 
shows that both the bulb and the tapering 
shaft are formed of three pieces. One is 
dorsal (ShB and ShS) while the other two 
(Let) are ventral (of course only one of 
the latter shows in side view). Further¬ 
more, the basal arm on each side is formed 
of two pieces, one of which (ShA) is con¬ 
tinuous with the dorsal piece of the sting, 
while the other (Let) is continuous with 
the ventral rod of the same side. Since 
these ventral rods are partially enclosed 
within a hollow on the under side of the 
dorsal piece, the latter is called the sheath 
of the sting. It consists of the terminal 
shaft of the sheath (ShS), the bulb (ShB), 
and of a basal arm, (ShA) on each side. 
The ventral pieces (Let) are slender sharp- 
pointed rods having barbed extremities, 
and ai'e known as the lancets. The shaft of 
the sheath is grooved along the entire 
length of its ventral surface, the groove en¬ 
larging into a spacious cavity in the bulb. 
The lancets lie close together against the 
ventral edges of the sheath, but slide freely 
upon minute tracks on the latter. The three 
parts, therefore, inclose between them a 
cavity which is tubular in the shaft, but 
enlarged into a wide chamber in the bulb. 
The great poison-sac (Fig. 8, PsnSe) of 
the acid glands of the sting opens into the 
base of the bulb along with the smaller 
tubular alkaline gland (BOl). By move¬ 
ments of the triangular plates (Fig. 5, Tri) 
the lancets slide back and forth against the 
sheath while the poison exudes in tiny 
drops from an opening between them near 
the tips. The poison-sac has no muscles in. 
its walls, and, hence, cannot force the poi¬ 
son thru the sting. The poison, in fact, 
is driven out of the latter by a force pump 
inside of the bulb. This consists of. two 
pouchlike lobes situated on the upper 
edges of the lancets, having their cavities 
open posteriorly. When the lancets move 
forward the walls of these pouches col¬ 
lapse; but when the motion is reversed they 
flare apart and drive the poison contained 


in the bulb back thru the shaft and out at 
the end. 

The poison is an acid liquid formed by 
the glands (Fig. 8, AGl, AGl, and BGl). 
Two of these (AGl and AGl) are simply 
small enlargements at the ends of two long 
coiled tubes (AGIO), which latter unite 
into a short single tube that opens into the 
anterior end of the great poison-sac (Psn 
Sc). The secretion of these glands is acid. 
The third gland (BGl) is a short, somewhat 
twisted tube opening into the bulb of the 
sting along with the poison-sac. Its secre¬ 
tion is alkaline. Carlet has shown that it 
is only the mixture of these two secretions 
that has the full strength in stinging prop¬ 
erties. 

The alimentary canal (Fig.6) consists of 
a tube extending thru the entire body, and 
coiled somewhat in the abdomen. The first 
part above the mouth in the head is wid¬ 
ened to form the pharynx (Phy). Then 
follows the long slender oesophagus ((E). 
running clear thru the thorax and into the 
front of the abdomen, where it enlarges 
into a thin-walled bag, called, in general, 
the crop , but which is known as the lioney- 
stomach (IIS) in the bee. Back of the 
honey-stomach is a short narrow proven- 
triculns (Pvent ), which is followed by the 
large U-shaped stomach, or ventriculus 
(Vent). Then comes the slender small in¬ 
testine (Sint) with a circle of Malpigh¬ 
ian tubules (Mai) arising from its anterior 
end. Finally, forming the terminal part of 
the alimentary canal, is the large intestine, 
or rectum (Beet), consisting of an enor¬ 
mous sac, varying in size according to its 
contents, but often occupying a large part 
of the abdominal cavity. Six opaque lon¬ 
gitudinal bands on its anterior end are 
known as the rectal gland (BGl). 

The honey-stomach is of special interest 
in the worker because the nectar gathered 
from the flowers is held in it, instead of 
being swallowed on down into the stomach, 
and is regurgitated into the cells of the 
Comb, or given up first to another bee in 
the hive. The upper end of the proventri- 
culus sticks up into the lower end of the 
honey-stomach as a small cone with an 
X-shaped opening in its summit. This 
opening is called the stomach mouth. Its 
four lips are very active, and take what¬ 
ever food the ventriculus requires from 


ANATOMY OF THE BEE 


the honey-stomach, for it must all go into The natural food of bees consists of 
the latter first, while at the same time pollen, nectar, and honey. The first con¬ 
it affords the bees a means of retaining tains the nitrogen of their diet, and the 
nectar or honey in the honey-stomach. other two the hydrogen, carbon, and oxy- 



Frorri Bulletin No. IS, “The Anatomy of the Honeybee," by Snodgrass, Dept, of Ay., Washington, D. C. 

Fig. 4.—Details of legs. A. front leg of worker, showing position of antenna-cleaner (dd and ee) ; B, 
end of tibia of front leg showing spine (.ee) of antenna-cleaner; C, antenna-cleaner, more enlarged; D. 
middle leg of -worker; E, hind leg of queen; F, hind leg of worker, showing pollen-basket (06) on outer 
surface of tibia; O, inner view of basal joint of hind tarsus of worker, showing thei brush of pollen-gathering 
hairs; H. hind legs of drone; 06, corbidulum, or pollen-basket; Ola. claws; Ox, coxa; dVl. notch of antenna- 
cleaner on basal joint of first tarsus; ee, spine of antenna-cleaner on distal end of tibip; Emp. empodium, 
sticky pad between the claws for walking on smooth surfaces; F, femur; ff, “wax shears;” Tar, tarsus; 
ITar, first joint of tarsus; T 6, tibia. 








ANATOMY OF THE BEE 


gen. Observations made by tlie writer indi¬ 
cate that the pollen is not digested until it 
gets into the intestine, for masses of fresh¬ 
looking grains nearly always appear in the 
rear part of the ventriculus, which is other¬ 
wise filled with a brownish slime. On the 
other hand, the nectar and honey are very 
probably digested in the ventriculus, and 
in large part absorbed from it. 

The salivary glands, located in the back 
part of the head (Fig. 6, 2GI) and in the 
front part of the thorax ( 3GI ) open upon 
the upper part of the labium (Fig. 3, F, 
SalDo ). The saliva can thus affect the liq¬ 
uid food before the latter enters the mouth, 
or it can be allowed to run down the pro- 


(UDpli and VDph ), stretching across the 
dorsal and ventral walls of the abdomen, 
but leaving wide openings along their sidas 
between the points of attachment. The 
heart consists of four consecutive chambers 
lht-4ht, which are merely swellings of 
the tube, each having a vertical slit or 
ostium ( Ost ) opening into each side. The 
blood is the colorless liquid that fills the 
spaces about the viscera of the body cavity. 
The dorsal diaphragm and the heart pulsate 
forward. The blood in the cavity above 
the former enters the ostia of the heart, and 
is pumped forward thru the aorta and out 
into the cavity of the head. From here it 
percolates back thru the thorax and enters 



From Bulletin No. 18, “The Anatomy of the Honeybee,” by Snodgrass, Dept, of Ay., Washington, D. C. 

Fig. 5.— Left side of sting and its accessory plates, with alkaline gland (BGI) and base of poison-sac 
( I’snSc ) attached. BGI, alkaline-poison gland; Let, lancet: Ob. oblong plate; PttnSc, base of poison-sac 
holding secretion from acid-gland (see Fig. 8); Qd, quadrate plate; IXS. median part of ninth abdominal 
sternum; ShA, arm of sheath; Sh-B, bulb of sheath; ShS, shaft of sheath; StnPlp, palpus of sting; Tri, 
triangular plate. 


boscis upon hard sugar in order to dissolve 
it, for the latter is eaten with the proboscis, 
not with the mandibles. 

The large glands ( Fig. 6, ,1GI ) situated 
in the front part of the head are supposed, 
by some students of the bee, to form the 
white pasty brood food and the royal jelly. 
Others think that these substances come 
from the stomach. More investigation of 
the subject must be made, however, before 
the question can be decided; but the con¬ 
tents of the stomachs of the workers have 
no resemblance to the brood food. 

The circulatory system is very simple, 
consisting of a delicate, tubular, pulsating 
heart (Fig. 1, lit), in the upper part of the 
abdomen, of a single long blood vessel, the 
aorta ( Ao ), extending forward from the 
heart thru the thorax into the head, and of 
two pulsating membranes, the diaphragms 


the space beneath the' ventral diaphragm 
( VDph ) of the abdomen. This membrane 
pulsates backward, and the blood is driven 
posteriorly and upward, thru the lateral 
openings, around the abdominal viscera, 
and again into the dorsal or pericardial 
cavity of the abdomen, where it begins its 
circulation anew. In insects the principal 
function of the blood is to distribute the 
food which dissolves into it from the ali¬ 
mentary canal. 

The respiratory system is very highly 
developed in the bee, consisting (Fig. 1) of 
large air-sacs ( TraSc , 1-10) in the head, 
thorax, and abdomen, and of tubes called 
tracheae given off from them, ( Tra, Lira). 
Fig. 1 shows principally the parts in only 
the right side of the body. In the abdomen 
a large sac (10) lies on each side connected 
with the exterior by short tubes opening 






ANATOMY OF THE BEE 



From Bulletin No. IS, “The Anatomy of the Honeybee,” by Snodgrass, Dept, of Ay., Washington, D. C. 


Fig. 6_ —Alimentary canal and salivary glands of worker, dorsal. Dot, salivary duct; 1GI, pharyngeal 
glands of head (supraeeretral glands) ; 2GI , salivary glands of head (postcerebral glands) , 3Gl t salivary 
glands of the thorax- ITS honey-stomach; ll. reservoir of thoracic salivary gland; Mai, Malpighian tubules; 
(E, oesophagus; Pliy, pharynx;' Pvent, proventriculus; Red, rectum; Rgl, rectal glands; Sint, small mtes- 
tine; Yenb, ventriculus. 
















44 


ANATOMY OP THE BEE 



'From Bulletin No. IS, “The Anatomy of the Honeybee,” by Snodgrass, Dept, of Ay., Washington. D. C. 


Fig. 7.— A, reproductive organs of drone, dorsal; B, inner view of dorsal wall of penis; C, group of 
spermatozoa: 1), terminal segments of drone, lateral, showing penis (Fen) partly protruded; E, lateral 
view of penis and ejaculatory duct (EjD) ; AcGl, accessory mucous gland; B, bulb of penis; lGlsp, gClsp. 
clasping organs of ninth abdominal sternum; Pen, penis; PenB, bulb of penis; VIIS-IXS, seventh to ninth 
abdominal sterna; ss, gelatinous mass of inner wall of bulb of penis; YIIT-VIIIT, seventh and eighth 
abdominal terga; tt, dorsal plates of bulb of penis; Tes, testis; vm, fimbriated lobe at base of bulb of penis; 
vv, ladder-likei plates of penis; YDef, vas deferens; Yes, seminal vesicle; ww, dorsal and ventral plates 
in wall of penis; yy, terminal chamber of penis thru which the rest is everted; zz, copulatory pouches of 
penis. 















ANATOMY OF THE BEE 


on the sides of the first seven segments. 
Three other pairs of such openings occur 
in the thorax; but the last of these, being in 
the propodeum, really belongs to the abdo¬ 
men. Thus there ai'e in all ten pairs of 
breathing apertures, and they ai - e called the 
spiracles. None occur on the head. The 
tracheal tubes given off from the air-sacs 
branch minutely to all pai'ts of the body 
and penetrate into most of the tissues. 
Hence oxygen is carried directly to the cells 
that use it, and the blood of insects is thus 
relieved of the work of distributing it — 
one of its principal functions in vertebrate 
animals. The respiratory movements are 
produced by muscles of the abdomen. 

The life processes of the cells of the body 
result in the formation of products excreted 
by the cells into the surrounding blood. 
These products are poisonous to the system 
unless immediately changed into simpler 
substances. This change is effected partly 
by the inhaled oxygen combining with the 
waste products, resulting in the formation 
of compounds of nitrogen which dissolve in 
the blood, and of carbonic acid gas which 
diffuses into the tracheal tubes and is ex¬ 
haled. The nitrogen compounds are sup¬ 
posed to be removed by the Malpighian 
tubules (Fig. 6, Mai), which are regarded 
as the kidneys of insects. 

The nervous system consists of a series 
of small masses of nerve tissue called gan¬ 
glia, lying along the median ventral line of 
the body cavity (Fig. 1, lGng-7Gng) , the 
two of the thorax being much larger than 
’ those of the abdomen. Each two are con¬ 
nected by a pair of cords called commis¬ 
sures. Nerves are given off from these 
ganglia to the various organs and parts of 
the body, and to the legs and wings. In 
the head there are two ganglionic masses. 
One is called the brain ( 0pL) , and is sit¬ 
uated above the oesophagus, where it gives 
off neiwes to the eyes, the antennae, the 
front, and the labrum. The other, called 
the suboesophag'eal ganglion, lies in the 
lower part of the head, and innervates the 
mouth parts, while it is connected by com¬ 
missures with both brain and the [first 
thoracic ganglion. 

The reproductive system consists of those 
organs that produce the spermatozoa in 
the male and the eggs in the female and 
their accessory parts, 


45 

The spermatozoa are formed in the testes 
of the male (Fig. 7, A, Tes), a pair of small 
bodies in the front part of the abdomen, 
said to be developed at their highest in the 
pupal stage. Each is connected by a coiled 
tube, the vas deferens (YDef ), with a long 
sac, the seminal vesicle (Fes) in which the 
spermatozoa are stored during the adult 
stage of the drone’s life. The two vesicles 
open into the bases of two enormous mu¬ 
cous glands (AcGl) which come together in 
a narrow muscular tube, the ejaculatory 
duct ( EjD ). This opens into the anterior 
end of the penis (Pen). This is a compli¬ 
cated organ, shown at E, Fig. 7. It is or¬ 
dinarily contained within the cavity of the 
abdomen; but during copulation it is en¬ 
tirely everted, and its basal pouches (zz) 
lock into corresponding pouches of the ovi¬ 
duct of the queen. 

The eggs are formed by the ovaries of 
the female (Fig. 8, Ov ), each of which 
consists of a thick mass of tubules called 
the ovarioles (ov) , within which the eggs 
grow from simple cells at their upper ends 
into the mature eggs found at their lower 
ends. The ovarioles of each ovary open 
into an oviduct (OvD ), which two unite 
into a wide median tube called the vagina 
(Tag) that swells posteriorly into a large 
pouch knoAvn as the bursa copulatri.r 
(BGpx ), opening to the exterior in the 
eighth segment beneath the base of the 
sting. 

During copulation the drone ejects the 
spermatozoa into the upper end of the 
vagina of the queen. The spermatozoa 
consist of minute vibratory threads (Fig. 
7, C.) which, probably, by their own mo¬ 
tion, make their way up thru a small tube 
opening into the dorsal Avail of the va¬ 
gina. and so reach a globular sac (Fig. 8. 
Spm) called the spermatheca. Here they 
are held during the rest of the lifetime of 
the queen, to be extruded in small bundles, 
of about a hundred each, accoi'ding to 
BreslaAv, upon the eggs passing out of the 
vagina. Thus are the female eggs ferti¬ 
lized, the drone eggs developing without 
the addition of the male element. 

ANGER OF BEES. —The author does 
not like the term “anger,” when applied 
to bees, and it almost makes him angry 
when he hears people speak of bees being 


46 


ANGER OF BEES 


“mad)” as if they are always in a tower- them. Bees are, on the eontiaiy, the pleas 
ing rage, and delight to inflict severe pain antest, most sociable, genial, and good 
on everything and everybody coming near natured little beings that aie met in al 



From Bulletin No. 18, "The Anatomy of the Honeybee,’' by Snodgrass, Dept, of Aff., Washington , D. C. 

Fig. 8.—Reproductive organs of queen, dorsal, together with sting, its muscles, glands, and poison-sac, 
AGl, acid-glands of sting; AGID, duct of acid-glands; BCprc. bursa copulatrix; BGl, alkaline gland of sting; 
Ov ovaries; ov , ovarioles; OvD, oviduct; P# 7 i$c, poison-sac; JXS. median part of ninth abdominal sternum, 
Sprn, sac of spermatheca ; SpmGl, spermathecal gland; Stn, sting; StnPlp, palpus of sting; Tag, vagina. 











ANGER OF BEES 


47 


animated creation, when they are under¬ 
stood. Their beautiful comb can be torn 
all to bits right before their very eyes, 
without their showing a particle of re¬ 
sentment; and with all the patience in the 
world they will at once set to work to re¬ 
pair it and that, too, without remon¬ 
strance. If they are pinched they will 
sting; and a human being who has energy 
enough to take care of himself would do 
as much had he the weapon. 

How to open hives in such a way as to 
avoid stings, see Manipulation of Colo¬ 
nies, and Stings. 

In order that the reader may better un¬ 
derstand that which follows, it may be well 
to set forth two or three fundamental con¬ 
ditions under which bees become cross or 
nervous and unpleasant to handle. First, a 
slackening or a shutting-off of the supply 
of food obtained either from the fields in a 
natural way, or from exposed sweets, al¬ 
ways has a tendency to make bees ill-na¬ 
tured. If the honey flow is unusually 
strong, and then slackens up very rapidly, 
the bees in the whole yard become cross. 
This is particularly noticeable at the clos¬ 
ing of basswood or after the drying up of 
certain honeydews deposited on the leaves 
of trees. When the bees are robbing, and 
combs or syrup are carelessly exposed, and 
these combs or syrup are suddenly put un¬ 
der cover, so that not another drop can be 
secured, bees will usually sting furiously, 
when, if their supply were allowed to stand 
and gradually diminish, they will be much 
better natured. 

If some one carelessly exposes sweets in 
quantities during a dearth of honey when 
bees are disposed to rob, this will have a 
tendency to stir up the whole apiary. 
The roar of the excitement may be heard 
some distance from the apiary. Thousands 
and thousands of bees will be found flying 
around everywhere to discover where this 
new supply is located; but, as a general 
thing, bees are not cross when trying to 
find the source of the sweet. The real 
trouble begins about the time the supply 
gives out. 

During the middle hours of the day when 
the ah' is warm and bakny and the bees 
are going into the fields, they are generally 
very gentle. But if a sudden rainstorm 
comes up, shutting off the supply of nec¬ 


tar, they will usually be quite cross, and 
this bad temper will last until the normal 
supply begins to come in again. 

Bees are apt to be cross on cool or chilly 
days. When all are at home, and the hives 
are opened unceremoniously, they may re¬ 
sent the intrusion. It is then that beginners 
discover, much to their sorrow, that bees 
should not be handled during cool or chilly 
weather, right after a rain, nor at night. 

By keeping these facts carefully in mind, 
when the following incidents are related, 
one will more readily discover why bees are 
cross; 

A few years ago a very intelligent man 
procured some Italians, an extractor, etc., 
and commenced bee culture. He soon 
learned to handle them, and succeeded 
finely; when it came time to extract, the 
whole business went on so easily that he 
was surprised at what had been said about 
experienced hands being needed to do the 
work. He had been in the habit of doing 
his work as directed, toward the middle of 
the day, while the great mass of bees were 
in the fields; but in the midst of a heavy 
yield of clover honey, when the hives were 
full to overflowing, they were one day 
stopped by a heavy thundershower. This, 
of course, drove the bees home, and at the 
same tin e washed the honey out of the 
blossoms so completely that they had noth¬ 
ing to do but remain in the hives until more 
was secreted. Not so with their energetic 
and enthusiastic owner. As ■ soon as the 
rain had ceased, the hives were again 
opened, and an attempt made to take out 
the frames, as but a few horn's before; but 
the bees that were all gentleness then, 
seemed now possessed of the very spirit 
of mischief; and when all the operators 
had been severely stung, they concluded 
that prudence was the better part of valor 
and stopped operations for the day. While 
loads of honey were coming in all the 
while, and every bee rejoicing, none was 
disposed to be cross; but after the shower, 
the bees were standing around idle; and 
when a hive was opened, each was ready 
to take a grab from its neighbor, and the 
result was a free fight in a very short 
time. 

There is nothing in the world that will 
induce bees to sting with such wicked reck¬ 
lessness as to have them get to quarreling 


48 


ANGER OF BEES 


over combs or honey left exposed when 
they have nothing to do. When the supply 
is exhausted their frenzy reaches its height. 
From a little carelessness in this respect, 
and nothing’ else, whole apiaries have been 
so demoralized that people were stung when 
passing along the street several rods dis¬ 
tant. During the middle of the day, when 
bees were busily engaged on the flowers 
during a good yield, we have frequently left 
filled combs standing on the top of a hive 
from noon until evening without a bee 
touching them; but to do this after a hard 
rain, or at a time when little or no honey 
is to be gathered in the fields, might result 
in the ruin of several colonies, and the bees 
being voted a nuisance by the whole neigh¬ 
borhood. 

Almost every season the author gets 
more or less letters complaining that bees 
have suddenly become so cross as to be 
almost unmanageable, and those letters 
come along in July, after the clover and 
linden have begun to slacken. As already 
pointed out, at the beginning of this article, 
it is the slackening or stoppage of the 
flow that makes the bees irritable. 

Bees are not so very unlike mankind 
after all, and all one has to do is to avoid 
opening a hive for a few days, until the 
bees get used to the sudden disappoint¬ 
ments of having avenues thru which thevs 
were getting wealth so rapidly, cut off. 
After a week or 10 days they will be almost 
as gentle as in times when they gathered 
half a gallon of honey daily, if care is 
taken not to let hives be open too long nor 
to leave any bits of honey or comb about. 

It is not easy to explain why bees sting 
so remorselessly and vindictively after hav¬ 
ing had a taste of stolen sweets, yet nearly 
all the instances where there is trouble with 
stinging have been from this very cause. 
Bees from colonies that have a habit of 
robbing will buzz about one’s ears and eyes 
for hours, seeming to delight in making one 
nervous and fidgety if they suceed in so 
doing, and they not only threaten, but often¬ 
times inflict, the most painful stings, and 
then buzz about in an infuriated way, as 
if frantic because unable to sting one a 
dozen times more after their stings are 
lost. The colonies that furnish this class of 
bees are generally hybrid, or perhaps black 
bees having just a trace of Italian blood. 


These bees seem to have a perfect passion 
for following one about and buzzing be¬ 
fore the nose from one side to the other 
(until one gets cross-eyed in trying to fol¬ 
low their erratic oscillations), in a way 
that is most decidedly provoking. One such 
colony annoyed us so much while extract¬ 
ing that we killed the queen, altho she Avas 
very prolific, and substituted a pure Ital¬ 
ian. It is seldom an Italian follows one 
about in the manner mentioned, yet an 
occasional colony may contain bees that 
do it; at least we have found such, where 
the workers were all three-banded. That 
it is possible to have an apiary without any 
such disagreeable bees, we have several 
times demonstrated; but oftentimes it will 
be necessary to discard some of the very 
best honey-gatherers, to be entirely rid of 
them. On occasions like this it is advisable 
to use robber-traps. See Robbers. 

With a little practice the apiarist will tell 
as soon as he comes very near the apiary 
whether any angry bees are about, by the 
high keynote they utter when on the wing. 
It is well known that with the feeding of 
meal (see Pollp:n) there may be perfect 
tranquillity, altho bees from every hive in 
the apiary are working on a square yard of 
meal. Now, should honey be substituted 
for the meal, there Avould be a perfect up¬ 
roar, for a taste of honey found in the 
open air during a dearth of pasturage, or 
at a time when the bees have learned to 
get it by stealing instead of honest indus¬ 
try, seems to have the effect of setting 
every bee crazy. In some experiments to 
determine how and why this result came 
about, we had considerable experience with 
angry bees. After they had been robbing 
and had become tranquil, Ave tried them 
with dry sugar; the quarrelsome bees 
fought about it for a short time, but soon 
resumed their regular business of hanging 
about the well-filled hives, trying to creep 
into every crack and crevice, and making 
themselves generally disagreeable all 
around. If a hive Avas to be opened, they 
were into it almost before the cover was 
raised, and then resulted a pitched battle 
between them and the inmates; the oper¬ 
ator Avas sure to be stung by one or both 
parties, and, pretty soon, some of the good 
people indoors Avould be asking what in 
the world made the bees so awfully cross, 


ANGER OF REES 


4fl 


saying- that they even came indoors and 
tried to sting. Now, why could they not 
work peaceably on the sugar as they do 
on the meal, or the clover blossoms in 
June? We dampened the sugar with a 
sprinkler, and the bees that were at work 
on it soon started for home with a load; 
then began the high keynote of robbing, 
faint at first, then louder and louder, until 
we began to be almost frightened at the 
mischief that might ensue. When the 
dampness was all licked up they soon sub¬ 
sided into their usual condition. The effect 
of feeding honey in the open air is very 
much worse than that of feeding any kind 
of syrup. 

HOW THE SOURCE FROM WHICH BEES ARE 
GATHERING AFFECTS THEIR TEMPER. 

It has been found that bees are crosser 
when working on some blossoms than on 
others. For example, they seem to be more 
inclined to sting when working on buck¬ 
wheat than on clover. This is probably due 
to the fact that the latter yields nectar all 
day, while the former will in most localities 
yield an hour or two in the morning and 
again toward night. The stoppage of the 
flow seems to affect the bees adversely. 

In the same way they are cross when 
working on honeydew from hickory and 
oaks. This yields heavily in the morning, 
and lets up and stops during the middle 
hours of the day. The morning dews 
soften the saccharine matter secreted on 
the leaves of these trees, and when it dries 
up again the nectar supply is cut off and 
the bees are cross. During 1909, when 
there was so much honeydew from oaks 
and hickories from all over the country, 
bees that year were reported to be excep¬ 
tionally cross. 

To make bees good-natured, a honey 
plant must be a continuous yielder all 
day. So long as it keeps up its supply, 
there is quiet. 

IIOW THE PRESENCE OR ABSENCE OF SHRUB¬ 
BERY OR TREES AFFECTS THE TEMPER 
OF THE BEES IN THE YARD. 

It has been shown time and time again 
that the same bees that are docile as kittens 
in the home yard, with plenty of shrubbery 
to shut off the view of individual colonies, 
will often be as cross as hornets when 


placed in an out-apiary on a level piece of 
ground where their hive is in view of every 
other hive, without any obstructing shrub¬ 
bery or trees. The reason of. it is plain. 
If there are any cross bees in the air, and 
they see a moving, object like a beekeeper, 
for example, going thru the yard, they will 
immediately come buzzing about him with 
the peculiar angry scream that a mad bee 
always has. Those same bees when located 
in a yard where there is plenty of shrub¬ 
bery, and where they cannot see moving 
objects as readily, will forget all about the 
source of their irritability, and either go to 
the fields or into their own hives. 

Several times we have been tempted to 
kill all the queens in a certain yard because 
their bees were so very cross, only to dis¬ 
cover later on that when we moved them to 
the home yard, where there were grape¬ 
vines shutting off the view of their colony 
or hive, that there was nothing the matter 
with the bees but only with their previous 
environment. For that reason alone, some 
of the crossest bees we have ever known 
have become very tractable when placed in 
a small orchard or piece of woods. The 
crossest bees will also become very docile 
when put .into a house-apiary. 'When the 
owner is inside he cannot be seen, of 
course, and he can work inside of the 
building without hindrance. 

Colonies that are located in dense shade 
thruout the day, are usually ill-natured, 
while those out in the sun are good- 
natured. 

How to make bees good-natured by feed¬ 
ing, see Feeding Outdoors; also see Rob¬ 
bing, Stings, and Manipulation of Colo¬ 
nies. 

ANTS. — Altho we have given the matter 
considerable attention, we cannot find that 
ants are guilty of anything in the North 
that should warrant the apiarist in waging 
any great warfare against them. Some 
years ago a visitor frightened us by say¬ 
ing that the ants about our apiary would 
steal every drop of honey as fast as the 
bees could gather it. Accordingly we pre¬ 
pared ourselves with a teakettle of boikng 
water, and not only killed the ants but 
some grapevines growing near. Afterward 
there came a spring when the bees, all'but 
about eleven colonies, dwindled away and 


50 


ANTS 


died, rind the hives filled with honey, scat¬ 
tered about the apisgry. unprotected, seemed 
to he as fair a chance for the ants, that had 
not “dwindled” a particle, as they could 
well ask for. We watched to see how fast 
they would carry away the honey, but, to 
our astonishment, they seemed to care more 
for the hives that contained bees than for 
those containing only honey. We soon de¬ 
termined that it was the warmth from the 
cluster that especially attracted them; and, 
as the hives were directly on the ground, 
the ants soon moved into several that con¬ 
tained a small cluster only, and for a while 
both used one common entrance. As the 
bees increased, they began to show a de¬ 
cided aversion to having two families in 
the same house, altho the ants were evi¬ 
dently inclined to be peaceable enough un¬ 
til the bees tried to “push” matters, when 
they turned about and showed themselves 
fully able to hold possession. The bees 
seemed to be studying over the matter for 
awhile, and finally we found them one day 
taking the ants, one by one, and carrying 
them high up in the air, and letting them 
drop at such a distance, from their home 
that they would surely never be able to 
walk back again. The bees, as fast as they 
became strong colonies, drove the ants out; 
and our experience ever since has been, 
that a good colony of bees in the North is 
never in any danger of being troubled in 
the least by ants. One weak colony, after 
battling a while with a strong nest of the 
ants, Swarmed out; but they might have 
done this any way, so we do not lay much 
blame to the ants. 

Rut ants do prove to be very annoying in 
those apiaries where there is any attempt 
to keep the grass down with a lawnmower. 
The little hillocks that they make all over 
the yard disfigure it to some extent, as well 
as forming more or less obstruction to the 
scythe and lawnmower. While, as we have 
already said, ants do little if any damage to 
hives in the North, yet as it is so easy to 
eradicate them it may be well to consider 
methods for their extermination. 

Trow TO DESTROY ANTS'* NESTS. 

With a crowbar or a short stick and a 
mallet make a hole an inch or so in diame¬ 
ter, and about a foot deep, down thru the 
center of the nest. Around "this hole make 


two or three other similar ones, or more if 
the nest is a large one. Go to the drugstore 
and get about a dime’s worth of bisulphide 
of carbon. Be careful with the stuff, for it 
is veiy explosive, and the fumes of it 
should not be allowed to collect in the room 
where there is a gasoline flame or any stove 
or lamp burning. From this bottle pour 
about a tablespoonful of the liquid in each 
hole; then immediately stop each up with 
a plug of earth, for it is desired to have 
the fumes of bisulphide penetrate all the 
galleries of the nest, thus destroying ante, 
larvae and eggs. In a day or so it will be 
found that everything formerly animate in 
and about the nest is dead. 

But if the nests are not very large, one 
can secure almost as good results by using 
coal oil or gasoline in place of the bisul¬ 
phide. But in using these, about twice or 
three times the quantity should be poured 
in each bole. We have tried both gasoline 
and kerosene, and have found each effect¬ 
ive in destroying the nest. Of the two, 
the kerosene seems to be preferable. In 
using bisulphide of carbon, gasoline, or 
kerosene, be careful about spilling or ] tour¬ 
ing any of it on the top of the nest, as 
that will kill the grass, leaving a brown 
spot right where it should be green. The 
bisulphide is more apt to kill the grass 
than the gasoline or kerosene, as it is much 
more powerful. 

The best time to destroy ants’ nests is in 
the spring, before the ants have had an 
opportunity to make much of a hillock; 
then there will be less liability of killing 
the grass; or, rather, a better opportunity 
for the grass to recover from its “dose” 
during the early spring rains. 

ANTS IN THE SOUTH. 

These insects are much more troublesome 
in the southern States, and all Avarm cli¬ 
mates, in fact, than in the North. Some¬ 
times they are so large and powerful that 
they even set about to destroy the colony. 
When the nest lias been discovered, pro¬ 
ceed to destroy it by the use of kerosene or 
gasoline. If these do not prove to be power¬ 
ful enough, use bisulphide of carbon, mak¬ 
ing three or four holes to the square foot 
of nest; but in the ease of bisulphide, one 
must be careful to have each hole stopped 
HP tight with plugs of earth, otherwise the 


ANTS 


51 




gas will escape, and the effect of the liquid 
will be largely lost. 

But there is a species of ants in warm 
climates that have nests in trees that are 
inaccessible. Other ants are so small, and 


Fig. 1.-—The Calkins ant-proof hive-stand. It differs 
from no other hive-stand except that near each of 
its four corners it has 20-penny spikes driven in 
about half their length, and gauged to fit snugly to 
the inside rim of the reversible bottom-board on each 
side. Around the projecting portion of the spikes 
is wound felting which is afterward soaked in axle 
grease. On top of these four nails is carefully 
adjusted a colony of bees as shown in Fig. 2. For 
obvious reasons the alighting board connects with 
the hive-stand and not with bottom-board of hive. 

come such long distances, that it is almost 
impossible to find their nest. In such cases 
it has been recommended to place within 
their reach some syrup or honey mixed 
with arsenic, Paris green, London purple, 
or strychnine. It is unnecessary to say that 
all vessels containing such poisonous mix¬ 
tures should be placed in a box covered 
with screen just fine enough to keep out 
the bees, and coarse enough to admit the 
ants. They will work on these poisonous 
mixtures, and carry them home to their 
young, with the result that both mature in¬ 
sects as well as larva will be destroyed, no 
matter where the nest may be. 

The box containing the poisonous sweet 
should be put in the trail of the ants. It is 
usually necessary to get the ants started on 
something that they like that is not poison¬ 
ous—a piece of fat chicken meat, for in¬ 
stance, then add the poison when they are 
well started. 

When it does not seem practicable to de¬ 
stroy the pests they may be kept away from 
the hive temporarily by pouring a little 
narrow trail of kerosene clear around the 


hive or hives; or, better, by the plan here 
shown. 

Mr. Poppleton of Florida has graphi¬ 
cally described in Gleanings the carnivor¬ 
ous ants. 

With one exception these ants are the 
worst enemies bees have here in Florida, and 
only constant vigilance from September to 
December inclusive will prevent the loss of 
many colonies every season. These ants are 
usually found in our hummock lands, and 
only occasionally in clean pine woods; are 
red in color; of a very large size; frequently 
measuring nearly or quite half an inch in 
length ; are strictly nocturnal in their habits, 
being seldom seen in ddytime except when 
disturbed or waging battle with a colony of 
bees; are usually found in decayed wood, 
thru which they eat out galleries for use as 
living-apartments. A favorite place is in a 
saw-palmetto root in the ground. Nearly 
every cabbage-palmetto tree contains a colo¬ 
ny of them among the “boots” near its top, 
and for this reason a thick palmetto grove 
is one of the worst places where an apiary 
can be located. They are also found in piles 
of old boards, and on the ground under 
boards or logs. They also like to enter our 


Fig. 2—A colony of bees resting on four 20-penny 
nails driven half-way down into the hive-stand. As 
explained in Fig. 1, these nails are surrounded with 
felting which is dipped in axle grease, which does 
not evaporate so readily as creosote, altho the latter 
would be satisfactory. The colonies thus protected 
are free from any further visitation of their old 
friends the enemy, 'Ants are real pests in California, 









ANTS 


house's a ml locate in trunks, boxes, drawers, 
and in almost any place where they can find 
a few inches of space to occupy. They are 
frequently found in the tops of our hives, if 
there is sufficient space above the bees under 
the cover. 

At sundown they start on their nightly 
quest of food; and if near an apiary a few 
of them will usually be seen running on some 
of the hives. As long as only two or three 
can be seen on any one hive, no special at¬ 
tention need be given them; but if a dozen 
or more are seen, it means that they have 
probably selected that hive for their own 
use, and it needs close watching. They will 
continue their regular attentions to that 
one hive, gradually increasing in numbers 
rintil they decide they are strong enough, 
when nearly the entire colony of ants will 
boldly attack the bees by biting off their 
wings and legs, and crippling them so they 
are of no more use. Bees fight back courage¬ 
ously, the battle continuing for hours, and 
sometimes a day or two, according to the 
relative strength of the two belligerents: 
The inside of the hive and the ground near 
by will be strewn with dead ants and dead 
and crippled bees; .but it always ends with 
the destruction of all the bees, and the 
moving into and occupation of the hive by 
the ant colony. When ants have once chosen 
a certain colony of bees to work on, the bee- 
master has to destroy the ants, or they will 
in time destroy the bees. If a part only, of 
the ants are destroyed, they will simply bide 
their time until they have built up strong- 
enough, and then do the work. I know of 
few oy no living creatures more persistent in 
evil works than are these bee-killing ants. 
They also, in certain localities, do great dam¬ 
age to queen-rearing nuclei. 

During' the fall months I make it a prac¬ 
tice almost every evening after dark in my 
home apiary, and as often as possible in the 
out-apiaries, to see by the light of a lantern 
the front of every hive; and any one on 
which I see three or four or more ants run¬ 
ning over has a mark placed on it. If the 
number of ants on any one of these marked 
hives increases each night, I give that hive 
special attention until the ants get numer¬ 
ous enough to begin to worry the bees. When 
this occurs, bees commence to whine, as I 
call it—that is, utter a fine, sharp note with 
their wings. As the ants gets bolder the cry 
of the bees becomes louder and more fre¬ 
quent—so much so that I have frequently 
heard it 50 feet away. The ants usually 
worry the bees continually for several nights, 
when suddenly the whole colony of ants 
starts in on a battle royal, which continues 
for hours or even a day or two, until every 
bee is disabled or driven out. A great many 
of the ants will also be killed; but how the 
bees do this is a mystery to me. 

When the battle has once been joined, the 
beekeeper has a difficult task to save the 
bees; but this condition is preventable. 
When the ants become plentiful enough at 


the hive to begin worrying the bees, there 
is usually a trail of going and returning ants; 
from their nest to the hive, and this can 
usually be located and traced to their nest, 
which, when found, should be left undis¬ 
turbed until the following day, when all the 
ants will be at home. If the nest cannot be 
found the first time trying, I search again 
until it is found. As soon as the nest is 
found, or search for it is given up for that 
night, I sprinkle some insect powder on their 
trail near the hive; also wherever on or 
around the hive I can do so to worry the 
ants and not injure the bees. This will 
usually keep the ants from doing any more 
harm that night. 

The next day when all the ants are at 
home, I take a kettle of boiling water, tear 
open the nest, and, if possible, kill every ant 
and egg. If a few of them are left they are 
likely to gather together, increase in time to 
their former strength, and again attack that 
same colony of bees. Whenever the nest is 
found in a box or piece of wood that can be 
easily moved with all the ants, the easiest 
and best plan is to carry them into the 
chicken-yard, break open the nest, and the 
hens will gladly do the rest of the business. 
They are very fond of both ants and eggs; 
and they not only find them good to eat, but 
give their owner lots of fun watching the 
old rooster especially, kick and scold every 
time an ant bites one of his feet. I have 
had many a hearty laugh watching this per¬ 
formance. 

The ants are a great pest here in Florida. 
They destroy in the aggregate a great many 
colonies every fall.. I know of one apiary 
which was entirely lost, largely, I judge 
from what I hear, by these ants. At the 
best they are a great nuisance because they 
compel the beekeeper to remain at home 
watching them at a season of the year when 
nothing is doing in the apiary, and the 
apiarist could, but for them, be aw T ay on a 
holiday, or have some outside business. 

Stuart, Fla. O. 0. Poppleton. 

Ants are a serious pest to bees in many 
tropical countries, notably in South Amer¬ 
ica, where they are omnipresent and almost 
omnipotent. A species similar to that de¬ 
scribed by Mr. Poppleton in Florida exists 
all over tropical America, particularly 
in the southern continent. He has so 
graphically described it, there is no neces¬ 
sity to enlarge on it further. The worst 
feature of these ants is their readiness to 
travel, so that, when one does destroy their 
nests, there is no assurance that the apiary 
is safe from their attacks. Another bad 
feature ; s their habit of traveling by night; 
in fact, nearly all their depredations are 
made in the dark. 

To circumvent them it is necessary to 


APTARY 


destroy all their nests within a radius of 
100 yards of the apiary by the application 
of bisulphide of carbon to their nests. But 
this precaution alone will not suffice, and it 
will be necessary to adopt further meas¬ 
ures. Luckily it is not difficult to do this, 
as tropical beekeepers are obliged to keep 
their hives under a shed, for excellent rea¬ 
sons. 

In erecting a shed, therefore, we can 
take measures to prevent effectually the 
ants having access to the hives at all. All 



we have to do is to add cups to all the posts 
used to support the structure. The illus¬ 
tration preceding shows very clearly how 
this is accomplished with but little expense 
or trouble. The cups are filled with coal 
tar, creosote, or crude petroleum, all of 
which the ants positively dislike for two 
reasons—they stick to their feet and the 
smell is repulsive. No ant will attempt to 
cross such a mess as this, hence the bees are 
secure. The warm climate keeps the tar. 
etc., always soft; and if some rain falls 
into the cups it does no harm, as the water 
also tastes of the tar. 

In working with the bees care should be 
taken to see nothing is left which will form 
a “bridge” whereby the ants will manage 
to reach the beehives while the apiarist is 
absent. One of the worst things that can 
happen is to allow the ants to get a taste of 
the bees; for once they do they are sure to 
linger around waiting for an opportunity 
to get into the hive. 

APIARIST. —An apiarist is one who 
manages one or more yards of bees for 

profit. 

APIARY. —A place where a number of 
colonies of bees is kept is called an apiary 
or bee-yard. 


LOCATION. 

There is scarcely a spot on the surface of 
the earth where mankind finds sustenance 
that will not, to some extent, support bees, 
altho they may do much better in some 
localities than in others. A few years ago 
it was thought that only localities especial¬ 
ly favored would give big honey crops; but 
since the introduction of modern races, and 
the new methods of management, we are 
each year astonished to hear of big yields 
here and there, and from almost every 
quarter of the globe. It will certainly pay 
to try a colony or two of bees, no matter 
where, one may be located. 

Beekeeping is practiced even in the heart 
of some of our large cities. In the sub¬ 
urban districts bees can be kept on a small 
plot of ground in the back yard. In the 
heart of business sections bees are very 
often kept on the roofs of buildings, some¬ 
times on the very top of skyscrapers. In 
such cases, on account of the intense sun¬ 
light and lack of natural shade in the form 
of bushes, shade-boards should be provided 
as described further on in this article. Such 
an apiary should be established like those 
on the ground in all essential points. 

It is not always possible to select just 
the location for an apiary that one might 
like, and it is therefore necessary to take 
what he can get; but where conditions per¬ 
mit it is advisable to select the rear of a 
village lot; or, if located on a farm, back 
of the house in an orchard. Avoid locating 
the bees next to a line fence on the other 
side of which is a cultivated field. A team 
of horses while working the soil may get 
stung. 

The ground for the apiary should be 
■ lolled and smoothed down so that a lawn 
mower can be run over every portion of it. 
as the grass should be kept down around 
the hives. Moreover, a smooth plot of 
ground renders the use of a wheelbarrow 
or handcar for handling loads much more 
pleasant and convenient. An ideal spot 
would be an orchard of young trees 75 
or 100 feet from the road or highway. 
Usually the rear end of the village lot just 
back of the house will answer very nicely. 
If the apiary must be located close to the 
highway, then a high hoard fence should 
be placed between the bees and the street. 






54 


a pi Ain 



APIARY OP M. H. MENDLESON. 

This apiary occupies a very unique position down in the bottom of the canyon, where it is well pro¬ 
tected. The ground has been leveled off and terraced, and the rows of hives are straight and parallel. This 
is one of the most picturesque spots for an apiary in Uie world. Prom it some of the best sage honey of 
California is obtained, and no wonder: for thei mountain sage is always in sight and in reach of the bees. 
The patches of white, black, and button sage on the mountain sides can be plainly seen. 

When the author visited this yard in 1901, he considered it one of the best-located yards in all Califor¬ 
nia—well protected and the bee pasturage at close range. But for the fact that there is only about one 
good yield of honey in five years, this would be a veritable bee paradise indeed. 



/ THE PUBLISHERS’ APIARY AT JENKINTOWN, PA. 

This was an exhibition apiary in the suburbs of Philadelphia, used to demonstrate the various processes 
and methods of handling bees. Here are also shown to the visitors the various races, their characteristics, 
and markings. 

This yard at the time was a model one in every respect, and was so pronounced. The ground was nicely 
terraced and here and there were flower gardens so arranged as to give a pleasing effect. 

In June, 1905, and again in 1906, a general field day of beekeepers was held at this apiary. Experts 
were present to describe and illustrate their various methods of handling bees, to the crowds that assembled 
from all over the country. At the field meet of 1906 there were somewhat over 1,000 beekeepers present, 
making by far the largest gathering of beekeepers the country has ever seen. The location was only leased, 
and has since been sold and is now used for other purposes. 




AIMAK'S 




A hedge of osage orange or evergreens; a 
trellis of some' sort of vine; trees, shrub¬ 
bery, or anything that will cause the bees 


to raise their flight to a height of 10 to 12 
feet above the traffic of the street should 
be used. In any case, the bees should never 


In several cities bees are kept on the roofs of buildings. If the building is high enough there will 
usually be enough breezes to keep the bees from getting too hot and combs from melting down. If the 
roofs are not high, shade-boards will have. -to be provided. 


Some eight or ten years ago the publishers owned and operated in Cuba an apiary 
which was run for honey as well as bees and queens; but the poor seasons finally 
compelled them to abandon it. . . . The hives here shown are in straight ro>vs and 

close together. Experience showed that this was a mistake, for there were no dis¬ 
tinguishing objects by which the bees could mark their homes, and more or less 
confusion and robbing resulted. 


TIIE PUBLISHERS’ APIARY TN CUBA. 


PUBLISHERS’ APIARY IN NEW YORK CITY AS IT WAS SOME YEARS AGO. 





















APIARY 


56 



CULVER APIARY AT CALEXICO, CALIFORNIA. 


This method of shading an apiary in New Mexico, Arizona, and the Imperial A r alley, southern California, 
where the temperature during the hottest weather often goes above 100 degrees, is almost universal. The 
roof consists of dried grass or leaves laid on top, and secured by wires laid over the whole. 


lie allowed to go directly from tlieir hives 
on a line that would encounter vehicles or 
pedestrians; otherwise their owner may 
have a lawsuit on his hands for alleged 
damages from bee-stings. See Bees as a 
Nuisance. 


THE IMPORTANCE OF SHRUBBERY OR SMALL 
TREES IN THE BEE-YARD. 

Under the head of Anger of Bees, at the 
close of the article attention is called to the 
value of small shrubbery or trees to shut off 
the views of individual colonies from each 



SIDE AND END VIEW OF THE SAME APIARY. 

The climate in this valley is very hot in summer, the same as it is in Arizona. Shade is very necessary. 















Shaded apiary belonging* to John Nippert at Imperial. This shows the arrow weed and how it is fastened down by means of wires on the framework. The ex- 
tracting-house is virtually a screened-in building and is situated between the two lines of sheds, only one of which shows. This apiary was for sale recently at the price 
of $20.00 per colony. Mr. Nippert said he "could not sell it for less, as the bees actually gave him $20.00 worth of honey per colony last season, and he has the bees and 
the equipment left. 






























58 


APIARY 



APIARY OP CHAS. Y. HAKE, YORK, PA. 


This is a backlot apiary that is well screened from prevailing winds, as most yards of this kind are. It 
therefore follows'that such yards winter better than the large apiaries out in the open. Mr. Hake has his 
colonies elevated on hive-stands for convenience in handling. The objection is that during bad, chilly weather 
some bees drop short of the entrance. If they were on or near the ground, the bees could crawl in and be 
saved. The arrangement used by Robert Peschko, shown at the close of this article, is much better. 


other. The matter is so important that it 
is mentioned again in order that the reader 
may wisely loeate his bees. 

The same bees that are gentle at the home 
yard where they are well screened or locat¬ 
ed, sometimes become very cross when 
placed out in the open field without shrub¬ 
bery or trees. A little shade on hot days 
is of great value in protecting the hive from 
the direct rays of the sun. Aside from the 
value of the shade, if the shrubbery is tall 
enough it adds a great deal to the comfort 
of the apiarist himself. In an open yard 
it usually becomes necessary to wear a veil 
to prevent the bees from stinging the face 
without warning. In a yard that has shrub¬ 
bery, one can often work all day without 
a veil, and sometimes with but very little 


smoke. It is not always possible to locate 
a yard in the midst of shrubbery or small 
trees; and one. therefore, has to take what 
he can find, which very often is an open 
space in one corner of a lot. 

Shrubbery consisting of small bushes or 
tree's has an additional value in that it en¬ 
ables the bees to locate their entrances a 
little more easily. When the hives are 
placed together without any space between, 
there is more or less drifting—that is to 
say, the bees make mistakes and go into 
the wrong hives. (See Drifting.) The 
unfortunate part of it is that the strong 
colonies will draw from the weaker, be¬ 
cause the young bees, in their initial flight, 
are quite inclined to join the hive where 
there are the most bees flying. At the au- 













APIARY 


59 



II 

l 'v - f - 



IfPPr 5 

1 

a dp* 




APIARY OF HARRY DUBOIS ON THE LOXAHATCHIE RIVER, FLORIDA. 

The idea of a screetu of slats overhead is not to shut off the sun’s rays entirely, but to break them up. 
Too much shade does as much harm as too little in this country. The same general scheme of semi-shading 
could he carried out elsewhere to advantage in many localities. It would not answer in Arizona, New 
Mexico, and the Imperial Valley, California, because the sun is too hot and the climate too dry. 


thor’s home yard, a view of which is shown 
several pages ahead, it will be noted that 
the individual colonies are placed on the 
north side of the individual grapevine trel¬ 
lises. These trellises are between six and 
seven feet high. The vines are all very care¬ 
fully trimmed; and we usually estimate 
that the amount of fruit pays for the labor 
of keeping them in order. Strangers at 
any time are permitted to go thru this 
yard, and it is very seldom that any one is 
stung, because an occasional cross bee or 
dozens of them, on account of the obstruc¬ 
tions to the general view by the vines, are 
unable to see any moving object, and 
therefore they do not follow one about nor 
offer to attack. 

TOO MUCH SHADE DETRIMENTAL. 

If the orchard where the bees are to be 
located is made up of old trees, then there 
can be from four to five hives grouped 
under each tree. If, on the other hand, it 
consists of young ones, then not more than 
one or two hives should be placed at a tree, 


and in that case always on the north side, 
so as to be in the shade. The hives should 
be so located that they will get the morning 
sun up to eight or nine o’clock, and the 
afternoon sun from three or four o’clock 
on. Too much shade is detrimental, and 
too much hot sun pouring directly on the 
hives is equally bad. Experience has 
shown conclusively that a very dense shade 
over bees in the morning hours is detrimen¬ 
tal. Colonies located on the west side of a 
building or barn, or under densely’foliaged 
trees, so that they do not get the morning 
sun, will not, as a rule, be as far along by 
the time the honey flow comes on as those 
that have only moderate shade. On the 
other hand, an afternoon shade does not 
do as much harm as one in the forenoon. 

If one does not have trees of any sort in 
his yard—what shall he do? One of four 
courses lies open: First, to use double- 
walled hives; second, single-walled hives 
with shade-boards; third, single-walled 
hives having on the south side of them 
some sort of vine that can be reared up 















GO 


APIARY 


within a year or two. A grapevine trellis, 
say 8 feet high and 10 or 12 feet long, 
running from east to west, Avell covered 
with a vine, can be made to protect from 



Shaded apiary belonging to F. J. Severin at 
Imperial, Calif. The slats are placed upon a 
framework and spaced about % inch apart. This 
arrangement breaks up the rays of sunlight, giving 
lust the right amount of shade and at the same 
time allowing enough light so the beekeeper can see 
eggs in the combs. These sheds can easily be taken 
down and moved to a new location, while" the sheds 
having grass or weeds for the top cannot be moved 
readily. 

five to ten hives. On this trellis, grape¬ 
vines or any other quick-growing vine may 
be reared to provide shade during the 
heat of the day. The fourth and last plan 
is to use an overhead trellis, making use 
of straw, dried grass, or brush for cover¬ 
ing such as is used in Arizona and Cuba. 
These trellises are about seven feet high, 
and run from east to west, so that the 
sun, nearly overhead as it is in Arizona 
and southern California, never strikes the 
hives from morning till night. These trel- 
lised shades, if there are no trees, are in¬ 
dispensable in hot, dry climates. They 
thoroly protect the bees, prevent combs 
from melting down, and render the work 
of the apiarist pleasant. 

Some beekeepers prefer to use shade- 
boards. These may be made of large cov¬ 


ers cleated at the ends, and composed of 
two or three boards of the cheapest lumber 
that can he had, or they may be made of 
common shingles in the manner shown in 
the illustrations. Some will, perhaps, pre¬ 
fer them nailed up as Mr. Marchant uses 
them. Others would prefer to put them to¬ 
gether as Mr. Robertson makes them. In 
some cases it may be advisable to lean them 
up against the hives rather than to place 
them on top. When used on top they 
should be large enough to project a foot 
over the front and rear, and an equal dis¬ 
tance on the south side where the hive 
faces east or west. They are then 1 held 
securely in place by a stone weighing 15 
or 20 pounds. 

But whenever one manipulates these 
hives he is required to lift a heavy stone 
and remove an awkward shade-board be¬ 
fore he can do any work with the bees. 

"When hives are placed in long rows close 
together, as under a shed or on a roof, 
it is very essential that they differ from 
each other in appearance so that the bees 
may distinguish their own hive from all 
the rest. The differentiation may be accom¬ 
plished in various ways: first, by painting 
the hives different colors; second, by tising 
a different entrance or alighting-board; 



Marchant’s shade-board. This provides better venti¬ 
lation than the ordinary flat shade-board. 


third, by placing a stone or other distin¬ 
guishing object near the entrance. The 
idea is to place some distinctive mark by 
which each hive may be quickly recognized 
by its tenants. The best way to make such 
















APIARY 


G1 



PART OP THE OLD APIARY OP E. A. DUAX, CHIPPEWA PALLS', WIS. 

This yard is sheltered on the. west and north hy a cedar hedge; but the shade is a little too dense. 
Too much shade does as much harm as too little. t 


mark is at the entrance so that all the bees 
can see it, both on leaving and returning. 
See ARRANGEMENT OF HIVES. 

WINDBREAKS. 

The most perfect windbreak is an in- 
closure of woods on three sides, with an 
opening to the south. This, however, is 
not available to all. An apiary so situ¬ 
ated that there is a clump of woods on one 
side and building's on the other two sides, 
leaving only a southern aspect, is well 
sheltered from the prevailing winds. But, 
as already stated, if there are woods or 
buildings around the east side of the bee- 
yard, enough to shade the hives until 
about noon, the bees will not build up as 
fast in the spring as those that can get 
the morning sun up to 10 or 11 o’clock. 
In the absence of any natural or accidental 
protection whatever, it is highly important 
that some sort of windbreak be provided. 
If it is desirable to put up something per¬ 
manent, and something that will not rot 
out or require repairs, the apiary should be 


outskirted with rows of liardy-growing 
evergreens, such as are,seen in the illus¬ 
tration of the publishers’ apiary shown 
further on. These, for the first few years, 
would afford but a scanty protection; but 
in 10 years’ time they answer their pur¬ 
pose admirably. In 1879 we enclosed our 
apiary with evergreens. They have proved 



Robertson method of shading the hives and the 
entrances in the morning. 









APIARfY 


(i 2 



APIARY OF THE A. I. ROOT CO., ON THE APALACHICOLA RIVER, FLORIDA, IN 1914. 

This shows a general view of 300 colonies placed on raised platforms or scaffolding five or six feet 
high, or above high-water mark. While these platforms are somewhat expensive, they are very convenient 
in affording easy access to all colonies. There is no uneven ground, no shrubbery nor weeds to interfere 
with the flight of bees, and a wheelbarrow has good wheeling to every hive. It would have been better 
if the hives had been arranged in groups of twos, threes, and fours, as explained under the engraving and 
apiary of L. F. Howden. 


to be very hardy and thrifty, and are now 
large trees. 

A good windbreak is now regarded, for 
winter protection, as about as important 
(and some think more important) for out- 
door-wintered bees, as packing and double- 
walled hives. Of course, it is better still 
to have hives packed as well as protected 
from the prevailing winds. Experience has 
shown that colonies, even tho well packed, 
but placed where there are sharp wind 
exposures on an elevation, will often die 
before spring, or become so weakened as to 
be practically worthless, when colonies of 
the same strength in single-walled hives 
screened against the wind will winter com¬ 
paratively well. 

In a location on a prairie, especially if 
it is permanent thruout the year, care 
should be taken to see that the apiary is 
protected on the north and west. Some¬ 
times an apiary can be placed at the bot¬ 
tom of a hill lying at the north; but it 
would be far better if shrubbery were 
placed at the brow of the hill to prevent 
the wind from diving down and striking 
the colonies with full force. 


The best windbreak we have found con¬ 
sists of trees or shrubbery of some sort. 
A solid fence is not so effective, because 


l 



Shading tops and fronts of hives during the hottest 
part of the day. 

the wind will strike it squarely and glance 
upward, when the on-rushing blast will 
cause it to roll and dive downward. 

At one of our outyards we had a high 
board fence on the north, and it was dis- 














APIARY 


03 





J. L. BYERS’ APIARY, MARKHAM, ONTARIO, CANADA. 

This iiiis windbreaks on nil four sides; elevation to the north, and woods on the other three sides. The 
hives are completely covered with snow. No harm results from this provided the climate is cold and pro¬ 
vided the snow does not become wet and soggy, and freeze. 


tinctly noticeable that the third row from 
the fence would come out in the spring in 
much weaker condition than the rows 
either to the north or south. Many colo¬ 
nies in the third row died outright. This 
happened several winters. Finally an in¬ 
vestigation showed that, during a blow 
with tine particles of snow, the wind would 
strike the fence, glance upward, and this 
upward blast striking the wind from the 
north would roll like a sort of horizontal 
whirlwind. This would gradually sag 
until it struck the entrances full force fac¬ 
ing south in the third row. This horizontal 
whirlwind apparently seemed to spend all 
its fury on this row of hives, while the 
other rows were left comparatively free. 
Had it not been for the fine snow we should 
never have known the exact course of the 
wind. 

An ideal location is the center of a large 


orchard. The outside rows of trees will 
break the force of the wind so that the 
blast of air will not strike any particular 
hive; or, in other words, the wind as it 
attempts to pass thru among the trees en¬ 
counters so much friction that its force is 
expended. If the hives are placed near 
the outside trees, the wind will sometimes 
dive under the tops. 

A common fence made of rails, [tickets, 
or boards, will help break the force of 
the wind; but in these latter days barbed 
wire is used almost exclusively. It. is best, 
therefore, to locate the hives either in the 
center of the orchard, or, if the orchard is 
small, in an enclosure of low shrubbery or 
bushes under trees. Berry vines, grape¬ 
vines, or trimming's from the trees in the 
form of brush, sometimes answer as a very 
good substitute. 

The apiary may often be located advan- 









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APIARY 


65 



APIARY OF 190 COLONIES OWNED BY L. F. HOWDEN IN THE TOWN OF FILLMORE, N. Y. 


This apiary, while located in town, is apparently on one side of it, and remote from any highway or 
driveway and off in the corner of the lot. The first criticism is that the hives are in long straight rows, one 
hive to a spot. There would he considerable confusion in the flight of the bees and more or less drifting. 
It would he better to put the hives in irregular groups of twos, threes, and fours, so that the-bees can better 
recognize their entrances. Every hive should have an identity of its own. Otherwise there will be danger 
of robbing and drifting. The second criticism is that it has no windbreak. 


tageously behind barns and other outbuild¬ 
ings on the farm; but as a general rule 
an enclosure of this kind is used for win¬ 
tering and feeding stock. 

Where the bees are located out on a 
prairie in the North with a wind-sweep for 
miles, it is quite essential that there be a 
barrier of some sort to cut off the wind. 
Quick-growing shrubbery should be placed 
around the yard. In the meantime a screen 
of brush may be used. If a fence is erect¬ 
ed, one made of pickets, so that the wind 
can filter thru and not glance upward and 
downward, as explained, will be better. A 
vertical trellis may be made for quick¬ 
growing vines; but the vines should be of 
such a nature that the intertwining 
branches will make a filtering screen even 
when the summer leaves are off. Evergreens 
make the best windbreaks of all, but it 
takes years to get them. See windbreak.!?, 
under head of Wintering Outdoors, 
iiive-stands. 

While a hive can be set directly on the 
ground, yet on account of the danger of 
the rotting of the bottom-board and damp¬ 
ness, it is advisable to set it on pieces of 

3 


board, bricks, or common drain tiles. 
Bricks or tile, if six-sided or square, are 
very commonly used, and answer an ex¬ 
cellent purpose. Pieces of board, scant¬ 
ling, or plank may be used; but it is far 
better to nail them together and place 
them on the ground edgewise. Shallow 
boxes without top or bottom, or old dis¬ 
carded shallow hive-supers, are very often 
employed. The front boards should be a 
little shallower than the side ones to per¬ 
mit of downwardly projecting cleats of 
the bottom-board. 

The hive-stands—brick, tile, or boards 
—should be firmly imbedded in the soil in 
such a way that the front end of the hive 
will be lower than the back. The purpose 
of this is to allow the water to run out of 
the entrances from beating rains or from 
condensation’ during winter within the 
hive. 

The TIeddon liive-stand seen in the illus¬ 
tration shows how the four boards should 
be nailed together. It will be noted that 
the front board connects with the end of 
the bottom-board, leaving no gaps nor 
spaces. An unobstructed runway from the 










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APIARY 


67 


ground to the hive is very important on 
cool days when the bees can not fly readily. 
They will alight on the ground, and, if they 
can, crawl into the hive. During a heavy 
honey flow bees will come in heavily laden, 



Heddon hive-stand. 


and land just in front of the hive. In 
either case it is important to have hive- 
stands so constructed that the bees can 
crawl into the hive, as shown in the next 
illustration. 

A modified form with slanting front, 
while slightly more expensive, is much 
better. A wood-shop or planing-mill can 



cut a board thru the middle on a bias as 
easily as it can square in two. There will 
then be two boards, right and left, for the 
sides. The illustration shows how it is 
made. 

The tendency now among the largest 
producers is to use a double hive-stand— 
that is, a stand after the pattern of the 
Heddon, but long enough and wide enough 
also to take on two hives crosswise, and 
yet leave a space of six or eight inches 
between. The illustration shows a design 
that is very cheap and effective. The front 
and rear boards are made of one-inch lum¬ 


ber, preferably unplaned, from three to 
four inches wide. These two pieces are 
tied together by a couple of 2 x 4 ? s or 
scantling, crosswise as shown. It is ad¬ 
visable to have these last-named pieces 
back five or six inches from the ends of 
the side boards. When constructed in this 
way, the hive can be placed more nearly 
over the point of greatest strength, and 
at the same time allow room for the toes 
of the operator to project under the hive 
while working over it. 



This form of hive-stand has much to 
recommend it. It is almost as cheap as 
the single hive-stand, and yet will accom¬ 
modate two hives. Colonies worked in 
pairs on it do very nicely. In the fall, if 
one of them should be a little weak it is 
possible to unite them by putting the 
stronger colony in the center of the hive- 
stand to catch all the flying bees and then 
remove the other hive. It is also possible 
to put a one or two frame nucleus on one 
end of the hive-stand, leaving the colony 
on the other end. This nucleus can be 
used during the season for rearing queens, 
and at the close it can be easily united 
with the full colony on the other end, 
which should be moved to the center of 
the hive-stand. See Uniting. 

This double hive-stand lends itself to 
the plan of wintering when two colonies 
are put in a winter case; or it will work 
very nicely when four colonies are put in 
a single case, provided there are two dou¬ 
ble hive-stands placed back to back. See 
Wintering Outdoors ,• subhead quadruple 
cases. 























































































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70 


APIARY 



BACKLOT APIARY OF ROBERT PESCHKO, DANBURY, CT. 


This yard, like other backlot apiaries where there is a small number of colonies, has given a large 
yield per colony. One can judge by the height of the hives. As explained in the text, a small apiary will 
give larger yields in proportion than a large yard, provided, of course, there are no other bees in the 
immediate locality. While Mr. Peschko puts his hives up on stands, he realizes the importance of having 
easy runways from the ground up to the entrance. In cool or chilly weather this saves the lives of a good 
many bees. 


HIVE-STANDS OR PLATFORMS FOR SWAMPY 
COUNTRY. 

Where land is swampy, or liable to be 
overflowed as it is in many places in the 
South, elevated trellises or platforms 
should be constructed. It is customary to 
have these long enough to take on 30 or 
40 colonies. Illustrations of this form of 
elevated platforms are shown in the A. I. 
Root Company’s Apalachicola River api¬ 
ary. 

ARRANGEMENT OF HIVES. 

Having decided upon the location, kind 
of shade, windbreaks, and hive-stands, how 
shall we arrange the hives in the apiary? 
This question can best be answered by 
studying the plans adopted by some of the 
prominent apiarists. The lay of the land 
and exposure to high winds will, of course, 
have to be taken into consideration. 

The usual plan is to arrange the hives in 
long straight rows, each hive so many feet 
distant from its neighbor, and on an exact 
line drawn by a string. While such an 
arrangement is pretty, it has one serious 
objection. When hives all face in the 
same direction, and in-straight rows, each 
hive by itself, the bees are apt to become 
mixed up at the entrances, especially if the 
hives are only two or three feet apart. 


When the young bees are out at their play- 
flights, they are liable to join the group 
where the bees are flying the thickest. The 
result is, their own colony is depleted while 
the one that makes the biggest demonstra¬ 
tion for the time being is getting more bees 
than it can easily take care of. This causes 
some colonies to be too strong, and swarm 
too early, while the others are too weak, 
and do nothing all summer. See Drifting. 

It very often happens, also, that when 
bees are taken out of the cellar and put 
into regular rows they will drift in the 
same way; and this drifting makes trou¬ 
ble. 

This whole drifting difficulty can be cor¬ 
rected by giving each hive or group of 
hives an individuality of its own. It is 
desirable to put hives in groups of two, 
three, or five; two here, three there, five 
there, and so on. They may be regular 
groups of two or groups of three, but in 
either case there should be a bush or tree 
at or near each group to enable the bees 
to distinguish one group from another. 

The following plans have been suggested 
where great economy of space is desired; 
but instead of following any one of the 
plans, it is desirable to adopt a combina¬ 
tion so that the groups will be irregular 
in size and number of hives, especially if 











APIARY 


71 


there is no distinguishing’ shrubbery or 
trees. , 

Many beekeepers arrange their hives on 
the plan shown here, which, as will be 
seen, will work nicely in connection with 
double hive-stands. 


«feet. _ 10 feet. _ * feet 


O 

a 

D 

*□ 

n* 

a 


o 

□* 

a 


*□ 


*□ 

□* 

□ 

A part of 

an apiary arranged 

on thei 

straight-row 


plan. 


The stars indicate the entrances. There 
are two lanes, or alleyways; one six feet 
wide for the bees, and one ten feet wide 
for the apiarist and his horse and wagon. 
It will noticed that the hives are arranged 
in pairs, in such a way that they face each 
other with entrances six feet apart. In the 
next alley their backs are toward each oth¬ 
er, with plenty of room for a roadway. 

o o o o o o o o 


oo oo oo oo 

. O O O O O ' o o o 


o <3 O O O O O O 

Dr. C. C. Miller’s scheme for placing hives. 

If the bees are to be wintered in quad¬ 
ruple winter cases, as described under 
Wintering Outdoors at the close of this 
work, the hives should be arranged in 
groups of four. During the summer time 
the hives are placed from 10 to 15 inches 
apart; .but during the winter they are 
placed inside of the winter cases close to¬ 
gether, back to back and side to side, with¬ 
out any intervening space. They are then 
packed as described under the head of 
Wintering Outdoors. 

In some localities, especially where the 
bees are moved very much, . it has been 
found advantageous to place the hives in 


groups of four by placing the entrances at 
the four corners, as the accompanying dia¬ 
gram will explain, and there is then a little 
less trouble from drifting than where the 




WINTER ARRANGEMENT. 



□ n° □ □» 

«Q □ ’ □ 

O O 


□ E> 
□ 


SUMMER ARRANGEMENT. 

The hives for summer are placed 12 inches 
apart, and each group 8 feet apart. For winter, 
the hives are shoved close together as shown. The 
objection to the plan is that the operator is sure 
to encounter the flight of bees. If there is no wind¬ 
break from the north, one colony will have its en¬ 
trance facing north. 


hives are placed in pairs with entrances 
side by side. When the bees drift, espe¬ 
cially in spring, one colony in the pair 
may be very strong and the other weak. 
One will be inclined to swarm and the 
other die during fruit bloom. 

S. E. MILLER’S PLAN OP AN APIARY. 

This plan is arranged with a view of 
still greater economy of space, not losing 
sight of the scheme of a highway for bees 
and an alleyway for the apiarist. Instead 
of being in pairs they are arranged in 
groups of five each. Little circles in front 
of the hives indicate the entrances. The 
groups can be from 10 to 20 feet apart; 
but if put exactly 16 feet apart, and the 
hives in the group 18 inches apart, an 


ALLEY FOR APIARIST, 

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HIGHWAY FOR BEES. 

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ATiTiFY FOR, AP1ARTST 

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HIGHWAY FOR BEKS. 











































































APIARY 


apiary of 80 colonies can be accommodated 
on a plot 75 feet square, or in the back 
yard of an ordinary town lot. One advan¬ 
tage of this grouping plan is, that the api¬ 
arist can sit on one hive while he is work¬ 
ing on another; and his tools, such as 
smoker, honey-knives, bee-brushes, etc., are 
right at hand for the whole five hives. 
Where there is only one hive on a stand, the 
tools have to be carried to each hive. 

The objection to the S. E. Miller ar¬ 
rangement is that one row of hives may 
have to face prevailing winds, or north or 
west exposure. In the northern climates 
this should be avoided. • It is best, there¬ 
fore, to put hives in pairs and threes, and 
facing either the south or east. 

One can crowd more colonies on a given 
area on the S. E. Miller plan (and yet 
leave room to run wagons or carts among 
the hives) than with any other. It is spe¬ 
cially well adapted to a location in a grove: 
but as trees vary in size and the foliage 
is sometimes lopsided or scant on some of 
the trees, hence it is neither practicable 
nor advisable to put five bives at each 
tree. It is our practice to place beside 
the smallest trees qnly one hive; beside 
those a trifle larger, two hives; those still 
larger, three hives; and, when they are of 
. fair size, five, as in the Miller plan. Ar¬ 
ranging the hives thus gives each group of 
one, two, three, or five, as the case may be, 
an individuality of its own, thus affording 
the bees a better chance to distinguish their 
own group. In every case the precaution 
must be observed of placing the hives bn 
the north side of the tree. Where there 
are two or three in a group, the beekeeper 
can have the entrances facing toward the 
south; or, if there are only two in a group, 
he can have one hive with its entrance 
facing toward the south, and the other 
hive toward the east. In any case he should 
avoid having hives face the north and west. 
This is very important from the standpoint 
of wintering. 

KEEPING DOWN THE GRASS AT ENTRANCES 
OP THE HIVES. 

If the bees are located in a town or city 
in some back lot it is desirable to have the 
grass kept down with a lawnmower for 
appearance sake if nothing more; but, in 
large commercial yards, especially outyards 


(see Out-apiaries), it is hardly practic¬ 
able to do this. If the grass or weepls get 
very long or in the way, enough to impede 
travel thru the yard, they should be cut 
with a scythe. During the time when 
honey is coming in freely it is very impor¬ 
tant to have the grass kept down for a foot 
or two around the entrances of the hives, 
as otherwise bees coming in heavily laden 
with honey will get tangled more or less 
while getting to their entrances. At the 
same time, these obstructions wear out 
their wings. No good beekeeper can af¬ 
ford to allow his entrances to become 
clogged, and so he should cut away the 
grass around the entrances with a pair of 
grass-shears or a sharp sickle; but he 
should not attempt to do this without first 
blowing a little smoke into the entrance. 
Many, however, as a matter of economy of 
time, prefer to use a rough board of the 
cheapest lumber, as long as the hive is 
wide, and from 12 to 18 inches wide. If 
this reaches from the ground to the en¬ 
trance it Avill leave an easy runway for the 
bees to get into the hive, and at the same 
time keep away the grass and weeds from 
the immediate front of the hive. Salt is 
sometimes used for killing off all kinds of 
vegetation around the entrances. It must 
be liberally applied in front of every hive 
at the beginning of the season. 

Sheep are very good for keeping down 
the grass in the whole beeyard. Unlike 
cattle or horses they will not knock over 
a hive; and should they be stung around 
the face or nose they will push their heads 
into a bush where they will be perfectly 
safe. Their heavy coat of wool protects 
their bodies. 

THE HOUSE-APT ARY 

This is a term that is used to designate a 
building to enclose a whole apiary. The 
hives are usually arranged on shelves next 
to the outside walls and having direct com¬ 
munication with the outside. 

As a rule, an outdoor apiary is cheaper 
and more satisfactory than one in a build¬ 
ing. For the house-apiary, the capital to 
put up the building must be furnished in 
addition to that necessary to get the hives. 
But there are conditions under which the 
building may be and is used to advantage 
— in fact, affords the only method of keep- 


APIARY 


73 


ing bees. Where land is valuable, such as 
in or near the city, or in localities occa¬ 
sionally visited by thieves or mischievous 
boys, where bees, honey and everything, 
so far as possible, must be kept un¬ 
der lock and key, a house-apiary is a neces¬ 
sity. A small building, also, to accommo¬ 
date 35 or 40 colonies, even when these 
conditions do not exist, may often be used 
very advantageously in connection with 
the regular apiary outdoors. When rob¬ 
bers are bad, or when the day is rainy, the 
work can continue right on inside the 
building because the apiarist can leave the 
outdoor bees and resume operations inside, 
free from robbers in the one case, or pro¬ 
tected from inclement weather in the 
other. 

Until very recently house-apiaries have 
not been regarded with very much favor 
among practical beekeepers, principally on 
account of faulty construction, and because 
bee-escapes, Avhen house-apiaries began to 
come into use in certain quarters, were not 
known; but since the advent of these labor- 
saving devices, the troubles arising from 
bees leaving the hives and crawling over 
the floor to die, or to be trampled on if not 
already dead, at the first visit of the api¬ 
arist, are eliminated. These and other in¬ 
conveniences have been almost wholly re¬ 
moved ; and perhaps the only reason why 
the house-apiary is not more generally used 
is the expense of first cost. 

HOW TO CONSTRUCT A HOUSE-APIARY. 

The building may be oblong, square, oc¬ 
tagonal, or round. The round or octag¬ 
onal form would, perhaps, save steps dur¬ 
ing the operation of extracting; but it is 
too expensive to construct. It is advisable 
to put up a plain oblong building. 
Where the winters are cold it should by all 
means be double-walled. Walls should not 
be less than four inches thick and six 
would be much better. Sawdust or some 
sort of packing-material should be poured 
in between the two walls. Unless it is 
very warmly packed there will be bad win¬ 
tering. 

As to doors and windows, in the case of 
a small building 20 by 30 feet, there should 
be only one window, and that opposite the 
door, so as to allow a draft to pass directly 
thru, because the building at best becomes 


very sultry in hot summer weather. An 
ordinary tight-fitting door should be used, 
hinged in the usual way. To the outside of 
the door frame there should be a self¬ 
closing wire-cloth screen door. At two of 
tt(,e upper corners of the doors and win¬ 
dows for the escape of bees clustering on 
the wire cloth, attach Porter honey-house 
bee-escapes. 



Porter honey-Tiouse bee-escape. 

At several points, close on a line with the 
floor, should be one-inch holes, on the out¬ 
side of which should be more Porter honey- 
house bee-escapes. The purpose of the 
opening in these escapes is to let the bees 
that happen to be inside after handling 
crawl out toward the light; and, once out¬ 
side, they will enter their own hives, with 
the possible exception of a few young ones, 
and they will be accepted at any of the 
entrances. 

A few years ago it was the practice to 
make compartments as a part of the build¬ 
ing to hold the frames, but this was found 
to be very objectionable; and those who 
manage house-apiaries now prefer to use 
ordinary outdoor hives instead, primarily 
because the bees can be more easily con¬ 
fined to the hives; and, secondly, because 
the indoor and outdoor hives are one and 
the same, and interchangeable. 

The hive entrances should be so arranged 
that they communicate with openings thru 
the side of the building. Ordinary covers 
should be used to confine the bees strictly 





74 


APIARY 



W. C. Sorter’s house-apiary. The rags of different colors are used to enable the bees to mark their own 

entrances more easily. 


within the hives. In lieu of a cover a 
thin % board, or inside super cover, may 
answer just as well; but, so far as possible, 
the house-apiary should be so constructed 
that everything outdoors may be moved in¬ 
side, and vice versa , whenever requirements 
make it necessary. 

When the building of a house-apiary is 
double-walled, it is necessary to provide 
some sort of bridgework or housing to cover 
the runway between the entrances of the 
hives inside and the openings outside. In 
the author’s original building a two-inch 
round tube was used, because it was easier 
to insert a tube than to make a narrow rec¬ 
tangular box or housing. But a round hole, 
as large as this, is not as desirable as a 
covered runway thru the building to the 
regular entrance of the hive. 

On account of convenience in handling 
frames, many prefer to have the hive sides 
against the building. In that case there will 
have to be a slot in the side of the bottom- 
board instead of the end. Others prefer, 
on account of economy of space, to place 
the front end of the hive against the build¬ 
ing. When this is done it involves no 
change in the structure of the bottom- 
board; but it makes the handling of the 


frames a little awkward, as will readily be 
discovered when one tries the plan. 

To economize the space of the building 
still further, there may be another tier of 
hives about four feet above the floor; and 
these should be supported by shelving that 
reaches entirely around the room. The same 
arrangement with regard to entrances may 
be employed as described for the bottom 
tier. 

PUTTING CROSS COLONIES IN HOUSE-APIARIES. 

The Grossest bees are but little inclined 
to sting inside of a building. When they 
fly from the combs that one is handling, 
they find themselves inclosed; and this so 
disconcerts them that they immediately fly 
to the screen windows and escape. James 
Heddon said, “If you have a cross colony, 
put it in the house-apiary and see how 
tame it will become.” 

HOUSE-APIARIES FOR WINTERING. 

As the building is double-walled, and is 
(or ought to be) packed, colonies will re¬ 
quire less protection than outdoors. In¬ 
deed, about all that is necessary to put 
them into winter quarters is to put on 
an extra comb-honey super, tuck in a chaff 
cushion, replace the cover, when the bees 















ARTIFICIAL FERTILIZATION 


75 



Addition built on the south side of E. C. Barber’s shop, 20 feet long and 5 feet wide. It is covered 
with two-ply paper, granite finish. Cost for material and labor, $22.50. Ten colonies are wintered inside 
this building, temperature 45 to 50 Fahr. In hot weather the side can be opened to give plenty of ventila¬ 
tion. There is also a door in each end. 


will be prepared. In very severe cold 
weather, a small fire, or heat from a large 
lamp in the room, may, perhaps, be used to 
advantage; but artificial heat in wintering 
should be used sparingly and with care, for 
oftentimes it does more harm than good. 
See Artificial Heat. 

E. C. Barber of Framingham, Mass., 
whose house-apiary is shown, thus summa¬ 
rizes the advantages of keeping bees inside 
of a building: 

I prefer the house-apiarv instead of the 
outside yard for several reasons. First, you 
can work at your bees and not be among 
those flying in the air, especially if the win¬ 
dows in the house are closed. What few 
bees fly away from any hive you are working 
on inside of the house, instead of trying to 
frighten or sting you, will fly to the window 
to get out. Second, you do not have to carry 
the hives in and out of the cellar in the 
spring and fall, or move them to their win¬ 
ter quarters. Third, your bees are always 
protected from the snow, rain, and winds. 
Fourth, they are at leisure for a flight in the 
winter any time when it is warm enough, 
such as the past few days have been, when 
the thermometer was around 70. Fifth, in 
this house-apiary I can see a big difference 
in spring brood-rearing; also protection dur¬ 
ing cold nights, when bees are working in 
sections during the summer. 


APIARY, OUT. —See Out-Apiaries. 
APIS DORSATA. —See Races of Bees. 

ARTIFICIAL FERTILIZATION.— Af¬ 
ter the reader has read the subjects of 
Drones, Queens, and Queen-rearing, he 
will fully understand that the mating of 
the drone and the queen in a state of nature 
takes place on the wing in the air, and 
never occurs inside the hive. Nature has 
seemed to design, for the purpose of 
avoiding inbreeding, that the queen shall 
find her mate in the open air, where, ac¬ 
cording to the law of chance, she will in 
all probability meet some drone not direct¬ 
ly related to her, and also one that is vig¬ 
orous, because it is only the strongest fly¬ 
ers that overtake the queen. Attempts 
have been made at various times to bring 
about fertilization within the hive or with¬ 
in some small tent connected with the hive 
entrance. But all* such attempts have re¬ 
sulted in failure, because the drones and 
the queens, as soon as they find they are 
confined in a small enclosure, will bump 
against the sides of the mosquito netting 
or wire cloth, vainly trying to escape. 

A good many years ago J. S. Davitt 













76 


ARTIFICIAL FERTILIZATION 


of Aragon, Ga., put up a tent of mosquito 
netting', 30 feet tall and 30 feet in diam¬ 
eter. Hives of bees containing select 
drones were placed around the bottom edge 
of the tent, each hive having two entrances 
—one opening into the inclosure and the 
other into the outer air. The latter was 
covered with perforated zinc in order to 
compel the queen and drones, when seek¬ 
ing flight, to pass out of the other entrance 
into the enclosure. This inside entrance 
was kept closed for about a week; then on 
some favorable day, from II A. M. to 1:30 
p. M., it was opened and the drones and 
queens were allowed to go into the tent. 
Mr. Davitt reported that a very pretty 
school of drones would be found flying at 
the top, and that he was successful in 
mating many queens. It will be noticed 
that worker bees, accustomed as they are 
to the outside entrance, which is always 
open, do not go into the inside of the tent 
during the mating hours, so that the drones 
and the queens are largely by themselves. 

Unfortunately, this general plan has been 
tried by only one or two others, but with¬ 
out success. So far no one else has had the 
nerve to try it. 

MATING IN A GREENHOUSE. 

Still another plan is to have queens 
mated in some of those mammoth cucum¬ 
ber greenhouses found in various parts of 
the country. An experiment of this kind 
was conducted on a very large scale in one 
of the largest greenhouses in the United 
States at Ashtabula, Ohio, in 1918 and 
1919. Inasmuch as bees would fly out 
and pollinate the cucumber blossoms, it 
was thought that queens and drones could 
be induced to mate in the same environ¬ 
ment. After repeated attempts to effect 
artificial fertilization, without success, 
the attempt was finally given up. While 
the bees became accustomed to the glass 
and visited cucumber blossoms, it seemed 
impossible to keep the queens and drones 
from bumping against the glass. Mating 
under normal conditions permits of un¬ 
limited flight. When drones and queens 
sally forth in their mating excursions they 
appear to desire to fly around consider¬ 
ably before they find their mates. The lim¬ 
itations of the greenhouses, even the largest 
of them, make this impossible. 


MATING ARTIFICIALLY. 

One enthusiastic beekeeper reported hav¬ 
ing tried taking a drone of mating age and 
pressing him until the drone organs were 
distended. The spermatozoa were then in¬ 
jected into the body of a queen of mating 
age. He stated that, altho the wings of the 
queen had been clipped when she was one 
day old, she began to lay and the eggs de- 
vehrped into worker brood. The experi¬ 
ment is worth trying, and the author sug¬ 
gests that some of the ABC scholars 
try it out and report results. 

MATING ON DESERTS OR SMALL ISLANDS. 

Some beekeepers in the West are located 
near large tracts of desert country, with 
nothing but sagebrush and the jack-rabbit. 
Such a place would be ideal for the mating 
of queens. Of course, the bees would 
have to be fed. There would be no other 
bees, and it would be possible to secure 
perfect mating from a hive or hives con¬ 
taining a large number- of select drones. 

There are occasional islands so situated 
that there would be no bees on them, and 
where one could locate a mating yard con¬ 
taining a hive of good drones. If the 
island is of any size, and there is a honey 
flow of any sort, there are likely to be 
wild bees there. The island for special 
queen-mating purposes should be small, 
and at least 10 miles from any other yard 
or from the mainland. Near the irrigated 
regions of the West there are many desert 
areas where perfect mating to select 
drones could be arranged for. Since 
islands exactly suited for the purpose are 
rather rare, it would seem that the desert 
would be more feasible for mating than 
the islands. 

EXCLUDING UNDESIRABLE DRONES FOR 
MATING. 

So far, for most beekeepers the only 
feasible plan for mating with select 
drones is to put perforated zinc over the 
entrances of all colonies not having choice 
drones, leaving only select drones to have 
the freedom of the air. If there are no 
other bees in the locality except from hives 
having screened entrances, the chances will 
be largely in favor of having the queens 
mated to the drones of the colonies se- 


ARTIFICIAL HEAT 


77 


lected. See Queens, Queen-rearing, and 
Drones. 

ARTIFICIAL HEAT.— As strong colo¬ 
nies early in the season are the ones that 
get the honey and furnish the early swarms 
as well, and are in fact the real source of 
profit to the beekeeper, it is not to be won¬ 
dered at that much time and money have 
been spent in devising ways and means 
whereby all might be brought up to the 
desired strength in time for the first yield 
of honey. As market gardeners and oth¬ 
ers hasten early vegetables by artificial heat, 
or by taking advantage of the sun’s rays 
by greenhouses, it would seem that some¬ 
thing of the kind might be done with bees; 
in fact, the author, by the aid of the heat 
of a stove, has succeeded in rearing young- 
bees every month in the year in a green¬ 
house, even while the weather outside was 
at zero or lower; but the scheme resulted 
in failure, so far as profit was concerned. 
The bees, it is true, learned to fly under 
the glass and come back to their hives; but 
for every bee that was raised in confine¬ 
ment, two or three were sure to die, from 
one cause or another. 

Experiments have been conducted on a 
large scale at Ashtabula, Ohio, where there 
is about 10 acres under glass. The owner 
of one of the large greenhouses tried out 
the experiment of seeing what he could do 
in raising bees in a spring or summer tem¬ 
perature under control. He noted that 
they pollinated his cucumber blossoms; 
and if he could raise bees under glass he 
could recuperate his loss by raising a fresh 
supply of bees during the months when he 
was raising cucumbers. The experiment 
of raising bees was a failure, but the pol¬ 
linating of the blossoms was a perfect suc¬ 
cess. See Pollen. 

At another time experiments were made 
with artificial heat Avhile the bees were al¬ 
lowed to fly out at pleasure; and, altho 
it seemed at first to have the desired effect, 
so far as hastening brood-rearing was con¬ 
cerned, the result was, in the end, just 
about as before; more bees were reared, 
but the unseasonable activity killed off 
twice as many as were reared, and the 
stocks that w r ere let alone in the good old 
way came out ahead. 

Attempts have been made in the way. 


of using small electric heating coils in the 
top of individual colonies under packing 
for the purpose of holding an even tem¬ 
perature in the hive irrespective of out¬ 
side weather conditions. The colonies im¬ 
mediately went to brood-rearing; but, as 
might be expected, breeding always forced 
the bees out of the hive for water and pol¬ 
len. All attempts to heat individual colo¬ 
nies by means of electricity, like all simi¬ 
lar attempts, have ended in failure. 

For the benefit of those who may be 
inclined to experiment, the author would 
state that he covered almost his entire api¬ 
ary one spring with manure on the plan of 
a hotbed, and had the mortification of see¬ 
ing nearly all the bees die of spring dwin¬ 
dling. Another time he kept the house- 
apiary warmed up to a summer tempera¬ 
ture with a large oil lamp, for several 
weeks, just to have them beat those out of 
doors. The investment resulted in losing 
nearly all the house-apiarv with spring 
dwindling, while those outside stayed in 
their hives, as honest bees should, until 
settled warm weather, and then did finely, 
just because he was “too busy to take care 
of them” (?) as he used to express it. 

■WINTERING BEES IN A WARM ROOM. 

Rut. a number have wintered single colo¬ 
nies of bees in the living-room of a house 
where the temperature was kept between 
65 and 72, night and day. In the cases 
mentioned, the colonies were placed on a 
shelf next to a window, with the entrance 
communicating with the outside. All old 
and superannuated hees can thus escape at 
any time; and when the weather is suitable 
the bees can fly. A colony of bees was 
placed in one of the offices of the A. I. 
Root Co. and was there for at least three 
years. Some years it seemed to winter 
very nicely; but taking one year with an¬ 
other, these indoor colonies did not seem to 
get ahead like those outdoors. The warmer 
atmosphere in which the hive is placed has 
a tendency to start brood-rearing. This 
forces the bees out on unfavorable days, 
with the result that .they never return. The 
slight amount of brood hatched does not 
compensate for the number lost in this 
way; and the result is, the colony gradual¬ 
ly goes down. By the time spring comes 
on, the queen is not ready for the active 


78 


ARTIFICIAL PASTURAGE 


duties of the hive, for the simple reason 
that she has been laying more or less all 
winter; and, probably, if she were a human 
being, she would say she was “all petered 
out.” 

Packing the hives with chaff, sawdust, 
or any other warm, dry, porous material, 
so as to economize the natural heat of the 
cluster, seems to answer the purpose much 
better, and such treatment seems to have 
none of the objectionable features of work¬ 
ing with artificial heat. The packing needs 
to be as close to the bees as possible; and 
to this end all the combs should be re¬ 
moved except such as are needed to hold 
their stores. Bees thus prepared seem to 
escape the ill effects of frosty nights in 
the early part of the season, and exactly 
what was hoped for by the use of artificial 
heat is accomplished for brood-rearing. 

By turning to the general subject of 
“Temperature,” it will be seen that arti¬ 
ficial heat or a sudden rise in temperature 
has a tendency to start brood-rearing in a 
colony. Ordinarily it requires something 
like 95 degrees Fahrenheit in the cluster 
for the rearing of brood. When this point 
is reached, no matter what the outside tem¬ 
perature may be, brood-rearing will be 
started; but when the temperature outside 
is below freezing, so that the bees can not 
fly, artificial heat does much more harm 
than good, because brood-rearing in mid¬ 
winter usually spells disaster for the col¬ 
ony before spring. During open winters, 
however, especially if the colonies are well 
packed, and toward spring, breeding does 
no harm. If a colony is of normal strength 
it will raise brood as soon as it can safely. 
To stimulate brood-rearing by means of 
artificial heat is always a mistake. By read¬ 
ing the whole article on Temperature else¬ 
where in this woi'k one will understand 
why this is so. 

For a further consideration of this sub¬ 
ject see Temperature. 

ARTIFICIAL PASTURAGE. — Altho 
there was formerly quite a trade in seeds 
and plants to be cultivated for merely their 
honey alone, little encouragement can be 
given to those who expect to realize money 
by such investments. There is certainly a 
much greater need of taking care of the 
honey that is almost constantly wasting 


just for lack of bees to gather it.* A field 
of buckwheat will perhaps occasionally 
yield enough honey to pay the expense of 
sowing, as it comes in at a time when the 
bees in many places would get little else; 
and if it does not pay in honey, it certain¬ 
ly will in grain. 

Alfalfa, sweet clover, and alsike clover 
at the present time afford the best exam¬ 
ples of artificial pasturage of anything 
known. But neither sweet clover nor al¬ 
falfa will grow everywhere, at least, until 
the soil has been put in the right condition 
with proper inoculation. 

Sweet clover furnishes an artificial as 
well as wild pasturage, and is now being 
grown as a regular farm crop. In many 
portions of the West where the land is too 
dry to grow alfalfa, sweet clover will 
thrive. In many parts of Kentucky, Kan¬ 
sas, Nebraska, South Dakota, Oklahoma, 
Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, and Missouri, 
sweet clover is coming to be a very profit¬ 
able crop. It often does well on land 
that will not grow anything else, especially 
on rocky hillsides. See Sweet Clover. 

Alsike clover also furnishes artificial pas¬ 
turage in the eastern States. It often 
takes the place of ordinary red clover that 
fails to do well. Alsike can stand wet feet, 
but red clover will not. This discovery has 
caused many farmers to grow it either with 
timothy or exclusively, and the result is 
that wherever it is extensively grown the 
keeping of bees is profitable. 

In general, it may be said: Plant and 
sow all that will be sure to pay aside from 
the honey crop, and then, if the latter is 
secured, you will be so much ahead; but 
beware of investing much in seeds that are 
for plants producing nothing of value ex¬ 
cept honey. Alsike, Avhite Dutch clover, 
buckwheat, rape, alfalfa, and the like, it 
will do to invest in; but catnip, mignonette. 
Rocky Mountain bee-plant, etc., should be 
bandied rather sparingly. 

The question, “How many acres of a 
good honey-bearing plant would be needed 
to keep 100 colonies busy?” has often been 
asked. If 10 acres of buckwheat would an¬ 
swer in full bloom, perhaps there would be 
needed 10 other similar fields sown with 
rape, mustard, catnip, etc., blossoming at 
as many different periods, to keep them 

*,See Foreword, 


ARTIFICIAL SWARMING 


79 


going the entire warm season. Alfalfa, 
sainfoin, sweet clover, buckwheat, rape, 
alsike clover, crimson and red clover, cow- 
peas of the South, and some others, are 
the only cultivated plants that unques¬ 
tionably have given paying crops of honey. 
See Honey Plants. 

ARTIFICIAL SWARMING.— Artificial 
swarming is the act of creating conditions 
within the hive comparable to that of a 
recently hived natural swarm. It is a 
great convenience for those who may be 
away from the apiary at swarming time. 
Business and professional men, by a little 
attention to their bees once a week during 
the swarming season, can by this means 
anticipate swarming, thus forcing the 
swarm at the convenience of the beekeeper 
instead of permitting the colonies to 
swarm when they get ready, usually at the 
most inconvenient time. Extensive honey 
producers who operate several apiaries can 
control swarming by visiting each apiary 
about once a week and making artificial 
swarms when colonies are found that are 
preparing to swarm. Before the reader 
takes up this subject he should read care¬ 
fully the article on Swarming in order 
that he may understand the conditions 
that bring about swarming in a natural 
way. He will then be in better position to 
understand the principles involved in ar¬ 
tificial swarming. 

Usually it is not considered to be a good 
plan to make artificial swarms from colo¬ 
nies that are not making preparations to 
swarm naturally, for colonies which are 
willing to work well thruout the season 
without swarming should not be disturbed 
by swarming them artificially. As a rule, 
the bees do not swarm naturally until the 
first of the queen-cells built preparatory 
to swarming are capped, or about ready 
to be capped. By examining the brood- 
combs of each colony once a week to see 
if queen-cells have been started, it is pos¬ 
sible to detect which colonies may be ex¬ 
pected to swarm within the next seven or 
eight days and these may be swarmed ar¬ 
tificially. 

Italian bees sometimes swarm before the 
queen-cells are capped, and in extreme 
cases they may swarm almost immediately 
after starting queen-cells, but this does not 


often happen. For this reason it is well 
if much swarming is expected, as in pro¬ 
ducing comb honey, to clip the queen’s 
wings, even when artificial swarming is 
practiced, to prevent the loss of swarms 
that may issue before the next weekly visit 
to the apiary. Bees do not often postpone 
swarming for long after the first queen- 
cells are capped, unless they are prevented 
from swarming by adverse weather. 



Initial swarming cells shown at the right. It is 
these that give the apiarist warning of the colony’s 
intention to swarin. 

When making these examinations, if 
queen-cells are found which contain only 
eggs or very small larvae, these cells may be 
destroyed and the colony left another week. 
Sometimes they will give up swarming 
when this is done, but often they build 
more queen-cells immediately and will be 
ready for treatment at the time of the 
next visit a week later. When destroying 
queen-cells in this way it is necessary to 
shake most of the bees from the combs to 
be sure that none of them are overlooked; 
for, if one is left,, a swarm may issue be¬ 
fore the next visit. 

When queen-cells are found that con¬ 
tain large larvae there is no use destroying 
these, expecting the colony to give up 
swarming, for destroying such queen-cells 
usually does not prevent swarming. When 
well-advanced queen-cells are found the 
colony may be treated at once if there is 
a honey flow at the time. If the bees pre¬ 
pare to swarm before the beginning of the 
main honey flow, they can usually be in¬ 
duced to give it up by destroying the 
queen-cells and giving a second story of 
empty combs, especially if some of the 
combs of brood are raised up into the sec¬ 
ond story. 

The operation in artificial swarming, in 
brief, is as follows: The old hive is 
moved to one side of its stand and an 
empty one, just like it, is put in its place. 
In this hive are placed frames having foun¬ 
dation starters or full sheets of founda¬ 
tion, preferably the latter. If neither of 



80 


ARTIFICIAL SWARMING 


these are available, frames of empty combs 
may be used, especially if for extracted 
honey, but a full set of empty combs is 
not best for comb honey. Most of the 
bees, including' the queen, are then shaken 
or brushed from the combs in front of the 
entrance of the new hive so arranged that 
they will run into the hive readily; or, if 
preferred they may be shaken on top of 
the frames in the new hive. Some prefer 
to find the queen and set the comb on 
which she was found into the new hive 
first being sure that it contains no queen- 
cells; some find the queen and run her in 
at the entrance of the new hive; while 
others shake and brush all the bees without 
looking for the queen. Whatever the 
method employed, the queen must be in 
the new hive when the operation is com¬ 
plete. 

If comb honey is being produced, usu¬ 
ally two combs with adhering bees should 
be left in the old hive in order that there 
will be enough bees to take care of the 
brood. The number of bees necessary to 
leave for this purpose depends upon the 
weather, more being needed if the nights 
are cool. The combs containing the finest 
queen-cells should not be shaken if increase 
is to be made from the parent colony, since 
shaking the combs injures the immature 
queens in their cells. The queen-cells on 
all the other combs which have been 
shaken should be destroyed to prevent any 
crippled queens emerging; for such a 
queen, if she emerges first, might destroy 
the perfect young queens in their cells on 
the unshaken combs. 

The supers from the parent hive are next 
put on the new hive, and the hive of the 
parent colony is placed by the side of the 
new one, with its entrance facing in the 
same direction but having its entrance con¬ 
tracted. The bees should noAv continue 
work in the supers and rush the incoming 
nectar above, especially if foundation is 
used in the new brood-chamber, for until 
this is drawn out into comb there is no 
place to store it below. 

The hive containing the parent colony 
is left beside the new one a week. Then 
at a time when the bees are working Avell 
in the fields, and preferably Avhile many 
young bees are taking their playfiight 
(gee Playflights of Young Bees), the 


old hive should be moved to a neAV loca¬ 
tion for increase. The old hive should be 
handled carefully while being carried 
away to prevent disturbing the bees, so 
that when the field bees that are in the 
hive go out after another load they Avill 
not note the change in location of the hhie. 
The hive should be carried far enough 
away that the returning bees will not find 
it, and should not be located too close to 
other hives where bees from an adjacent 
hive might enter it by mistake. When 
this is done most of the young bees Avhich 
have become field workers during the week 
will noAv, as they return from the fields, 
enter the new hive on the old stand, and 
at the same time the parent hive is so de¬ 
pleted of its bees that after-SAvarming is 
prevented. See After-swarming, iieddon 

METHOD. 

If extracted honey is being produced, 
all the bees may be brushed or shaken from 
their combs when an artificial swarm is 
made, and the 'old brood-chamber with its 
combs of brood can then be placed on top 
of the supers as tho it Avere an additional 
super, first destroying all the queen-cells 
and placing a queen-excluder betAveen the 
loAver brood-chamber and the supers. When 
the combs of brood are shaken and brush¬ 
ed clean, it is not necessary to find the 
queen to be sure that she is in the neAv 
brood-chamber. 

In this way the parent colony is above 
the supers, and the swarm is beloiv the 
supers, both being in the same hive. They 
are, in fact, a single colony with the young 
and emerging bees in the upper hive-bodv 
and the queen and the neAv brood-chamber 
noAv being established in the loiver line- 
body. As the brood emerges the combs 
in the upper hive-bodv will be filled with 
honey and the former brood-chamber noiv 
becomes a super. It may be adA’isable 
again to destroy all queen-cells in the old 
brood-chaipber 10 days later, tho this is 
not always necessary, especially if sevei'al 
supers are between the loAver brood- 
chamber and this one on top. If increase 
is desired the queen-cells should not be 
destroyed, and the old brood-chamber with 
its emerging brood should be taken aAvay 
a Aveek after the artificial swarm was made 
and used for increase. 

The question may be asked here why 


ASTER 


81 


this method is not recommended when pro¬ 
ducing comb honey. To place the old 
brood-chamber above the comb-honey su¬ 
pers would result in the cappings of the 
comb honey being discoloi-ed; and, unless 
the honey flow is quite rapid, too much 
of the honey would be stored in these 
brood-combs as the brood emerges, causing 
the bees to neglect the comb-honey supers. 
Some have reported success by placing the 
old brood-chamber with its emerging brood 
on top of the comb-honey supers but with 
a ventilated bee-escape board between. By 
doing this the brood is kept warm by the 
heat passing thru the wire cloth in the 
escape board and the young bees passing 
thru the bee-escape are added to the colony 
below. 

Various devices have been used to cause 
the young bees of the parent colony to 
unite with the swarm; such as cone escapes 
or tin tubes over the entrance of the par¬ 
ent hive which lead the bees to the en¬ 
trance of the new hive, so that when the 
young bees go out for their first flight 
they do not find their way back into their 
own hive but enter the new one. In this 
way the emerging bees of the parent hive 
can finally all be added to the swarm; but 
the simpler plan of moving the parent 
hive to a new location is most commonly 
used. 

Instead of moving the old hive away 
when making an artificial swarm, the bees 
may be shaken back into their own hive, 
and the combs of brood placed into an¬ 
other hive which is now to house the par¬ 
ent colony. 

If only frames containing foundation 
are used in the new brood-chamber, the 
bees may swarm out and desert their hive 
the next day or even tw T o or three days 
after the artificial swarm was made. To 
prevent this, it is sometimes best to re¬ 
move only a part of the brood at first, 
leaving from one comb up to half of 'the 
combs of brood, being sure that no queen- 
cells are left. Frames of full sheets of 
foundation are then put in to take the 
place of the removed brood. Two or three 
days later, when the foundation is well 
drawn out, the remaining combs of brood 
should be removed. Even when but one 
comb of brood is left to discourage swarm¬ 
ing out, it should be removed within about 


three days; for, if the bees are well along 
in their preparations for swarming at the 
time of making the artificial swarm, they 
may immediately start queen-cells on this 
comb of brood, and sometimes swarm even 
when most of the brood has been taken 
away. 

Combs of honey are sometimes used on 
which to hive artificial swarms. If this 
honey is unsealed, the bees usually carry 
it above promptly; but, if combs of sealed 
honey are used, the bees are not inclined 
to move it up promptly, and they may 
work with less vigor when much sealed 
honey is in the brood-chamber. 

Under the head of Increase, the ques¬ 
tion of various methods for increasing the 
number of the colonies by dividing or oth¬ 
erwise is taken up. The reader should un¬ 
derstand that “artificial swarming” is one 
thing, and “increase by dividing” is en¬ 
tirely another. The former is used to pre¬ 
vent natural swarming, or, rather, to put 
it at a time to suit the convenience of the 
beekeeper and yet get a crop of honey. The 
latter does not contemplate the idea of se¬ 
curing honey, but rather an increase in the 
number of colonies. 

ASTER.-- (Aster, the Greek word for 
star.) Asters are also called starworts, and 
in England Christmas daisies from their 
late period of blooming. This is a genus of 
the Compositae, the largest and most im¬ 
portant plant family, to which also belong 
the goldenrods, sunflowers, thistles, and 
daisies. There are about 142 species of 
asters in North America, and about half 
that number in northeastern America. The 
species are very difficult to distinguish, as 
there are numerous varieties and hyrjrids. 
Asa Gray declares in one of his letters that 
the asters threatened to reduce him to 
blank despair. The so-called flower of an 
aster is in reality a compact cluster, or 
composite, of many small sessile flowers 
subtended by scale-like bracts, termed a 
head or capitulum. The marginal or ray- 
flowers have strap-shaped corollas, and are 
blue, purple, or white, but never yellow. 
The central or disc flowers are tubular, and 
range in color from dark to golden yellow, 
changing in some species in the later stages 
of the flower to crimson purple, brown 
purple, or purple. The genus is repre- 


82 


ASTER 


sented by a larger number of species in 
North America than in any other conti¬ 
nent. 

Aster honey is gathered chiefly from the 
very common species A. multiflorus, A. 
vimineus, A. lateriflorus, A. Tradescanti, 
and A. paniculatus, all of which produce 
dense clusters of small white or pale blue- 
white-rayed heads, except A. multiflorus, 
which has the rays white or purplish. Over 
large areas in Kentucky, Indiana, and 
other States the bloom is so abundant that 
the fields look as if covered with snow. 
The plants are often very bushy, growing 



Aster. 

from six inches to three feet tall. When 
the weather is favorable colonies will pack 
their combs with aster honey, or if combs 
have already been filled from an earlier 
source a surplus is often stored. One sea¬ 
son at Underwood, Ind., there were hun¬ 
dreds of acres of white aster in bloom, and 
100 pounds of comb honey per hive is re¬ 
ported to have been obtained. At Lang- 
nau, Ky., the scales showed a gain of 25 
pounds in four days from Oct. 2 to 5. 
Forty-eight colonies harvested 3,000 
pounds, of which one-half was surplus. 


There were ninety-five acres of white aster 
within reach of the bees. During 12 days 
of hot weather in September, 1914, J. L. 
Byer reports that 250 colonies 100 miles 
north of Toronto, Can., simply jammed 
the brood-nests solid with aster honey. 

Pure aster honey is white—as white, ac¬ 
cording to beekeepers familiar with it, as 
white-clover honey; but it is seldom ob¬ 
tained pure. Usually it is colored amber or 
yellow by honey from goldenrod or other 
late-blooming autumnal flowers. The as¬ 
ters, however, remain in bloom longer than 
the goldenrods. When newly gathered the 
honey has a rank odor, but this disappears 
when it has ripened. It has a pleasant 
aromatic taste, and is so thick that at times 
it is extracted with difficulty. It crystal¬ 
lizes quickly with a finer grain than gold¬ 
enrod. It has been stated to be unsuitable 
for table use, but O. H. Townsend writes 
that in Michigan he sells aster honey for 
the same price as red raspberry, and that 
it has a fine flavor and good body. Other 
beekeepers also describe ' the flavor as 
agreeable. 

Many beekeepers have complained that 
their colonies suffered more or less loss 
when wintering on aster honey. So strong 
has been the opposition to it for this pur¬ 
pose that its removal and the replacing of 
the stores by feeding sugar syrup have been 
repeatedly advised. It is not improbable 
that aster honey gathered so late that it 
only partially ripens and remains unsealed 
is liable to deteriorate and become deleteri¬ 
ous before spring; but any other honey or 
even sugar syrup under similar conditions 
would be objectionable. Its tendency to 
candy quickly and solidly, making it only 
partially available to the bees, has also 
added to its poor reputation as a winter 
food. Mismanagement on the part of the 
apiarist seems likewise in some instances 
to have been laid to the fault of aster hon¬ 
ey. But if this honey possessed properties 
that were actually injurious to bees, 
they would appear uniformly everywhere, 
but this is not the case. The experience 
of scores of beekeepers, continued thru 
many years, proves that aster honey well 
ripened and sealed is an excellent winter 
food for bees. And why should it not be? 
The asters are bland innocuous herbs, which 
are readily eaten by domestic animals,. 





ASTER 


83 




Aster paniculatus. 


Aster multiflorus. 


Aster Tradescanti. 


Aster puniceus. 








84 


BACKLOT BEEKEEPING 


either dried as hay ox green in the pastures. 
The 250 colonies of J. L. Byer, which pack¬ 
ed their hives with aster honey, survived 
the winter in fine condition. In a symposi¬ 
um, published in Gleanings in Bee Culture, 
Aug. 15, 1915, many beekeepers testified 
that they had wintered bees successfully 
year after year on aster honey with very 
little loss. It has been suggested that per¬ 
haps different species of aster yield differ¬ 
ent kinds of honey; but there is no ground 
for such a supposition. On the contrary, 
the nectar of the various species, as in the 
case of the goldenrods, is very similar. 

In Georgia several species of aster (the 
most common are A. adnatus and A. squar- 
rosus) grow all over the State, and in many 
places are the main reliance for winter 
stores. In a few localities a surplus is 


obtained. The honey is medium in quality, 
of fair color, but candies quickly in the 
comb if not sealed. The blooming time is 
from September to November. 

Several widely distributed and abundant 
species of aster are well jvorthy of cultiva¬ 
tion for their handsome flowers. .A very 
common form is A. patens, or purple daisy 
which has bright blue-purple flowers. The 
New England aster ( A . novae-angliae) has 
stout hairy stems, eight feet tall, with vio¬ 
let-purple rays, rarely white, or in one va¬ 
riety pink. Very common along the Atlan¬ 
tic Coast, especially in swampy marshes, is 
A. novi-belgii. The purple-stemmed aster, 
cocash, or meadow scabish (A. puniceus ), 
which is common in swamps, is a tall hairy 
species with purple stems and flowers. 


B 


BACKLOT BEEKEEPING. — A very 
large number of those who keep bees are 
those who might properly be called back- 
lotters—those who live in cities and towns 
and who keep a few bees in connection 
with a few chickens or a little garden. The 
backlotters comprise professional and 
business men, as well as women and chil¬ 
dren of their families. Included in this 
class might be also the farmers’ wives who 
have a few colonies to pollinate fruit trees, 
and who likewise desire recreation, amuse¬ 
ment, and a little money on the side for 
the family. Bees will earn as much money 
as chickens and often do much better. 

Backlot beekeeping does not differ great¬ 
ly from the keeping of bees on a large 
scale except that there are no outyards, 
no expensive moving-truck and elaborate 
extraeting-outfits, and no hired help. The 
backlotter, primarily, whether man, woman, 
or child, is one who desires to take up some 
form of amusement or recreation—some¬ 
thing that will keep him outdoors and 
something that will take up his time while 


lie is out of the store, office, or shop. If 
the backlotter happens to be an overworked 
business or professional man, he will surely 
need some line of diversion—something 
that will rest his mind, by taking it off 
from his business or profession, and allow¬ 
ing it to rest and recuperate in new lines 
of thought. Why not beekeeping? See 
Beekeeping for Women. 

While there are those who take up the 
hobby of kodaking or taking pictures, of 
running a little garden, or keeping a few 
chickens, the number of those who are tak¬ 
ing up bees in a small way is increasing 
very rapidly. The average back lot in 
the city will not permit of a very extensive 
garden—in fact, in most cases no garden 
at all. The chicken business is liable to 
cause trouble with the neighbors, especial¬ 
ly if the chickens fly over the fence and 
scratch up Mrs. Neighbor’s posy bed. 
While bees will not scratch up gardens 
they may soil Mrs. Neighbor’s wash on the 
line: but a box or two of honey in advance 
will so sweeten her up that she will toler- 


BACKLOT BEEKEEPING 


85 



ate any inconvenience of this kind, which 
fortunately occurs only about once a year. 
After bees have been confined for the win¬ 
ter, on their first flight they discharge their 
liquid feces on the white linen if it hap¬ 
pens to be on the line at the time; but a 
rinsing of the clothes will make them as 
clean as before, and a pail or box of 
honey will do wonders in advance by 
sweetening up feelings that would other¬ 
wise be sour. The neighbor should be ad¬ 
vised not to hang out her clothes just after 
the bees are set out of the cellar in the 
spring. Or better, the beekeeper should 
not put the bees out till after wash-day. 


and yet out of all these thousands of little 
apiaries it is only about once in four or five 
years that we hear of a single case of trou¬ 
ble, and only once in about 25 years that 
resort is had to the courts. See Laws 
Relating to Bees and Bees as a Nui¬ 
sance. 

The danger from stings may be averted 
by reading carefully the articles on Api¬ 
aries, Robbing, Stings, Bee-smokers, and 
Manipulation of Colonies —particularly 
the last named. There is no good reason 
why any backlotter should stir up his colo¬ 
nies to a furious stinging. If he will care¬ 
fully inform himself by reading the arti- 


Thos. O’Donnel’s apiary, which lias proved a success, altlio kept within the city limits' of Chicago. 


But the objection may be made that bees 
may sting the neighbor’s children. While 
this may happen, such occurrences are not 
common. If one will follow the plain and 
simple directions with regard to handling 
bees, there will be no trouble. Indeed, 
there are backlot apiaries in all of our 
large cities (and even on the roofs of some 
large office buildings)—hundreds and hun¬ 
dreds of them; and when we consider the 
backlot apiaries in the smaller towns, their 
number can be measured by the thousands; 


cles mentioned, his next-door neighbors will 
never know he has any bees except as they 
may see the hives and the bees flying out to 
the fields. If he will take the further pre¬ 
caution to give those neighbors a box of 
honey now and then, they will be willing to 
overlook any occasional annoyance result¬ 
ing from a lack of experience and misman¬ 
agement. 

Every backlotter should, if possible, visit 
some practical beekeeper. He can get more 
information of a practical sort in an hour 


















BACKLOT BEEKEEPING 


8ti 



View of D. J. Bloeher’s apiary, Pearl City, Ill. The grass is kept mowed all summer with a lawn-mower. 


by seeing- some good beekeeper open up a 
hive than he can get from a book in several 
days. In fact, it would pay Mr. Backlotter 
well to take a trolley trip off into the coun¬ 
try, hunt up some person who is keeping 
bees, and, if he approaches his man with 
the idea of purchasing a colony or two, he 
will be able to get all the information he 
desires; and in this connection it may be 
said that it is usually cheaper for one to 
make a start by buying a few colonies than 
to send away to some dealer, unless he buys 
them in pound-package form. See Be¬ 
ginning with Bees. 


Besides the allurements of a restful hob¬ 
by, of diversion from the cares of the office, 
shop, factory, and of the home for the 
wife, backlot beekeeping affords in addi¬ 
tion a profit, provided, of course, that one 
follows directions, and provided further 
that there is something-in the locality on 
which bees can work. In most of our cities 
white clover thrives on lawns. No matter 
how dry the season, the constant sprinkling 
and mowing keep white clover in bloom 
for a much longer period than the average 
pasture lot. Besides white clover, sweet 
clover is being grown extensively along 



APIARY OF E. S. BR1NTON, WEST CHESTER, PA. 

The apiary is well protected in the back lot by apple trees and shrubbery. It appears to be an ideal 
place for wintering bees; but the colonies should, of course, be packed in winter cases in order to get the 
best results. 











BARRELS 


87 


railroad embankments, in waste fields, and 
lots unoccupied, that are being held until 
a suitable price can be secured. 

Small-fruit trees and the clovers in the 
back yards of our cities afford some past¬ 
urage in the spring when they are in bloom. 
The ever present dandelions, that are an 
irrepressible nuisance on almost all lawns 
in the North, also afford pollen and honey. 
See Dandelion. 

The conditions for keeping a few bees in 
a city or town are usually very favorable. 
As stated under the head of Apiary and 
under the head of Overstocking, a few 
colonies of bees—five, ten, or twenty-five, 
will give much larger yields per colony 
than a larger number — say fifty or a hun¬ 
dred. Of course, if there are any consid¬ 
erable number of persons in the city who 
adopt the beekeeping hobby, the yield per 
colony will be less in proportion; but as a 
general rule these backlot yards will not 
be closer than one or two miles, and the 
yield should be fairly good even then. 

By referring to Profits in Bees one can 
get some idea of the returns; but it can be 
safely stated that our backlot beekeeper 
will do even better than there stated, for 
the reason he will have the field all his own. 

We have known some backlotters to se¬ 
cure two or three hundred pounds of honey 
per colony. (See some of the legends under 
the cuts in Apiary.) As the market is right 
at hand much of the honey can be sold at 
retail without sharing the profits with mid¬ 
dlemen. Backlot beekeeping, therefore, of¬ 
fers exceptional opportunities for making 
a little money on the side as well as secur¬ 
ing an unlimited amount of pleasure and a 
new field for thought in the realm of na¬ 
ture. 

It is safe to say that any man or woman 
who takes up the pleasurable pastime of 
beekeeping will be bigger and broader, and 
will live longer. The great trouble with the 
American people today, .especially with the 
residents of our cities, is the awful rush af¬ 
ter the “almighty dollar,” and in this scram¬ 
ble to get ahead the mind and body wear 
out. If more of our city folks would have 
side lines of diversion and ride hobbies, 
particularly the hobby of keeping bees— 
they would liVe longer, live happier, and 
in the end make a little money. 


BAIT SECTIONS.— See Comr Honey, 
to Produce. 

BALLING OF QUEENS.— See Queens, 
Queen-rearing, and Introducing. 

BANAT BEES. —See Races of Bees. 

BARRELS. —The regular size used for 
the storage and shipping of extracted hon¬ 
ey is about 31 or 32 gallons. Barrels of 45 
to 50 gallons capacity are a little too heavy, 
and being very unwieldy are liable to be 
broken or jammed by freight-handlers in 
shipping. As to the kind of barrel, second¬ 
hand barrels may be used, provided they 
are not charred on the inside. Before tak¬ 
ing barrels of any kind it is very neces¬ 
sary to determine what the character of 
the lining is on the inside. Molasses or 
syrup barrels may be used, if they be 
thoroly cleansed, but barrels that have a 
sour or musty smell should not be consid¬ 
ered; for, even if cleaned, they may taint 
and ruin the honey. 

After the barrel has been cleansed it 
should be put in a dry place, so that it will 
dry thoroly inside and out. One should 
never use barrels, the wood of which has 
become soaked with water; for honey has 
the quality of absorbing moisture from 
the wood; that is to say, a wet barrel filled 
with honey will actually become dry. The 
staves shrink, and then, of course, the hon¬ 
ey leaks out. If one does a large business 
in shipping honey in barrels, he should 
buy new ones. The staves should be made 
of sound kiln-dried lumber; and iron 
hoops, not wooden ones, should be used. 
The barrels should be kept in a dry place, 
and then, before using, they should be 
well coopered and tested, as will be ex¬ 
plained. 

KEGS. 

Wooden packages holding from 100 to 
150 pounds are sometimes used in some 
parts of the South. They are usually con¬ 
structed of cypress, and, when well made, 
make a very good package. The general di¬ 
rections that apply to barrels apply also to 
kegs. 

BARRELS FREQUENT CAUSE OF COMPLAINT. 

It may be said that no slovenly, careless, 
or slipshod beekeeper should use barrels. 
He will be too careless to see that they are 
tight. He will put his honey into them, 


88 


BARRELS 


ship them, and in all probability the bar¬ 
rels will begin to leak en route; and he will 
receive a complaint from the consignee 
that “the honey arrived in bad condition,” 
“half of it gone.” There have been more 
ill feeling and hard words because of in¬ 
excusable carelessness or lack of proper 
knowledge concerning this matter of ship¬ 
ping honey in barrels than, perhaps, any 
other thing connected with the marketing 
of extracted honey. If the directions are 
carefully followed, and good barrels are 
selected, there will be little or no trouble 
outside of the arid regions. 

Another frequent cause of complaint 
arises from the fact that the barrels are 
filled too full. Honey, during the process 
of granulating, will expand. If it is put 
into the barrel long before it is candied, 
the barrel should not be filled quite full. 
Just before shipping put in a little more 
and then ship. We have received several 
consignments of honey that had candied in 
barrels. The barrels had been filled full; 
the honey candied, and burst the barrels. 

HOW TO" TEST BARRELS FOR LEAKS. 

Barrels that are intended for the storage 
of honey should not be kept in a cellar but 
in a dry place. Before filling, the hoops 
should be driven down tight all around. To 
test for. leakage, A. C. Miller suggests the 
following plan: 

With a tire pump fitted over a specially 
prepared bung, force in air until there is 
quite a pressure in the barrel. Now listen 
for air leaks. If there are any, there will 
be a hissing in one or more places. Hold¬ 
ing the palm of one hand over the bung 
thru which the air was forced, dip the free 
hand into some water, and push it along to 
where the air seems to be hissing out. This 
will prove whether there is a leak at that 
point. If there is one, there will be a 
sputtering or bubbling. Wherever the air 
is found leaking thru, drive the hoops 
down until the openings are closed. Then, 
again, force air into the barrel and try for 
leaks as before. 

Do not, under any circumstances, test a 
barrel for leakage with water, as it soaks 
up the wood, and the latter would swell up 
and close the leak. After the honey is put 
into the barrel it would absorb the water, 
and the barrel would leak just at the time 


it could be least afforded—when it would 
be halfway on its journey. 

THE NEED OF PARAFFINING OR WAXING 
BARRELS. 

The author is well aware that some of 
the best honey-producers say it is not nec¬ 
essary to wax dr paraffin barrels inside; but 
our experience shows that it is very impor¬ 
tant, not so much for the purpose of clos¬ 
ing up any possible leaks as to prevent the 
honey from soaking into the wood of the 
barrel or the wood itself from giving a 
taint to the honey. The average person has 
little idea of the amount of honey that can 
be soaked up inside of an unwaxed barrel, 
and be charged up to the shipper. After 
having tested the barrels for leaks by the 
air-pressure plan recommended, and making 
them tight, wax or paraffin the inside of 
the barrels; don’t depend on the waxing to 
close up the leaks —the barrel should be 
tight before. 

Paraffin, being a good deal cheaper than 
beeswax, and melting at a lower tempera¬ 
ture, is, therefore, to be recommended. Melt 
up about 10 or 12 pounds, and when hot 
pour it thru a large funnel into one bung- 
hole of the barrel. Quickly drive in the 
bung, roll it around, twirl it. on eacli end; 
then give it another spin so as to cover 
perfectly all around the chine. This op¬ 
eration will warm the air inside to such an 
extent that the liquid will be forced into 
every crevice. As soon as the inside is 
covered, loosen the bung with a hammer; 
and if the work is well done the bung will 
be thrown into the air with a loud report. 
Pour out the remaining liquid, warm it up 
again, and treat the other barrels in a like 
manner. 

The operation as a whole takes but very 
little time; and if one has taken pains to 
prove the barrel tight by the air-pressure 
plan, the coating of paraffin on the inside 
will make it doubly secure. Second-hand 
barrels especially should be paraffined; and 
even new barrels should be so treated to 
prevent a great loss of honey that would 
necessarily soak into the wood. Steel bar¬ 
rels are not recommended. 

SLIPPING HOOPS. 

It is very important that the barrels be 
made tight before honey is put. into them. 


BASSWOOD 


89 


If they once begin to leak en route, driving 
the hoops down will not do much good, for 
the simple reason that the leaking honey 
makes a sort of lubricant, causing the 
hoops to slide up immediately after receiv¬ 
ing a blow from a hammer. 

The publishers of this work have had 
some very unsatisfactory experience with 
shipping honey in barrels; and on arriving 
at Medina the honey was leaking over the 
sides of the barrels. This honey came 
with a carload of bees, and the man in 
charge who saw the leaks attempted to 
drive the hoops downward; but the more he 
drove, he said, the more they slipped back 
again. If it were possible to exert pressure 
enough on all sides of the hoops at once, 
and then drive nails above the hoops, some¬ 
thing might be done to stop the leaks. 

The barrels in the first place should be 
bone-dry before they are paraffined; and 
just before the waxing the hoops should be 
driven down as far as they will go. If 
there is any danger of the barrels leaking, 
tacks should be driven above the hoops to 
prevent their slipping. But it is penny 
wise and pound foolish to use any barrel 
that is not perfect. The difference between 
the cost of a good barrel and a poor one is 
only a few cents; while a barrel of honey 
costs many times the price of the barrel. 

BARRELS OR SQUARE CANS. 

In California, Colorado, and other hot 
or dry States, barrels and kegs should 
never be used. The ordinary 60-pound tin 
cans, described under Extracted Honey, 
are the only suitable shipping packages. 
Indeed, they are the only package that 
nine-tenths of the beekeepers of this land 
can use safely. While they cost consid¬ 
erably more per pound, yet the honey is 
nearly always reported as going thru in 
good order. Even if one has a hole 
punched in it, only 60 pounds of honey 
is lost; while in the case of a leak or break 
in a barrel, sometimes from five to eight 
times that amount is wasted. Thru the 
entire West—arid that is where the great 
•bulk of the extracted honey in the United 
States is produced—the square tin can is 
used exclusively. These are packed two 
in a case, and for safe shipment there 
should be a wooden partition between the 
cans. Beekeepers are strongly urged to 


use these cans is preference to barrels. 
While the tin package costs a little more 
per pound, it also brings in a little more 
on the market; for the buyer can take as 
large or small a quantity as he needs. 
Where the purchaser hesitates to buy a 
whole barrel of honey for his own local 
trade, he will readily take one or more 
cans of 60 pounds each. 

REMOVING GRANULATED HONEY FROM 
BARRELS. 

Good thick honey will usually become 
solid at the approach of frosty weather, 
and perhaps the readiest means of getting 
it out of the barrel in such cases is to re¬ 
move one of the heads and take it out with 
a scoop. When it is quite hard, one may at 
first think it is difficult to force a scoop 
down into it; but if he presses steadily and 
keeps moving the scoop slightly, he will 
soon get down its whole depth. If the bar¬ 
rel is kept for some time near the stove, or 
in a very warm room, the honey will be¬ 
come liquid enough to be drawn out thru a 
large-sized honey-gate. 

A more wholesale way of removing can¬ 
died honey is to set the barrel or keg in a 
tub or wooden tank of water, the latter 
being kept hot by a small steam pipe. In 
24 or 36 hours the honey will be melted, 
and can then be drawn out in the usual 
way. 

BASSWOOD. —Of the twelve described 
species three are indigenous to the United 
States. The most common species is Tilia 
americana L., a tall tree growing in forests 
from New Brunswick to Nebraska and 
Texas, and especially abundant in the Alle- 
ghanies. T. Michauxii Nutt. (T. pubescens 
is a synonym) extends from Connecticut to 
Florida and Texas; and T. heterophylla 
Vent, from Pennsylvania to southern Illi¬ 
nois and Alabama, but is most common in 
limestone regions. The three species may 
be separated by the following leaf charac¬ 
ters: T. americana has the leaves smooth 
on both sides; in T. Michauxii the leaves 
are smooth above, but pubescent beneath: 
and in T. heteropliylla smooth above and 
silvery white below. The European linden 
( T. europaea L.) is widely cultivated in 
this country as an ornamental tree. Other 
vernacular names are linden, lime tree, bee- 
(ree, whitewood, and whistlewood. 


90 


BASSWOOD 



Basswood in full bloom. 


It is a variable source of honey, but it 
is seldom that it fails entirely to yield 
nectar. In eastern New York, late In 
the spring, a drop in temperature sufficient 
to freeze ice has been known to kill all 
the flower buds in low ground, and greatly 
injure those on the hills. Even when the 
trees are laden with flowers if the weather 
is cold, cloudy, and windy, no surplus will 
be obtained. Hot clear weather and a 
humid atmosphere are the conditions most 
favorable for the active secretion of nec¬ 
tar. Small drops may then be seen spark¬ 
ling in the bloom, and a bee may at times 
obtain a load from a single blossom. Dur¬ 
ing a favorable season, when the atmo¬ 
sphere and temperature were both propi¬ 
tious, nine tons of basswood honey have 
been obtained as surplus at Delanson, N. 
Y. The best yield of honey at Medina, 
Ohio, ever secured from a single hive was 
from basswood bloom, the quantity being 
43 pounds in three days. The best ever- 
recorded from clover was 14 pounds in 
one day. At Orchard, Iowa, a yield of 
600 pounds of basswood honey from a 
single colony in 30 days was once secured, 
an average of 20 pounds per day. A col¬ 
ony at Borodino, N. Y., stored 302 pounds 
in ten days, and an average of about 55 
pounds per colony has been obtained for 
30 years. The length of the honey flow 


from basswood may vary from five to 
twenty-five days; while the date of bloom¬ 
ing is influenced by locality, altitude, and 
temperature. From 10 to 15 days may in¬ 
tervene between the opening of the flowers 
in a cold season and a hot one. In localities 
where basswood grows both in the valleys 
and on high hills the bees will have, a much 
longer time to gather the nectar, since the 
trees in the lowlands will bloom earlier 
than those at a greater height. 

Basswood honey is white and has a 
strong aromatic or mint-like flavor, and it 
is easy to tell when the blossoms are out by 
the odor about the hives. The taste of the 
honey also indicates to the beekeeper the 
very day the bees begin to work on the 
flowers. The honey, if extracted before it 
is sealed over, has so strong and distinctive 
a flavor as to be disagreeable to some per¬ 
sons. The smell and taste have been likened 
to that of turpentine or camphor—very 
disagreeable when just gathered; but Avhen 
sealed over and fully ripened in the hive 
almost every one considers it delicious. A 
pure basswood extracted honey, on account 
of its strong flavor, should be blended- with 
some honey of milder flavor, as for exam¬ 
ple, that of mountain sage. 

The illustration shows the appearance of 
basswood flowers and leaves. The clusters 
of from five to fifteen flowers are drooping, 



BASSWOOD 


91 


thus protecting the nectar from the rain. 
The stem of the cluster is adnate to an ob¬ 
long membranous bract. The nectar is se¬ 
creted and held in the fleshy sepals; and it 
is often so abundant that it appears like 
dewdrops in the sunlight. The blossoms 
are small, light yellow, and exhale a honey¬ 
like fragrance. The stamens are numerous, 
and the anthers contain a small amount of 
pollen, but honeybees seldom gather it 
when the nectar is abundant; if, however, 
the nectar supply is scanty, then both 
honeybees and bumblebees may be seen 
with little balls of pollen on their thighs. 
In England basswood seldom sets seed. 
The inner bark is tough and fibrous, and 
is largely used by agriculturists and florists 
for binding purposes. 

The basswoods have been so cut off dur¬ 
ing the last few years for packing-boxes 
and furniture factories that basswood hon¬ 
ey has almost disappeared from the mar¬ 
ket. 

CULTIVATION. 

If a beekeeper is content to wait, say 10 
or 15 years for the realization of his 
hopes, or if he has an interest in providing 
for the beekeepers of a future generation, 
it will pay him to plant basswood. A tree 
that was set out about 10 years ago on a 
street in Medina, Ohio, novp furnishes a 
profusion of blossoms almost every year; 
and, judging from the way the bees work 
on them it would seem that they furnish 
considerable nectar. A hundred such trees 
in the vicinity of an apiary would be, with¬ 
out doubt, of great value. In the spring 
of 1872 A. I. Root set out 4,000 trees north 
of Medina, and in 1877 many were bear¬ 
ing fair loads of blossoms. While seed¬ 
lings may be obtained by planting the 
seeds, by far the better and cheaper way 
is to get small trees from the forest. They 
can be bought for a very low price. These 
can be obtained in almost any quantity in 
the eastern States from any piece of wood¬ 
land from which all stock has been ex¬ 
cluded. Cattle feed upon the young bass¬ 
woods with great avidity, and pasturing 
the woodlands will eventually cut short the 
growth of basswoods as well as many other 
valuable trees from our forests. Trees all 
the way from one to ten feet tall have been 
planted here at Medina, but the largest 


ones, as a general rule, have done the best. 

The growth of basswood is strongly in¬ 
fluenced by climatic conditions. Among the 
hills of New York the leaves assume mam¬ 
moth proportions. The author measured 
one that was 14 inches long from a small 
tree. While this leaf was among the larg¬ 
est, yet the leaves were, on the average, 
about twice the size of those in the locali¬ 
ty of Medina. In Illinois the basswoods 
seem to be less thrifty than in Ohio. 

The European basswood, which is fully 
as good a honey-producer as the American 
species, is famous as an avenue tree. The 
famous street in Berlin, Unter-der-Linden, 
is shaded by this species. It is known in 
England as “the lime tree,” and is there a 
great favorite for street planting. The 
famous “Lime-tree Walk” of Cambridge 
is well known. It is also an excellent tree 
for street planting in the northern part 
of the United States. It is to be regretted 
that basswood is not more abundant, since 
where it grows it is one of the mainstays 
of the honey-producer, and is also a most 
valuable wood for manufacturing pur¬ 
poses. It will hardly do for outside ex¬ 
posure to the weather, but is admirably 
adapted for packing-boxes and for furni¬ 
ture, forming the bottom and sides of 
drawers, the backs of bureaus and dress¬ 
ing-cases. It is also employed extensively 
in the manufacture of paper. 

As large quantities of the timber are 
used in making section honey-boxes, the 
question has been raised, “Why do the 
manufacturers of supplies use the tree that 
produces so much honey and of such fine 
quality 1 ?” Is it a case of “killing the goose 
that lays the golden egg?” The answer is, 
that the amount used by the makers of 
sections is only a drop in the bucket com¬ 
pared with that used in the other arts. 
Even if all the bee-supply manufacturers 
should discontinue the use of basswood, the 
difference in the amount of honey produced 
from that valuable tree would never be no¬ 
ticed. For the making of section honey- 
boxes there is no timber available that has 
the same degree of toughness to stand the 
fold at the V edge in the ordinary one- 
piece section. The four-piece section has 
now practically dropped out of the market 
on account of the expense and time taken 
in preparing it for the hive. 


92 


BEE BEHAVIOR 


After all, there is one redeeming feature; 
the basswood is-a very rapid grower. If 
basswood will replace itself in 10 or even 
20 years, so that it is again large enough 
for lumber, there is yet hope that it will 
continue to bless the beekeeper. Over 
against this is the stubborn fact that the 
basswoods are disappearing rapidly over 
the whole country. During late years, 
when there has been such a great advance 
in pine lumber, basswood has been used 
very largely for house-building, with the 
consequence that millions of feet have been 
consumed. 

Basswood, and perhaps most other forest 
trees, require shade, especially when young. 
Much to the author’s surprise young trees 
that were set directly under large white- 
oak trees did better than any of the rest. 
The trees should be planted not closer than 
12 feet apart. 

BEE BEHAVIOR. —Behavior is a term 
used to describe the activities of animal life 
whether induced by external or internal 
causes. Under this head will be described 
some of the various life activities of the 
bees, particularly those which have more 
or less to do with the practices of bee cul¬ 
ture. 

THE LARVAL BEE. 

On the hatching of the egg the tiny larva 
wriggles and twitches much as does a cater¬ 
pillar when poked with a straw. Almost 
at once it is supplied with food by a 
“nurse” bee. This part of the life of a 
larva has not received sufficient study to 
warrant any definite statement as to the 
frequency of the feeding, the amount sup¬ 
plied, its possible varying quality, etc. It 
must suffice now to say that the periods of 
feeding seem to be irregular and the 
amount of food received by different lar¬ 
vae varies largely. 

When the larva has completed its feed¬ 
ing period and has stretched out to its full 
length in the cell, the bees proceed to seal 
the cell. There are some exceptions to this 
when the larvas are left unsealed, tho usu¬ 
ally the cell walls are slightly extended and 
the opening contracted. Beekeepers speak 
of this as “bareheaded brood,” and it often 
causes the novice much concern. (See 
Brood and Brood-rearing.) The condi¬ 
tion has been ascribed to excessive heat; 


but as it occurs at other times than during 
the hot weather, and as some colonies sel¬ 
dom or never have brood in such condition 
while others almost always do, it is reason¬ 
able to look upon it as a congenital trait. 
In some cases uncovered brood is due to 
the work of the wax worm; but such brood 
looks very different and is always in the 
path of the worm’s work. 

After a brief rest the bee larva begins 
spinning its cocoon. Slowly the head turns 
from side to side and back and forth, grad¬ 
ually reaching the middle of the cell; and 
slowly doubling on itself, the larva extends 
its work to the base and lies at full length 
reversed in the cell. Before its labors cease, 
however, it resumes the former position of 
its head toward the outer end. 

In the case of the queen larva, the spin¬ 
ning begins and proceeds in the same way, 
but when she is reversed in the cell she 
reaches as far up as she can, but that is not 
to the base; and, as she cannot climb, there 
is no silken web on that part of the cell. 

When spinning lias' ceased, the larva 
turns on its back and lies still. The changes 
which follow take place so slowly that only 
after considerable intervals are the results 
noticeable. When the metamorphosis is 
virtually complete (see Development of 
Bees), there is seen in place of the larva a 
bluish-white bee lying motionless on its 
back. 

The only appendages seemingly missing 
are the wings. Careful examination will 
reveal each pair folded up in a little case 
(pellicle), which lies against the side of the 
thorax between the first and the second 
pairs of legs. 

The first sign of coloring is seen on the 
ends of the antennm, then on the eyes and 
feet, and gradually it extends over the 
whole body. As the time approaches for 
the bee to emerge from the cell slight tre¬ 
mors are to be seen in the feet and legs, or 
an antenna moves. About the beginning of 
the last day the encased wings begin to 
quiver and move. Slowly they turn until 
they lie under the bee and at once they un¬ 
fold. As soon as this occurs, the bee turns 
over and begins to cut its way out. 

THE YOUNG BEE. 

Almost as soon as out, it begins to move 
over the surface of the combs; and when it 


BEE BEHAVIOR 


m 


comes to a cell o£ honey it enters and eats. 
Just when it begins to eat pollen is unde¬ 
termined. After eating, the young bee com¬ 
mences to comb itself and this procedure 
continues more or less steadily for a day or 
more. At this tender age the insect’s vision 
seems to be very imperfect. Also, it is un¬ 
able to fly; and, if tossed into the air, it 
makes no attempt to use its wings. This 
function appears only at a later age. 
Drones, queens, and workers all spend the 
early hours of their life in much the same 
way, except that queens seem to be able to 
fly sooner than workers. Probably, queens 
most precocious in this way have been held 
in the cells longer than normally and have 
matured in there. 

The color of the young bee deepens with 
age. When they first emerge they are much 
lighter in color than a day or two later. 
This difference is more noticeable with 
queens than with workers or drones. 

HOME LABOR OF BEES. 

The first duty of the worker is the feed¬ 
ing of the larvae, and then a little at a time 
it extends to pollen-packing, propolizing, 
comb-cleaning and repairing, honey-ripen¬ 
ing, and comb-building. 

THE FIRST POLLEN OF THE SEASON. 

When a bee comes in from the field with 
a load of pollen, she is often surrounded by 
other bees, all trying to get a bite of the 
coveted food. This is especially noticeable 
in the spring when fresh pollen first ap¬ 
pears. It is amusing to watch a pollen¬ 
laden bee sidestep, whirl, shake, and go 
thru all sorts of actions. 

THE UNLOADING OF THE POLLEN. 

On their return to the hive with their 
loads of pollen the bees differ widely in 
their behavior. A part walk slowly over 
the combs, while a part, presumably the 
younger bees, appear greatly excited, shak¬ 
ing their bodies and moving their wings. 
A cell may be selected with little hesitation 
or many may be examined before one is 
found satisfactory to the bee. The pollen 
may be stored in an empty cell, or in one 
already partly filled with pollen, either ot 
the same kind or of different kinds; but 
drone comb is seldom used, altho this occa¬ 
sionally happens. 


The way in which the bee unloads the 
masses of pollen has been fully described 
by Casteel. Grasping one edge of the cell 
with its fore legs, it arches its abdomen so 
that its apex rests on the opposite side of 
the cell. The hind legs hang down freely 
in the cell with the pollen masses about 
level with its edge. The planta (metatar¬ 
sus) of the middle leg on each side is then 
raised and thrust downward between the 
pollen mass and the tibia so that the mass 
is shoved outward and falls into the cell. 
The middle legs are now rested on the edge 
of the cell. Casteel was unable to deter¬ 
mine definitely whether the spurs were of 
any aid in dislodging the pollen, as assert¬ 
ed by Cheshire, or not. 

The bee usually departs without any fur¬ 
ther attention to the pollen masses, and 
another worker shortly afterward attends 
to the packing. Entering the cell headfirst, 
the bee breaks up the pellets of pollen, 
mashes them down on the bottom of the 
cell, and adds sugar and perhaps other se¬ 
cretions which change the chemical consti¬ 
tution of the pollen. See Pollen. 

PROPOLIS. HOW GATHERED AND USED. 

Propolis is brought in on the pollen-bas¬ 
kets. When it is gathered fresh from the 
buds, it looks like a glistening bead in the 
pollen-baskets; but when it is gathered 
from old frames, hives, etc., the pellets are 
more irregular. Propolis is always packed 
while the bee is standing, while pollen 
which is packed and carried in the same 
baskets is adjusted while the bee is flying. 
This difference in the way of using the 
same limbs for different materials is very 
interesting. 

Propolis is taken from the legs of the 
field bees and stuck into all sorts of 
places and is moved and reworked as suits 
the vagaries of the bees. Much of the 
propolis is spread with the tongue. Wheth¬ 
er or not the bee varnishes the inside of 
brood-cells with propolis is unknown. Cer¬ 
tainly they spend much time polishing the 
inside of such cells, going over and over 
the surface with their tongues; and when 
they have finished, the cell walls shine as if 
varnished. This is not done to new combs 
used for honey only; but let such be once 
used for brood, then it gets its polishing 
before being used for anything else. 


94 


BEE BEHAVIOR 


Comb-repairing and building seems to be 
a haphazard job, and the work of one bee 
is often at once undone by another. Pro¬ 
polis is used in the construction of new 
comb, sometimes as much as one-half to 
three-quarters of an ounce being added to 
a pound of wax. It adds to the strength of 
the comb and makes its fastening to the 
wood more secure. 

HOW BEES DEPOSIT THEIR LOAD OF NECTAR. 

The honey-laden bee on returning from 
the field is not in a hurry to get rid of her 
load, and it is not at all unusual for her to 
keep it for half an hour or more before 
depositing it. She may walk aimlessly 
about or settle quietly down somewhere 
and seemingly forget the world, or she 
may, after an extended journey over the 
combs, select a cell for her load. She en¬ 
ters the cell with her back down and feet 
up. If the cell has no honey in it, she goes 
in until her mandibles touch the upper and 
rearmost angle. The mouth and mandibles 
are opened and a drop of nectar appears, 
welling up until it touches the cell wall. 
Slowly the bee turns her head from side to 
side, spreading the nectar against the up¬ 
per part of the cell. All this time the 
mandibles are kept in motion; and as the 
nectar covers their gland openings, it is 
possible that the secretion of those glands 
is being added to. the nectar. 

When the bee is adding her load to honey 
already in a cell, the proceeding is the 
same, except that the mouth parts are sub¬ 
merged in the honey already there. The 
mandibles are kept in motion as before. 
The tongue in neither ease takes any part 
in the proceeding, but is kept folded be¬ 
hind the head. 

THE RESTING PERIODS OF BEES. 

When rid of her load, the worker may at 
once return to the field, but usually she 
loiters about the hive for a while—from a 
few minutes to half a day. So commonly 
do such bees crawl into a cell and go to 
sleep for a half-hour or so that it is reason¬ 
able to assume that such is the customary 
proceeding. By sleeping is meant as nearly 
a complete suspension of movement as pos¬ 
sible. The customary pulsation of the ab¬ 
domen nearly, if not quite, ceases, or is 


suspended for minutes at a time, and the 
occasional pulsation is very slow. 

When the nap is over, the bee backs out, 
combs off her head just as if “scratching 
for a thought,” and starts off in more or 
less of a hurry. 

Presumably, all the bees of a colony do 
some of this sleeping, and drones and 
queen are no exception; but in the case of 
the latter two, the sleeping is not usually 
done in cells. 

When bees are .getting stolen sweets, a 
very different condition arises; a feverish 
excitement is noticeable in the returning 
workers, and it is not long before the whole 
colony is in a more or less disturbed state. 
Sleeping then is not in evidence. Why a 
load or several loads of honey should cause 
so marked a difference from several loads 
of nectar is unknown, and until we know 
more about the bee it is idle to speculate. 

HOW BEES RIPEN HONEY. 

The process by which the bees evaporate 
and gradually convert the thin nectar into 
thick honey is called ripening. 

Honey-ripening is a slow but. interesting 
process. After a day’s work is about 
over, almost the whole colony spreads out 
over all available surface, and nearly every 
bee has her sac full of honey. All the bees 
hang vertically with head up, and all seem 
to prefer not to be crowded too closely by 
the other bees. Then each bee opens her 
mandibles and mouth and forces up a drop 
of nectar. This drop fills the mouth and 
extends up over the upper lip and fills the 
space between the mandibles, covering the 
openings of the glands connected therewith. 
The tongue.meantime is kept folded behind 
the head. Next, the bee begins a chewing 
motion with the lower “jaw 1 ” and this 
causes the drop to pulsate. The mandibles 
are held still. They are not moved as in de¬ 
positing nectar. 

For about ten minutes this operation is 
continued; then the drop is swallowed, and 
after a few moments’ pause another drop 
appears, and the process is renewed. This 
is continued by the colony until about 11 
p. M., or sometimes later, and then work 
stops and all hands go to sleep. 

While the work is in process, the heavy 
hum so pleasant to the ears of beekeepers 


BEE BEHAVIOR 


% 


is continuous; but after the work ceases, 
the hive becomes almost silent. This varies 
with the amount of honey gathered during 
the day. Sometimes the humming lasts 
almost all night, and sometimes it ceases 
early in the evening. 

COMB-BUILDING AND ITS RELATION TO THE 
RIPENING OF HONEY. 

Comb-building is rapid when most of the 
bees are ripening nectar. If the flow is 
good and many bees have to retain their 
loads for a while, as, with a recently hived 
swarm, wax secretion is rapid. Or if the 
flow is heavy and nearly all have to work 
at the ripening process, wax secretion is 
forced. The bees cannot help producing it 
then. Its production seems to be closely 
connected with the conversion of nectar 
into honey. If this view is correct, it 
affords an explanation of the failure to ob¬ 
tain satisfactory results in feeding back 
ripe honey to have sections completed. 
Honey extracted “raw” or “green” (that 
is before it is sufficiently ripened) and fed 
to comb-building colonies gives much bet¬ 
ter results. 

VARIATION IN COMB-BUILDING. 

No satisfactory explanation has been 
found to account for the construction of 
the two sizes of cells. Several theories 
have been advanced, but so far are only in¬ 
teresting. 

Great variations in comb work is found 
between bees of different strains or of dif¬ 
ferent colonies closely related. Some colo¬ 
nies build comb of wonderful smoothness 
and uniformity, and others never produce 
good combs. One will rarely use a braee- 
or a burr-comb, that is combs built irregu¬ 
larly on sides of hives or combs, while an¬ 
other stieks them everywhere. By selection 
the beekeeper can weed out the stock with 
undesirable traits and perpetuate the oth¬ 
ers. 

The difference in capping is well recog¬ 
nized, and selection is as effective in this 
case as in the former. The difference be¬ 
tween colonies in building out to frame or 
section sides and down to bottom-bars or of 
rounding off the edges has often been re¬ 
marked. It may be stated in a general way 
that the bees which build clear to the wood 


usually leave the outer cells unsealed, while 
those bees which round off the edges of the 
combs seal all cells. (This was first defined 
by Allen Latham.) Of course, there are all 
gradations, but fundamentally the law 
holds good. 

THE ARRANGEMENT OF BROOD, POLLEN, AND 
HONEY. 

The arrangement of brood, pollen, and 
honey, the first in the center, then the oth¬ 
ers in order about it, is interesting, and 
with rare exceptions is always the arrange¬ 
ment. As the brood increases in the spring, 
we may say the pollen is forced outward 
and the honey forced beyond that. In the 
closing of the season the process is re¬ 
versed, and under what we may be per¬ 
mitted to call natural conditions, as in a 
tree, box, or undisturbed frame hive, the 
brood is slowly worked downward and for¬ 
ward, so that at the end of the season the 
cluster is down by the entrance with the 
stores at each side of, and behind it. This 
is not always the location of the cluster in 
our frame hives; but if man has not med¬ 
dled after midsummer, it will generally be 
found to be so. 

THE QUEEN. 

This individual is unquestionably the 
most interesting member of the bee com¬ 
munity, and more talked of and written 
about than any other, and perhaps more 
misunderstood. From earliest infancy she 
is subject to more vagaries than any of the 
other bees. 

The presence or absence of the function¬ 
al odor may have something to do with the 
introduction of alien queens, or it may be 
wholly their behavior. 

After handling a laying queen, bees from 
any hive will run over one’s hand, appar¬ 
ently eagerly seeking the queen, and the 
behavior of all workers is the same whether 
they are from the queen’s hive or from 
another. 

There is much difference in the tempera¬ 
ment of queens. Some are very timid, and 
will run on the slightest disturbance, and, 
if handled or anointed with any foreign 
substance, seem to become really frantic. 
Such queens are very apt to be balled or 
killed by the bees. Other queens will pas¬ 
sively submit to all sorts of treatment, and, 


96 


BEE BEHAVIOR 


as soon as let alone, will quietly resume 
their duties. 

Virgin queens are almost always nervous 
or timid; and if put into a strange colony, 
large or small, very often, or perhaps it 
would be more accurate to say generally, 
run out and fly away, by no means always 
returning. 

Before mating,- a queen hunts up her own 
food from the combs; but after she begins 
to lay she turns to the workers for virtually 
all her food. Once in a great while she will 
dip her tongue into a cell of honey, but not 
often. As she passes about her duties, she 
from time to time crosses antennae with 
workers. Finally one is found with a sup¬ 
ply of food; the worker’s mouth opens and 
the queen inserts her tongue and begins to 
eat. The worker’s tongue is kept folded 
behind the head. It is quite common to see 
several other workers extend their tongues 
and try to get a taste of the food, and 
sometimes one will succeed in putting her 
tongue in with the queen’s. It is not at 
all unusual to see two workers getting food 
thus from another worker, and the drones 
obtain their food in the same way. 

Egg production is influenced.by several 
factors. Queens differ in fecundity, and 
egg development is dependent on food. 
The food supply comes chiefly from the 
younger bees; and, if they are not numer¬ 
ous, the queen cannot 'produce eggs in 
abundance. If honey and pollen are scarce 
or temperature is low, food is not pre¬ 
pared freely. 

If the queen is young and vigorous and 
the colony small, she may deposit several 
eggs in each cell. If comb surface is insuf¬ 
ficient and bees abundant, she will use cells 
of any shape, deep, shallow, or crooked, 
and will put in each one an egg which will 
produce a worker. If no drone cells are 
available, a normal queen may at times 
put into worker cells eggs which will pro¬ 
duce drones. 

So many are the vagaries of a queen that 
only by observation and experience can 
most of them be learned, and the seasoned 
veteran not infrequently runs across some 
new peculiarity. 

A normal laying queen proceeds over the 
comb depositing drone eggs in drone cells 
and worker eggs in worker cells, apparent¬ 


ly being able to lay either drone or worker 
eggs at will. After an egg is put in a cell 
a worker is pretty sure to pop in and in¬ 
spect it, and it has been supposed that pos¬ 
sibly they did something to it. Inspection 
of thousands of bees occupied in examin¬ 
ing eggs has failed to find a single one that 
touches an egg in any way. Bees often 
take their nap in cells containing eggs or 
larvee. 

During a heavy flow of nectar, the bees 
often deposit it in cells containing eggs, 
sometimes filling the cells half full. Such 
nectar is removed within a few hours, and 
the eggs hatch as usual. 

DRONES. 

Drones have many interesting habits, and 
are well worth closer study than they have 
yet received. They are much slower to ma¬ 
nure after emergence from cells than the 
workers. They are very fond of warmth, 
and may often in cool weather be found 
massed shoulder to shoulder in outlying 
sealed brood. 

It seems to take a lot of preparation on 
the drone’s part before he can take wing. 
Drones pay no attention to a virgin queen 
among them in the hive, no matter what 
her age. 

SWARMING. 

Swarming apparently starts with a bee 
here and there. Such a bee suddenly begins 
to run a few steps one way, then a few 
another, then spins around and finally ap¬ 
pears to work itself into a veritable frenzy. 
Other bees take it up and soon a rush is 
made, and is quite as apt to be from as 
toward the entrance. As soon, however, as 
part of the flood begins to emerge from 
the entrance the tide turns that way and 
the majority of the bees begin pouring 
from the hive by thousands until the air 
is filled with a great cloud of humming 
bees. Usually they cluster on the branch 
of a tree not far from their hive, waiting 
to make certain that the queen is with 
them before leaving for their new home, 
which generally has been chosen by the 
scouts sent out several days before the 
swarm issues. See Swarming. ■ 

For the behavior of bees during winter, 
see Temperature, sub-head “Temperature 
of the Cluster in Winter.” 


P> RE-HUNTING 


97 


BEEBREAD. —A term in common use, 
applied to pollen when stored in the combs. 
In olden times (and in parts of the South 
yet) bees were killed with sulphur to get 
the honey, more or less pollen being usually 
found mixed with the honey; it has some¬ 
thing of a “bready” taste, and hence, prob¬ 
ably, came its name. Since the advent of the 
extractor and section boxes, it is very rare 
to find pollen in the honey designed for 
table use. See Pollen. 

BEE-DRESS.— See Veils. 

BEE-ESCAPES.— See Comb Honey, 
also Extracting. 

BEE-HUNTINC. —In some localities 
wild bees are located in hollow trees, crev¬ 
ices in rocks, between the walls of build¬ 
ings and under cornices of buildings. The 
art of bee-hunting, however, is usually con¬ 
fined to the locating and capturing of bees 
in bee-trees. 

The reader is given the warning so 
often, against leaving sweets of any kind 
about the apiary, and about being careful 
not to let the bees get to robbing each 
other, that it may seem strange for us to 
tell how best to encourage and develop 
this very robbing propensity. 

The only season in which one can trap 
bees is when they will rob briskly at home; 
for while honey is to be found in the flow¬ 
ers in plenty, they will hardly deign to no¬ 
tice bait of even honey in the comb. Be¬ 
fore starting out, it will be policy to learn 
if there are any bees kept in the vicinity, 
for one might otherwise waste much time 
in following lines that lead into the hives 
of his neighbors. The hunter should 
be at least a mile from any one who has 
a colony of bees when he commences opera¬ 
tions, and it is safer to be two miles. This 
does not mean that there are no bee-trees 
near large apiaries, for a number will often 
be found within half a mile of one’s own: 
but those who are just learning would, 
very likely, be much perplexed and both¬ 
ered by lining bees that proved to be his 
neighbor’s. 

LINING THE BEES. 

Perhaps the readiest means of doing 
this is to catch the bees that will be found 
on the flowers, especially in the early part 

4 


of the day. They should be induced to 
take a sip of the honey brought for that 
purpose, and they will, true to their in¬ 
stinctive love of gain, speed homeward 
with their load, soon to return for an¬ 
other. To find the tree, it is necessary to 
watch and see where they go. 

The bee-hunter can get along with very 
simple implements; but, if time is valua¬ 
ble, it may pay 'to go out fully equipped. 
For instance, a small glass tumbler will an¬ 
swer to catch bees; and after one has been 
caught, the glass can be set over a piece 
of honeycomb. It should now be covered 
with a handkerchief to stop the bee’s buz¬ 
zing against the glass, when it will soon 
discover the honey and load up. As soon 
as it is really at work on the honey, the 
glass should be raised and the bee-hunter 
should creep away where he may get a 
good view of the proceedings. As soon as 
it takes wing it will circle about the honey, 
as a young bee does in front of the hive, 
that it may know where to return: for a 
whole “chunk” of honey, during the dry 
autumn days, is apparently quite a little 
gold mine in its estimation. There may. 
perhaps, be a thousand or more hungry 
mouths to feed, away in the forest in its 
leafy home. 

If one is quick enough to keep track of 
the bee’s eccentric circles and oscillations, 
he will see that these circles become larger 
and larger, and that each time the bee 
comes around it sways to one side; that is. 
instead of making the honey the center of 
its circles, it makes it almost on one edge, 
so that the last few times the bee comes 
around it simply comes back after it has 
started home, and throws a loop, as it were, 
about the honey to make sure of it for the 
last time. Now one can be pretty sure 
which way its home lies almost the very 
first circuit it makes, for it has its home in 
mind all the time, and bears more and more 
toward it. 

If the bee-hunter can keep his eye on the 
bee until it finally takes the “bee line” 
for home, he does pretty well, but a be¬ 
ginner can seldom do this. After the bee is 
out of sight, the observer has only to wait 
until it comes back, which it will surely do, 
if honey is scarce. Of course, if its home 
is near by it will get back soon; and to 
determine how far it is by the length of 


98 


BEE-HUNTING 


time the bee is gone, brings in another very 
important point. The honey that bees get 
from flowers is very thin; in fact, it is 
nearer sweetened water than honey, and 
if one wishes a bee to load up and fly at 
about a natural “gait/’ he should give it 
honey diluted with water to about this 
consistency. Unless he does, it will not 
only take a great deal more time in loading 
up, but the thick honey is so much heavier 
the bees will very likely stagger under the 
load, and make a very crooked bee line of 
its homeward path. Besides it will take 
much more time to unload. Sometimes, 
after circling about quite a time, the bee 
will stop to take breath before going home, 
which is apt to mislead the hunter unless 
he is experienced; all this is avoided by 
filling the honeycomb with honey and wa¬ 
ter, instead of with honey alone. 

It takes quite a little time to get a bee 
caught and started at work, and it is best 
to have several bees started at the same 
time. To do this expeditiously, a bee- 
lmnting box made as in tbe following cut 
should be used. 

BOX TOR BEE-HUNTING. 

A suitable box for bee-hunting may easi¬ 
ly be made from an ordinary cigar box. 
But it should be well aired as bees do not 
like the odor of tobacco. In the lid should 
be cut a small hole, perhaps an inch square. 



Improved hunting-box used by Mell Pritchard, 
Medina, Ohio. The construction of the box is 
plainly shown in this illustration. 


Over this a tin slide should be arranged’ 
so that the hole may be opened and closed 
as desired. On the cover of the cigar box, 
and covering this hole, should be attached 
a small box with a sliding glass top and 
no bottom. In the bottom of the cigar box 
a small feeder should be placed. 


HOW TO USE THE HUNTING-BOX. 

The hunter should take with the box 
about a pint of diluted honey in a bottle. 
If he fills the bottle half full of thick hon¬ 
ey, and then fills it up with warm water, it 
will be about right. In the fall he will be 
more likely to find bees on the flowers in 
the early part of the day. When he gets 
on the ground, near some forest, where he 
suspects the presence of wild bees, he 
should pour a little honey into the feeder, 
and, with open box, cautiously approach a 
bee feeding upon some flower. 

As soon as the box is near enough, the 
bee should be caught in the box and the 
lid quickly closed. In a short time, the bee 
will have sipped a load of honey and, see¬ 
ing the light thru the small hole above, will 
soon emerge into the upper box and buzz 
against the glass. The lower tin slide may 
then be closed and the box placed on some 
elevated point, such as the top of a stump 
in an open space in the field and the glass 
slide withdrawn. The hunter should stoop 
down now, and be ready to keep his eye 
on the bee as it flies, whichever -way it may 
turn. If he keeps his head low, he will be 
more likely to have the sky as a back¬ 
ground. If he fails in following the first 
bee, he must try another; and as soon as 
he gets a sure line on one as it bears finally 
for home, he should be sure to mark it by 
some object that he can remember. If he 
is curious to know long it is gone, he 
can, with some white paint and a pencil¬ 
brush, mark it on the back or he may dust 
the entire bee with flour. This is quite a 
help where one has two or more lines work¬ 
ing from the same bait. Bees vary in their 
flight. But it has been found that on an 
average they will fly a mile in five min¬ 
utes, and spend about two minutes in the 
hive or tree. Of course, they will spend 
more time in a tree when they have to 
crawl a long distance to get to the brood- 
nest, hence we may deduce the rule: Sub¬ 
tract two from the number of minutes ab¬ 
sent, and divide by ten. The quotient is 
the number of miles from the stand to the 
tree. This applies to partially wooded 
country. Perhaps in a clearing they could 
make better time. On a very windy day it 
takes them longer to make trips. When a 
bee comes back, it can be recognized by 









BEE-HUNT JNG 


99 


the peculiar inquiring hum, like robbers 
in front of a hive where they have once 
had a taste of spoils. If the tree is near 
by, each one will bring others along in its 
wake, and soon the box will be humming 
with a throng so eager that a further fill¬ 
ing of the feeder from the bottle will be 
needed. As soon as the hunter is pretty 
well satisfied in which direction they are 
located, he can close the box and move 
along on the line, nearer the woods. After 
the box is again opened, the bees will soon 
be as busy as ever. To aid in deciding just 
where they are, he can move off to one 
side and start a cross-line. Of course the 
tree will be found just where these lines 
meet. It is a waste of time to look for 
the bee-tree, or to make cross-lines, until 
one gets beyond the tree. When the bees 
fly back on the line he may rest assured 
that he is beyond the tree. He should 
then move his last two stands closer to¬ 
gether (lining the bees carefully), so that 
they are only 10 or 15 rods apart. As 
there will be bees flying from two direc¬ 
tions into the tree he will probably dis¬ 
cover where they are immediately. When 
one gets where he thinks they should be, 
he. should examine the trees carefully, es¬ 
pecially all the knot-holes, or any place 
that might allow bees to enter and find a 
cavity. If he places himself so that the 
bees will be between him and the sun, he 
can see them plainly, even if they are 
among the highest branches. He should 
make a careful and minute examination 
of every tree, little and big, body and 
limbs, even if it does make his neck ache. 
If he does not find them by carefully look¬ 
ing the trees over, he should go back and 
get his hunting-box, bring it up to the 
spot, and give them feed until he gets a 
quart or more at work. He can then see 
pretty clearly where they enter. If he 
does not find them the first day, he can 
readily start them again almost any time, 
for they are very quick to start, when 
they have once been at work, even tho it 
is several days afterward. Bees are some¬ 
times started by burning what is called a 
“smudge.” Some old bits of comb con¬ 
taining beebread as well as honey may be 
burned on a small tin plate sitting over a 
little fire. The bees will be attracted by the 
odor of the burning honey and comb, and, 


if near, will sometimes come in great num¬ 
bers. 

A telescope is very convenient in finding 
where the bees go in, especially if the tree 
is very tall; even the toy telescopes sold 
for a dollar or two are sometimes quite 
a help. The most serviceable, however, are 
the achromatic opera glasses that cost five 
or ten times this amount. With these, one 
can use both eyes, and the field is so broad 
that no time is lost in getting the glass in¬ 
stantly on the spot. He can, in fact, see 
bees with them in the tops of the tallest 
trees almost as clearly as he can see them 
going into hives placed on the ground. 

After one has found the tree, probably 
he will be in a hurry to get the bees that 
he knows are there, and the honey that 
may be there. One should not put his ex¬ 
pectations too high, for he may not get a 
single pound of honey. Of two trees that 
the author took a few years ago, one con¬ 
tained just about as much honey as he had 
fed the bees, and the other contained not 
one visible cell full. The former were fair 
hybrids, and the latter well-marked Ital¬ 
ians. If the tree is not a valuable one, and 
stands where timber is cheap and plentiful, 
perhaps the easiest way is to cut it down. 
This may result in a smashed heap of ruins, 
with combs, honey, and bees all mixed up 
with dirt and rubbish, or it may fall so as 
to strike on the limbs or small trees, and 
thus ease its fall in such a way as to do 
little injury to the tree or contents. The 
chances are rather in favor of the former, 
and on many accounts it is advisable to 
climb the tree and let the bees down with a 
rope. If the hollow is in the body of the 
tree, or so situated that it cannot be cut 
off above and below the bees, the combs 
may be taken out and let down in a pail 
or basket; for the brood-combs, and such 
as contain but little honey, the basket will 
be rather preferable. 

CLIMBERS FOR BEE-HUNTERS. 

For climbing trees 12 to 18 inches in 
diameter, a pair of climbers should be used, 
such as can be obtained at any telephone 
office. 

If the tree is large, the climber should 
provide himself with a withe or whip of 
some tough green bough, and bend this 
so it will go around the trunk, while an 



BEE-HUNTING 


end is held in each hand. As he climbs 
upward, this is hitched up the tree. If 
he keeps a sure and firm hold on this 
whip, and strikes his climbers into the 
trunk firmly, he can go up most trees 
with reasonable safety. Some light cord, 
a clothesline, for instance, should be 
tied around his waist, so he can draw 
up such- tools as he may need. Those 
needed are a sharp ax, a hatchet, saw, and 
an auger to bore in to see just how far 
the hollow extends. If the bees are to be 
saved, the limb or tree should be cut off 
above the hollow, and allowed to fall. A 
stout rope can then be tied about the log 
hive, passed over some limb above, the 
end brought down and wrapped about a 
tree until the hive is cut off ready to 
lower. After it is down, it should stand 
an hour or two, or until sundown, when 
all the bees will have found and entered 
the hive; then, the entrance having been 
covered with wire cloth, the hive may be 
taken home. 

There are some trees, indeed, so large 
that it would be impossible to climb them 
in the manner given. A very ingenious 
plan, however, has been put into execu¬ 
tion by Green Derrington of Poplar Bluff, 
Mo. Plere is given his description, together 
with an engraving made from a photo¬ 
graph which he sent. 

I send you a photograph of a very large 
tree, which I climbed by means of spikes 
and staples. To prevent the possibility of 
falling I put a belt under my arms. To this 
I attached two chains. At the end of each 
chain is a snap. My method of climbing is 
as follows: After ascending the ladder as 
far as I can go, I drive into the side of the 
tree a large bridge spike, far enough into 
the wood to hold my weight. A little fur¬ 
ther up I drive another spike. In between 
the spikes I drive the first staple, and to 
this I attach the first chain by means of the 
snap, and ascend by the nails as far as the 
chain will allow me; I then drive another 
staple, and attach the other chain, and next 
loosen the lower snap. After driving in 
more spikes, I again ascend as high as the 
chain will allow me, and attach the other 
chain to another staple. In this manner I 
can make my ascent with perfect security. 

HOW TO GET BEES OUT OF BEE-TREES OR FROM 

BETWEEN THE SIDINGS OF A HOUSE WITH¬ 
OUT MUTILATING EITHER THE TREE OR THE 

HOUSE. 

It sometimes happens that a colony of 


A bee-tree 11 feet in diameter climbed by Green 
Derrington. 

bees will take their abode in some fine shade 
tree in a park, which the authorities will 
not allow to be cutor they will domicile 
in the woods of some farmer, who. while 
he will allow the bee-hunter to get the bees, 












A dissected Lee-tree. This shows the general arrangement of combs in the cavity. Fortunately in this 
case the swarm was accommodating enough to make the nest close to the ground where it was easily cap- 

turest 


102 


BEE-HUNTING 


will not let him cut the tree; or, as it often 
happens, a colony will make its home be¬ 
tween the plaster and the clapboarding of 
a house. How, then, can such bees and 
their honey be secured without doing any 
damage to the tree or the building that 
gives them a home and protection? The 
matter is made very easy by the use of 
the modern bee-escape. For particulars 
regarding this device, see Comb Honey 
and Extracted Honey. 

Having the bees located in the bee-tree, 
the hunter prepares a small colony of bees 
or a nucleus with a queen, putting it into 
a light hive or box, which can be carried to 
the scene of operations. He takes along 
with him a hammer, a saw, some nails, and 
lumber, with which he can make a tempo¬ 
rary platform. On arriving on the spot he 
lights his smoker and then prepares to set 
up his platform directly opposite to or in 
front of the flight-hole of the bee-tree, or 
the knot-hole of the dwelling. The plat¬ 
form he constructs out of the lumber he 
has brought. Before doing so it will be 
necessary for him to blow smoke into the 
flight-hole, in order to prevent bees from 
interfering with the building of the tem¬ 
porary hive-stand. He next puts a Por¬ 
ter bee-escape over the flight-hole of the 
tree or building, in such a way that the 
bees can come out but not go back in. Last 
of all he places his hive with the bees 
which he has brought, with its entrance 
as near as possible to the bee-escape (now 
placed over the old entrance). 

His work is now complete, and he leaves 
the bees to work out their own salvation. 

The bees from the tree, as fast as they 
come out, are, of course, unable to return. 
These, one by one, find their way into the 
hive on the temporary platform. At the 
end of four or five weeks the queen in the 
tree or dwelling will have very few bees 
left, and there will also be but little brood 
for that matter, thru lack of bees to take 
care of it, for her subjects are nearly all 
in the hive on the outside. 

At this time Mr. Bee-hunter appears on 
the scene. He loads his smoker with fuel 
(brimstone), removes the bee-escape and 
brimstones the old colony, or what is left, 
which by this time is probably not more 
than a handful of bees with the queen. 

Again he leaves the scene of operation; 


but the bee-escape is not replaced. What 
happens now ? The bees in the hive, includ¬ 
ing those that were captured, rob all the 
honey out of the old nest in the tree or 
house in the course of three or four days, 
carrying it into the hive on the extempoi 
rized platform. 

The bee-hunter now takes away the hive, 
removes the temporary hive-stand and car¬ 
ries the bees home. If they be taken a mile 
or a mile and a half, they will stay where 
placed. If the distance is less, the colony 
should be moved to a temporary location 
two miles or more away and left a week 
before being taken home. 

In the meantime, no damage has been 
done either to tree or building, as the case 
may be. All that will be left in the tree 
will be some old dry combs which, in the 
form of wax, probably would not amount 
to fifty cents, if the time of rendering be 
taken into account. 

This method of taking bees could not 
very well be practiced where the bees are 
located in inaccessible positions, as in high 
trees; but it will be found very useful 
where a colony is located in some building 
or shade tree in a park. 

The author is indebted for the general 
principles of this plan to Ralph Fisher of 
Great Meadows, N. J., who has practiced 
this plan with great success. 

DOES BEE-HUNTING PAY? 

From the point of view of securing bees 
at a low cost, it is safe to say that it never 
pays. Bees can always be purchased in 
the open market cheaper than to get them 
from trees; but from the standpoint of a 
royal half-holiday of fun, where one can not 
only get the outdoor air and good scenery 
but some real thrills, it is a great success. 
It should be understood that bee-hunting 
is hazardous—not because of stings, but 
because of the danger of climbing large 
trees. 

Where the woods have one or more col¬ 
onies of black or hybrid bees, and one 
desires to raise queens or keep his own 
stock pure for honey production, it will 
pay to hunt out and capture the bees in 
these old trees, if for no other purpose 
than to get rid of the drones. 

If there is any brood disease in the lo¬ 
cality, the bee-trees will be almost sure to 


BEEKEEPING FOR WOMEN 


have it. As long - as these are present 
within half a mile of an apiary of bees 
it would be impossible to keep them clean. 
In such a case the owner of the bees can 
well afford to hunt out every bee-tree in 
range. Merely trapping the bees out of 
the trees would not be sufficient. He 
would have to get permission to cut down 
the trees and burn up the logs or limbs 
containing the cavity. 

BEE-TREES MENACE TO QUEEN-BREEDERS. 

It should be explained further that if one 
is trying to Italianize his apiary the pres¬ 
ence of black bees in the woods will serious¬ 
ly interfere with pure mating. When bees 
build their combs naturally in trees they 
build an excessive amount of drone comb. 
The blacks will, therefore, raise drones out 
of all proportion to the number raised in 
hives of Italians where only combs from 
foundation are used. It is not any exag¬ 
geration to say that one colony of blacks 
on natural combs will raise as many drones 
as 40 or 50 colonies of Italians whose 
combs are built from all-worker founda¬ 
tion. It would, therefore, pay and pay 
well to get all the bee-trees of blacks or 
hybrids, even if there were no foul brood 
or no financial gain in the honey or bees 
so secured. 

BEEKEEPING AS A SPECIALTY.— 

See Beginning with bees, Profits in 
Bees, and Specialty in Bees. 

BEEKEEPING FOR WOMEN. 

[Tt is presumed, of course, that no ordinary man 
would be entirely competent to write on a subject 
of this kind. In looking about for some woman to 
do this, the author could think of no one more able 
than Mrs. Anna B. Comstock, author of a charming 
work for beginners on “How to Keep Bees.’’ Mrs. 
Comstock is the wife of Prof. J. Henry Comstock, 
of Cornell University, and both of them are ento¬ 
mologists. We engaged her to write the following 
article.1 

Two questions invariably pop up at us 
when this matter of feminine beekeeping 
is discussed: One is, “Why shouldn’t a 
woman keep bees?” and the other is, “Why 
should a woman keep bees?” Like most 
other questions these may be answered 
more or less rationally with proper consid¬ 
eration. 

Taking the “why shouldn’t” question 
first, we are bound to confess that nowa¬ 
days there is no effective reason why a 
woman should not do almost any thing 


1011 

that she takes into her enterprising little 
head to do. But quite aside from the con¬ 
sideration of woman’s prowess, there are 
one or two reasons that might deter some 
of the faint-hearted fair from undertak¬ 
ing - beekeeping. There is no use trying to 
gloss over the fact that there is a great 
deal of hard work and heavy lifting in the 
care of a profitable apiary. The hard work 
is really no objection, as most women of 
whatever class are doing it anyway. But 
lifting heavy hives is certainly not particu¬ 
larly good exercise for any woman, altho 
I must confess that I have never lifted 
half so strenuously when earing for the 
bees as I used to on the farm when we 
moved the cook-stove into the summer 
kitchen, accomplishing this feat by our 
feminine selves, rather than to bring to 
the surface any of the latent profanity 
which seems to be engendered in the mas¬ 
culine bosom when taking part in this sea¬ 
sonal pastime. 

There are at least two ivays of obviating 
this feminine disability in beekeeping. 
One, practiced successfully by several 
women, is thru the use of a light wheel¬ 
barrow, which almost solves the problem if 
the bees are wintered out of doors and do 
not have to be carried up and down cellar 
stairs; the other method is to get some man 
to do the lifting and carrying.* It may be 
the husband, the father, the brother, the 
son, or the hired man; but as this work 
can be done at a time which can be planned 
for, it is not so difficult for the men of the 
establishment to give the help needed. I 
am sure my husband would say that I am 
quite enthusiastically in favor of the man 
solution of this problem; but his opinion 
does not count for much, because he loves 
the bees so enthusiastically I have to beg 
for a chance to work with them at all, al¬ 
tho he virtuously points out the hives to 
people as “Mrs. Comstock’s bees.” 

Another “shouldn’t” reason might be 
that women are afraid of bee-stings. This 
falls flat, from the fact that women are not 
a bit more nervous than men in this respect. 
This year when I was struggling to hive a 
swarm from a most difficult position, an 
interested man stood off at a safe distance 
in a most pained state of mind. He was a 

‘Some frail women remove all liopey, ope comb 
at !v time, 



104 


BEEKEEPING FOR WOMEN 


courteous gentleman, and lie felt that it was 
outrageous for me to have to do the work 
alone, but he did not dare to come to my 
aid, and I think lie considered my temerity 
in dealing with the swarm as almost scan¬ 
dalous. 

Thus having disposed of all the reasons I 
can think of why women shouldn’t keep 
bees, I turn gladly to the more interesting 
reasons why she should look upon the api¬ 
ary as one of her legitimate fields of labor. 
There are so many reasons for this that T 
could not enumerate them even if a com¬ 
plete number of a bee journal Avere given 
me for the purpose. So I shall speak of 
just a feAv of the most important reasons. 
T should put first of all, and as embracing 
all other reasons, that beekeeping may be 
made an interesting avocation which can 
be carried on coincidentally Avith other em¬ 
ployments; it is an interesting study in 
natural history; it cultivates calmness of 
spirit, self-control, and patience; it is a 
“heap” of fun; incidentally it may sup¬ 
ply the home table with a real luxury; and 
it may add a very considerable amount to 
any woman’s spending-money. It can also 
be carried on as a regular business, to sup¬ 
port a family. 

But it is as an avocation that I am espe¬ 
cially interested in the apiary. Any woman 
Avlio keeps house needs an avocation to take 
the mind and attention completely off her 
household cares at times. There is some¬ 
thing about the daily routine of housekeep¬ 
ing that wears mind and body full of ruts, 
even in the case of those avIio love to do 
houseAvork better than anything else. Talk 
about the servant question! It is not the 
servant question, but the housework ques¬ 
tion. If some means could be devised by 
Avhicli housework could be performed with 
inspiration, zeal, and enthusiasm, the ser¬ 
vant problem Avould solve itself; but this 
ideal way of doing houseAvork can be car¬ 
ried on only Avhen the spirit is freed from 
the sense of eternal drudgery. I am not a 
Avizard to bring about this change; but I 
know one step toward it, and that is the 
establishment of some permanent interest 
for woman that Avill pull her out of the ruts 
and give her body and mind a complete 
change and rest. Embroidery, lace-making, 
weaving, painting, and several other like 
occupations, may serve this purpose in a 


measure; and, perhaps, if carried on in 
the right way, may achieve more in this 
line than they do at present. But these 
are all indoor occupations; and Avhat a 
woman needs is something to take her out¬ 
doors AAdiere she can have fresh air. Excess 
of perspiration induced by the cook-stove 
is weakening; but honest sAveat called forth 
in the open air by the application of gen¬ 
erous sunshine is a source of health and 
strength. 

Beekeeping is one of the best of these 
life-saving, nerve-healing avocations; it 
takes the mind from household cares as 
completely as would a trip to Europe, for 
one cannot work Avith bees and think of 
anything else. Some of the attributes Avhicli 
make beekeeping an interesting avocation I 
AA’ill mention: First of all, bees are such 
Avonderful creatures, and so far beyond our 
comprehension, that they have for us al- 
Avavs the fascination of an unsolved prob¬ 
lem. I never pass our hives without men¬ 
tally asking, “Well, you dear little rascals, 
what will you do next?” Bees are of par¬ 
ticular interest to every woman for several 
reasons; if she likes good housekeeping, 
then the bee is a model; if she likes a 
Avoman of business, again is the bee a shin¬ 
ing light; if she is interested in the care of 
the young, then is the bee-nurse an exam¬ 
ple of perfection; if sh6 believes in the 
political rights of women, she will find 
the highest feminine political Avisdom in 
the constitution of the bee commune. In 
fact, it is only as a Avife that the bee is a 
little too casual to pose as ideal, altho as 
a widow she is certainly remarkable and 
perhaps even notorious. 

Another phase which makes beekeeping a 
pleasing avocation for Avomen is that much 
of the work is interesting and attractive. I 
never sit doAvn to the “job” of folding 
sections and putting in starters Avitbout ex¬ 
periencing joy at the prettiness of the 
work. And if there is any higher artistic 
happiness than comes from cleaning up a 
section holding a pound of Avell-capped 
amber honey and putting the same in a 
dainty carton for market, then I have never 
experienced it; and the making of pictirres 
has been one of my regular avocations. By 
the way, woman has never used her ai’tistic 
talent rightly in this matter of cartons. 
Each woman beekeeper ought to make her 


"BEE-SPACE 


105 


own colored design for the carton, tlms 
securing' something so individual and at¬ 
tractive as to catch at once (lie eye of the 
customer. 

As a means of cultivating' calmness, pa¬ 
tience, and self-control the bee is a well- 
recognized factor. Bees can be, and often 
are, profoundly exasperating; and yet how 
worse than futile it is to evince that exas¬ 
peration by word or movement! No crea¬ 
ture reacts more quickly against irritation 
than the bee. She cannot be kicked nor 
spanked; and if we smoke her too much, we 
ourselves are the losers. There is only one 
way to manage exasperation with bees — 
that is, to control it; and this makes the 
apiary a means of grace. 

The money-making side of beekeeping is 
a very important phase in arousing and 
continuing the woman’s interest in her 
work. I think woman is by birth and train¬ 
ing a natural gambler, and the uncertainty 
of the nectar supfrfy and of the honey mar¬ 
ket adds to rather than detracts from her 
interest in her apiary. I know of several 
women who have made comfortable incomes 
and supported their families by beekeep¬ 
ing; but, as yet, I think such instances are 
feAv. However, I believe there are a large 
number of women Avho have added a good¬ 
ly sum yearly to their amount of spending 
money, and have found the work a joy 
instead of drudgery. Personally, I have 
had very little expei'ience with the commer¬ 
cial side of beekeeping. Once when our 
maddeningly successful apiary grew to 40 
hives when we did not want more than a 
dozen at most, and the neighborhood was 
surfeited with our bounty, Ave Avere “just 
naturally” obliged to sell honey. We en¬ 
joyed greatly getting the product ready for 
market, and Avere somehow surprised that 
so much fun could be turned into ready 
cash. As a matter of fact, both my husband 
and myself have absorbing vocations and 
avocations in plenty, so that our sole rea¬ 
son for keeping bees is because we love 
the little creatures, and find them so in¬ 
teresting that Ave Avould not feel that home 
was really home without them; the sight 
of our busy little co-workers adds daily to 
our psychic income. We are so very busy 
that we have but very little time to spend 
with them, and have finally formulated our 
ideal for our OAvn beekeeping, and that is 


to keep bees for honey and for “fun.” We 
shall have plenty of honey for our OAvn 
table, and just enough to bestow on neigh¬ 
bors so they Avill not get tired of it; and. 
fun enough to season life Avith an out-of- 
door interest and the feeling that no sum¬ 
mer day is likely to pass without a sur¬ 
prise. See Veils. 

BEE LEGISLATION. —See Laws Re¬ 
lating to Bees. 

BEE MOTH. — See Motii Miller. 

BEE PARALYSIS.— See Diseases of 
Bees. 

BEE-SPACE.— This term is applied lo 
spaces left by the bees both between combs 
they, build and between the parts of the 
hive and the combs. It A 7 aries all the way 
from 3-16 to 3-8; but 5-16 is considered the 
correct average. But in hive-construction 
it has been found that a space of ^ inch 
will be more free from the building of bits 
of comb and the depositing of propolis 
than a little wider spacing. Any less space 
than 3-16 will be plugged up with propolis 
and wax. See Frames. 

Father Langstroth, in the great inven¬ 
tion which he gave to the woild — the first 
practical movable frame—made the dis¬ 
covery that bees recognize and protect pas¬ 
sageways which are noiv called bee-spaces. 
Taking advantage of this fact he made a 
frame (for holding ctinb) so that there 
would be a bee-space all around between it 
and the hive, and a bee-space betAveen it 
and any other frame. All Avho preceded 
him had failed to grasp the fact that bees 
would leave such spaces unfilled Avith Avax 
or propolis. Before Langstroth’s time it 
Avas necessary to pull out frames stuck 
fast to the hives with propolis, or tear or 
cut loose the combs Avith a thin-bladed 
knife, befoi-e they could be removed for 
the purpose* of inspection. 

By bringing out his bee-spaced frame the 
“father of modern apiculture” solved, 
with one great master stroke, a problem 
that had been puzzling the minds of bee¬ 
keepers for centuries. 

In later years, manufacturers of hives 
have been compelled to recognize this great 
principle, that there are certain parts in¬ 
side of the hive that must be bee-spaced 
from every other part or else they will be 


BEES AND FRUIT GROWING 


106 

stuck or glued together in a way that will 
make them practically inseparable. For 
example, the bottoms of supers containing 
the sections must be 5/16 inch above the 
tops of the brood-frames in the lower part 
of the hive. It has come to be a gen¬ 
eral practice to put the bee-space in the 
bottom-board, leaving the bottoms of the 
frames in the brood-nest nearly flush with 
the bottom of the hive. This makes it 
necessary to have the sides and ends of the 
hive project above the general level of the 
frames about 5/16 inch. In the same way 
the supers have a bee-space on top but not 
on the bottom. If a super be removed, and 
a hive-cover be put in its place, there will 
still be a space between the cover and the 
brood-frames. 

There are a few who believe that the 
bee-space should always be under the 
frames or sections. This will necessarily 
require that the top of the hive or super 
lie even with the tops of the frames or 
sections, and that the covers have cleats 
on the outside edges a bee-space thick. 
Such a combination is objectionable, be¬ 
cause these cleats could not be made tight 
enough to keep out cold, and because there 
are many beekeepers who -like to use a flat 
board cover that may be used either side 
up. It is very much more satisfactory to 
have the bottom-board cleated in the man¬ 
ner stated than the cover. Even if the 
cleats are not tight, warm air would not 
escape at this point. Practically all the 
beekeeping world is united in favor of hav¬ 
ing a bee-space on top of the frames and 
sections rather that under, and probably 
99 per cent of all the hives in use are so 
built. Any beginner or other person who 
will attempt to devise a hive with a bee- 
space on the bottom will be making a great 
mistake. His stuff will not match other 
equipment; and if the time comes when he 
will have to sell he would have«to dispose of 
it at a considerable reduction in price, for 
the reason that the bees would have to be 
transferred into other hives that would fit 
appliances commonly in use. 

It is customary to make a space be¬ 
tween the bottoms of the frames and the 
bottom-board much greater than the space 
on top. Modern hives usually provide from 
7 /g to 1 inch of space under the frames to 
allow for plenty of ventilation during hot 


weather. Such a space should have an 
entrance % inch deep. This is none too 
large during the hottest part of the year. 
See Entrances to Hives. 

During the winter, whether in the cellar 
or outdoors, the extra space allows for an 
accumulation of dead bees under the 
frames. If the bee-space under the frames 
is only 5/16 it might soon clog up with 
dead bees, thus preventing ventilation, 
finally ending in the destruction of the 
colony. 

BEES. —See Races of Bees; also Ital¬ 
ian Bees. 

BEES AND SCHOOL TEACHING.— 

Beekeeping fits in well with school teaching, 
for the bees usually need but little atten¬ 
tion during the winter term of school. In 
the North even when the school is con¬ 
tinued until the first of June or a little 
later, the management of the bees can usu¬ 
ally be such that the attention necessary 
for them can be given on Saturdays when 
school is not in session. See Building Up 
Colonies. 

At the close of the school year, beekeep¬ 
ing furnishes for the tired teacher pleas¬ 
ant outdoor recreation, often better fitting 
him for the next year’s work than do other 
forms of vacation which yield no profit 
but consume much of his winter earnings. 
On the other hand, at the close of the bee¬ 
keeping season, teaching affords the bee¬ 
keeper an opportunity for thought and 
study in the many fields into which bee¬ 
keeping naturally leads the thoughtful bee¬ 
keeper. 

BEES AND FRUIT-GROWING.— Un¬ 
der Fruit Blossoms and also under Pol¬ 
len it has been shown that beekeeping is 
very intimately related to fruit-growing. 
The production of much of the fruit from 
many trees and shrubs is dependent on the 
pollen being carried by bees to the bloom 
from different individuals or varieties of 
the same species, and in most cases the 
quantity is increased and the quality of 
the fruit is improved by such cross-polli¬ 
nation. The two industries can, there¬ 
fore, be united with great advantage. 
Fruit-growers have learned to appreciate 
the valuable work performed by bees. As 
they became convinced that the services 
of these little friends were indispensable, 



BEES AND POULTRY 


107 


from California and Wisconsin to New 
York and Florida, they not only began 
buying colonies of bees, but gradually in¬ 
creased their number until now it is not 
uncommon for a fruit-grower to own a 
large apiary. So far from adding to the 
expenses of fruit culture, the surplus of 
honey obtained has proved that beekeeping, 
in this connection, may become a very 
profitable side line. One man, or force of 
men, can care for the bees a part of the 
time, and for the fruit trees the other part, 
and thus be able to furnish two of the 
finest sweets in the world—the sugar, in 
fruit and the sugar in the nectar of the 
flowers. 

Within the last few years the citrus- 
growers of California and the southern 
States, particularly Florida and the Isle 
of Pines, have in many instances increased 
the quantity of fruit produced by their 
groves by the introduction of the domestic 
bee. While the number of colonies re¬ 
quired has been estimated as low as one per 
acre, to pollinate the bloom thoroly four or 
five are desirable. 

In warm climates where the bees can 
fly during the entire period the bloom is 
open, a less number of bees will be re¬ 
quired than in the North where the work 
of pollination may have to be accomplished 
in a single day, or even two or three hours. 
During the time the trees are in full bloom, 
there are often many days that are cloudy 
and chilly when the bees can not get out. 
Unless there is one warm day, or at least 
a few hours of bright sunshine, there may 
be a shortage of fruit because the bees 
are unable to get out and do their work. 
Should there be only two or three hours 
of good weather when the bees can fly, 
obviously there will be need of more bees 
than if there were a whole week of warm 
air and sunshine. In a cherry orchard not 
many miles from where this is written, it 
happened one spring that there were only 
two or three hours during the entire time 
when the bees could fly. The result was 
apparent the following summer. Only 
those trees that were within 50 feet of a 
hive had full fruitage, while those located 
further away had few or no cherries. The 
case was so marked that the owner of the 
orchard sent word to have the author come 
and see what the bees had done. He then 


remarked that if he had had ten times as 
many bees in the orchard, a hive under 
every tree, he could have secured full fruit¬ 
age. As it was he had only one colony to 
the acre. With four or five days of good 
weather this would have been enough. 

BEES AND POULTRY. — Under the 
head of Bees and Fruit-growing it is 
shown how beekeeping and fruit-growing 
go well together. If there is any industry, 
aside from that of growing fruit, that com¬ 
bines nicely with the keeping of bees, it is 
poultry. When the bees require the most 
attention, the poultry needs the least. 
When chickens demand the most time, the 
bees are taking their long winter sleep, and, 
of course, require no attention, or very lit¬ 
tle. In the more northern States, at least, 
the bees are put into winter quarters along 
in the fall, and require almost no attention 
until the following spring, along in April 
or May. During this time the chickens 
require considerable care. If one would 
have early broilers in the spring, he must 
start his incubator going early. He must 
feed his chickens so that they will lay dur¬ 
ing the winter, and not only that, but give 
him fertile eggs so that he can start his 
incubator. Incubator work and the brood¬ 
ing of chickens take place in the spring. 
The bees’ at that time require a little atten¬ 
tion in the way of feeding and going over 
to see whether any of them need uniting; 
but, beyond that, they will not require very 
much care until about the middle of May 
or the first of June in the northern States. 
In the South honey would come in much 
earlier and of course chickens would be 
able to take care of themselves that much 
earlier. Just about the time the bees begin 
to require considerable attention, the hens 
will begin to lessen their laying, and 
the weather will be such that they will not 
require such careful feeding; for usually 
they can get a good deal of their green 
food directly from the ground. At that 
time the beekeeper will be either giving 
his colonies more room or extracting. If 
the chickens require a good deal of his 
time then, he can simply put extra supers 
on his hives, piling them one on top of 
the other, until he has the hives stacked up' 
three or four stories high. If he prac¬ 
tices swarm prevention by the methods 


108 


BEES AND TRUCK GARDENING 



Bees and chickens in the same back lot, Detroit, Mich. 


given under the head of Swarming and 
Artificial Swarming he will not have 
much trouble with swarms. Taking’ it all 
in all, he can postpone the greater part 
of his bee-work until his chickens do not 
require very much attention; and then he 
can take off his honey, scrape his sections, 
or extract if necessary. 

The great majority of those who keep 
bees in the United States work them in 
connection with some profession or some 
other industry, like fruit-growing or poul¬ 
try-keeping. Some localities do not make 
it feasible for beekeeping to be the sole 
means of livelihood. While it is true there 
are a great many specialists, especially in 
the West, they are in localities that are 
particularly favorable for the keeping of 
bees in a large way. One can scarcely 
make a living from one or two hundred 
colonies; but that number in connection 
with poultry-keeping or the growing of 
fruit helps to make up the general income 
of the family. For a further consideration 
of the question of whether bees can be 
made the sole means of livelihood, see 
Profits in Bf.es, Backlot Beekeeping, 
Specialty in Bees, and the Foreword. 


BEES AND TRUCK GARDENING.— 

Beekeeping can be managed in connection 
with truck gardening, but they do not 
make nearly as good a combination as bees 
and poultry. The difficulty in combining 
bees with gardening is that the latter re¬ 
quires its greatest attention when the bees 
also need a large amount of care. There 
are times and circumstances, however, when 
beekeeping, fruit-growing, and poultry¬ 
keeping might all three be worked to¬ 
gether; but in most cases, probably the 
man who attempted this would be a “Jack 
of all trades and master of none.” 

BEES AND FARMING.— See Farmer- 
Beekeeper. 

BEES AS A NUISANCE.— It would 
seem almost out of place to discuss this 
question in a work intended for study by 
those who believe (and rightly, too) that 
bees are not a nuisance; but, as will be 
shown, there are very good reasons why 
the matter should be calmly discussed in 
order to avoid trouble that may arise in 
the future. Certain difficulties have arisen 
between the keepers of bees and their 
neighbors. Perhaps the bees, after a long 
































BEES AS A NUISANCE 


109 


winter confinement, or after several days’ 
confinement at any time, have taken a 
flight and soiled the washing hung on a 
line in a neighbor’s yard. Possibly, some 
of his children have been stung, or there 
have been times when he has been greatly 
annoyed while in the peaceable possession 
of his own property by bees coming on 
his premises and smelling around, as they 
sometimes do during the fruit-canning sea¬ 
son when the aroma of sugar and juicy 
fruits escapes thru the doors and windows 
of the kitchen. Possibly, the offended 
neighbor keeps chickens, and members of 
his feathered tribe have trespassed on the 
grounds of the beekeeper. The result of 


claimed and a lawsuit follows, with the re¬ 
sult that a feeling of resentment is stirred 
up against the beekeeper. 

Or again, the beekeeper may have an 
apiary in his front yard, bordering on the 
common highway. A nucleus is robbed out, 
the bees become cross and sting passers-by. 
Perhaps a span of horses is attacked; a 
runaway follows; damages are claimed, 
and another lawsuit is begun. 

In the foregoing, possible instances have 
been supposed. It is proper to state that 
they are only types of what has occurred 
and may occur again, so it behooves the 
beekeeper to be careful. 

In the first case mentioned (the aggriev- 





Scheme for protecting horses while cultivating a field next to a bee-yard. 


all this is that bad feelings arise. Com¬ 
plaint is made to the village officers; an 
ordinance is proposed declaring bees 
within the limits of the corporation to be a 
nuisance, and requiring the keeper to re¬ 
move them at once or suffer the penalty of 
fine or imprisonment, or both. See Laws 
Relating to Bees. 

In some instances, live stock has been 
stung; a cow or a calf' or a horse may get 
near the entrances of the hives, which, pos¬ 
sibly, are within a foot of a dividing line 
between the two properties. Perhaps the 
stock is stung nearly to death. Damage is. 


ed neighbor’s washing soiled by the stains 
from bees affected with dysentery), it is 
well for the beekeeper to send over several 
nice sections of honey, or to offer to pay 
for the damage done to the washing. Noth¬ 
ing makes a woman more angry than to 
have her nice clean white linen, after she 
has scrubbed, rinsed, and hung it out to 
dry, daubed with nasty, ill-smelling brown 
stains. But if the beekeeper shows a dis¬ 
position to make the matter good and takes 
pains to offer an apology before the 
woman makes complaint, trouble will in 
most cases be averted. And right here it 









110 


BEES AS A NUISANCE 


should be said, if the bees are in the cellar 
they should not be set out on a wash-day; 
or if they are outdoors, and the sun comes 
out bright so they begin to fly strongly 
from the hives, one should send word to the 
neighbors and ask them not to hang out 
their washing, if it is a wash-day, for a few 
hours. It might be well also to send along 
a few boxes of honey, and keep the folks 
aeross the way “sweetened up.” Ninety- 
nine neighbors out of a hundred, with such ’, 
treatment, will put up with a great deal 
of inconvenience, and say, “Oh! that is 
all right. It won’t take long to rinse out 
the clothes again.” , 


great caution needs to be exercised. The 
extracting-room should be screened off, and 
no honey left exposed to the bees. When¬ 
ever possible, he should take off all surplus 
by the use of bee-escapes rather than by 
shaking. See Robbing and Extracting. 

Under the head of Anger of Bees, in the 
latter part of the article, and under the 
head of Apiaries, emphasis is put upon the 
importance of placing the hives so that 
they shall be screened by shrubbery or 
small trees from other hives and objects in 
the yard. Nothing is more conducive to 
insuring good temper on the part of bees 
than to place the individual hives so that 



When the team was in the flight of the bees the smoker was held in readiness should the horses be stung. 


It will now be in order to consider the 
more serious cases—those in which horses 
or cattle have been stung. If the bee¬ 
keeper has been foolish enough to place 
hives near the highway or near his neigh¬ 
bor’s line fence where he has loose stock, 
such beekeeper may have to pay pretty 
dearly for it before he gets thru. The 
remedy is prevention. He should always 
put his bees in the back yard, and not too 
close to a neighbor’s line fence. He should 
be careful, also, to prevent robbing. He 
should see that there are no weak nuclei 
with entrances too large. As soon as the 
honey flow stops, he should contract the 
entrances of all the weaker colonies. If 
extracting is done after the honey flow, 


the inmates from their own doorsteps can 
not see moving objects in the immediate 
vicinity. When the space where the apiary 
is located is open, without shrubbery or 
trees to screen the hives, the bees are much 
Grosser than when placed behind obstruct¬ 
ing objects. The average backlot bee¬ 
keeper will have much better bees to han¬ 
dle, and no trouble with neighbors, if he 
puts his hives among the bushes. If he 
has a high board fence, or a hedge of ever¬ 
greens to shut off the little apiary from 
passing teams, pedestrians, or children 
that play in the next yard, the conditions 
will be much better. See Backlot Bee¬ 
keeping. 










BEES AS A NUISANCE 


111 


WHAT TO DO WHEK THE BEES ATTACK 

neighbor's HORSES. 

But it sometimes happens that something 
must be done at once to avert an attack 
upon teams of horses working in fields ad¬ 
joining a bee-yard. We have one outyard 
located near a field where our neighbor’s 
horses have been attacked by the bees on 
several occasions. We supplied our neigh¬ 
bor with clover seed for this field; and 
when he came to cut the crop the horses 
would occasionally be stung while drawing 
the mower. In one case there came very 
near being a serious mixup, as the team 
nearly ran away with the mowing machine. 

Two years later corn was planted in this 
same field. When the horses were cultivat¬ 
ing up and down the rows they were at¬ 
tacked again by the bees, for they were 
going in great droves across this field to a 
patch of clover beyond. Notwithstanding 
we had a high board fence to raise the 
flight of the bees above the team when 
near our yard, there was more or less trou¬ 
ble. On one occasion the driver was stung 
pretty severely, and the horses became un¬ 
manageable. Fortunately, the driver got 
them under control without any serious 
consequences. 

Now, our neighbor is a kindly man; and 
when he telephoned what had happened we 
saw that something would have to be done. 
We told him to go to the harness-shop and 
secure some large horse-blankets that would 
cover the necks and backs of the horses, 
and we would pay the bill. We then di¬ 
rected him to secure some large squares 
of mosquito netting and fold this around 
the horses’ heads. In the meantime we sup¬ 
plied him with veils for himself and man. 

When the next day came for cultivating, 
the blankets were put on and we went down 
to watch developments. We found that the 
blankets helped very materially, as they 
protected the horses from the onslaught 
of bees around their backs and necks where 
they could not brush or switch them off. 
Our neighbor did not think it was neces¬ 
sary to put the mosquito netting over their 
heads, as he said his horses did not mind 
bees on the face, as they could be brushed 
off on the forelegs. With these large 
blankets the horses w T ent up and down the 
rows with very little trouble, 


We found upon investigation that the 
bees were not disposed to be cross, but in 
going to and from the fields in search of 
honey they were interrupted in their flight. 
The switching of the tails of the horses an¬ 
gered them, with the result as stated. 

In cases of this kind it is an advantage 
to have an experienced beeman, and also 
an experienced horseman, if the two can be 
combined in one person. We happened to 
have just such a man in our employ, and 
sent him along around with the mower and 
reaper with a lighted smoker. If he found 
the bees were flying around the horses’ 
heads, he used a little smoke and drove 
them away. It was not necessary for him 
to follow the machine clear around the 
field, but only along that side next to the 
flight of the bees. 

But suppose the neighbor is unreason¬ 
able and ugly, and he brings suit for dam¬ 
ages; or suppose that the bees are located 
in a city Or village. 

Do not move the bees if reasonable pre¬ 
caution has been used, but write at once to 
the author. 

Suppose attorneys have been retained. 
Any number of decisions have been handed 
down to prove that bees are not a nuisance 
per se; that, when they are properly kept, 
a,nd due precautions are used, they cannot 
be driven out of the corporation. There 
are several precedents from various courts, 
even from the Supreme Court of Arkansas, 
to show that bees have the right to be kept 
within a corporation like any live stock, so 
that any ordinance not in conformity with 
these decisions can be declared unconstitu¬ 
tional. Several ordinances declaring bees 
to be a nuisance have been repealed. See 
Laws Relating to Bees. 

Bees have been accused of spreading 
fire blight on fruit trees on the mistaken 
notion that in visiting the affected blos¬ 
soms they carry the blight to healthy blos¬ 
soms on other trees. There is now very 
definite proof that the bees are not guilty. 
See Eire Blight —Do Bees Carry It? 

BEES, DO THEY ATTACK FRUIT? 

—Occasionally complaints have been made 
that bees will attack fruit; and to a 
casual observer, at least, they apparently 
do bite thru the skin and extract the juices 
until the specimen is shriveled up to a mere 


112 


BEES—DO THEY ATTACK FRUIT? 




semblance of its former shape and size. 
However, careful investigation has shown 
repeatedly that bees never injure sound 
fruit, no matter how soft the skin nor how 
juicy and pulpy the contents within the 
skin. 

The author has attended various horticul¬ 
tural and pomological conventions, both 
state and national. Among- the progressive 
fruit-growers and horticulturists there is a 
general acknowledgment that bees do not 
attack sound fruit; that the little harm 
they do to damaged fruit is compensated 
for a hundred times over by the indispen¬ 
sable service they perform in pollinating 
fruit blossoms early in the season when no 
other insects or means of pollination 
exist. The best fruit-growers are now keep¬ 
ing a few colonies of bees in each of their 
orchards. Often they invite beekeepers to 
locate yards of bees either in the orchards 
or as near as it is practicable to put them. 

Some years ago, Prof. N. W. McLain, 
then in the employ of the Department of 
Agriculture, "Washington, D. C., conducted 
an elaborate series of experiments in which 
he placed sound fruit, consisting of grapes, 
peaches, apricots, and the like, in hives 
containing bees that were brought to the 


Grapes punctured by birds and despoiled by bees. 

verge of starvation. This fruit was left in 
the hives day after day, but it was never 
once molested. Then he tried breaking 
some of the fruit, and in every case all 
such specimens were attacked by the bees 
and the juices sucked out until nothing but 


One of the exhibits of bees at the Grange Fair, in 
Wilmington, Del., held in September, 1908. A card 
in the hive read, “Bees do not injure sound fruit.” 

a dried skin and the stones or seeds were 
left. 

Years later, Prof. H. A.. Surface, then 
economic zoologist at Harrisburg, Pa., 
tried a similar experiment, but in no case 
did the bees attack sound fruit, altho they 
partook freely of that which he had 
broken. 

At the Wilmington State Fair, held in 
September, 1908, in Delaware, Joel Gil- 
fillan of Newark, Del., had on exhibition a 
three-story obseiwation hive containing two 
combs of bees. In the third story were 
hung a peach, a pear, and a bunch of 
grapes. This hive was kept on exhibition 
during the entire fair where the general 
public could see it. As is shown, this fruit 
was never once visited bv the bees. The 
general verdict of those who saw it, fruit- 
men and farmers alike, was that bees did 
not injure this fruit. 

The publishers of this book have had, 
during the past 40 years, between three 
and four hundred colonies located in a 
vineyard at their home apiary. Notwith¬ 
standing hundreds and hundreds of pounds 


















BEES—DO THEY ATTACK FRUIT? 


113 



Apricots damaged by birds; fruits thus injured are sucked dry by bees, which store the juice as honey. 


of grapes are raised every year, the 
bunches hanging within three or four feet 
of the entrance of the hives, the sound 
fruit is never injured; but. during a 
dearth of honey, a broken or otherwise 
bruised bunch of grapes w T ill often be visit¬ 
ed by a few bees. 

But a casual observer might easily get 
the impression that bees not only suck 
damaged fruit dry, but actually puncture 
and eat the sound fruit. Some years ago a 
neighbor sent word that he would like to 
have us come to his vineyard and he would 
give us indisputable proof that our bees 
were actually puncturing his grapes and 
sucking out the juice. We looked at the 
luscious bunches as they were hanging 
down, and, sure enough, there were small 
needle-like holes in almost every grape that 
the bees were working on. It looked like a 
clear case of “caught in the act” evidence 
against them. For the time being we were 
unable to offer a satisfactory explanation. 
We brought the matter to the attention of 
an old farmer who had been a beekeeper 
for many years. Finally one morning lie 
sent word to us that he had found the cul¬ 
prit, and that if we would come down to 
his place early some morning he would 
point him out. This we did. He showed us 
a little bird, quick of flight, and almost 
never to be seen around the vines when 
any human being was present. This bird, 
about the size of a sparrow, siriped, and 


called the Cape May warbler (Dendroica 
tigrinci), lias a long sharp needle-like beak. 
It would alight on a bunch, and about as 
fast as one could count them, would punc¬ 
ture grape after grape. After his birdship 
has done his mischief he leaves, and then 
come the innocent bees during the later 
hours of the day and finish the work 
of destruction by sucking the juices and 
the pulp of the grape until it becomes a 
withered skin over a few seeds. Thus the 
grapes were punctured by the birds during 
the early hours of the day; but the bees, 
coming on later, received all the blame for 
the mischief. 

The Cape May warbler is not the only 
bird guilty of puncturing grapes. There 
are many other species of small birds that 
learn this habit, and among them may be 
named the ever present sparrow and the 
beautiful Baltimore oriole, the sweet singer 
that is sometimes called the swinging bird, 
from its habit of building its nest on some 
overhanging limb. 

Some seasons the bird visitors are much 
more numerous than others. Several years 
may - pass before any complaint is made, 
and then the beekeeper will have angry 
people in the vicinity of his bees calling 
him up on the telephone, saying the bees 
are eating up their grapes. The thing to 
do is to call on each complainant, and 
prove that the birds are the ones that do 
the mischief in the first place, and that it 










114 BEES—DO THEY ATTACK FRUIT? 


is only by careful watching' at intervals 
that they can be seen at their work. 

In order to determine their presence the 
observer should go away from the grape¬ 
vine about 50 or perhaps 100 feet. The 
early morning hours are the most favor¬ 
able for catching the miscreant at work. 
The Cape May warbler is a shj^ little fel¬ 
low, and he will not usually show himself if 
any one is near the vines. It is for that 
reason that the bird is seen on the grapes 
only at brief intervals; and the bees, work¬ 
ing on the bunches all day, get the blame 
for all the damage. 

CRACKED. AND PUNCTURED SKINS OP FRUIT. 

Bees will not attack or bite thru the skin 
of sound fruit. From a physiological 
standpoint they are unable to do this, and 
they never do; but bees will suck the juices 
out of overripe grapes and other fruits, 
which, after a brief period of hot weather 
and frequent rains; develop so rapidly that 
their skins crack. Such fruit is already 
damaged* and would not keep very long. 
In the case of overripe grapes where the 
skins have cracked; bees will do damage. 
Such overripe fruit has a market value 
if sold at once. Before it is picked, the 
bees will visit the bunches and leave noth¬ 
ing but shriveled skins. In this particular 
case bees ruin the sale of fruit already 
damaged but having a market value if sold 
imm'ediately. 

Bees are often wrongly blamed on ac¬ 
count of the work done by other insects 
equipped with cutting jaws, and by cer¬ 
tain varieties of birds. When the skin of 
any fruit is broken from any cause, the 
bees will suck out the juices, provided no 
honey is coming from the blossoms. 

Yellow-jackets are well equipped with 
cutting jaws. They are very fond of fruit. 
They will cut thru the skins, suck what 
juice they want, and, later on, the bees 
will visit the same punctures. The bees 
are, of course; more numerous; look like 
yellow-jackets; and are by the uninitiated 
given blame for all of the mischief—punc¬ 
turing as well as sucking the skin dry. 

Yellow-jackets are particularly numer¬ 
ous in the fall after a frost. They cut 
thru the skins of fruit unpicked; and the 
bees, because the frost has killed natural 
sources of nectar, will help themselves to 


fruit juice made available by the previous 
act of the yellow-jackets. 

For further information regarding 
grape-puncturing birds, refer to bulletins 
by Dr. Merriam of the United States De¬ 
partment of Agriculture, Washington, 
D. C. 

WHEN BEES MAY DAMAGE FRUIT. 

But there are times when bees are a nui¬ 
sance, and it is then that their owner should 
compromise; or, better still, seek means to 
avoid trouble in the first place. In the 
fruit-drying ranches of California, apri¬ 
cots and peaches are cut up into small 
pieces and laid upon trays exposed to the 
sun’s rays. If there is a dearth of honey at 
this time, and a large number of bees in 
the locality, this fruit may be attacked. The 
bees may visit it in such large numbers 
that they suck out the juices, leaving noth¬ 
ing but the shriveled form of the fruit. 
The property is, of course, damaged, and 
its sale ruined. Before anything of this 
kind can happen, the beekeeper should 
move his whole yard to a point three or 
four miles distant from any fruit-drying 
operations. Failing to do so the fruit¬ 
grower, if the bees caused trouble, might 
enter suit for damages, and possibly re¬ 
cover the value of his crop. 

Years ago we had trouble with a cider- 
maker. He claimed that our bees would 
lick up the cider from the press as fast as 
he could make it. We easily adjusted this 
difficulty by screening his building with 
mosquito netting. 

In every case of this sort the owner of 
bees should avoid trouble. In the case of 
the fruit-drying ranches and the cider 
mills, the beekeeper had better err on the 
safe side by avoiding suit for damages, be¬ 
cause no lawyers would be able to give 
much assistance where it was clearly proven 
that the bees were doing an actual damage. 

BEES EXONERATED BY A JURY. 

In 1900, trouble arose at Amity, N. Y., 
between two brothers named Utter. One 
was a beekeeper and the other a fruit¬ 
grower. The latter averred that the for¬ 
mer’s bees punctured his peaches, and, in 
consequence of the alleged damage, he 
claimed he was unable to raise any fruit. 
There ha4 not been very good feeling be- 


BEES ON SHARES 


115 


tween the brothers for years. The fruit¬ 
grower brought suit against the beekeeper, 
and the case was tried on Dec. 17, 18, and 
19, 1899, at Goshen. There was no lack of 
legal talent on either side. The case was a 
very hard-fought one from beginning to 
end. Among some thirty odd witnesses ex¬ 
amined, the Government expert, Frank 
Benton, then of the United States De¬ 
partment of Agriculture, Washington, D. 
C., gave his testimony to the effect that 
bees never puncture sound fruit; that it is 
practically impossible for them to do so, 
owing to the fact that they have no cutting 
jaws like those found in the wasp and other 
insects of that character. He also showed 
that wasps and birds will, under some con¬ 
ditions, puncture fruit; that these minute 
holes they make will, during a dearth of 
honey, be visited by bees. Other expert 
testimony was offered, nearly all of which 
exonerated the bees. After all the evidence 
was in and the arguments were made, the 
jury returned a verdict for tke defendant. 

For further particulars regarding this, 
the reader is referred to the publishers of 
this work. 

In case trouble arises, the owner of the 
bees will do well to -read Bees as a Nui¬ 
sance, and also the other subject found in 
its alphabetical order, Laws Relating to 
Bees. 

BEES, CROSS. —See Anger of Bees. 

BEES, CROSSES OF.— See Hybrids. 

BEES, HANDLING.— See A B C of 

Beekeeping, Manipulation of Colonies, 
and Honey Exhibits. 

BEES ON SHARES.— In some locali¬ 
ties, notably in California, Colorado, and 
the great West, bees are often kept on 
shares. While this method of doing busi¬ 
ness has often been conducted quite suc¬ 
cessfully and satisfactorily to both parties, 
yet many disputes have arisen, perhaps 
because there was a lack of contract; or, 
if there was one, there was nothing in it 
to cover the point in dispute. 

The following form of contract was very 
carefully drawn by an attorney, and it is 
hoped it will meet every condition. 

ARTICLES OF AGREEMENT. 

This agreement, made and entered into at 
-, this day - of -, 19—, by and 


between —*— of - , party of the first part, 

and hereinafter called the owner, and •——, 
of-, party of the second part, and here¬ 

inafter called the employee, 

Witnesseth: First, that said owner has 
agreed, and in consideration of the cove¬ 
nants and agreements herein contained and 
to be performed by said employee, does here¬ 
by agree to provide a good location for 

keeping bees, at or near -, and furnish 

and put thereon, on or before the - day 

of -, 19 — , not less than - colonies 

of healthy bees, and then and thereafter at 
such times as needed during the continu¬ 
ance of this contract, to provide and fur¬ 
nish, at his own cost and expense, all hives, 
tools, implements, machinery, and build¬ 
ings necessary to enable said employee to 
carry on successfully the business of pro¬ 
ducing and securing honey and wax from 
said bees; and further to pay one-half of 
the cost and expense of all sections, cans, 
bottles, shipping cases, and packages that 
may be required to put the honey and wax 
into marketable shape; and in case it shall 
be necessary to feed said bees, to provide 
and furnish feeders and sugar for making 
the syrup; and said owner further agrees 
to give and deliver on the said premises, 
to said employee, as and for his compensa¬ 
tion for labor done and provided by him 
in caring for said bees and securing honey 
and wax, the full one-half of all marketable 
honey and wax produced and secured from 
said bees. 

Second: In consideration of the above 

covenants and agreements, the said - , 

employee, hereby agrees to enter the em¬ 
ploy of said owner on said - day of —— , 

19—, and at once care for said bees in a 
proper manner; do, perform, and provide all 
labor necessary to carry on successfully the 
business of producing and securing honey 
and wax ready for market; pay one-half the 
cost and expense of all sections, cans, bot¬ 
tles, shipping cases, and packages that may 
be required to put the honey and wax into 
marketable shape; feed the bees, when nec¬ 
essary that they shall be fed, and deliver on 
the premises to the said owner the full one- 
half of the marketable honey and wax 
produced and secured from said bees, and 
to accept the remaining half as and for his 
full compensation for labor done and pro¬ 
vided by him in the care of said bees and 
the production and securing of honey and 
wax. . 

Provided, and it is mutually agreed and 
understood by and between the parties 
hereto, that said employee shall double up 
all of said hives at the close of the season 
or leave them reasonably strong and well 
supplied with stores and prepared for win¬ 
ter; and if any of said colonies of bees are 
lost thru the carelessness or negligence of 
said employee, said owner may recover 
from said employee as damages an amount 
not greater than one-half what it would 
cost to replace said bees and queens; all 
















116 


BEES ON SHARES 


increase of swarms (artificial or natural) 
to belong to said owner. It is further mu¬ 
tually agreed and understood that in case 
no honey is secured, or the amount runs 
below ten (10) pounds per colony, said 
owner shall pay to said employee, as and 
for his compensation for all labor done and 
provided by him on and about said bees, an 
amount not exceeding—cents per hour for 
each and every hour of labor so performed, 
and provided by said employee on and about 
said bees, and in such case all honey to be¬ 
long to said owner. 

Signed in duplicate by said parties, the 
day and year first above written. 

Signed in presence of ' 

The foregoing comprises the essential 
features of a contract - , but local conditions 
may render it necessary to make some mod¬ 
ifications. 

The contract as drawn would be very 
favorable to the owner of bees, provided 
he could always have a competent man 
and a good season. If, for example, he 
had 500 colonies, and secured an average 
of 100 pounds per hive, he might make 
something like 100 per cent on his invest¬ 
ment. But if the employee is incompe¬ 
tent, or not strictly honest, or* if the sea¬ 
son were poor or a failure, the owner 
might actually lose money. The contract, 
as drawn, assumes that the average em¬ 
ployee will not get as much out of the 
bees as the owner. Moreover, if the em¬ 
ployee is a little careless, foul brood might 
get started among all the bees. Even if 
the season Avere good, the cost of treating 
the entire apiary, and the reduction in 
crop by reason of the ravages of disease, 
might likewise cause an entire failure. On 
the other hand, the employee, even if he 
had done his best, might lose out also, if 
the season were a failure. Eor that rea¬ 
son the last clause in the contract is in¬ 
serted as a matter of fairness to him. 

If no honey should be secured, he has 
performed his part of the contract in good 
faith, and, moreover, has improved the 
apiary—perhaps increased it so that it 
Avill be in better condition the following 
year for a honey crop. For this better¬ 
ment it is no more than right that the own¬ 
er should pay his man a reasonable sum, 
whatever amount may be agreed on; or, if 
preferred, a certain number of colonies. 
One can readily see that, in case the honey 


season Avas an absolute failure, the em¬ 
ployee Avould suffer a total loss except for 
a provision of this kind, and the OAvnei 
Avould still have his bees, the increase, his 
implements, and everything necessary to 
carry on the business for another season. 

By the above contract it is to the interest 
of both parties to keep down increase. The 
employee must knoAv, if he is a practical 
beekeeper, that, the greater the increase, 
the less the honey; and he will, therefore, 
bend all his efforts and skill to keep the 
colonies in the best condition to obtain a 
crop of honey. 

Keeping bees on shares is practiced quite 
extensively in Colorado and California. It 
very often happens that a beekeeper lately 
arrived from the East desires to try a 
locality to determine Avhether it will be 
suited to his health, and whether or not he 
can make the keeping of bees a success. 
He accordingly finds a beekeeper Avhose 
other business leads him' to desire some 
one competent to manage his bees for him. 
But where one is Avell settled in a locality, 
and has the means whereby he can pur¬ 
chase the bees, he should do so. 

The business of keeping bees on shares 
has not always been ah unqualified success; 
and where one can buy bees outright, pay¬ 
ing for them out of his earnings, he would 
better do so. But the OAvner of the bees 
should, of course, be secured by a chattel 
mortgage until the last payment is made. 

BEES, STINGLESS.— Their habitat ex¬ 
tends from the boundary between the 
United States and Mexico doAvn to Buenos 
Aires in Argentina, embracing an area of 
8,000,000 square miles. One comparatively 
unimportant species inhabits most of the 
West India islands. There are a feAV spe¬ 
cies in Asia and Africa. 

By entomologists these bees are usually 
classed under tAvo great genera— Melipona 
and Trigona; but some naturalists are dis¬ 
posed to add another, Tetragona. There is 
an extraordinary variety of these bees, 
which is supposed to embrace at least 100 
species, whereas there are not more than 8 
species of Apis. The variation in size is 
also great, for some are no larger than a 
mosquito, Avhile others are considerably 
lai’ger than the hive bee. A number of 


Bees, stingless 


nr 


naturalists have studied them with a view 
to the proper classification and arrange¬ 
ment by species. 

There is an equal variation in the num¬ 
ber of bees per colony, for some consist 
of only a few (100) individuals while 
others are supposed to contain not less 
than 100,000 bees. 


and Roster, in his Travels in Brazil, care¬ 
fully mentions them. Spanish writers on 
Central America casually noticed them in 
the 16th century; but no European seems 
to have been interested enough in them to 
make a comprehensive study of their life 
history and habits. The work was left for 
the twentieth-century naturalists. Geoffrey 



Stintless Worker 


Italian Worker 
Magnified two times. 


Italian Queen 


Some build only small nests, not much 
larger than an orange; others construct a 
home as large as an ordinary flour-barrel. 
Some build in a hole in the ground; others 
in the open air, as wasps and hornets do, 
while quite a number build their nests in 
the hollows of forest trees. 



Italian Queen Stingless Queen 


Magnified two times. 

Early travelers in South and Central 
America did not fail to notice the stingless 
bees, and quite frequently referred to 
them. Capt. Basil Hall, in the 18tli 
century, noticed apiaries of them in Peru; 


St. Hilaire, a naturalist-explorer, did some¬ 
thing to awaken interest by his now classi¬ 
cal observations on honey-gathering wasps 
of Paraguay, of which he furnished a com¬ 
plete account in 1825 (Paris). Azara, a 
similar explorer, also called attention to 
them in his travel thru Paraguay. He de¬ 
scribes a species twice as large as Apis 
mellifica. 

Other explorers have mentioned them 
from time to time, but nothing of real 
value was elicited until lately. Their study 
has now been taken up in earnest. White 
men have been inclined to dismiss them as 
worthless for practical purposes; but the 
natives of South America are certainly not 
of that opinion. On the contrary, they re¬ 
gard them as superior to the “stinging 
fly” of the white man. In Southern Mex¬ 
ico, Central America, and South America, 
they are quite frequently kept in a domes¬ 
ticated state by the native inhabitants— 
that is to say, they have them in hollow 
logs which have been brought from the 
forests. These “hives” are generally hung¬ 
up by ropes around their dwellings to pro¬ 
tect the bees from their chief enemy, the 
lizard. The logs are robbed at stated in¬ 
tervals, the keeper being well satisfied if 
he can secure a gallon of honey per hive 









BEGINNING WITH BEES 


118 



at the robbing, depending somewhat on the 
species used for domestication. 

Apparently no effort has ever been made 
to invent a hive suitable to their wants. It 
is noticeable that the natives use only those 
species whose homes are made in hollow 
trees, no effort being made to utilize the 
many other species whose nests are made 
in holes in the ground or on tree branches. 

The quality of the honey and wax varies 
very much, some of it being quite good and 
some quite the opposite. The wax is apt 
to be mixed with propolis to a great ex¬ 
tent; but at least one species inhabiting the 
upper tributaries of the Orinoco, in Colom¬ 
bia, furnishes a desirable wax, which has 
been frequently sold in this country. 

While the stingless bees cannot sting 
they bite and worry in a way to surpass 
bees possessed of a sting. At the Phila¬ 
delphia field-day meeting at which a thou¬ 
sand beekeepers were present, in June, 
1906, two colonies of a large species of 
stingless bee were exhibited. A hive of 
them was torn apart and opened for in¬ 
spection. Did those stingless bees take 
such intrusion without any objections'? 


Not at all. They attacked their despoilers 
in a way they will not soon forget. They 
would bite, grasp the hair and eyelashes, 
twist and pull, and even crawl into the ears 
and noses of their tormentors. So vicious 
was their onslaught that they drove one 
man, who had a hand in breaking up their 
home, from the scene of action. While the 
pain of their bite is infinitesimal, yet the 
high-note hissing sound, getting into the 
hair, pulling at the eyes and eyelashes, and 
crawling into the nostrils and ears, almost 
make one crazy. 

It is fair to state that stingless bees do 
not offer such attack unless provoked to 
fury; ordinarily they can be handled with¬ 
out any protection whatever. 

BEGINNING WITH BEES.— The be¬ 
ginner should, first of all, read the ABC 
OF Beekeeping, the initial article of this 
work. He should also when possible visit 
some well-known beekeeper. He will then 
find that he will be able to understand the 
articles and appliances in this work much 
more readily. If he can afford it, it would 
be well for him even to go some distance 












Beginning wtth bees 



■Dad and sonny watching their hees work for nothing and hoard themselves. Both are thinking of the honey 

they are going to take from those bees. 


to see some progressive beekeeper, and 
spend a whole day where he will be able 
to pick up tricks of the trade, and a fund 
of information that might take him weeks 
or months to get out of textbooks. Such a 
beekeeper could very easily illustrate the 
proper manner of opening a hive and han¬ 
dling the frames—in short, make a prac¬ 
tical demonstration of many of the manip¬ 
ulations here explained. If there is no 
beekeeper he can visit, he should send to 
his nearest dealer and get a two- or three- 
frame nucleus with a queen. Let him fol¬ 
low carefully the directions on the out¬ 
side of the shipping-box; then, with the 
bees before him, read and study his ABC. 
Having seen the bees and learned how to 
open a hive, what next? 

The importance of a small beginning 
with as little expense as possible cannot be 
urged too strongly, for nothing is more 
discouraging after having plunged into the 
business extensively than to lose a large 
portion of the bees, either thru bad win¬ 
tering or from some other cause—all for 
the want of a little practical experience, or 
even a theoretical knowledge. Many a per¬ 


son has met with disaster from starting 
out with bees on altogether too large a 
scale. Sometimes one is offered a bargain 
of 50 or 100 colonies including hives, bees, 
implements, smokers, etc., and the tempta¬ 
tion becomes strong to buy. He had better 
not invest unless he has read the several 
articles indicated at the close of the Fore¬ 
word at the beginning. 

After investing $100.00, one should put 
no more into the business until the bees 
bring in some returns. In other words, 
the bees should be made to pay their way. 
It is very easy to put good money into the 
venture and get no returns; because bee¬ 
keeping, perhaps as much as any business, 
depends greatly upon weather conditions. 
For this reason it is not advisable for any 
beginner to rely on bees as a sole means of 
livelihood. True it is that there are many 
beekeeping specialists; but they are men 
who have gradually grown into the busi¬ 
ness, and, as a general rule, have an espe¬ 
cially favorable location, keeping from 200 
to 1,000 or more colonies. 

The keeping of bees is generally more 
successfully carried on in connection with 






RSsiSi 



Swarm of schoolma ams and schoolmasters after taking their first lesson in beekeeping at the publishers’ home apiary, Medina, Ohio. 












BEGINNING WITH BEES 


121 


some other line of business. (See Bees 
and Fruit-growing; also Bees and Poul¬ 
try.) Many a professional man desires 
some sort of light recreation, and a few 
bees will afford him just the diversion he 
needs. Farmers, fruit-growers, or horti¬ 
culturists may keep from 50 to 100 colo¬ 
nies without greatly interfering with any 
other work; and nearly every one, as ex¬ 
plained under Apiary, can keep a few colo¬ 
nies in his back yard. Ten or twenty colo¬ 
nies will be almost certain to yield a much 
larger revenue, per colony, than ten times 
that number. See Baciclot Beekeeping. 

HOW AND WHERE TO BUY BEES. 

In practically all of the northern States, 
and in*all of the western States, bees are 
kept almost entirely in movable-frame 


speeted, and whether he can show a certifi¬ 
cate to that effect, telling when the bees 
were examined. Even then it will be well, 
before closing the contract, to have it un¬ 
derstood that the seller guarantees the bees 
to be free from disease of any kind, and 
to replace at his own cost any that, within 
ten days from purchase, show disease. 

Swarms of bees during the swarming 
season can often be purchased of farmer 
beekeepers for from 50 cents to $1.00 per 
pound. A medium swarm will weigh about 
five pounds and a large one eight or nine 
pounds. These, if hived on frames of 
comb foundation, would not carry bee dis¬ 
ease even from a yard or colony contain¬ 
ing foul brood. (See Foul Brood.) Where 
bees can be purchased in this form locally, 



Father’s liew pets. The whole family is interested when the beginner’s 
outfit (bees and all) arrives and is being set up. 


hives of some sort. Were it not for the 
danger of contracting bee disease it would 
be advisable for the beginner to buy two 
colonies from some local beekeeper. If he 
can be assured that the latter has no dis¬ 
ease, this is the thing to do. In some of 
the southern States black bees in box hives 
can be furnished at very reasonable rates. 
As a rule, these bees are free from disease. 
In some States the owner of bees will not 
be able to sell them without a permit from 
the State inspector. It would be advisable, 
therefore, before purchasing, to ask Mr. 
Beekeeper whether his bees have been in- 


at say, 50 cents per pound, they would be 
a good investment. Swarms at even a dol¬ 
lar or a dollar and a half a pound would 
pay if they can be purchased at a time 
when there will be a couple of weeks of 
honey flow ahead. They would then nearly 
pay for themselves the fii’st season. 

It would be well to hive them the same as 
package or combless bees obtained from 
the South. These will be mentioned fur¬ 
ther on. 

As a rule, it will be much safer for the 
beginner to buy of some reputable dealer 
who makes a business of furnishing first- 


122 


BEGINNING WITH BEES 


class bees that 
are under State 
inspection. A 
list of the rep¬ 
utable dealers 
furnishi n g 
good bees can 
be obtained bv 
consulting- lead¬ 
ing bee jour¬ 
nals. 




If you buy a swarm from 
some near-by beekeeper, 
don’t get a little one like 
this with only about a pint 
and a half of bees. 


Early in the 
season the aver¬ 
age b e g i n ner 
will do better to 
get a full col¬ 
ony or a nucleus of two or three frames of 
brood and bees than he will to buy a pack¬ 
age of combless bees, unless he secures them 
in the Root improved cage. By “nucleus” 

is meant a small 
colony of one or 
two combs of 
bees and brood, 
including a 
queen. The 
usual package 
of combless bees 
sent out by the 
dealers consists 
of a wire cage 
containing one, 
two, or three 
pounds of bees 
and a queen, 
without combs. 
With either 
form of ship¬ 
ment, one must 
have on hand 
hives ready to 
receive the bees. 
A package of 
five hives can 
be bought in the 
flat from the 
nearest dealer, 
and sometimes 
from the one 
who furnishes 
the bees. These 
should be put 
together and 
nailed, and the hives painted before the 


Buying a good-sized 
swarm from a near-by 
beekeeper is the best 
way to make a start. 
One is enough to begin 
with. 


bees arrive. The hive or hives should 
then be placed in some permanent spot in 
the garden or in the back yard, but not 
near a neighbor’s line fence. (See Apiary 
and Backlot Beekeeping for particulars 
on how and where to place the hives.) 
If nuclei are purchased they can be placed 
in hives without difficulty. A little smoke 
(see Smokers) should be blown over the 
tops of the frames before the wire screen 
is removed. If by an oversight a smoker 
was not included with the hives, ignite a 
roll of paper, or, better, some old rags, 
and then blow the smoke over the top of 
the wire screen. (See A B C of Beekeep¬ 
ing, subhead manipulating a colony of 
bees; also Manipulation op Colonies op 



Bees further on.) After smoke has been 
applied, the frames may then be lifted out 
and set in the center of one of the hives. 
The entrance of the hive should be con¬ 
tracted to the smallest point possible. 

Bees without combs can be bought for 
less money, and the three-pound package 
of bees will make a force which, if bought 
in the spring, would have a reasonable 
chance to produce a crop of honey the 
first season, while the three-frame nucleus 
would hardly be able to build up to more 
than a colony, and perhaps get a very 
little surplus. A five-frame nucleus would 
be about equivalent to three pounds of 
bees. 

Bees Avithout combs will not carry brood 
diseases. No matter who the dealer is, one 
could be reasonably sure of getting stock 
which, when hived on frames of founda¬ 
tion or clean combs, Avould carry no dis¬ 
ease. In some States there are laAvs 
against the transmission of colonies or 
nuclei containing combs unless they carry 
a certificate that they have been inspected 
in the State whence they came. But pack- 











BEGINNING WITH BEES 


123 




age bees—that is, bees without combs — can 
be sent anywhere. 

Right here it would be ivell to empha¬ 
size again that combless bees especially 
should never be ordered unless hives con¬ 
taining frames of foundation ( better full 
sheets) are all ready to receive them. To 
a less extent this applies also in the case 
of nuclei. 

Assuming that the hives are in readiness, 
one can order at least from one to three 
pounds of bees to the package. There 
should be a queen in each package, unless 
the bees are for the purpose of strength¬ 
ening weak colonies. (See Uniting.) A 
single pound of bees, if ordered early in 
the spring, could build up to a full colony ; 
but, if one desires to get the honey the 


The picture shows a row of hives, the colonies of 
which came from two-pound packages received from 
the South, and which, according to David Running, 
held their own against bees that wintered in the 
cellar under the most favorable conditions. 

where it is cool, and keep it there for sev¬ 
eral days. At the end of that time the 
hive can be set outdoors on its permanent 
stand. This should be done at night rather 
than in the day. 

The bees when set outdoors have in the 
meantime become accustomed to their new 


Buying bees by the pound is a good way to start, 
provided you don’t get too small a package. Cut 
the wire cloth from one side of the cage and lay 
this open side flat on the frames. Put on an empty 
super, then the cover, and let the bees work their 
way down into the hive. 

first season, the bees should be ordered 
early, and there should be at least two 
pounds, or better, three. 

Package bees are liable to cause the be¬ 
ginner trouble if hived on frames of foun¬ 
dation during the middle hours of the day. 
The strange surroundings and the newness 
of the hive sometimes cause the bees to 
swarm out, so it is advisable to use per¬ 
forated zinc or excluders over the entrances 
for the first two or three days or until the 
bees get quieted down. (Sep Drones.) 
In case they should swai'in out the excluder 
holds the queen in the hive, and, of course, 
if they swarm out the bees will come back 
to the queen. See Swarming. 

A very much better plan, after putting 
the bees in the prepared hive, is to set the 
whole in a dark cellar, on the cellar floor, 


This colony occupying the five-story hive is one 
started from two pounds of bees received in the 
latter part of April, 1918, at David Running’s home 
yard. These two-pound packages received by ex¬ 
press from the South will often go ahead of the 
colonies wintered in the North. 







124 


BEGINNING WITH BEES 


home. They will likewise be very much 
less liable to swarm out or to be attacked 
bv robbers from other hives in the vicin¬ 
ity. See Robbing. 

Something should be said on how pack¬ 
age bees are loosed in the hive before set¬ 
ting them in the cellar, for it is not an 
easy trick for a beginner. Remove all the 
frames of foundation from the prepared 
hive where the bees are to be released. If 
possible, in their place put three or four 
combs containing honey from some colony. 
A comb containing a little bi’ood will help 
to add to the home feeling of the new bees. 
If the combs do not contain much honey, 
a sugar syrup made of 50 per cent hot 
water and 50 per cent of sugar, well stirred 
in, should be given. (See Feeding.) Open 
up the cage by removing the wire cloth 
or removing the can containing the food. 
But before this is done a little smoke should 
be applied to the bees. If the queen is 
caged separate from the rest of the bees, 
lift her out and put her next to the‘frame 
of brood. Shake out some of the bees 
from the big cage, then lay it down in the 
side of the hive not occupied by the combs, 
and put on the cover. The hive should 
then be put in the cellar as explained. The 
remaining bees will soon work over to the 
queen. If the queen, is not caged separate 
from her bees shake her and all her bees 
out of the big cage on to the combs and 
then take the cage away, as the bees might 
go back into it again. 

But we will suppose that the beginner 
has no extra combs nor frames of brood, 
much less any other bees in the vicinity. 
He can let the bees l,oose on the frames of 
foundation, the same as on the combs. The 
feeder containing the syrup should be 
placed in the hive in the space not occu¬ 
pied by the frames. 

The cover should be placed on the hive 
last of all, when the bees should be put 
in the dark cellar. When the combless 
bees are hived on frames of foundation it 
is all the more important that they be con¬ 
fined in a dark cellar for three or four 
days before they are allowed to fly, at the 
end of which time they will have deserted 
the cage and started to draw out the foun¬ 
dation. Toward night they can then be 
set on their permanent summer stands. In 
either case the entrances should be con¬ 


tracted for at least three or four days 
after the bees are set out. 

In case it is found that the bees are not 
leaving the cage and going on to the foun¬ 
dation, a little smoke should be used and 
the cage be opened still further, after 
which the bees should be jarred out into 
the space not occupied by the frames. 
When most of them are out, place the cage 
with a few remaining bees in front of the 
entrance and put on the cover. 

A new form of combless cage has been 
invented by which the bees will draw out 
foundation en route, and the queen lay in 
it. Such a shipment can be treated in 
every respect as frames of brood and bees 
from nuclei and full colonies. 



Root improved shipping cage for sending 
bees without combs. 


Too strong emphasis can not be laid on 
the importance of keeping the cellar abso¬ 
lutely dark where bees are temporarily con¬ 
fined. A heavy blanket or a quilt can be 
tacked temporarily against each window 
to shut out the light. 

The job of hiving combless bees on 
frames of foundation is not easy for a 
beginner. As a rule be is advised to get 
nuclei or combless bees in the Root im¬ 
proved cage, or to get a full colony. When 
the bees come on combs, especially combs 
containing a little brood, the • problem of 
the beginner who has no knowledge of han¬ 
dling bees except what he has read will be 
very much simplified. 

Where one can afford it he is advised to 
buy full colonies, or two or three of them, 
as advised at the outset; or, better-yet, get 
a complete beginner’s outfit from his near¬ 
est dealer. This will consist of one or more 
colonies, extra empty hives containing 
(Tames of foundation, supers ready for 
the storage of honey, bee-veil, bee-gloves, a 
book of instructions, and, last of all, a bee- 










BEGINNING WITH bees 


123 



smoker. The dealer will be glad to give 
full instructions on how to handle them, 
and the chances are that Mr. Beginner 
will be able to get some honey the first sea¬ 
son. Beginners’ outfits cost all the way 
from $35.00 to $50.00. Where more than 
one colony is purchased the price might 
be $100.00. One can make a very nice 
start with one colony, a couple of extra 
hives, book of instruction, a veil, and a 
smoker. 

After midsummer a beginner should 
buy nothing less than a full colony. If, 
however, he has had some experience he 
can buy two pounds of bees or a three- 
frame nucleus, and build them up to a 
fair colony by October 1 if he is not too 
far north. 

If the beginner has colonies a little weak 
during the late summer, he would do well 
to buy a pound of bees from the dealer to 
strengthen all such. But before he lets 
some strange bees into another hive he 
should follow instructions under the head 
of Uniting. That is to say that the queen 
should be caged, and both the old bees 
and the new should be smoked before they 
are put together. See Introducing and 
Uniting. 

In some cases beekeepers will be located 
remote from any express office. In that 
case the bees in package form can be se¬ 


cured thru the mails. As a rule, however, 
experience shows that shipments come thru 
more successfully by express. 


Parcel post mailing cage for bees without combs. 

No beginner should attempt to make 
any start with bees without instruction 
books of some sort. Of course the reader 
of these lines will have all he can read be¬ 
fore he takes up any other work. But he 
would do well to subscribe for some bee 
journal, as most of the journals now" have 
beginners’ departments that are very help¬ 
ful. By subscribing for a journal he will be 
free to submit his individual problems to 
the editor for solution. If the reply is not 
published he will get an answer by mail. 

Before one does very much with bees he 
ought to take up the course of reading sug¬ 
gested in the Foreword at the beginning 
of this work. The initial article immedi¬ 
ately following the Foreword—The A B 
C of Beekeeping —will give him the gen¬ 
eral bird’s-eye view of the subject. 


Wilson and Fracker’s 20 colonies started from tw'O-pound packages. 
























126 


BORAGE 


If the beginner lives in town he would 
do well to keep on the right side of his 
neighbors at the very start. If he should 
be so successful as to secure some honey 
the first year, it would be good policy to 
give a bottle or a section of honey to the 
neighbors on each side and those in front 
across the street. Occasionally bees will 
sting the children who might get close to 
the line fence where they are flying. Occa¬ 
sionally bees will soil the neighbors’ wash 
by dropping stains on the clothes on the 


hives do not cross common highways, prac¬ 
tically no trouble will be encountered. See 
Backlot Beekeeping, Bees as a Nui¬ 
sance, Manipulation of Colonies, and 
Robbing. 

BELLFLOWER.— See Campanilla. 

BLACK BROOD. —See Foul Brood. 

BLACK GUM.— See Tupelo. Also call¬ 
ed black tupelo and water tupelo. A forest 
tree growing in swamps from southern 
New Jei’sey to Florida and Louisiana. 



Common borage. 


line; and occasionally, too, bees may be a 
little bothersome around the screen doors 
when the neighbor is busy making sweet 
pickles or preparing anything that gives 
off a sweet odor. A little honey given in 
advance will save hard feelings, and per¬ 
haps neighborhood trouble. 

If one will read carefully the directions 
against letting bees get to robbing, and 
place his hives in the yard in such a 
way that the bees as they fly from their 


BLIGHT. —See Fire Blight. 

BORAGE {Borago officinalis L.)—The 
common borage, introduced from Europe, 
is cultivated as a honey plant and for or¬ 
nament. The rotate or wheel-shaped flow¬ 
ers are sky-blue with a black cone of an¬ 
thers in the center. Under the dome formed 
by the anthers nectar is freely secreted by 
the pale yellow base of the ovary. The 
more or less inverted position of the flow- 




BOTTLING HONEY 


127 


ers which face the earth protects them 
from rain. The anthers mature long be¬ 
fore the stigmas. Each anther contains 
about 120,000 grains of pollen. 

Honeybees constantly visit the flowers 
for both nectar and pollen. Two groups of 
flowers, one containing five and the other 
four flowers, were watched for 10 minutes. 
The first received 15 and the second 13 
visits from honeybees. The value of the 
blue corollas in attracting bees was shown 
by the following experiment. When they 
were all removed from the flowers of the 
first group, the visits of the bees ceased 
entirely. To reach the nectar the bee hangs 
under the flower and inserts its tongue 
between the stamens. The anthers open 
slowly and the free pollen falls out into the 
conical chamber between them. On each 
anther there is a tooth-like projection. 
When a bee grasps with its claw the handle 
on the lower anther, it is pulled downward 
and the pollen is sprinkled over its body. 
As soon as released the anther springs back 
in place, and later more pollen collects in 
the conical chamber. The stigmas are at 
first concealed beneath the anthers; but 
after all the pollen has been removed they 
grow out and become receptive. The flow¬ 
ers are also visited by bumblebees and 
solitary bees. 

The eagerness with which bees visit the 
borage blossoms shows that it possesses a 
fine flavor, and the honey is reported to be 
excellent. The plants can be easily grown 
from seed, and produce a profusion of 
flowers from midsummer until frost. In 
the extreme southern part of Australia, 
where there is abundant rain, borage has 
spread sparingly, and is of medium value 
as a honey plant. It will not, however, be 
found profitable to cultivate borage for 
honey alone. The leaves are sometimes 
used in salads and in medicine. 

BOTTLING HONEY.— When honey is 
put into any other container than glass it 
is impossible to determine its character, its 
color, or its specific gravity, that is, how 
thick it is. When put in glass its color 
attracts the eye and teases the palate. 
When a bottle of it is turned upside down 
a large air bubble in the form of a beauti- 
tiful transparent sphere will slowly rise, 
thus indicating that the contents are not 


only beautiful in color, but thick and 
waxy. 

There are thousands upon thousands of 
people who do not eat honey. In order to 
interest them it is first necessary to tease 
their appetite by showing them an article 
that is intrinsically beautiful. For this 
reason honey in a retail way and for table 



use is usually sold in glass just as jellies 
and jams and all other commodities of like 
nature are sold. After the consumer, or 
more exactly the housewife, who buys the 
food, discovers what honey is from the 



purchase of a small bottle she will be in¬ 
terested in getting a larger bottle and final¬ 
ly 2 1 / 2 > 5, and 10 pound pails or tin cans. 
The experience of the trade shows very 
clearly that she is going more and more to 
the large sizes. This is encouraging in that 

















128 


BOTTLING HONEY 


it will mean a much larger consumption 
of honey. 

It is important to get hold of her first 
thru the avenue of the eye, which in turn 
tempts the appetite and results in the pur¬ 
chase of a sample. That sample leads to 
the purchase of other samples, until she 
will buy in bulk. 

But, there is another class of customers, 
mainly working people, especially those in 
the cities, who cannot afford to buy a large 
quantity of anything. They will purchase 
a little of this and a little of that, and 
perhaps, a tumbler or bottle of honey. No 
matter how well they like it, they will 

never be able to buy a larger quantity. 
The probabilities are they will never get 
to the stage of buying their foods in large 
quantities at a time. For this class of 
people (and it probably represents a large 
proportion of the honey buyers) the glass 
package is exactly suited. 

During the last ten years and particu¬ 
larly the last three or four, the amount of 
honey sold in bottles has increased by 

leaps and bounds. As explained in the 
Foreword of this work at the outset, when 
sugar was relatively scarce and high- 

priced during the Great War, the house¬ 
wife bought honey, which she could secure 
in any quantity, if she was willing to pay 
the price. This very condition of affairs 
enormously stimulated the demand for 

honey, with the result that several large 
corporations went to bottling honey in a 
large way. 

It will not be the purpose of this article 
to explain how honey is put into bottles at 
the big plants any more than is shown in 
some large illustrations near the close. The 
machinery and equipment necessary are 
very elaborate and expensive. The reader 
of this woi’k desires some simple plan by 
which he can bottle his honey for his own 
local trade. With that in view it has been 
thought best to describe a simple apparatus 
which can be secured at a very small cost. 

It should be understood at the outset 
that practically all extracted honey will 
granulate unless it has been raised to a 
temperature of about 1G0 degrees Fahr. 
Ordinary honey placed in bottles without 
heating would candy in a few months; and 
as the general public is not familiar with 


honey in the solid form it is best to put 
it up so it will keep liquid until used. 

Under the head of Granulation of 
FIoney it is explained that nearly all hon¬ 
eys at the approach of changeable or cool 
weather will granulate unless heated. If 
the temperature is raised above 160 de¬ 
grees Fahr. there is danger of impairing 
the flavor. If not heated higher than 110 
degrees granulation will set in, altho the 
process will be considerably' delayed. 
Granulated honey in clear glass would be 
unsalable, and therefore it is important to 
consider first all methods of heating the 
honey and putting it into bottles. 

Steam from a boiler is, of course, the 
most convenient method for heating honey 
that can be employed; but as the average 
reader of this work probably cannot get it 
he must use something else. While the 
ordinary cooking-range or cook-stove, us¬ 
ing either wood or coal, may be used fox- 
heating honey, a gas or gasoline stove with 
three burners is far bettex-—better, because 
the heat can be perfectly controlled. A 
wood or coal fire is apt to bxxrn too sti-ongly 
at one time or go down at another. If the 
honey be overheated it will be injured, both 
in color and flavor. It may be seoi’chcd, or 
the flavor so impaired that it will sell at 
only a moderate price. 

There are two methods for heating hon¬ 
ey to put in glass or tin. One is, to draw 
it off from a large can while cold, into bot¬ 
tles or tumblers, and, before they are seal¬ 
ed, heating the honey while the bottles are 
standing up to their necks in hot water. 
The other plan, and the one generally used, 
is, to heat in bulk and then draw off into 
bottles while hot, and seal. This method 
has the advantage that warm or hot honey 
flows more freely, and, of course, can be 
handled more rapidly. On the other hand, 
heating honey in the retail glass packages 
has the advantage of being better adapted 
to a small business. 

HEATING HONEY IN BOTTLES, OR BOTTLING 
FOR A LOCAL TOWN TRADE. 

Provide a square or oblong galvanized- 
iron pan as large as the top of the stove, 
with perpendicular sides, and about six or 
seven inches deep. If a gasoline stove is 
used, the pan should be as long and as 
broad as the top; and, if the three burners 


BOTTLING HONEY 


129 


ai’e on the same level, all the better. The 
pan should be just about the depth of an 
ordinary Mason jar, or, rather, a little 
deeper than the deepest package to be used. 
A false bottom of coarse wire cloth should 
be secured about half an inch above the 
bottom proper by means of proper stays. 
This is for the purpose of providing a cir¬ 
culation of water under the bottoms of the 
bottles, for otherwise they might break 
from the direct heat of the stove. Fill the 
pan about half-full of Avater, and set it 
on the sto\ T e. 



Instead of using a gasoline stove to lieat the wa¬ 
ter in the tray, %-inch steam pipes, connected 
as in the manner shown, can he used. The outside 
pipes should he perforated with holes that blow a 
jet of steam transversely across the bottom of the 
pan. The coil of steam pipes below serves no pur¬ 
pose but to keep the large filling tank of honey 
warm. 

When the Avater registers about 180 ac¬ 
cording to the thermometer, set the bottles 
of cold honey into the tray, on the false 
bottom of Avire cloth. When the pan is full 
of bottles placed close together, the Avater 
should be raised within an inch of the 
top of the bottles. Let them stand in the 
hot water until the honey in one of the 
bottles registers about 160. They may now 
be taken out and corked or sealed. A fresh 
supply of filled bottles of honey should 
next be put back to replace the fh’st, and 
the operation of heating and sealing can 
be continued indefinitely. 

There are several advantages of this 
method, aside from the one of first cost for 
apparatus; viz.: 

1. One can fill a small order at any time, 
and it is not necessary to heat a great bulk 
of honey in order to put up a dozen bottles 
or so of honey. In heating a large quantity 
of honey one necessarily has to keep it hot 
for a considerable time. The longer the 


honey is kept hot, the greater the liability 
lo discolor and impair its flavor. 

2. Bottles that are submerged in hot 
Avater can be easily wiped off with a cloth; 
and as soon as they are corked or sealed 
they are ready for labeling. 

3. Any honey that has been poured from 
a honey-gate into the vessels cold will haA’e 
a tendency to collect air bubbles, and form 
a froth on the top of the honey. When the 
honey is heated gradually in the bottles 
after filling, the process expels the bub¬ 
bles; and by the time the honey is clear 
it is ready for sealing and labeling. 

4. If any honey should candy, one can 
unseal, and set the bottles in the tray of 
hot water, and reheat and seal without 
emptying. 

Honey bottled in this Avay will retain 
more of the original flavor than Avhen it is 
heated in bulk and then bottled. 

Where one has a little larger trade, and 
takes care of one or two towns outside of 
his OAvn community, the foregoing Avill be 
a little too sIoav; and, besides, it has the 
decided disadvantage that honey bottled in 
this Avay Avill granulate more quickly 
than honey heated in bulk and kept hot for 
a considerable length of time. A large 
quantity of honey in a tank can be kept hot 
for five or six hours at a temperature of 
130 degrees Fahr. This low temperature 
long continued Avill keep honey in a liquid 
condition longer than a higher temperature 
for a shorter period. But, as already 
stated, a long-hot honey Avill not have 
'quite as fine a flavor as the quicker-heated 
and quickly cooled article. But this dif¬ 
ference will he noted, not by the ordinary 
consumer, but by the bottler or honey con¬ 
noisseur. 

Chalon Fowls of Oberlin, 0., has used 
a method of bottling that requires but A'ery 
little outlay for apparatus, and is quite 
inexpensive. Outside of two large cans 
and a filling tank he utilizes only Avliat can 
be found in the ordinary home. 

He makes use of a gasoline stove and a 
couple of large cans Avhich he puts on each 
of the top burners. These are partially 
filled with water, then a square can of 
honey is let down in each until it is com¬ 
pletely submerged. After the contents are 
all melted, a thermometer is let down, as 










130 


BOTTLING HONEY 


will be seen; and when the mercury rises 
to about 150 (not higher than 160), the 
honey is drawn oft by means of a siphon 
into a filling tank that stands on a lower 
step of the stove. The siphon may be of 
glass or flexible tubing. The latter is to 
be preferred, because it is more conveni¬ 
ent to handle. While the honey is hot 
the tubing should be immersed in the 
honey until it is filled. To do this, attach 
a string at both ends, and submerge it. 
Draw out one end and run it over into the 
filling tank, which is lower down. The hot 
honey will now immediately run out; and 
as the can is emptied, the water surround¬ 
ing the can should be drawn off or else the 
can will float and tip over. From the fill¬ 
ing tank the honey is drawn off while hot, 
or about as near 140 as possible, into honey 



Mr. Fowls’ melting-tanks, siphon, and gasoline 
stove. 


tumblers, Mason jars, Muth jars, or any 
of the packages already described. When 
filled they should be sealed while hot; after 
which, as soon as they are sponged off with 
warm water, they may be labeled, when 
they are ready for market. 

HOW TO INSERT CORKS IN BOTTLES. 

Two or three methods are employed. One 
is, to use a rubber mallet, which can be 
purchased at any of the rubber stores. 
The ends of the mallet being soft, a cork 
that is barely entered can be driven into 
the bottle with a blow. 

Another plan is to use a lever, as shown 
at D, in cut. This lever should have a 
projection on the under side so the cork 
can be forced down into the bottle about a 


sixteenth of an inch. It is important, after 
corking, to pour a layer of paraffin or wax 
over the top of the cork. Some go so far 
as to dip the corks into hot paraffin, then 



pour a hot layer on top after they are in¬ 
serted in the bottles. Some go even fur¬ 
ther. After the corks have been paraffined 
they put on a neat tinfoil top. If the 
honey has been heated up to 160, and 
sealed while hot, and the cork is made im¬ 
pervious, it will remain liquid for months. 
Samples of honey put up in Muth jars 
have been kept in a refrigerator six 
months, and yet would remain perfectly 
clear all the time. But the grocer’s custo¬ 
mers should not be advised to put honey 
in a cold place. The bottles should not be 
handled more than is necessary, but be 
kept in a warm place at as uniform tem¬ 
perature as possible. 

Assuming that no directions are neces¬ 
sary for sealing packages using rubber 
rings, it is important that the sealing be 
made as tight as possible. In the case of 
Mason jars, the tops should be screwed 
down with a wrench, and screwed, down 
tight. 

In sealing jelly tumblers, cut circles of 
paper( preferably paraffined paper) larger 
than the size of the top of the tumbler. 
When the jar is filled, put the paper on top 
of the jar, and squeeze the top down with 





























BOTTLING HONEY 


131 


the palm of the hand, putting’ a large part 
of the weight of the body on it. If the top 
goes down too easily, use thicker paper or 
two thicknesses. 

BOTTLING ON A LARGER SCALE. 

The Fowls plan will take care of several 
towns of two or three thousand inhabitants 
each; but it is not well adapted to a gen¬ 
eral business, taking a whole state or a 
series of them. An ordinary stove or a 
gas stove is not well adapted to take care of 
a large business; hence it will be necessary 
to purchase a five- or ten-horse-power 
boiler and install it in a room or basement 


in the tin containers. Much of this honey 
will be granulated before the bottling sea¬ 
son comes on. 

There are two ways of melting honey in 
square cans. One is, to submerge them 
three-fourths their depth in a large tank of 
water heated by steam until all the honey 
is melted. But this is objectionable, in 
that the melted portion has to remain with 
the portion still granulated until the whole 
bulk has been brought to a liquid condi¬ 
tion. This impairs the flavor, for the 
longer honey is kept hot, the more its deli¬ 
cate aroma and color are sacrificed. The 
plan also necessitates the lifting of heavy 



BOTTLING HONEY AT A LARGE COMMERCIAL PLANT. 

The bottles as fast as they are filled are capped, labeled, sponged and 
and wrapped. The bottles are carried on a traveling belt to each girl who 
has a detail of the work to do. 


where the bottling is to be carried on. 
Steam is by all odds the best heating agent 
in a general bottling establishment. It is 
more convenient, cheaper, and there is not- 
so much danger of overheating the honey. 

The great bulk of the honey for bottling 
purposes will come in 60-lb. square cans. 
While some of it may be secured in kegs 
or barrels, producers and buyers generally 
prefer to sell and buy honey in large 
square cans, even at an extra price of half 
a cent; so we may as well figure that in a 
bottling business the honey will be received 


cans of honey out of their bath of hot 
water and emptying them into the filling 
tank. 

A far better plan is to heat these cans 
with hot air, while inverted, in a steam 
oven. The caps are, of course, removed, 
and as fast as the honey melts it runs out 
and is caught in a receiving trough be¬ 
neath. Thence it flows immediately into 
another container, or is pumped out with 
an ordinary lioney-pump, such as is used 
in connection with power-driven honey-ex¬ 
tractors. 







132 


BOTTLING HONEY 


Illustrations showing a honey-heating 
oven will be found under Granulated 
Honey. See Figs. 1 and 2, Ponder’s meth¬ 
od. 

While Mr. Ponder uses a gas jet, it is 
preferable to use steam pipes, so placed as 
to be out of the way of the honey that runs 
out of the screw tops into the bottom of 
the oven or tank. Enough steam radiation 
should be provided to bring the tempera¬ 
ture of the air in the oven up to 180 or 
ISO degrees. 


is important, as it is not practicable to have 
the oven placed on a level above the filling 
tank. A honey-pump to deliver the honey 
to the tank is much more satisfactory than 
a tank and lionev-melting oven placed at 
different elevations. 

The receiving tank is made on the dou¬ 
ble-boiler principle—one tank inside of 
the other. The outer one should be at least 
two inches larger in diameter, and the 
space of about one inch between the tanks 
should be tilled with water heated by steam. 



BOTTLING HONEY BY THE CARLOAD. 

With the bottling and labeling equipment shown with illustration, a daily output of nearly a carload 
of honey, packed in glass containers, can be maintained. 


When steam is used as a heating agent 
for these honey-melting ovens, it is not 
necessary to use a metal box, but a large 
double-walled wooden box with lid, Avith 
packing material bettveen the Avails, and a 
galvanized tray or trough in the bottom to 
catch the honey. The melted honey should 
not be allowed to accumulate in the oven, 
hut should he drawn or pumped out into a 
receiving' or filling tank immediately. This 


The inner tank to hold the honey should 
have a tube at the bottom, passing thru the 
hot water to the outer tank, to which is 
attached a honey-gate. This gate may be 
used for filling the bottles direct, or the 
tank may be used for making up the blend 
referred to further on, as practically all 
bottled honeys nowadays are made up of 
tAvo or three different flavors. When a 
blend is used it is customary to run the 














BOTTLING 

honey from the receiving tank into a sep¬ 
arate filling tank. From the filling tank 
there should be attached a three-quarter 
steam hose five or six feet long. On the 
end of this hose is attached a specially 
made honey-gate, with a spout long enough 
to reach down to the bottom of the bottles 
or glass jars. While packages can be 
filled from a honey-gate attached directly 
to the tank, it is much more convenient and 
better to use rubber hose with a gate on 


HONEY 133 

hies that make the honey look frothy on 
top, and, besides, hasten granulation. In 
filling, the snout should be put clear to the 
bottom of the jar; and as the jar fills, the 
gate should be lifted slowly until the jar 
is full. This feature is important. The 
process is repeated with the next jar until 
all are filled. Another tray of jars is 
placed within reach of the rubber hose, 
and the process is repeated. After the 
jars are filled they are sealed while hot, 



Bottling and packing of honey has kept pace with the ad¬ 
vanced methods and improvement in equipment of the beekeep¬ 
ing industry in general. These jacketed steel tanks, glass enam¬ 
eled on the inside, in contrast with the old, unsanitary, open 
tanks, are convincing proof that honey packed by this method 
reaches the consumer in the most sanitary condition possible. 


the end. The bottles should be placed in 
groups of one or two dozen in a tray; and 
bv means of the flexible hose and honey- 
filling gate, each package is filled without 
handling. Moreover, a long snout on the 
gate enables one to direct the stream of 
honey clear down to the bottom of the jar, 
thus avoiding the accumulation of air bub- 


then labeled and wrapped, ready to be 
put in paper cartons. 

A BLEND OF SEVERAL KINDS OF HONEY FOR 
BOTTLING PURPOSES. 

The seasons for honey production are so 
uncertain at times that one finds himself 
unable to supply his trade with the honey 









134 


BOTTLING HONEY 



lie produces from his own yard. If, for 
example, his honey is almost exclusively 
from clover, with little or no basswood or 
fall flow, the trade will become educated to 
like that particular flavor, and will reject 
all other honeys of other flavors on the 
ground that they are impure. To provide 
against a contingency of this kind it is ad¬ 
visable to use from the start for bottling 
purposes a honey that can always be fur¬ 
nished year after year. It is usually cus¬ 
tomary to make a blend of white clover, 


25 per cent of sage, and 25 per cent of 
alfalfa. It may be assumed, for example, 
that he has a season of failure, and yet the 
bottling trade keeps up just the same. He 
usually buys a mixture of clover and bass¬ 
wood. His taste will become educated so 
he can determine the percentage of the 
one to the other. Then, by putting in a 
small amount of alfalfa, which he can al¬ 
ways procure, he will be able to supply his 
trade with the proper blend. 

If one lives in a locality where alfalfa 


Glass containers are carried from the stockrooms direct to the bottle-washers by automatic conveyors. 
The latest-type bottle-washers deliver the glass to the filling machines, crystal clear and thoroly sterilized. 


basswood, alfalfa, and mountain sage, and, 
if the trade is supplied with this blend 
from the very start, it will become accus¬ 
tomed to it. Such a blend can be made up 
of honeys that one can purchase when 
local honey fails; whereas if one puts up 
only white clover at the beginning, he will 
find it difficult to purchase a strictly pure 
clover except at highest prices. Where 
one lives in a clover locality he will do well 
to make up a blend of 50 per cent of clover, 


is produced extensively, there will be no 
need of having a special blend, because the 
pure alfalfa can usually be obtained in 
sufficient quantity. 

In mixing the different flavors of honey 
it will be necessary, after putting into the 
tank the requisite amount of each kind, to 
stir them slightly while heating. This is 
to prevent overheating a part of the honey, 
and to bring about a tlioro blend. The 
stirring may be done with a paddle; but a 













BOTTLING HONEY 


135 


better arrangement is a sort of extractor- 
reel having blades that will thoroly mix 
the honey. The reel should revolve four or 
five times a minute. Faster than this will 
not be necessary. The little motor that is 
used to operate the honey-pump can also 
run a countershaft geared back so that the 
mixing reel inside of the blending tank 
will not revolve faster than the time 
stated. 


WASHING AND CLEANING BOTTLES. ■ 
Prepare several tubs of water — one of 
them with strong suds—and then have on 
hand a few ounces of shot—No. 6 is about 
right. If particles of glass or dirt cling to 
the inside of the bottles, pour in four or 
five ounces of shot and give the bottle a 
shaking. This will dislodge all particles, 
when the shot may be poured into another 
bottle, to be similarly treated. In rinsing 
use clear soft water. Hard water is liable 
to leave traces of sediment. Any glass pack¬ 


age used far- honey designed for table pur¬ 
poses should be spotlessly clean. 

REQUIREMENTS OE THE LAW AS TO LABELS. 

The national pure-food law, and in some 
cases state laws, require that the label shall 
indicate the exact contents of a package; 
and therefore it would not be advisable to 
call a blend, such as has been described, a 
pure clover. It will be perfectly proper to . 


say “pure extracted honey bottled by John 
Jones;” but John Jones must not say 
“pure extracted honey from the apiary of 
John Jones” unless such honey did actual¬ 
ly come from his apiary. 

Allusion has already been made to the 
fact that the federal laws, and in some in¬ 
stances state laws, require that the exact 
quantity by weight or measure of the con¬ 
tents for retail purposes shall show on the 
label. It should be stated, in this connec¬ 
tion, that the Bureau of Chemistry has 



There is no time from the hive to the bottle when honey should not have most careful attention and be 
stored in clean, airy stockrooms where proper temperatures can be maintained. This stockroom Shown is 
equipped with portable piling machines, live steam, hot water, and every sanitary device. 


















BOX HIVES 


136 

ruled that anything 1 under 'one pound 
should be stated in ounces. Anything above 
a pound should be stated in terms of 
pounds and ounces. It is contrary to the 
ruling to make a label read “36 ounces, net 
weight,” when it should read “two pounds 
and four ounces, net weight.” The purpose 
of this is to prevent confusing the con¬ 
sumer by making a statement which may 
be at the same time misleading. If the 
label states, for example, that the pack¬ 
age contains 60 ounces, the consumer has 
to make a mental calculation to determine 
how much honey or other food product he 
is getting. The purpose of the law is to 
give the consumer an opportunity to know 
just what he is getting, and the exact 
weight in terms that are the most easily 
understood. 

LABELING BOTTLED HONEY. 

As a general rule, small circular labels 
should be used. The big ones that cover up 
the whole jar do not usually afford as 
pretty an effect as the small, neat, tasty 
labels that give the customer an opportun¬ 
ity to see the honey. It is the honey that 
sells; and if it is a fine quality, the grocer 
should be induced to display it in such a 
way in his window that the light will 
sparkle thru it, and it will then readily 
sell itself. 

BOTTLING HONEY IN A COMMERCIAL WAY. 

There are several large bottling concerns 
in the country that have put up honey in 
glass in an extensive way. During the act¬ 
ive season they will send out two or three 
carloads of bottled goods a week. These big 
concerns necessarily have to employ exten¬ 
sive apparatus—something which, at the 
same time, will be sanitary. First the bot¬ 
tles must be washed and sterilized; the 
honey must be heated in large tanks, glass- 
lined, and it must then be conveyed to a 
bottle-filler which automatically fills the 
bottles just so full and no more. The bot¬ 
tles are then carried by a traveling belt to 
a capping-machine, and then to a label¬ 
ing machine, and finally to the box which 
receives the packages > after they have been 
sponged off and wrapped. Some of the 
large illustrations here will give one an 
idea of how honey is put up in glass in a 
large Avay. 


For putting up in tin cans see Extract¬ 
ed Honey. 

BOX HIVES.— It seems as if any de¬ 
scription of box hives in a work to teach 
modern apiculture Avould be out of place: 
but the facts are, there are thousands upon 
thousands of colonies kept in these old 
gums in the south Atlantic States where 
there are more bees and beekeepers to the 
square mile than anyAvhere else in the 
United States. 

These hives, as the name indicates, are 
merely boxes containing neither brood- 
frames nor movable fixtures. They usually 
consist of a rude, rough box about 12 or 
15 inches square, and from 18 to 24 inches 
high. Thru the center there are two cross¬ 
sticks, the purpose of which is to help 
sustain the Aveight of the combs built in ir¬ 
regular sheets within the hive. 

At the close of the season it Avas and is 
the custom for the oAvner of box hives to 
go around and “heft” his hives. Those 
that are heavy are marked to be brim- 
stoned ; and those that are light are left to 
Avinter over for the next season if they 
can. The bees of the first named are de¬ 
stroyed with sulphur fumes, and then the 
beebread, honey, and everything are cut 
out. 

In the more modern box hiA’es there are 
boxes with glass ends that can be draAvn 
out from an upper part, leaving the lower 
intact. In this case the bees are not de¬ 
stroyed. In any case there is no oppor¬ 
tunity to inspect combs, hunt queens, di¬ 
vide, nor perform any of the hundred and 
one operations peculiar to modern apicul¬ 
ture. 

As stated at the outset, in some of the 
southern States, particularly the south At¬ 
lantic — Virginia, North Carolina, South 
Carolina, Alabama, and Georgia — box 
hives or log gums are used very largely. 
Indeed, there are very few modern hives or 
modern beekeepers. The mountaineers in 
some of those States are of the purest of 
pure Anglo-Saxon blood. Tbeir ancestors 
came from England 300 years ago. As 
their isolation up in the mountain shuts 
them out completely from the outside 
world, many of the old customs and modes 
of speech still cling to them. At all events, 
they appear to be keeping bees in box hives 


BOX HIVES 


137 



The passing of the log gum in the South. 


or gums just as it was done in England 300 
years ago. They have no knowledge of 
modern methods. The moth miller, swarm¬ 
ing, and poor wintering are the handicaps 
that prevent them from getting much hon¬ 
ey. The most of them, for example, know 
nothing of hiving the first swarms on the 
old stand, and placing the parent colony to 
one side or in an entirely new location in 
order to catch all the flying bees with the 
swarm. They leave the parent colony on 
the old stand, and, of course, it continues 
to swarm itself weak. In the meantime 
the moth miller and winter perform their 
destructive work. The result is that little 
or no increase is made, and the prime 
swarms are the only ones that yield any 
return. If foul brood ever gets a foothold 
here, the business, such as it is, will be 
wiped out. 

No matter what the season is, even tho 
the crop has been only half harvested, the 
colony must be brimstoned and the honey 
taken off at some particular phase of the 
moon. 

Possibly, here is a case showing that if 
ignorance is bliss ’tis folly to be wise; but 
the United States evidently thinking other- 
Avise, has recently been sending experts 
doAvn into this country to teach modern 
methods; for statistics show that there 
are more bees and beekeepers in this South¬ 
land than in any other portion of the 


United States. The country is exceedingly 
favorable for the keeping of bees, and the 
day should not be far distant when modern 
apiculture will supplant the old boxdiive 
system, coupled as it is with ignorance and 
superstition. 

It is only fair to state, however, that the 
class of box-hive keepers here described 
does not represent all of this Southland: 
but there are enough of them to require the 
earnest attention of the extension workers 
or county agents sent out by the Federal 
Government. 



Log gums used for producing comb honey, with the 
“supers” in position. 

As a matter of fact, extension men have 
done a splendid work in instructing the 
beekeepers of the southern States on how 
to keep bees by modern methods. Many 
hundreds in the South are now transfer¬ 
ring to modern hives; and Avitli the neAV 









138 


BOX HIVES 


hives they are now following the new 
methods of management. It is needless to 
say that the difference in the size of the 
crops of honey so secured over the old way 
is so marked that the bee-extension men 


work in educating beekeepers of his State 
to the new w.ays of producing honey. Hun¬ 
dreds of beekeepers of his State are now- 
transferring; and it is very evident that 
at no distant day the box hive, and with it 



A TYPICAL BOX HIVE WITH AN EARTHEN CROCK FOR A COMB- 

HONEY SUPER. 


These crocks would be cold, but when once filled would keep the honey 
safe from leaking after taking off the gum. 


are being called upon to demonstrate how 
to transfer as well as how to keep bees 
better. C. L. Sams, special bee-exten¬ 
sion man of the Department of Agricul¬ 
ture, Raleigh, N. C., is doing a wonderful 


its companion the log gum, will almost be 
things of the past, just as it is in the North 
at the present time. 

Some of these people live in almost ab¬ 
solute poverty when they might just as 










BREEDING STOCK 


well get a fair living, if they could but 
know of the modern methods of handling 
even box hives. 



Log-gum apiary of .T. S. Kelly near Wilmington, 
N. C. Mr. Sams holding an empty gum, and altlio 
the bees were stinging him unmercifully, he stood 

his ground while the picture was being taken. 

Moses Quinby, in the early ’50's, handled 
box hives so that he made honey; and if 
these people cannot afford movable-frame 
hives, they could, by the simple expedient 
of hiving a swarm back on the parent stand 
and removing the parent colony, vastly in¬ 
crease their resources. Father Quinby did 
not brimstone his bees; and neither will 
these purest of pure Anglo-Saxons up in 
the mountains of the south Atlantic States 
be compelled to do so. Quinby’s old book 



Modern hives into which bees in “gums” had been 
transferred by Mr. Sams and his helpers. 


of 1853—a reprint of which has been made 
by the publishers of this volume—explains 
how bees can be kept on the box-hive sys¬ 
tem without the use of, brimstone. While 
the tricks of the trade taught in this old 
work of Quinby would enable the High¬ 
landers to increase their yields per colony, 
the modern hive with movable frames 
would enable them to do vastly better. 

BRACE COMBS. — See THICK TOP 
frames under Frames. 


139 

BREEDING STOCK.— Every well-regu¬ 
lated apiary or series of apiaries should 
have one or more choice queens from which 
to breed. Such queens should, of course, 
be the very best in the apiary, or, better 
still, the best out of a series of outyards 
including the home apiary. They should 
not only be prolific but be the mothers of 
workers that are energetic and good work¬ 
ers—that is, bees that will store more 
honey than any others. It is important, 
also, that they be of pure stock in order 
that they may the better transmit their 
qualities. While gentleness is desirable, it 
is sometimes necessary to sacrifice this de¬ 
sirable quality in order to get bees for 
business. 

When using Italian stock one should not 
be misled by the fad of a bright golden or 
yellow color. If it comes about accidental¬ 
ly without the sacrifice of business quali¬ 
ties, the beekeeper is that much ahead. As 
a rule, the darker strains of Italians will 
show more desirable points than the bright- 
colored ones. 

Ability to stand a severe winter is a 
necessary quality. It usually follows that 
bees that will breed up early in the spring, 
and prove to be good workers, are also 
good winterers. Bees that have difficulty in 
resisting the winter will be too weak, if 
they survive, to be good for anything in 
the season. It follows as a natural infer¬ 
ence that a colony of bees that can pile up 
super after super of honey is also good 
for wintering. 

It has been proven that some strains of 
bees will resist disease much better than 
others. While no stock is immune, there 
are some that do not readily contract dis¬ 
ease, while others will fall easy victims. If 
possible a breeding queen should be one 
whose bees have demonstrated their ability 
to ward off disease, and there are some that 
have shown great superiority in this re¬ 
spect. 

In this connection, good breeding drones 
should not be forgotten. It is generally 
accepted that a male is more able to trans¬ 
mit his good or bad qualities than the 
female; and the same rule holds good in 
bee culture. In selecting breeding queens 
one should select not only those that will 
produce good daughters but those that will 
beget good sons. It very often and gener- 





BROOD AND BROOD-REARING 


140 


ally happens that, in order to prevent in- 
breeding’, one must go to some other breed¬ 
er to get stock for crossing with his own. 

The average beginner should buy bis 
breeding stock, especially if he has only a 
few colonies; and even after he becomes 
fairly expert, if he has only one apiary it 
will be advisable for him to buy a breeding 
queen of two or three of the best breeders 
in the country. A good queen is worth 
from $5.00 to $10.00—usually the latter 
figure. Sometimes as much as $25.00 is 
paid. When one buys a breeder he should 
always have her sent to him in a nucleus 
rather than thru the mails. Usually a 
breeding queen is not less than one year 
old, for it takes at least a year, unless the 
season is exceedingly favorable, to measure 
up her value. A queen one or two years 
old will not stand transmission thru the 
mails like an untested queen that has just 
begun to lay. 

After one receives a breeder he should 
give her the utmost care, not expecting that 
she will live more than a year, especially if 
she is already two years old. He must keep 
her in a small nucleus, for no breeding 
queen during the active season should be 
the mother of a powerful colony. She 
should be kept down, and given as little 
egg-laying to do as possible; and then in 
the winter, when the active season is over, 
her colony should be gradually built up 
with combs of emerging brood. She should 
he given young brood in this way until 
she is the mother of a large colony, and 
then in addition she should be given every 
advantage by housing her colony in a. large 
double-walled hive in a protected location. 
Or. if one has a good cellar where he can 
control conditions, her colony should be 
placed indoors. See Wintering Outdoors 
and Wintering in Cellars, 

The use of a good breeding queen may 
mean the difference between profit and loss 
in a year’s business. It is folly to keep 
scrub coavs on the farm when good coavs 
on the same feed Avill furnish tivo or three 
times the milk. It is equally foolish to 
breed from anything but the best queen 
stock obtainable. A good strain of bees 
will produce anywhere from two to three 
times as much honey as a poor one. See 
Queens and Queen-rearing. 


BROOD AND BROOD-REARING. 

“Brood” is a term commonly used to des¬ 
ignate the young of the bees in the cells 
that have not emerged.. It may be young 
bees just before they have come from the 
cells, the larvae in various stages of 
growth, or even the eggs. 

Very often the beginner is confused be¬ 
cause he is not able to distinguish capped 
honey from capped brood; nor does he 
knoAv the difference betiveen drone and 
Avorker brood. Sealed brood is of a light 
to dark-broAvn color, depending on the age 
and color of the comb itself. In ordinary 
Avorker brood, in cells five to the inch, the 
cappings are made up of wax and fibrous 
material, smooth and slightly convex if the 
brood is not diseased. Drone brood is the 
same in appearance except that the cap¬ 
pings are more convex AA 7 ith four cells to 
the inch. The cappings o\-er honey are 
Avhite, bluish-white, or yellow, are more or 
less irregular, and someAvhat flattened. The 
honey may be in either worker- or drone- 
cells. By comparing the illustrations of 
brood shown on folloAving pages, together 
Avith the cappings of comb honey under 
Comb Honey, the beginner will easily make 
the distinction. 

The average beginner may not be able 
to see eggs at first. One trouble is, he does 
not knoAv where to look nor Avhat to expect. 
When he peers down into the bottoms of 
the cells and sees tiny little objects stand¬ 
ing on end at an angle he hardly knows 
Avhat they are. The cuts on. next page 
shoAV the eggs in the bottoms of the cells, 
altho photography is not able to show the 
depth of the cell. The cut, page 142, sIioavs 
brood in various stages of development. 

HOAV TILE PRESENCE OR ABSENCE OF BROOD 

REVEALS THE REAL CONDITION OF THE 
COLONY. 

It is the presence of eggs or young larvae 
that shows that the bees have a qiteen and 
are beginning to rear brood. This may- 
show even during midivinter if the Aveather 
has been Avarm for a feAv days; or it may 
occur, as it usually does, in early spring. 
Brood will be found in all stages of growth 
as the season progresses. 

On the other hand, the absence of un¬ 
sealed brood, and especially the absence of 


BROOD AND BROOD-REARING 


141 



Close view of eggs. Notice the cell in the lower left-hand corner contains two eggs, while that at the 
right-hand corner has a larva. 


# 

eggs, may be an indication that the colony 
is queenless. During spring and early sum¬ 
mer there will be, or should be, brood in 
all stages, including eggs. Such a condition 
indicates general prosperity, and the bee¬ 
keeper can feel that his pets are doing well. 
But if there are no eggs nor young larvae, 
and the queen cannot be found; and if, 
also, there are initial queen-cells during 
spring and the fore part of summer, the 
strong probabilities are that the queen has 
recently. died or that a swarm has issued. 
It may further be said that the absence of 
eggs and the presence of initial queen-cells 
during the active season are fairly good 
proof either that the queen is not in the 
hive, or that the one that is there is about 
to be replaced. It will be seen, then, that 
the presence or absence of brood in vari¬ 
ous stages of growth, and especially young 
brood and eggs, gives one a pretty accur¬ 
ate idea of the condition of the colony. 

After the main honey flow, which usually 
occurs in the northern States from July 1 
to August 1, the activity of the queen in 
egg-laying will decrease and the amount of 
brood, even in a normal colony, will be very 
much less than at any time preceding the 
honey flow. Sometimes there will be almost 


no larvae nor eggs, and but very little seal¬ 
ed brood. The beginner will be inclined to 
think the queen is failing, wdien, as a mat¬ 
ter of fact, she and her colony are pursu¬ 
ing a normal course. Nature evidently 
works on the plan that there is no use in 
producing a lot of worker bees and con¬ 
sumers when they can be of no possible 
help to the colony; so she husbands her 



Unsealed, partially sealed, and fully sealed honey, 
which may he in either worker or drone cell. Capil¬ 
lary attraction prevents the unsealed honey from 
running out. 

forces until another honey flow comes on 
toward fall. At that time brood-rearing 
will start up again; and possibly the hives 
may have as much brood as at any time 
during spring or early summer. But if cool 
or frosty nights come on, the amount, prob- 












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BROOD AND BROOD-REARING 


143 


ably, will not go beyond one or two frames. 
If considerable brood is in the hive when 
a severe cool or cold spell comes on, it is 
apt to result in a lot of chilled brood. 



Capped brood in lower left corner, pollen above and 
at the right. 

Sometimes during the flow, when late 
flowers are in bloom, the bees and queen 
apparently become excited and begin 
breeding heavily. A chilly, rainy spell 
may come on for four or five days, but not 
cold enough to kill the blossoms in the 
fields. During the interim the cluster con¬ 
tracts, especially at night. The young 
brood outside of the cluster chills and dies. 
In a day or two these larvee will be found 
scattered around the entrance of the hive, 
and the beginner is inclined to come to the 
conclusion that something is wrong—that 
some bee disease like foul brood is in the 
hives. 

The statement was made that egg-laying 
would begin to decrease after the main 
honey flow. This is true with all except 
young laying queens. A queen reared in 
June will probably continue laying all 
thru the summer, and the colony will con¬ 
tain brood in all stages. One reared in 
September will begin laying immediately, 
no matter what the conditions, and she 
will keep it up till cool or cold weather 
shuts it off. 

In some localities it is an advantage to 
use young queens in order that there may 
be a large force of young bees for the 
honey flow that will follow the main one. 
The secondary flow, perhaps, will be from 
buckwheat, aster, goldenrod, or all of them. 
It is important to have a strong force of 
bees for it. Brood-rearing should, there¬ 
fore, be continued from the first flow 
either by having young queens or by stimu¬ 
lative feeding, if honey is not coming in 
from natural sources. See Feeding, sub¬ 
head “Feeding to Stimulate"; also Build¬ 
ing Up Colonies. 


“by their fruits ye shall know them.” 

The amount of brood, the manner in 
which the eggs are laid—whether in scat¬ 
tering or irregular patches—also give one 
a fair idea, even tho he has not seen her, 
of the kind of queen he has in the hive. If 
there is only a scant amount of brood, and 
eggs are scattering when other colonies are 
well supplied, the presumption is that the 
queen is poor, and that a better queen 
should be put in her place. After she is 
found, the probabilities are that she will 
be small, not much larger than a worker. 

If, on the other hand, brood is found in 
six or seven frames, in all stages of growth 
from eggs to the emerging bees, in a ten- 
frame colony; the conclusion may be drawn 
that the queen is a good one, even tho she 
has not been seen. “By their fruits ye 
shall know them.” When located, the 
queen will probably be discovered to be 
large, handsome, long or full-bodied. By 
waiting a moment, one may have the pleas¬ 
ure of seeing her lay an egg, for such a 
queen is usually on the job night and day. 

As already stated, after the main honey 
flow egg-laying may almost entirely cease. 
One is more apt to find this condition at 
the close of the general harvest where the 
queen is one or two years old. A young 
queen reared in spring will usually con¬ 
tinue to lay thruout the season. But usu¬ 
ally any queen will begin laying when new 
honey begins to come in or when the col¬ 
ony is given stimulative feeding. Brood¬ 
rearing late in the fall, when the general 
weather is such that bees cannot fly, should 
not be attempted since it does more harm 
than good. There should be no brood in 
the hives during winter in the North until 
about February or March, and then in 
only small patches and in outdoor colonies. 

Too early brood-rearing during winter 
may or may not be a good omen. Much 
will depend on the climate and the winter. 
A mild winter or a mild climate will start 
breeding, especially if the bees can fly; 
but if a sharp cold snap follows, much of 
the brood will die, and the colony will 
suffer. In the South, brood-rearing on ac¬ 
count of the mildness of the climate may 
or may not progress every month in the 
year. Breeding always requires a large 
amount of stores, and this explains why 



144 


BROOD AND BROOD-REARING 


bees in the southern States consume more 
stores during winter than those in the 
Noi’th. 

brood-rearing in the south. 

Bees in the South will have to gather 
from 200 to 250 pounds of honey for col¬ 
ony maintenance before they can get a 
surplus. So much honey is consumed in 
constant brood-rearing and flying every 
day for 11 or 12 months that the beekeeper 
of the Southland should figure on at least 
two or three pounds of honey to maintain 
a colony to every pound he will get for 
surplus. In many instances the ratio 
would stand four to one. In the far south¬ 
ern States some of the best beekeepers ad¬ 
mit that, during the winter, their bees have 
to raise two or three families of brood be¬ 
fore they can get one to gather the honey. 
That means that the hive will have to be 
filled with brood two or three times, each 
generation dying off before the third or 
fourth generation can gather the main 
crop. 

On the other hand, northern bees, during 
winter for five or six months, are in a 
semi-dormant state, during which they 
raise but little brood, consume very few 
stores, and last, but not least, require no 
attention. 

BROOD-REARING DURING MIDWINTER. 

Mention has been made of the fact that 
brood may be found in the hive during 
midwinter, particularly with bees outdoors. 
If the weather is mild, or if bees are 
located in a southern climate, brood may 
be found in the hive every month in the 
year. Ordinarily, in the northern States 
no brood will be found much before Feb¬ 
ruary; but breeding may be started either 
in the cellar or outdoors by giving slabs 
of hard candy laid flat on top of the 
brood-nest with two %-inch cleats to 
hold it up from the top of the frames. 
(See Candy, particularly Hard Candy.) 
Disturbance of the brood-nest in or out of 
the cellar will also often start breeding. 
The average beginner would do well not 
to hasten things before the bees themselves 
commence. If brood-rearing begins too 
early, there is danger-of dysentery setting 
in. In order to maintain brood-rearing, the 
temperature of the colony must be up to 


about blood heat—94. This stimulates the 
activities of the colony, causing a large 
consumption of stores; but if the bees 
are not able to make winter flights, the 
retention of the feces may cause dysentery. 
When this starts in January or February 
it will probably mean the loss of the colony 
before spring. (See Dysentery.) How¬ 
ever, an experienced beekeeper in the 
northern States may start brood-rearing 
sometimes by giving slabs of candy, and 
the result will be that the colony will be 
stronger by spring than in the fall. But 
the average beginner should let the bees 
severely alone, provided he is sure they 
have plenty of stores and are well housed. 

For a further discussion of brood and 
brood-rearing, see Feeding, subhead Feed¬ 
ing to Stimulate; Candy; Spreading 
Brood; Queens and Queen-rearing. For 
a discussion of brood diseases, chilled 
brood, and neglected brood, see Foul 
Brood. 

DRONE BROOD. 

This lias the general characteristics of 
worker brood, except that the cells are 
larger and the cappings more convex. 
While worker brood emerges in from 
20 to 21 days from the laying of the egg, 
drone brood emerges in from 23 to 24 
days. See large half-tone plate. 

A drone-laying queen or a laying worker 
(see Laying Worker) may lay drone 
eggs in worker-cells. In that case the 
brood will be worker size, but the cappings 
will be more convex than ordinary worker. 

Drone brood will often die from neg¬ 
lect. It will smell like foul brood, but 
lack the characteristics of either European 
or American foul brood. Beginners some¬ 
times suppose it to be a disease. But 
dead drone brood usually means nothing 
serious, especially if the worker brood in 
the hive is normally healthy. 

AMOUNT OF HONEY REQUIRED FOR BROOD¬ 
REARING. 

The author estimates the amount of hon¬ 
ey used by a colony of bees for its own 
maintenance at 200 to 250 pounds per year 
in the southern States. This is the amount 
the bees must have before any surplus can 
be secured. While this amount may seem 
excessive to some, it is not so high as simi- 


BROOD AND BROOD-REARING 


145 


lar estimates made by others. The data 
which are available on this subject are 
meager, but they all indicate that surpris¬ 
ingly large quantities of honey are used by 
the bees during the active season. 

Beekeepers have no means of knowing 
exactly how much it costs in honey for the 
bees to rear a given amount of brood, and 
one can only guess as to the amount of 
honey used by adult bees when they are 
active as during a honey flow. Some work 
done by R. L. Taylor in the Michigan Ex¬ 
perimental Apiary in 1896 yielded figures 
indicating that four pounds of honey are 
used to produce a frame of brood, Langs- 
troth size. These figures were obtained by 
carefully conducted experiments. M. T. 
Pritchard reports that, in his queen-rearing 
operations, he feeds his cell-building colo¬ 
nies, after the honey flow, one quart of 
sugar syrup made of two parts of water 
to one part of sugar, which is about the 
equivalent, in sugar content, of a pound of 
honey. This causes the bees to rear brood 
at the rate of five frames of brood every 
20 days, these five frames being removed 
from the brood-chamber every 20 days and 
placed above a queen-excluder. Five combs 
every 20 days is at the rate of one comb 
every four days, to produce which he feeds 
the equivalent of four pounds of honey. If 
no nectar is coming in from the fields, these 
colonies use a small amount of their re¬ 
serve stores in addition to the quart of thin 
syrup per day. These figures agree closely 
with Taylor’s figures of four, pounds of 
honey to produce a frame of brood. 

Tn 1901 Adrian Getaz collected all of the 
data which had been published up to that, 
time in American beekeeping literature on 
the subject of “feeding back” extracted 
honey for the completion of unfinished sec¬ 
tions. These figures indicate quite con¬ 
sistently that a colony of bees, when act¬ 
ively engaged in storing comb honey in 
sections, uses one and a half pounds of 
'honey daily. In practically every recorded 
case brood-rearing was restricted, while 
the colonies were being fed, by reducing 
the brood-chamber to five combs. From 
this great mass of figures on feeding back 
Getaz concluded that 170 pounds of honey 
is the lowest amount consumed by a nor¬ 
mal colony during the year. 


Disregarding the brood reared previous 
to about April 1 and assuming that a col¬ 
ony real's two frames of brood during the 
first period of 21 days, five frames of brood 
during the second period of 21 days, and 
10 frames of brood during the third period 
of 21 days, we have a total of 17 frames 
of brood, which, according to the above fig¬ 
ures, cost 68 pounds of honey. Some colo¬ 
nies will probably produce 20 combs of 
brood in this time costing 80 pounds of 
honey. This takes the colony up to about 
the first of June. Assuming an average of 
live frames of brood thru July and August, 
we have 15 frames of brooding costing 60 
pounds of honey. Assuming three frames of 
brood thru August and September, we 
have nine frames of brood, ora total of 
164 to 176 pounds for brood-rearing alone. 
To this must be added 15 to 20 pounds for 
winter and the amount of honey used by 
the adult bees when they are active dining 
a honey flow. On this point we have but 
little information; but, if the above figures 
ai - e nearly correct, normal colonies of bees 
must consume more than 200 pounds of 
honey annually, even in the North. 

The large amount of stores needed for 
brood-rearing during the spring, in some 
cases apparently as much as 80 pounds, em¬ 
phasizes the need of close attention as to 
stores during this time when the bees may 
not be able to gather much from the fields. 

Under the head of Bee Behavior and 
Development of Bees, the scientific side 
of the growth of the bee from the egg to 
the fully developed worker has been dis¬ 
cussed ; but, as there may be some who 
do not care to go into the science of this, 
something here is presented that will en¬ 
able one to follow out for himself the 
egg up to the time that the bee emerges, and 
even after it begins to perform some of 
the duties of the hive. 

THE DEVELOPMENT OF BROOD.* 

During warm weather, while bees are 
gathering honey, open the hive about noon, 
and put in the center a frame containing 
a sheet of foundation. Examine it every 
morning, noon, and evening, until eggs 
can be seen in the cells. By inserting it 
between two combs already containing 

* See also DEVELOrJiEXT of Bees. 



146 


BROOD AND BROOD-REARING 


brood, eggs will be found in the cells the 
next day. 

If one has never seen an egg that is to 
produce a bee, he may have to look very 
sharply the first time, for they are white 
like polished ivory, and scarcely larger 
than the letter “i” in this print. (See De¬ 
velopment of Bees.) They will be seen 
in the center of the cells attached to the 
comb by one end. The egg under the 
microscope much resembles the cut:. It is 
covered, as will be noted, with a sort of 
lacelike penciling, or network it might 
properly be called. Immediately on dis¬ 
covering eggs, the date should be marked. 



A queen’s egg under the microscope. 

If the weather is favorable, these eggs 
will hatch out in about three days or a 
little more, when, in place of the egg, if 
one looks sharply enough, he will see a 
tiny white worm or grub floating in a 
minute drop of milky fluid. If he watches 
he will find bees incessantly poking their 
heads into these cells. Just before the 
inmate breaks its way out of the shell a 
milky food is placed on and about the egg. 
Experiments have proven this necessary 
to the development of the egg; for if 
eggs are removed from the hive and sub¬ 
jected to the proper temperature they will 
Batch if supplied with the milky food; 
otherwise not. These worms that hatch 
from the eggs are really young bees in 
their larval state, and Ave shall in the 
future call them larvae. They thrive and 
grow very rapidly on their bread-and-milk 
diet, as can be seen if they are looked 
at very often. They will more than double 
in size in a single half-day. This seems 
almost incredible; but there they are, 
right before our eyes. Probably it is ow¬ 
ing to the highly concentrated nature of 
this bread-and-milk food that the workers 
are so constantly giving them that they 
grow so rapidly. If the comb is taken 


away from the bees for a little while, the 
larvas will be seen opening their mouths to 
be fed, like a nest of young birds. 

RATE OF GROWTH. 

Figures under the cut represent the age 
in days from the laying of an egg. First, 
the larva just having broken the egg-shell 



on the third day; next, a larva on the 
fourth day. During the fifth and the sixth 
days they grow very rapidly, but it is 
difficult to fix any precise mark in regard 
to size. On the ninth day, the larva hav¬ 
ing straightened itself out, worker bees 
cap it over. (See Development of Bee.s. ) 
The author has made some careful observa¬ 
tions on this point, and it was just six 
days and seven hours after the first egg 
hatched that the bees completely capped it 
over. During the wannest weather, this 
may be reduced to less than six days. To 
determine when larvae begin to have legs 
and eyes, see Development of Bees. The 
wings develop toward the last of the 
growth. 

After the larvas are 6 days old, or be¬ 
tween 9 and 10 days from the time the egg 
was laid, one will find the bees sealing up 
some of the largest. This sealing is done 
with a porous-like substance in which are 
found wax shreds, old silk, bee hair, and 
sometimes pollen; and while it shuts the 
young hee up, it still allows it a chance to 
breathe thru the pores of the capping. It 
is given its last food, and the nurse bees 
seem to say, “There! you have been fed 
enough. Spin your cocoon, and take care 
of yourself.” See Development of Bees. 

After this the young bee is generally 
left covered up until it gnaws off the cap-' 
ping and comes out a perfect bee. This 
will be in about 21 days from the time the 
egg was laid, or it may be 20 if the 
weather is very favorable; therefore it is 
shut up 11 or 12 days. 

There is an exception to this last state- 





















BROOD AND BROOD-REARING 


1-17 


ment, and it has caused not a little trouble 
and solicitude to beginners. During very 
warm summer weather, the bees, for one 
l'eason or another, decide to let a part of 
their children go “bareheaded,” and there- 



Bees gnawing thru the cappings and emerging from 
their cells. 


fore, on opening a hive, whole patches of 
immature bees will be found looking like 
silent corpses with their white heads in 
tiers just about on a level with the surface 
of the comb. This seems to be peculiar 
to the offspring of some queens or strains, 
and. is sometimes so pronounced that al¬ 
most no brood are perfectly sealed at any 
season. At this stage of growth they are 
motionless, of course, and so the young 
beekeeper sends a postal card, saying the 
brood in his hive are all dead. Some have 
imagined that the extractor killed them, 
others that it was foul brood (see Foul 
Brood). One can’t help thinking of the 
family which moved from the city into the 
country. When their beans began to come 
up, they thought the poor things had made 
a mistake by coming up wrong end first; so 
they pulled them all up, and replanted 
them with the bean part in the ground, 
leaving the proper roots sprawling in the 
air.' One can rest assured that the bees 
always know when it is safe to let the 
children’s heads go uncovered. 

it is very important, many times, to 
discover just when a queen was lost or a 
colony swarmed; hence one should learn 
these data thoroly; the development of a 
bee occupies 3 days in the egg, 6 in the 
larval state, and 12 days sealed up. 

YOUNG BEES AFTER THEY EMERGE. 

The young bee, when it gnaws its way 
out of the cell, commences to rub its own 
nose, straighten out its feathers, and then 
push its way among the busy throng, 
doubtless rejoicing to become one of that 
vast commonwealth. Nobody says a word, 


nor, apparently, takes any notice of the 
youngster; but for all that, these young 
bees, as a whole, feel encouraged, and re¬ 
joice in their own way at a house full of 
young folks. If a colony is kept without 
young bees for a time, one will see a new 
energy infused into all hands just as soon 
as young bees begin to gnaw out. 

If one should vary the experiment by 
putting a frame of Italian eggs into a 
colony of black bees, he will be better able 
to follow the newly emerged young bee 
as it matures. The first day it does little 
but crawl around; but about the next dav 
it will he found dipping greedily into the 
cells of unsealed honey. After about the 
first day it will begip to look after the 
wants of the unsealed larvas, and very soon 
assists in furnishing the milky food for 
them. While so doing', a large amount of 
pollen is used, and it is supposed that this 
larval food is pollen and honey, partially 
digested by these young nurses. Bees of 
this age or a little older supply royal jelly 
for the queen-cells, which is the same, 
probably, as the food given very small 
larvae. Just before they are sealed up, 
larvae to produce, worker bees and drones 
are fed on a coarser, less perfectly digest¬ 
ed mixture of honey and pollen. Very pos¬ 
sibly the only difference in this food is 
the addition of honey with its contained 
pollen, to the food previously given by 
other and perhaps younger nurses. Young 
bees have a white downy look until they 
are a full week old, and continue a pe¬ 
culiar young aspect until they are quite 
two weeks old. At about this latter age 
they are generally active comb-builders of 
the hive. When a week or ten days old 
they take their first flight out of doors: 
there is no prettier sight in the apiary than 
a host of young Italians taking a play- 
flight in the open air. in front of their 
hive. Their antics and gambols remind one 
of a lot of young lambs at play. See Play- 
Flights. 

It is also very interesting to see these 
young bees bringing their first load of 
pollen from the fields. If there are plenty 
of other bees in the hive of the proper 
age, they will not usually take up this 
work until about two weeks old. The first 
load of pollen is to a young bee just about 
what the first pair of pants is to a boy 



148 


BUCKBUSH 


baby. Instead of going straight into the 
hive with its load, as the veterans do, a 
vast amount -of circling round the entrance 
must be done; and, even after the young 
bee has once alighted, it takes wing again, 
then returns and rushes all thru the hive, 
jostling nurses, drones, and perhaps the 
queen too, seeming to say as plainly as 
could words, “Look! Here am I. I gath¬ 
ered this, all myself. Is it not nice?” 

One might imagine some old veteran, 
who had brought thousands of such loads, 
answering gruffly, “Well, suppose you 
did; what of it? You had better put it 
in a cell and start off after more, instead 
of making all this row and wasting time, 
when there are so many mouths to feed.” 
Yet, apparently, no one scolds or finds 
fault, and the children are never forced to 
work, unless they wish. If they are im¬ 
provident, and starvation comes, they all 
suffer alike, and, it is probable, without 
any hard feeling or censure toward any 
one. They all work together, just as the 
right hand assists the left; and if one 
would understand the economy of the bee¬ 
hive, it were well to bear this point in 
mind. 

Shortly following the impulse for pol¬ 
len-collecting, comes that for bonev-gather- 
ing; and the bee is probably in its prime as 
a worker when a month old. At this stage 
it can, like a man of forty, “turn its 
hand” to almost any domestic duty; but if 
the hive is well supplied with workers of 
all ages, it now probably does most effect¬ 
ive service in the fields. See Bee Behav¬ 
ior; also Age of Bees. 

When a colony is formed of young bees 
entirely, they will sometimes go out into 
the fields for pollen when but five or six- 
days old. Also when a colony is formed 
wholly of adult bees they can build comb, 
feed the larvae, construct queen-cells, and 
perform work generally that is usually 
done by younger bees; yet it is probably 
better economy to have bees of all ages in 
the hive. 

BROOD, SPREADING.— See Spreading 
Brood. 

BUCKBUSH (Sympho ricarpos occiden- 
talis). —Wolfberrv. A branching shrub, 
three to five feet tall, common in Washing¬ 
ton and Idaho. In Idaho it is one of the 


most important honey plants yielding a 
surplus, on an average, of 25 pounds per 
colony. Near Fraser in the northern part 
of the State the l.oney is secured by the 
thousand pounds. The extracted honey is 
water-white wdth a very pleasant flavor 
and is slow to granulate, a bottle of it 
remaining liquid after three years. It 
blooms from June 15 to July 20. The 
small Avhite flowers are white tinged with 
pink, bell-shaped, hairy within, and are in 
small clusters in the axils of the leaves. 
They secrete nectar freely, and are very 
attractive to wasps whence they have been 
called wasp-flowers. The fruit is a white 
berry, which is eaten by pheasants and 
cattle. 

This bush is also abundant in western 
Iowa, where it yields rvell in dry weather. 
The honey is white and very similar to 
that of white clover. In the Missouri River 
basin, especially on the loess bluffs, this 
is a very common species; but it ceases to 
be valuable east of Wisconsin and south of 
Nebraska. 

Coral-berry or Indian currant ( S. orbi- 
culatus) extends southward from Iowa to 
Texas and is abundant along the Missouri 
River. The small berries are red resem¬ 
bling red currants. It blooms for two or 
three weeks and secretes a large quantity 
of nectar. 

Snowberry (S. racemosus ) is a northern 
species found from Alaska to Nova Scotia, 
and southward on the east coast to Penn¬ 
sylvania and on the west coast of Califor¬ 
nia. In Iowa, in summer, a large amount 
of excellent honey is obtained from it. , It 
is frequently cultivated for ornament be¬ 
cause of its large white berries. 

BUCKWHEAT (Fagopyrum esculentum 
Moeneh.).—The English name is derived 
from the German buchweizen (beechnut), 
so called from the close resemblance of the 
sharply three-angled seed to the beechnut. 
The generic name Fagopyrum is Greek for 
beechwheat. The common species belongs 
to the buckwheat family, or PolygonaoecC. 
■which likewise includes such familiar weeds 
as the sorrels, docks, and smartweeds. 
Heartsease, an important honey plant in 
the West, also belongs here. There are 
about six species of buckwheat and they 
are all natives of Asia. Besides the com- 


BUCKWHEAT 


mon buckwheat two other species are cul¬ 
tivated. for grain. Tartary buckwheat ( F. 
tataricum) endures the cold better, but the 
seeds are smaller. It is grown in the 
mountainous. regions of Asia and to some 
extent in eastern Canada and Maine. 
Notch-seeded buckwheat (F. emarginatum) 
is grown in the highlands of northeast 
India, where the grain is used for food. 

HISTORY. 

The common species grows wild on the 
banks of the Amur River in Manchuria 
and near Lake Baikal, and possibly also 
in China and northern India. It was un¬ 
known to the Greeks and Romans, and its 
cultivation is first mentioned in China 
about the tenth century. It was intro¬ 
duced into Europe thru Russia and was* 


Buckwheat blossom. 

grown in Germany in 1436. In the 16th 
century it was cultivated in both France 
and Italy. It was early brought to the 
American colonies where it was largely 
used as a substitute for wheat. 

POLLINATION". 

The plant is a nearly smooth annual, 
growing from one to four feet tall. The 
leaves are halbert-shaped. The small flow¬ 
ers are clustered and possess a strong fra¬ 
grance; the petals are wanting but the 
sepals are white or rose-colored. The nec¬ 


140 

tar is secreted by eight round yellow glands 
interposed between the same number of 
stamens. This species is dimorphic, that is 
there are two forms of flowers, one with 
long stamens and short styles and the other 
with short stamens and long styles. This 
arrangement promotes cross-pollination, in 
the long stamened flowers most visitors 
touch the anthers with the under side of 
the body and the stigmas with the head; 
and the converse takes place in the short- 
stamened flowers. Each plant bears flowers 
of one form only, but the seed from 
either form will produce both forms in 
about equal numbers. 

When the flowers are legitimately pollin¬ 
ated, that is, when pollen is brought from 
flowers with short stamens to flowers with 
short styles, or from flowers with long sta¬ 
mens to flowers with long styles, 
the seeds are more numerous and 
heavier than when the flowers are 
pollinated illegitimately. The pol¬ 
len of the two different forms of 
flowers differs in size and is less 
active upon its own stigma than 
upon the stigma of a flower of the 
other form, or it may be entirely 
inactive (impotent) upon all flow¬ 
ers of the same form as the flower 
producing it. Thus the functions 
of the flowers are such that the ad¬ 
vantages of cross-pollination are 
secured, and yet every flower may 
produce seed. Whereas in plants 
which have the stamens and pistils 
in different flowers only half the 
flowers can be fruitful. The flow¬ 
ers of buckwheat, according to Dar¬ 
win, possess the power of self-fer¬ 
tilization, but when covered with 
nets they are early in the season al¬ 
most wholly self-sterile and produce hardly 
any seed. Flowers cross-pollinated artifici¬ 
ally at the same time produce seeds in 
abundance. Later in the season, during Sep¬ 
tember, both forms of flowers became high¬ 
ly self-fertile. They did not, however, pro¬ 
duce as many seeds as some neighboring 
uncovered plants which were visited by in¬ 
sects. Thus the crop of seed is largely de¬ 
pendent on insects, chiefly honeybees, 
which are estimated to make nine-tenths of 
the visits. There are planted in the United 
States annually 800,000 to 1,000,000 acres 




150 


BUCKWHEAT 



Japanese buckwheat 34 inches high in a little over three weeks from the time the seed was planted. 


of buckwheat, and yet the value of the 
services of the honeybee in pollinating this 
great expanse of bloom is almost wholly 
unknown. The buckwheat-growers and bee¬ 
keepers of New York are mutually depend¬ 
ent. 

BUCKWHEAT AS A HONEY PLANT. 

Buckwheat can he cultivated thruout the 
North Temperate Zone. It is extensively 
grown in Asia, especially in Japan, and 
is also widely cultivated in Europe. An 
immense quantity of buckwheat honey is 
gathered in Russia. In North America, 
while it is grown to some extent in Canada, 
it is chiefly valuable for grain in the 
United States. It is best adapted to New 
York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan, Wis¬ 
consin, and New England; and to the 
mountainous sections of Maryland, West 
Virginia, Kentucky, North Carolina, and 
Tennessee. About two-thirds of the crop 
is now raised in New York and Pennsyl¬ 
vania. In 1899 about 2,000,000 farms re¬ 
ported an average acreage of four acres 
each. 

In New York and Pennsylvania there 
are thousands of acres of buckwheat with¬ 
in a radius of a few miles. On one hilltop 
in Schoharie County, N. Y., the bees were 
reported a few years ago to have access 
within a radios of three miles to 5,000 
acres of buckwheat, all of which was with¬ 
in range of the eye. So great is the 
acreage of it in New York that from 
2,000 to 3,000 colonies can be kept in some 


counties, and immense quantities of buck¬ 
wheat honey are stored annually. There 
are hundreds of farmers who keep a few 
colonies in order that they may get the 
honey as well as the grain. One may ride 
for an entire day thruout the buckwheat 
region of this State without losing sight 
of the buckwheat fields. So immense is the 
area of bloom that the atmosphere is heav¬ 
ily charged with its odor. 

One beekeeper in the heart of the buck¬ 
wheat country, who lived near Cayuga 
Lake, harvested one year with 1,000 colo¬ 
nies 78,000 pounds of honey; another year 
50,000 pounds; for many years his crops, 
obtained chiefly from buckwheat, have been 
in carloads. E. W. Alexander of Delan- 
son, N. Y., also produced immense quanti¬ 
ties of this honey. His apiary consisted 
of 700 colonies, and from the top of the 
hill, where it was located, there Avere in 
sight 1,500 acres of buckwheat. Nowhere 
does buckwheat thrive better than on the 
hillsides of eastern New York, nor are the 
climate and the soil elsewhere more favor¬ 
able to a luxuriant growth. 

The flowers of buckwheat secrete nectar 
only in the morning; toward noon the 
flow lessens and ceases entirely during the 
afternoon, but begins again vigorously the 
next morning. The visits of the bees quick¬ 
ly decrease in number until they cease 
almost entirely, and they remain idle about 
the hives for the balance of the day. Thus 
in the afternoon, notwithstanding the great 
expanse of bloom and its strong fragrance, 







BUCKWHEAT 


151 



Honey for the bees, seed for harvest, fertilizer for the ground—buckwheat should be planted extensively. 


only a few bees can be found in the fields. 
Probably no beekeeper has ever had a 
more extended experience with buckwheat 
as a honey plant that E. W. Alexander. 
He observed that the secretion of nectar 
varied greatly with the temperature and 
the condition of the Aveather. He says: 

“Several years ago I kept nearly 200 
colonies in a location where there Avere 
barely 100 acres of buckwheat within reach 
of my bees, that is, within four miles or in 
a circle eight miles in diameter. Still Avith 
this small acreage it Avas no uncommon 
thing to harvest a surplus of 15 to 20 
pounds of fine buckwheat section honey 
per colony. As a result I became very 
anxious to keep bees in a buckwheat loca¬ 
tion, where thousands of acres were raised 
annually, so I moved to Delanson, N. Y. 
But I soon found out to my soitoav that 
the amount of bloom had but little bear¬ 
ing on the amount of surplus I obtained, 
and that in this respect buckwheat was no 
exception to other floAvers. It does its best 
when we have quite cool nights followed 
by a clear sky and a bright hot sun with 
little or no wind; then from about 9 
o'clock in the morning until 2 in the after¬ 


noon it secretes nectar very fast. We sel¬ 
dom find a bee on it much earlier or later 
in the day. 

“A few years ago during our August 
harvest, when our bees had at least 1,500 
acres of buckwheat bloom to work on, and 
Avere bringing in honey very fast, a heavy 
shower came down from the north about 
2 P. M., which caused the mercury to drop 
21 degrees in less than half an hour. Then 
this low temperature, Avith Avindy cloudy 
Aveather, lasted some 11 days, during which 
time the bees destroyed large quantities of 
brood, for there was no nectar in the Aoav- 
ers and they were ready to rob any hive 
that was opened. 

“I never saw the buckwheat harvest stop 
so suddenly, with so little cause, as it did 
in August, 1906. From the morning of 
the 21st to the night of the 24th, the bees 
brought in the honey very fast. Our hive 
on scales averaged a gain of about 8 
pounds a day, and we extracted a tankful 
of a little more than tAvo tons each day for 
four consecutive days, and yet our men all 
agreed there Avas more honey in the apiary 
each night than there Avas in the morning. 
But on the night of the 24th we had a 








/ 









BUCKWHEAT 


153 



Buckwheat in full bloom in Butler Co., Pa. 


slight shower with a fall in temperature 
of 11 degrees. The bees were very quiet 
the next morning until about noon; then 
when it warmed up a little they were ready 
to rob anything they could get at, and 
there were thousands trying to get into 
our honey-house around the screened win- 
dows—and we knew from past experience 
that the honey season of 1906 had drawn 
to a close. The hive on scales did not gain 
one-half pound any day after that shower 
and fall in temperature, altho there was 
considerable buckwheat in bloom. At other 
times T have noticed that when the weather 
remains warm without any rain the flow 
of nectar would last until Sept. 5.” 

In New York buckwheat can be de¬ 
pended upon almost every year to yield a 
crop of honey, but in the West it is more 
uncertain, some years yielding no honey 
and in others a fair amount. In Ohio the 
yield of nectar from buckwheat is so irreg¬ 
ular and scanty that there is seldom a 
season that much honey is obtained from 
it. Since in the East it is almost always 
very reliable, when even basswood and 
clover fail, as they do sometimes in every 
locality, the beekeeper is usually able to 


make his expenses and a fair profit. In 
New York it is seldom that he is not able 
to make a fair, living from buckwheat 
alone. 

Among cultivated crops there a re few 
which will afford a better artificial honey- 
pasture than buckwheat. The beekeeper 
who raises this cereal largely for honey 
should plant at three different times in 
order to prolong as much as possible the 
flow of nectar. On an average it will oc¬ 
cupy the land a little over 60 days. It will 
commence to yield nectar in 15 or 20 days 
from the time it is planted, and take about 
10 days to mature after the honey flow 
ceases. If the first crop is sown on the 
20th of June, the second crop on the 4th 
of July, and the third about the 18th 
of this month, the beekeeper will be as¬ 
sured of a good bee-pasturage from the 
middle of July, when basswood and clover 
are past, to the middle of September, when 
the fall wild flowers begin to bloom. 

Buckwheat seed may sometimes be given 
away profitably to farmers in localities 
where this grain is not grown. By fur¬ 
nishing the seed free for one or two years 
farmers may perhaps be induced to grow 








154 


BUCKWHEAT 


this crop regularly in after years. It is 
not advisable to give the seed after the 
second year; during the third and the 
fourth years it should be furnished at half- 
price. It should not be supplied free to 
any one living more than a quarter of a 
mile from the bees. 

BUCKWHEAT HONEY. 

Buckwheat honey is of a dark-purplish 
color, and looks much like the old New 
Orleans or sorghum molasses. The flavor 
to one who is a lover of clover and bass¬ 
wood honey and is unaccustomed to that 
of buckwheat is more or less sickish; but 
those who have always eaten buckwheat 
honey, or at least many of them, prefer 
it even to that of clover or basswood. 

A lady from the East once called at a 
store and looked over the honey. She was 
shown several samples of choice clover and 
basswood honey. 

“I do not like this,” she said. “It looks 
like manufactured sugar honey. Haven’t 
you any buckwheat honey?” 

“Yes, but we did not suppose that you 
would like that, because such honey rarely 
sells in our locality.” 

Some sections of buckwheat honey were 
placed before her and these suited her ex¬ 
actly. 

“That is real bee honey,” said she, with 
a look of satisfaction, and she carried home 
several sections. 

Her father had been a beekeeper in a 
locality where buckwheat was abundant: 
and unless honey had the strong flavor 
and dark color of the honey with which 
she was familiar in her childhood days, it 
was not honey to her. There are thousands 
like her in the East who prefer buckwheat 
honey; and this trade is so large in New 
York and Albany that it brings almost 
as high a price as the fancy grades of 
white. But in the western markets, prin¬ 
cipally in Chicago, it is without purchasers 
and sells as an offgrade honey. 

Notwithstanding the color of buckwheat 
honey itself is purplish, the comb honey is 
very attractive, since the cappings, espe¬ 
cially if made by black bees, are almost 
pearly white. 

Buckwheat honey occasionally contains 
33 per cent of water, and is, therefore, 
too thin, according to the formula of the 


national pure food law passed June 30, 
1906, which limits the amount of water 
in honey to 25 per cent. It is thus neces¬ 
sary to evaporate thin honey in order that 
it may conform to the law. This may be 
done by means of a honey evaporator, or 
by storing it for a while in a hot dry room. 
The quality of the honey is so greatly 
improved that it will fully compensate 
for the trouble involved. 

THE CULTURE OF BUCKWHEAT. 

Buckwheat is very sensitive to cold and 
is killed by the first heavy frost. It should 
not be sown too early in the spring since 
it is liable to be killed by the frost after 
it has sprouted, or the very hot weather 
of midsummer may blast the flowers so 
that they will produce no seed. No other 
cereal crop requires so short a season to 
mature, and under the most favorable con¬ 
ditions a crop may be obtained in from 
8 to 10 weeks, but the average time is 
about 12 weeks. As it fills best in cool 
weather, the time of seeding for any local¬ 
ity 'may be determined with a fair degree 
of accuracy by allowing a period of 12 
weeks for growth before the first killing 
frost is expected. When seeded the last 
week in June or the first week in July in 
New York and Pennsylvania, or about a 
week earlier in Michigan and Wisconsin, 
it is most likely to escape injury from hot 
weather. Over 40 bushels per acre of 
grain have been harvested from a crop 
drilled in with 300 pounds of phosphate 
as late as August 4. Buckwheat grows so 
quickly that it can succeed another crop, 
as barley, rye, or oats, or it may be sown 
where corn or some other crop has been 
planted but failed to grow. Such fields 
should be immediately ploughed and har¬ 
rowed. Buckwheat leaves the land ex¬ 
tremely mellow, which is an advantage in 
the case of heavy soils, but undesirable if 
the soil is light. With the exception of 
corn, the yield of which, it is claimed, is 
reduced, any crop may follow buckwheat 
with excellent results. It is subject to very 
little injury from insects or fungi. 

THE SEED-BED. 

There is probably no othqr crop that 
will yield better on infertile soil, such as 
old meadow and pasture lands, than will 


BUCKWHEAT 


155 


buckwheat. It is well suited to light, well- 
drained soils such as sandy loams and to 
the silt-loam soils. It will not grow on 
land that is wet and heavy, or where the 
water stands and dries up gradually, leav¬ 
ing the soil in a hard condition. It is very 
frequently grown on land which for some 
reason was not planted early, or on land 
on which some other crop has failed to 
grow. Altho the poorest soil may be used 
a fertile soil will, of course, give a larger 
yield of both grain and straw. In gen¬ 
eral, the land should be prepared as for 
any other grain. The best results are 
obtained when the land is plowed early 
and is well prepared, but good results 
may be obtained by sowing immediately 
after plowing and harrowing. Buckwheat 
needs but little lime, growing well in an 
acid soil without lime where alfalfa and 
red clover would not be a success. 

FERTILIZER. 

•Where the soil is poor it is profitable to 
use fertilizer, but where good wheat and 
corn crops can be produced it is unneces¬ 
sary for the buckwheat crop. On the poor¬ 
est hill land a small application of nitrogen 
and phosphorus is advisable, but generally 
nitrogen is not needed. The plant, how¬ 
ever, responds very readily to applica¬ 
tions of phosphates. Low-grade fertilizers 
containing phosphates and a small amount 
of potash can be used to advantage on the 
crop where the land is poor. The use of 
100 to 150, to even 300 pounds of bone 
phosphate per acre has been recommended. 
Potash will usually produce a favorable 
effect on a sandy soil, altho it may not be 
required on heavier soils. 

VARIETIES. 

Three varieties of buckwheat are com¬ 
monly grown in the United States, the 
Japanese, Silver Hull, and Common Gray, 
the last two being best for honey. Japa¬ 
nese has a large dark-colored seed, while 
Silver Hull has a smaller seed, glossy 
or silvery in appearance. The plant of 
the Japanese variety has a larger stalk, 
and the flowers do not blast so readily from 
heat; but it is believed not to yield nectar 
as freely as the other two varieties. 


RATE OF SEEDING. 

Buckwheat should generally be seeded at 
the rate of 3 to 4 pecks to the acre. If the 
soil is fertile and a drill is used and the 
seed is of good vitality, as little as two 
pecks may be sufficient. As many as five 
pecks are sometimes used. It is best to 
use a grain drill, but this is not essential 
as the seed can be broadcasted and har¬ 
rowed in with satisfactory results. It 
should be sown from one-fifth of an inch 
to two inches deep, depending on the con¬ 
dition of the soil. It is better to sow 
while the land is dry, rather than imme¬ 
diately after rain. After sowing on such 
soil it should be immediately rolled to com¬ 
pact it, as the grain sprouts better and 
more quickly, sometimes making its ap¬ 
pearance in less than four days. 

HARVESTING. 

Buckwheat is usually harvested in Sep¬ 
tember as soon as the first blossoms have 
matured their seed, and before there has 
been a frost. The old-fashioned cradle will 
do the work well, or the drop reaper will 
prove a very satisfactory machine for this 
purpose. Many farmers use the ordinary 
binder, which practice is advisable where 
it can be followed. The seed will mature 
in a few days if, after cutting, the crop is 
left in loose bundles where they are 
dropped from the cradle or reaper. After¬ 
wards they may be tied near the top with 
the straw and set up on end singly to dry. 
As the straw remains partially green and 
is liable to heat, these shocks are seldom 
stacked or stored in the barn. It should 
be thrashed either with a flail or thrash¬ 
ing machine on a dry 'windj 7 day, and 
should be at once winnowed as the damp 
chaff may injure the grain. The grain 
should be stored in bags and not in large 
quantities in bins. 

THE YIELD PER ACRE. 

The average yield per acre in the United 
States is from 14 to 18 bushels, but it 
may vary from five to forty bushels. In 
Pennsylvania three fields were sown on 
July 6, 11 and 19 respectively, with buck¬ 
wheat, the seed being drilled in. The first 
yielded 16 bushels per acre with medium 
straw; the second 22 bushels with heavier 


150* 


BUILDINGS 


straw than the first; the third 25 bushels 
with straw like that of the first field. As 
a rule, early sowing gives large straw and 
a poor yield of grain, while late sowing 
gives the opposite. Twenty-five bushels 
per acre is considered a satisfactory crop. 

In Canada, Michigan. New York, and 
Pennsylvania the legal weight of a bushel 
of buckwheat is 48 pounds; in other 
States it is either more or less. 

USES OF BUCKWHEAT. 

Both in Europe and America the flour 
is widely used in making buckwheat cakes. 
In the Russian army buckwheat groats 
form a part of the soldiers’ rations. Eaten 
too constantly it is said to produce a fever¬ 
ish condition. Poultry are very fond of 
the seeds, which are believed to stimulate 
egg production. When ground it makes 
an excellent feed for dairy cows, and a 
mixture of ground buckwheat, corn, and 
oats is highly recommended. 

Buckwheat is also often ploughed under 
for green manuring. It will pay for its 
cost as a fertilizer, and some buckwheat- 
growers make a practice, of enriching their 
soil in this way, waiting, if beekeepers, 
until blooming is over in order to obtain 
the honey. Two or even three crops may 
be ploughed in, one after the other, when 
it is desired to get the ground in a high 
state of cultivation. A crop of buckwheat 
will help greatly in eradicating weeds and 
subduing rough land. 

Information in regard to the culture of 
buckwheat lias been furnished by C. E. 
Leighty of the Department of Agriculture, 
Washington, D. C. Other articles on buck¬ 
wheat culture will be found in “The Cer¬ 
eals in America,” by Hunt, and “The 
Small Grains,” by Carleton. 

BUILDINGS.— It is manifestly impossi- 
sible to recommend any standard design of 
buildings for beekeepers’ use that would 
suit all requirements. Some beekeepers re¬ 
quire a room that can be used for extract¬ 
ing only; others several rooms for work¬ 
shop, storage room, and extracting.' The 
same room may often be used for different 
purposes at different times of the year, 
hut, nevertheless, the purpose for which 
the building is to be used principally 


should be taken into consideration when 
it is planned. 

The construction and materials for these 
buildings also vary greatly from the light 
framework covered Avith canvas to the most 
substantial concrete structure. Except the 
buildings erected at home apiaries, tempo¬ 
rary or demountable or take-downable 
buildings are the rule for .the reason 
that out-apiaries often have to be moved 
about. 

Some use small buildings that can be 
easily loaded on a low wagon and hauled 
about from place to place. Still others use 
buildings made in sections, bolted together, 
so that the various sections may be taken 
apart and loaded on a Avagon in the flat. 
E. D. ToAvnsend of Michigan has used 
such buildings for years. Such a construc¬ 
tion costs a little more than the usual type 
built solid from the ground up, but the 
convenience, provided there is a likelihood 
of frequent moves, more than offsets the 
extra cost. 

In order to make the various sections 
strong enough to hold together after being 
unbolted, 2x4 material is used for the 
framework. There are six sections in all 
— not counting the floor—the tAvo ends, the 
two sides, and the tAvo halves of the roof. 
Before nailing on the siding on the 2 by 4’s 
Mr. Townsend tacks on a good grade of tar 
paper which is proof against depredations 
of mice. This makes the building more bee- 
proof as Avell, certainly an essential feature 
when extracting has to be done after 
the honey Aoav Avhen bees are inclined to 
rob. 

In locating a building the place most 
com^enient to the apiary must be taken 
into consideration; but if the lay of the 
ground permits, a downhill grade to the 
building makes it much easier to Avlieel 
or cart stuff to the building. In many in¬ 
stances it is of advantage to have a tAvo- 
story building, the second floor, Avhere the 
extracting is done, on a level with the api¬ 
ary. The honey can then be piped into a 
tank in the loAver story, the floor of which 
should be on a level, say, Avith the bed of 
a Avagon on the ground at the lower end 
of the building. 

When there is no sidehill and the “graA r - 
ity plan” is, therefore, impractical a honey- 


BUILDINGS 


157 



E. 1). Townsend's Spring Brook Apiary and sectional extracting-liouse. This building is made in six 
separate panels or sections, besides the floor, which bolt together at the corneis, making it perfectly ligid. 
Jf desired, it may be quickly taken apart and moved on a wagon. 

















158 


BUILDINGS 



A small inexpensive extracting-room as formerly used by E. W. Alexander of Delanson, N. Y. There are 
two openings in the end of the building that close with sliding doors. The full combs are put in thru one 
door, and the emnty ones taken out the other one. A pipe conveys the honey from the extractor to a tank 
in another building down the hill. 



An inexpensive and quickly constructed building that answers every requirement. Walls and floor of 
wood, roof of canvas. A good canvas roof gives a better light inside and is cooler than a solid roof. 




















BUILDINGS 


159 


pump is a real necessity to elevate the 
honey so that heavy lifting ancl consequent 
loss of time are avoided. (See Extracting.) 
In hilly or mountainous countries, however, 
there is no difficulty in selecting a sidehill. 
If desired, as is the custom, in many parts 
of California, large honey-tanks may be 
located out of doors on the lower side of 
the building, the honey running from the 
extracting-room direct to the tank. 

The late E. W. Alexander of Delanson, 
N. Y., a beekeeper who had 750 colonies all 
in one apiary, used for many years a small 





Typical sidehill California honey-house. The honey 
runs by gravity from the extractor thru pipes into 
the large tanks located below the building on the 
outside. 

extracting-house just large enough to re¬ 
ceive an extractor, uncapping-box, and 
space to receive and pass out combs thru 
openings in the side of the building, ordi¬ 
narily covered with sliding doors. A tin 
pipe conveyed the honey by gravity to a 
large tank in another building on lower 
ground. 

E. S. Miles of Dunlap, Iowa, has a very 
conveniently arranged building having two 
large rooms, the floors of which are on dif¬ 
ferent levels, the floor of the ell being 3^/2 
feet below that of the main room. Needless 
to say, Mr. Miles has room for a workbench 


where he nails shipping cases, cases for . 
comb honey, hives, and other stuff. Each 
room has an outer door with a platform 
just about the height of a wagon-bed. 
These two doors are on a side of the build¬ 
ing opposite from the bees so that there is 
little danger in driving right up with a 
team of horses. 

The sides of the building are of 2 x 4 
studding, 24 inches apart, boarded with 
shiplap, then papered, and finally sided 
with regular 6-inch house siding. The roof 
is made of 2 x 4 rafters, 24 inches apart, 
covered with sheathing and shingled. The 
material for the whole building cost about 
$300. The main room is 16 x 48 feet; the 
addition, or ell, 12 by 18 feet. A building 
of this size is ample for all the work in 
connection with the handling of 300 colo¬ 
nies. By using a cheap shed for addi¬ 
tional storage it would be large enough for 
500 colonies. 

VENTILATION AND WINDOWS. 

A common fault of beekeepers’ buildings 
is that the ceilings are too low and there 
is inadequate ventilation so that the tem¬ 
perature on a hot day becomes almost un¬ 
bearable. A ceiling three or four feet 
higher than it would actually have to be 
adds but very little to the general cost and 
at the same time permits a wide shelf, per¬ 
haps seven feet from the floor, running the 
entire length on either side of the building. 
Such shelves not only help to keep the 
room cooler, but furnish much additional 
space for temporary storage. 

For light and ventilation a very good 
plan is to cut out long horizontal windows 
in each side and perhaps in one end also, 
having hinged wooden shutters which can 
lie lowered to keep out the storm in bad 
weather. A tight-fitting frame covered with 
galvanized wire cloth makes the opening 
bee-tight. There should be one or two 
glass windows as well to permit of interior 
work in stormy weather when it would be 
best to have the shutters closed. All 
screened openings should be provided with 
several honey-house bee-escapes at the top 
to let out bees that are bound to get inside 
during extracting time. A screened door 
is a positive disadvantage, for the bees 
keep hovering around the door, and when 
it is opened many of them get in. A solid 







160 


BUILDINGS 




Canvas extracting-room built over an old touring-car converted into a trailer. There are two floors made 
of lV^ inch lumber, the lower one just the size of the frame of the chassis, and the upper one, twelve inches 
higher, is six feet wide. The space between may be used for carrying supers, supplies, etc. 


Interior of the extracting-room on wheels. The cap¬ 
ping-box stands near the front on the left. The 
empty space at the right is for the supers. 


door or one having glass in the upper part 
is to be preferred. 

During a time when robbers are bad, 
allowing the bees to escape to the outside 
as fast as they get in the room is bad 
practice. A number of large beekeepers, 
instead of using bee-escapes, have the Avin- 
doAv screens removable or hinged at the 
bottom. The bees collect on the screens 
during the day; .arid after the work is 
finished, or late in the afternoon, the 
screens are removed or swung out at the 
top so that all the bees escape at once to 
their hives. The building thus acts as a 
robber-trap until the bees are released 
when flying is nearly over for the day. 
By morning the excitement will be over. 

C. F. Hochstein of Cuba leaves an open¬ 
ing three feet wide all around his building. 
This he covers with heavy galvanized Avire 
cloth. Ingeniously made bee-escapes, con¬ 
structed of wedge-shaped blocks of wood 
betAveen the Avire cloth and the siding, 
are located along the upper edge. For a 
tropical climate this construction is all 
right, but in other localities smaller open- 
















BUILDINGS 


161 



Neat design lor both workshop and honey-room. 




Garage and honey-house combined. The load may be taken off the auto and set directly on to the plat¬ 
form m the work room thru an opening in the wall. 





1 Cl. lL dW 1 G rj'"-—^ 

J\ O 

□ □□ □D0g^\ qqmd&qocl 

S'®- s. a a fl 

/ ,H/VE Ok 


Very-little carrying, lifting, or Wheeling in this apiary. 


2 O'- 




















































































































































































































































































































BUILDINGS 


162 


ings which can be entirely'closed by means 
of hinged shutters are to be preferred. All 
honey-house bee-escapes which operate on 
the “cone” principle ought to be so con¬ 
structed that the openings can be entirely 
closed in case the bees should get to rob¬ 
bing and should find the small exits. 

A substantially constructed tent makes a 
light, cool, and easily moved structure. G. 
Frank Pease and A. E. Lusher have very 
comfortable four-room work tents. The 
floors and side walls are of wood, making 
a very substantial construction and yet 
inexpensive. 

EXTRACTING-HOUSES ON WHEELS. 

There are many ingenious portable ex- 
tracting-rooms consisting of a canvas or 
screen-covered framework on an extended 



Jefferson’s portable extracting-house. A 200-gallon 
honey-tank is located under the floor between the 
axles. 


wagon-bed. W. D. Jefferson of Safford, 
Ariz., uses a low wagon with small wide- 
tired wheels. The platform is wide enough 
to extend out even with the outer edges of 
the wheels and long enough to give suffi¬ 
cient room for extracting purposes. Un¬ 
der the platform is a shallow tank, hanging 
between the front and rear axles, which 



C. W. Johnson’s one-ton Ford truck with screened 
extracting-house on the platform. Notice that the 
platform, while in use for extracting, is braced by 
two-by-fours. The wheelbarrow in the foreground 
carries the supers back and forth. 



The other side of the one-ton Ford extracting-house, 
showing the mosquito-netting windows for ventila¬ 
tion and light. Chas. F. M. Stone is talking to the 
operators. With this extracting-house on wheels Mr. 
Johnson takes his honey from his thousand colonies. 

holds 200 gallons. The screen for the 
honey is in the floor over the tank where 
it can be changed easily as often as it be¬ 
comes clogged. The honey, of course, runs 
from the extractor on to the screen and 
then into the tank. 

This portable outfit is hauled from yard 
to yard, and the honey as fast as extracted 
is hauled home so that none of it is left at 
the outyard. 



Portable extracting-house of A. F. Tice, Los Ange¬ 
les, also shown in another cut. This structure is 
made up of door panels held together by clamps and 
bolts. The fact ihat Mr. Tice is a carpenter and 
builder explains why it is so neat and well designed. 
It is one of the best portable dismountable extract- 
ing-houses in California. 

THE AUTHOR'S PORTABLE EXTRACTING- 
HOUSE. 

For an extracting-house that may be 
easily moved from one apiary to another, 
the running gear of an old discarded out- 
of-date touring car can often be used to 
very good advantage, with a superstruct¬ 
ure similar to that of the Jefferson outfit. 







































BUILDINGS 


163 



Apiary and extraeting-house of A. F. Tice, up among the orange groves, showing apiary and building. 

The apiary was operated by his son, A. W. Tice. 


These old automobiles can usually be 
bought for little more than scrap price— 
anywhere from $25 to $50. If there are 
not tires on the machine already, second¬ 
hand ones can be secured at a moderate 
price. The whole outfit will not have to 
make any considerable mileage — only short 



This demountable extraeting-house used by H. A. 
Stearns of Duarte differs from the others in that it 
is made of corrugated metal. It is very neat and 
well designed, and should last indefinitely. The roof 
is covered with canvas. 


ers, and other equipment for general ex¬ 
tracting. 

The room on top is made in six parts 
or panels held together by means of hooks 
or Van Deusen clamps. The two sides are 
screened so they can be opened up, while 
the rest of the panels are made of canvas. 
The power extracting engine and uncap- 
ping-box are arranged with the greatest 
economy of floor space, so that the opera¬ 
tor will have plenty of room for uncap¬ 
ping and extracting. The honey is pumped 
from the extractor into a receiving tank. 
From here it is drawn by gravity into 
square tin cans by a pipe passing thru the 
floor. 

extracting plant and haul the combs into 

Whether it is better to have a central 
it from the yard, returning them after 
they are empty, or whether it is better to 
have a portable outfit that can be-used at 
each yard, and thus do away with a long 
haul for all the combs, will depend on 
conditions. As a general thing, the major- 


distances to outyards. Cheap 
tires that have seen their best 
days will answer a good pur-, 
pose for an extracting-trailer. 
The illustrations, page 160, 
show an outfit the author has 
used with considerable satis¬ 
faction. The superstructure con¬ 
sists of two floors, one resting 
directly upon the channel 
frame of the machine, and the 
other on two by twelve joists 
to clear the wheels. The lower 
floor is to hold tools, eontain- 



Dismountable extraeting-house of Frank McNay, Pasadena. This 
is made of four large panels or frames covered with cloth and 
mosquito netting. It is held together at the corners by means 
of large metal hinges. When it is desired to move, the bolts to 
the hinges are withdrawn, when the two sides of the hinges 
come apart, releasing the frames, when they are loaded one by 
one on to a truck. This building is very cheap and serviceable. 















1(14 


BUILDINGS 



Interior of Tice building.looking out into the apiary. 
Tlie end of the uncapping-can and the handles of 
three uncapping-knives sticking up are shown at 
the right. 


Interior of building. It is he’d together by barn¬ 
door hasps and wooden pegs on the inside of the 
corners. The windows are wooden frames with wire 
screen. 


ity are in favor of the portable outfit. 
After the extracting season is over, the ex¬ 
tracting equipment, together with the 
superstructure, can be removed, leaving a 
first-class trailer that can be hitched to an 


automobile or horse-drawn wagon, and 
this trailer can be used for carrying any 
Lind of loads, and will be specially service¬ 
able in moving a whole apiary from one 
yard to another. If the roads are not too 



A small portion of a. 400-colony apiary of A. F,. Lusher of California. The extracting-“house” consists of a 
lent with high side walls. The end of the tent opposite the door has a large window covered with mosquito 
netting for light and ventilation. There is no dodging the fact that it is the most portable ,of tiny of the 
structures here shown; and the fact that it is used and preferred by men who own and’ 1 operate 1,800 

colonies most successfully proves that it must have merit. 





















BUILDING UP COLONIES 


165 


''i 



One of the apiaries of G. B. Barman, Pasadena, ■who owns and operates over one thousand colonies. He 
uses permanent extracting-houses at each location, as he prefers to operate with an eight-frame power- 
extractor outfit, and have plenty of room for supers and equipment. 


hilly, a Ford or other light machine will 
pull this trailer around very easily. 

THE SUBSTANTIAL BUILDING FOR THE HOME 

YARD OR CENTRAL EXTRACTING-PLANT. 

As has been mentioned, the building! 
suitable for an out-apiary is usually in¬ 
adequate for the home yard where there 
must be room for considerable storage, for 
making supplies, and for all the inside 
work, in fact, in connection with the busi¬ 
ness. For this reason expensive conveni¬ 
ences are usually out of place in a building- 
in an outyard. At home it pays to erect a 
larger and more substantial building, in¬ 
cluding such conveniences as are time and 
labor savers. David Running of Filion, 
Mich., has one of the best and most com¬ 
pletely equipped concrete buildings in the 
country. Concrete, so far as the cost of 
material is concerned, especially where 
gravel is cheap, often costs less than lum¬ 
ber. Mr. Running’s building is 16 x 40 
feet, with two different floors besides the 
basement used as a bee-cellar. To save the 
expense of so much cement, a large number 
of stones were used, which cost nothing 
but the labor of picking them up. The 
walls, moreover, are only six inches thick. 
In most instances eight inches for solid con¬ 
crete is thin enough. The lumber used for 
making the forms is not wasted, for it can 
all go into the roof. 

More and more beekeepers are using 
automobiles or auto trucks in their busi¬ 
ness. While it is not always possible nor 
desirable it is oftentimes convenient, if 
the honey-house and workshop includes 


also the garage. Henry Hograve of Wau- 
keta, Wis., has suqli a building, which he 
finds a distinct advantage. Mr. Hograve 
has a driveway thru the center of his api¬ 
ary, and he uses the auto for carrying full 
supers right into the garage. From there 
they are pushed thru an opening on to a 
platform in the extracting-room. It would 
doubtless facilitate loading and unloading 
and save considerable lifting, if the floor 
of the garage could be two or three feet 
lower than the door of the adjoining 
room. 

BUILDING UP COLONIES.— Under 
the heads of Increase, Spring Manage¬ 
ment, and Uniting, will be found hints 
on building up colonies in the spring and 
fall; but this article will confine itself to 
the question of building up colonies so 
that they will be ready for the honey flow. 

The number of worker bees in a normal 
colony varies during the different seasons of 
the year from a few thousand up to 80,000, 
or even in some cases probably as many as 
100,000. The number is usually lowest in 
established colonies in early spring at about 
the time the first young bees begin to 
emerge in any considerable numbers. From 
this time on, if conditions are favorable 
for brood-rearing the amount of brood is 
increased rapidly until the greatest capac¬ 
ity of the queen for egg-laying has been 
reached. This maximum egg-laying is 
maintained for a short time only after 
which the amount of brood is greatly re¬ 
duced, and later in the season as the older 
bees die off, the number of workers in the 
colony decreases to that which is normal 







BUILDING UP COLONIES 


166 



David Running’s 16 x 40-foot concrete building. There are two different floors besides the cellar where 
the bees are. wintered. The cellar has a capacity for nearly 350 colonies. Where gravel is cheap, concrete 
is cheaper than lumber in the long run. 


for winter. Tims in early spring a colony 
is strong as to numbers if it contains as 
many as two and a half to three pounds 
of bees ( about 12,000 to 15,000 individ¬ 
uals), but it is not really strong two 
months later unless it contains 60,000 to 
100,000 workers, the increase in numbers 
during the spring building-up period be¬ 
ing usually more than fivefold in prosper¬ 
ous colonies. 

I.t is fortunate for the beekeeper that the 
bees regulate their numbers in this way ac¬ 
cording to the needs of the season; for 
this makes it possible for them to store a 
surplus of honey during the honey flow 
and reduce the amount they consume at 
other times, provided the large population 
comes on at the right time for the honey 
flow. The most important thing in all bee¬ 
keeping management is to have the largest 
number of workers come on the stage of 
action at the right time to take full ad¬ 
vantage of the honey flow. . 

After brood-rearing is begun in earnest 
in the spring it usually requires about two 
months for colonies of normal early 
spring strength to build up to full work¬ 
ing strength, the gain during the first 


month usually being slow but becoming 
rapid during the second. In localities 
where the main honey flow usually begins 
about two months after the beginning of 
spring brood-rearing, this works out well 
for the beekeeper, since it furnishes a large 
force of young workers just when they are 
most needed. For example, in the northern 
portion of the United States where the 
honey flow usually begins in June most of 
the workers that gather the crop must be 
reared during April and May, and, in order 
that these workers shall be young and vig¬ 
orous when the honey flow begins, most 
of them should be reared during May. 
Colonies which build up most rapidly just 
before the main honey flow usually store 
more surplus than those of equal numerical 
strength which build up more slowly, 
since more of their workers are young and, 
therefore, capable of a greater amount of 
work. 

These workers are the “harvest hands” 
of the hive; and, if the flowers and weath¬ 
er do their part, the crop of honey will 
usually be much or little according to 
whether the workers to gather it are many 
or few. A great horde of workers coming 














BUILDING UP COLONIES 


167 


on the stage of action at just the right 
time is the goal toward which the bee¬ 
keeper has been working since last sum¬ 
mer. So far as he is concerned, this great 
army of workers is that for which all the 
workers born at other times have existed. 
The bees reared previously have been use¬ 
ful only in as much as they have contrib¬ 
uted to the final production of these “har¬ 
vest hands,” and bees reared later are use¬ 
ful only in as much as they are able to con¬ 
tribute to the maintenance of the colonies 
until next season, unless there is a later 
honey flow which they may help to gather. 

The period of brood-rearing just pre¬ 
ceding the honey flow, therefore, has a 
significance not found at any other season. 
Whether the main honey flow comes in 
March and April as among the orange 
groves of California and in the tupelo and 
orange regions of Florida, in June and 
July as in the clover region of the North, 
or during August as in the buckwheat re¬ 
gion of New York and Pennsylvania, the 
size of the crop of honey that can be har¬ 
vested depends largely upon the amount of 
brood reared during the six or eight weeks 
just preceding the beginning of the main 
honey flow. 

Since the tendency to rear brood is 
strongest in the spring, the beekeeper whose 
location furnishes the main honey flow im¬ 
mediately after the period of natural 
spring brood-rearing, is fortunately lo¬ 
cated, for he then produces his workers for 
the honey flow at the time the bees are most 
willing to co-operate. If anything pre¬ 
vents the colony from reaching its peak 
in brood-rearing in the spring, such as 
weakness or insufficient food, it may climb 
to its maximum strength later in the sea¬ 
son when normally the tendency to rear 
brood would be less intense; but, after the 
first spurt of extensive brood-rearing of 
the season, it is difficult to induce colonies 
again to rear as much brood during the 
same season. 

When there is a succession of honey 
flows during the season having an interval 
of dearth between, the bees usually increase 
brood-rearing in response to each honey 
flow. They can also be induced to rear a 
large amount of brood after the natural 
period of heavy brood-rearing in the spring 
by stimulative feeding (see Feeding and 


Feeders, sub-head feeding to stimulate 
brood-bearing), but during the natural 
building-up period of spring they will rear 
brood extensively even in the absence of 
an early honey flow and without stimula¬ 
tive feeding, provided they have enough 
bees to take care of a large amount of 
brood, a good queen, plenty of honey and 
pollen stored within the hive, and water 
easily available. Brood-rearing at this time 
is apparently stimulated chiefly by the on¬ 
coming of spring, tho even in the spring 
more brood is usually reared if some early 
nectar and pollen can be brought in from 
the fields. 

Building up for an early honey flow, es¬ 
pecially in the North, is therefore a rela¬ 
tively simple matter with colonies that have 
wintered well and have a good queen. Colo¬ 
nies that come thru the winter with three 
pounds of bees that have not been unduly 
aged by winter and that have a vigorous 
queen need only to have abundant food 
(honey, pollen, and water), ample room 
for the queen to lay eggs, and protection 
from cold winds and low temperatures of 
early spring, to cause them to build up to 
powerful colonies within two months. 
Weaker colonies buildup slowly, sometimes 
requiring three or four months to reach 
full summer strength. 

To have most of the colonies strong in 
early spring involves not only good win¬ 
tering (see Wintering), but also condi¬ 
tions during the previous late summer and 
fall favorable to the rearing of sufficient 
young bees for winter. The first steps to¬ 
ward the building-up of colonies for an 
early honey flow should, therefore, be 
taken the preceding July or August by 
seeing that each colony has a vigorous 
queen (preferably young) and also suffi¬ 
cient stores, if there is no fall flow, as well 
as sufficient brood-rearing room to insure 
the rearing of young bees for winter. The 
second step is that of good wintering to 
conserve the energy of the bees which form 
the winter colony; and the third or final 
step is that of providing conditions favor¬ 
able to heavy brood-rearing in the spring 
when the instinct to rear a large amount of 
brood is the strongest. Weak colonies in 
the spring are 'usually unprofitable and 
should be eliminated as far as possible. 
Remembering that the bees are more 


BUILDING UP COLONIES 


1G8 


than willing to do their utmost in brood¬ 
rearing in the spring, especially in the 
North, the beekeeper needs only to see that 
the bees are not hindered in carrying out 
their own program in their own way. If 
egg-laying should be stopped entirely- for 
a single day when the queen should be lay¬ 
ing at full capacity, the number of work¬ 
ers that will be ready for the early honey 
flow is thereby reduced by the number of 
eggs the queen should have laid. In some 
cases the eggs laid by a queen in a single 
day at this time result in a half pound of 
young bees three weeks later. It is, there¬ 
fore, extremely important that nothing 
shall be permitted to interfere with brood- 
rearing at this critical time. 

During the first half of the building-up 
period it is better if the bees rear brood 
only moderately. The cool weather of early 
spring (April in the North, February or 
March farther south) is advantageous in 
tending to hold back extensive brood-rear¬ 
ing during the first month of the building- 
up period. Stimulative feeding and the 
spreading of brood to increase brood-rear¬ 
ing should not be practiced at this time. 
These, if done at all, should be done later 
during the month just preceding the main 
honey flow. Usually the instinct to rear 
brood extensively is so strong in eai’lv 
spring that feeding to stimulate brood¬ 
rearing is unnecessary if the colony is well 
supplied with stores. 

When stimulative feeding is practiced it 
should not be begun until three or four 
weeks previous to the beginning of the 
main honey flow and should be continued 
until the honey flow begins. Stimulative 
feeding and spreading brood are of greater 
value in locations which do not furnish a 
surplus honey flow immediately after the 
spring building-up period, in which case 
these measures may be necessary to in¬ 
crease brood-rearing after the colonies 
have passed their period of heavy brood¬ 
rearing in the spring, especially if there is 
a dearth of nectar at the time the bees 
should be rearing the workers for the hon¬ 
ey flow. 

Colonies that have been wintered outside 
should be left packed until a week or two 
before the honey flow, if this can be done 
without too much trouble. Colonies that 
were wintered in the cellar should be well 


protected from wind and the covers should 
be left sealed down during early spring un¬ 
less it becomes necessary to open the hive. 
By looking in from below, they may be ex¬ 
amined without removing the cover. In 
some locations beekeepers find that it pays 
to pack the bees after they are taken out 
of the cellar, tho in most cases this is not 
done. 

In order that the bees may rear the great 
army of workers for the honey flow there 
must be sufficient room in the combs for 
the greatest amount that the colony can 
produce, which in the North may be 60,000 
to 70,000 cells in the best colonies. While 
this number of cells of brood might all be 
crowded into ten or eleven standard combs, 
it is usually spread over more. 

For this reason the combs should be as 
nearly perfect as possible, for imperfect 
combs in the brood-frames not only reduce 
their capacity for brood-rearing, but they 
also stand in the way of the rapid expan¬ 
sion of the brood-nest in the spring. (See 
Combs.) If a comb which is not suitable 
for brood-rearing is between the comb on 
which the queen is working and the other 
pombs beyond, this imperfect comb stands 
as a barrier to progress in brood-rearing. 
Prone comb in the lower corners of the 
brood-frames and comb that is too badly 
stretched to be used for worker brood in its 
upper portion greatly reduce the capacity 
,for worker brood, and when two stories of 
such combs are used to supply sufficient 
room for brood-rearing, this imperfect 
comb near the top-bar stands as a barrier 
to the free expansion of the brood-nest 
thru the two stories. 

Most colonies, that are normal in April 
but which fail to deyelop their full strength 
before the honey flow in June, fail because 
of a lack of stores. One of the hardest 
things for beekeepers to learn is the sur¬ 
prisingly large amount of stores needed for 
the colony to rear the large force of work¬ 
ers required to gather the crop of honey. 
During the latter half of the building-up 
period the amount of brood is increased 
with astonishing rapidity, provided the 
bees have sufficient food to convert into 
young bees. When there is no opportunity 
to gather nectar from the fields at this time 
on account of cold or wet weather the stores 
of honey within the hives disappear rap- 


BUILDING IIP COLONIES 


idly; but, if the reserve supply runs low, 
brood-rearing is reduced to a degree that is 
ruinous at the very time that the “harvest 
hands” are being reared. 

In the clover region there is an old say¬ 
ing among beekeepers something like this: 
“1 f the bees do well on the early flowers 
and fruit bloom, there will be a good crop 
of honey in June.” This old saying im¬ 
plies some mystic relation between the two, 
by which it is possible to predict what the 
honey crop will be by noting how well the 
early flowers yield. This relation is no 
longer a mysterious one; for the up-to-date 
beekeeper, by supplying the deficiency in 
stores when the early flowers fail, is still 
able to produce a crop of honey, as he thus 
furnishes the food which is necessary to 
produce the workers that gather the crop. 

During the month of May in many of 
the northern States, and during April or 
earlier farther south, most of the brood 
which is destined to make the “harvest 
hands” are being reared. Whether the food 
used in rearing them is being brought in 
from the fields or is being supplied by the 
beekeeper thru feeders or is stored in the 
hive, the amount must be sufficient if tbe 
colony is to attain full strength in time. 
One of the easiest ways to insure this is to 
give each colony a second story of combs 
which are about two-thirds filled with hon¬ 
ey. This second story becomes an auto¬ 
matic feeder, feeding the bees only as food 
is needed; and, in many localities at least, 
such a feeder, in addition to being auto¬ 
matic in its action after being filled the 
first time, is usually refilled each season 
without cost to the beekeeper, because of 
the better condition of colonies thus abun¬ 
dantly supplied with stores. 

Such a large supply of honey apparently 
stimulates brood-rearing in the spring, and 
as the honey is consumed, the queen usu¬ 
ally enters the second story, expanding the 
brood-nest into it, during the period of 
greatest brood-rearing when a single story 
may not furnish enough room for the 
brood.. This second story partly filled with 
honey, therefore, not only acts as an auto¬ 
matic feeder, but it also supplies room for 
additional brood-rearing at the time this is 
most needed. Some beekeepers use a shal¬ 
low extracting-super for this purpose, 
which they call the food chamber. One 


1G9 

shallow super is supplied for each colony. 
This is tiered up among the other supers 
during the honey flow so that it is filled 
with good honey, and, at the close of the 
season when the regular supers are taken 
off, this food chamber now filled with 
sealed honey is left on the hive. 

If a second story is not used to supply 
the bees with ample stores for spring 
brood-rearing, the next best way is to save 
over combs of sealed honey and give these 
to the colonies as needed during the spring. 
Each colony should have the equivalent of 
at least two full combs of honey on hand 
as a reserve supply at all times thruout the 
building-up period. If combs of honey have 
not been saved for this purpose it is neces¬ 
sary to feed the bees during the building- 
up period, unless the colonies were unusu¬ 
ally well supplied with stores the previous 
fall or early nectar is abundant. The syrup 
may be given in small amounts daily as in 
stimulative feeding, or ten to fifteen 
pounds may be given at one time if more 
convenient. 

It is important that bees in early spring 
should have reserve combs of pollen. These 
are almost as important as combs of sealed 
stores. In some localities when there is no 
natural pollen in- the hive the bees will rush 
out in the early spring, go to some barn 
searching for feeding-troughs in stables, 
and help themselves to the ground feed; 
for brood cannot be reared without some¬ 
thing- besides mere honey or syrup. (See 
Pollen; read as to the necessity of pollen 
for brood-rearing.) Of course, after bees 
can get natural pollen from the fields dur¬ 
ing warm weather they usually find an 
abundance for all their needs. 

Sometimes the main honey flow does not 
follow immediately the period of heavy 
brood-rearing of spring and these “harvest 
hands” may become consumers instead of 
producers; but these strong colonies can 
usually gather enough to live on, being- 
better able to gain a living from minor 
sources of nectar than weaker colonies, ex¬ 
cept during a complete dearth of nectar. 
But after the colonies have built up to 
great strength it is difficult to maintain 
their strength until a later honey flow on 
account of the reduction in the amount of 
brood. 

In some locations, such as in some of the 


170 


BUILDING UP COLONIES 


southern States and in a strictly buckwheat 
region, the main honey flow may come as 
much as two months after the bees have 
passed the peak of spring brood-rearing, 
assuming that the colonies were normal in 
strength and had sufficient food to have 
reached their maximum in brood-rearing in 
the spring. In such cases some beekeepers 
resort to such measures as stimulative feed¬ 
ing or spreading the brood, to induce more 
brood-rearing just previous to the main 
honey flow. Others move their bees to an¬ 
other location to gather a crop of honey 
from some earlier source while the colonies 
are strong, and then move them back again 
for the later honey flow. (See Migratory 
Beekeeping.) Some southern beekeepers 
sell package bees to utilize the excess of 
workers which would be too old to be of 
use when the honey flow comes on later; 
while still others divide the colonies before 
they reach their maximum in. spring brood- 
rearing, performing the division at a time 
which will permit both colonies to build up 
to the greatest strength in time for the be¬ 
lated honey flow. The last-named plan has 
been used quite successfully in the buck¬ 
wheat region. 

When the main honey flow comes at the 
same time that the bees are rearing the 
great horde of “harvest hands” in the 
spring, as too often happens in the case of 
weaker colonies and an early honey flow, of 
course a full crop of honey cannot be se¬ 
cured, for the field force is then small and 
the amount of brood to feed is large. The 
only hope in such cases is that the honey 
flow will last long enough later to gather 
some surplus before it closes, but the rem¬ 
edy is better wintering and earlier building 
up. 

When there is a possibility of a honey 
flow still earlier, at the beginning of the 
heavy brood-rearing period of spring, as 
sometimes happens in the North when the 
maples yield profusely, or in the citrus re¬ 
gion when the bloom comes unusually early 
and the bees are late in building up, brood¬ 
rearing is greatly stimulated and but little 
honey is stored because of a lack of “har¬ 
vest hands.” 

During the latter half of the building-up 
pei’iod, some beekeepers make a practice of 
equalizing the brood among the colonies in 
order to build them up alike in strength. 


This should not be attempted until the 
strongest colonies have at least six or seven 
frames of brood. At this time a frame of 
brood, most of which is nearly ready to 
emerge, may be taken from each of the 
strongest colonies and together with the 
adhering bees given to the colonies which 
are less strong, but not to the weakest 
ones. Care must be taken to be sure that 
the queen is not taken away with these 
frames of brood. The comb of brood in 
each case should be given adjacent to the 
other combs of brood in the weaker colony 
to keep the brood-nest as compact as pos¬ 
sible, thus preventing any brood being 
chilled during cool nights. The bees on the 
empty comb taken from the weaker colony 
to make room for the frame of brood are 
shaken back into their hive, and the empty 
comb is given to the colony from ~which the 
brood was taken, placing it between the 
outer comb of brood and the comb which 
contains honey and pollen at the side of 
the brood-nest. The weakest colonies are 
left until after all of' the medium colonies 
have been brought up to the same number 
of combs of brood as the strongest ones, 
after which these may be built up quickly 
by giving them several frames of emerging 
brood from the stronger colonies. When 
several combs of emerging brood with ad¬ 
hering bees are given at one time the combs 
from different colonies should be alternated 
to mix the bees so there will be no fighting. 
When equalizing the brood in this way, it 
frequently happens that the stores may also 
be equalized, taking frames of honey from 
colonies having more than they need and 
giving to those having less than they need. 

If at the beginning of the honey flow 
more combs of brood are needed than can 
be drawn from the stronger colonies, they 
may be drawn from weak colonies, thus re¬ 
ducing these to one or two frame nuclei 
which are then left to build up to full colo¬ 
nies for winter. 

If either of the brood diseases is present 
in the apiary, it is not safe to exchange the 
combs in this way. 

It is sometimes advisable to unite two or 
more weak or medium colonies to make one 
stronger colony, but it is usually best not 
to do this early in the spring. It should 
be done at the beginning of the honey flow. 
See Uniting. Also read carefully the ar- 


bumblebees 


171 


tides on Spring Management, Spring 
Dwindling, and Feeding. 

BULK COMB HONEY. — See Comb 
Honey. 

BUMBLEBEES. —The bumblebee fam¬ 
ily, or Bombidae , includes only two genera, 
Bombus, or the nest-building bumblebees, 
and Psithyrus, or the parasitic bumblebees. 
About 234 species and varieties of Bombus 
have been described in the world and 57 of 
Bsithyrus. Bumblebees are found thruout 
North and South America, extending north¬ 
ward to Discovery Harbor, in latitude 81°; 
and to an altitude of 13,600 feet at Cuzco, 
Peru. The arctic bumblebees, which are on 
the wing less than three months, are very 
industrious and gather pollen and nectar 
from flowers for the larger part of the 24 
hours of the day. Bumblebees are also 
widely distributed in Europe, Asia, and 
North Africa, but the great Saharan deserts 
offer an effectual barrier to their south¬ 
ward extension. Australia and New Zea¬ 
land have no native species, but three 
species were introduced into New Zealand 
from England in 1884. 

BUMBLEBEES AND FLOWER POLLINATION. 

As agents in the pollination of flowers 
bumblebees are second in importance only 
to honeybees. Many flowers are adapted 


wholly to their visits and are called bum¬ 
blebee flowers, as the larkspurs, aconites, 
columbines, red clover, jewelweed, turtle- 
head, Linaria, snapdragon, the closed and 
fringed gentians, besides a number of 
orchids, While they generally avoid very 


small flowers with a scanty supply of nec¬ 
tar, they resort to a great variety of blos¬ 
soms, many of which yield valuable fruits 
Altho seldom seen on the inflorescence of 
the pear, they seek the apple bloom in 
large numbers. They are likewise very 
helpful in pollinating many blueberries, 
cranberries, gooseberries, and currants. 
While leaf-cutting bees ( Megachile ) are 
the chief pollinators of alfalfa, many flow¬ 
ers are tripped by bumblebees. The flow¬ 
ers of the squash, cucumber, and pumpkin 
are also very attractive to them. As in 
these plants the stamens and pistils are in 
separate blossoms, their productiveness is 
largely dependent upon bees. 

But their numbers, wide distribution, 
and industry enable the bumblebees to 
perform a service of the greatest value in 
the pollination of red clover, one of the 
most important of fodder plants. As there 
were no native bumblebees in New Zealand 
red clover seed could not be profitably 
raised for market until after the introduc¬ 
tion of European species. They now an¬ 
nually benefit these islands to the extent of 
thousands of dollars. In one province 
alone, in 1912, 6610 acres were sown with 
red clover, which, it is estimated, yielded 
an average of 158 pounds to the acre. 
Fields which were almost barren in the 
absence of bumblebees produced a perfect 
mass of seed after 
their advent. At 
Canterbury 26 acres 
of red clover were 
the resort of thou¬ 
sands of bumblebees 
and yielded 100 to 
500 pounds of seed 
to the acre. The Bu¬ 
reau of Plant Indus¬ 
try reports that from 
757 heads of red 
clover, covered with 
tarlatan to exclude 
insects, an average 
of only one-tenth of 
a seed per head was obtained; while from 
311 heads visited by bumblebees there was 
an average of 30 seeds per head. Bumble¬ 
bees visit as many as 30 to 35 flowers a 
minute. They are less abundant in the 
great central plain of the United States 



Fig. 1.—Two views of honey-pot of Bombus lapidarius. (After Sladen.) 







than in the Atlantic and Pacific highlands. 

LIFE HISTORY AND HABITS, 
in midsummer or early autumn a bum¬ 
blebee colony produces males and queens. 
The males, which are about the size of the 
workers, are pleasantly scented and make 
long flights over the meadows and the open 
lands in search of the less active females. 
Before leaving the nest to which they sel¬ 
dom return, the virgin queens fill the honey- 
sac with honey; and very soon after im¬ 
pregnation conceal themselves in moss or 
leaves, or burrow in the ground, where 
they remain till the following season. The 
period of hibernation is about nine months, 
species which begin sleeping in July awak¬ 


ening in March, while later species do not 
fly until May or June. The economy of 
American bumblebees is little known, and 
this account is based largely on Sladen’s 
observation of the English species. 

Soon after the warmer weather of spring 
permits the queen to leave permanently 
her place of hibernation she begins to 
search for the nest of a mouse or mole in 
which to rear her colony. A mouse nest 
consists usually of a mass of soft dried 


grass with a hollow in the center. Many 
species of bumblebees prefer nests which 
are underground, while others select those 
which are on the surface. Access to the 
subterranean nests is gained thru a tunnel 
usually not far from two feet in length 
and about an inch in diameter. Queens 
may often be seen examining the ground 
in fields in search of the openings to these 
tunnels. Before she departs for the field, 
the queen forms a memory picture of the 
location by describing above it a series of 
gradually widening circles. In the center of 
the nest a small cavity is formed about an 
inch in diameter and a little less in height, 
with an entrance about the size of the 
queen’s body. 

On the center of the floor of 
this cavity she stores a small 
mass of pollen gathered from 
flowers and moistened with hon¬ 
ey. In a round cell of wax 
about the size of a pea, built on 
top of the pollen, from six to 
twelve eggs are laid, and the top 
of the cell is then sealed over. 
According to Sladen the wax is 
much softer than that of the 
honeybee, and exudes from be¬ 
tween the segments on the upper 
side of the abdomen instead of 
being excreted in little pockets 
on the ventral side of the abdo¬ 
men as in the honeybee. A hon¬ 
ey-pot is built in the entrance to 
the cavity and filled with honey, 
which the queen uses in the 
night time and in rainy weather. 
It is about the size and shape of 
a small marble, with open mouth, 
and, altho very thin and fra¬ 
gile, it’ remains intact for a 
month, which is as long as it is 
needed (Fig. 1). The supply of honey is 
frequently consumed and renewed and is, 
consequently, much thinner than that of 
the honeybee.* In large colonies additional 
honey-pots are built near the edge of the 
comb, and many of the cocoons are filled 
with honey, the number of which may 
amount to three or four hundred. 

*The queen's honey-pot in a nest of B. fprvidux 
examined at Ottawa, Canada, in 1915, was found to 
lie completely closed, possibly a provision of nature, 
preventing ants, etc., from discovering the honey 
when the queen is absent from the nest.—F. W. L. S. 



Fig. 2. —Nest of Bomlvs terrestris showing cluster of co¬ 
coons with groove in the center in which the queen sits, and 
honey-pot. (After Sladen.) 



BUMBLEBEES 




Except when 
she leaves the 
nest to procure 
food the queen 
incubates the cell 
const a ntly to 
keep the eggs 
warm. They hatch 
in four days. The 
larvae feed on the 
mass of pollen 
and also on a 
milky food of 
partially digested 
pollen and honey 
prepared by the 
queen. This liq¬ 
uid is i njected 
into the wax cell 
thru a minute 
hole in the top. 

At first the larvae 
are provided, with 
a common sup¬ 
ply, but later each is fed separately. 
When the larvae are five days old they 
begin to grow very rapidly, and the cell 
expands into a large globular bunch or 
bag, in which the position of each can 
easily be discerned. On the eleventh day 
they reach their full size, and each larva 
spins about itself a thin papery but very 


Fig. 3.—Nest of Bnmlus agrorum, showing symmetrical arrangement of 
omb; a, pollen-pockets. (After Sladen.) 


tough cocoon. The cocoons stand upright 
and form a compact cluster with a smooth 
concave groove in the center, in which the 
queen sits to furnish the warmth needed to 
mature the first brood of workers (Fig. 2). 
On the 22d or 23d day the perfect workers 
emerge from the cocoons by cutting a hole 
in the top either alone or with the aid of 

the queen. The 
newly hatched 
bees are a dull 
gray and move 
about vary 
feebly, but by 
the third day 
they have ac¬ 
quired hjiei'ir 
natural colors 
a n d strength 
and are ready 
to depart for 
the field. The 
life of a work¬ 
er bumblebee in 
midsummer i s 
about f o u r 
weeks. 

As soon as 
the larvae of 
the first brood 


Fig. 4.—Nest of liombus lapidarius. (After Sladen.) 





174 


BUMBLEBEES 



Pig. 5 .—Bombus americanorum; a, queen; b, worker. (After Sladen.) 



Pig. tS .—Bombus fervidus; a, male; b, queen; c, worker. (After Sladen.) 



Fig. 7 .—Bvmbus impatiens; a, male, b, queen; c, worker. (After Sladen.) 



Fig. 8 .—Psithyrw laboriosus; a, queen; b, male. (After Sladen.) 











BUMBLEBEES 


175 


spin their cocoons, the queen begins to 
build a row of cells along the outer edge of 
one side of this cluster parallel with the 
central groove, and later a second row on 
the other side of the cluster. She then lays 
a variable number of eggs, but usually 
from six to twelve in each cell. As soon 
as the workers become sufficiently numer¬ 
ous to provide supplies for the colony the 
queen no longer leaves the nest and may 
lay a new lot of eggs daily. The history of 
the eggs in the later cells is similar to 
those in the first cell except that the larvae 
are fed largely or wholly by the woi’kers 
and the cluster of cocoons is convex with¬ 
out a central groove. The structure of 
the cocoon clusters varies with different 
species. Those of the English Bombus 
terrestris are loose and irregular, while 
those of B. agrorum are compact and glob¬ 
ular and are arranged symmetrically in a 
ring around the nest (Fig. 3). Under¬ 
ground species may protect the top of the 
comb by a roof of wax; but this in sur¬ 
face dwellers is reduced to a mere disc or 
is entirely wanting. On very hot days the 
nest is ventilated by one or more workers 
standing on the comb or in the entrance 
and rapidly fanning with their wings. 
Night brings no rest to the colony. Its 
activity even increases, for now the entire 
population are at home and busily engaged 
in caring for the brood and comb (Fig. 4). 

Pollen is never put in cells containing 
honey, but is stored in empty cocoons or in 
tall columnar cells, which may be over an 
inch high and half an inch in diameter, 
near the center of the nest. A few species 
store it in little pockets on the side of the 
wax-covered bunches of larvae, called by 
Sladen pocket-makers to distinguish them 
from the pollen-storers. The workers 
gather the pollen and load it in the pollen- 
baskets in the same manner as described 
for the honeybee. 

The culminating event in the history of 
a bumblebee colony is the production of 
males and queens, for it is upon this act 
that the life of the species depends. This 
is not undertaken until the old queen has 
laid from 200 to 400 worker eggs, accord¬ 
ing to the species, and the colony is in a 
high state of prosperity. Both sexes may 
occur in the same cluster of cocoons, or it 
may consist wholly of males or females. 


In exceptional cases a colony produces ex¬ 
clusively males or queens. The males ap¬ 
pear earlier and are about twice as numer¬ 
ous as the females. One hundred to five 
hundred males and queens may be raised, 
according to the strength of the colony. 
As in the case of the honeybee the bumble¬ 
bee queens are probably fed on a different 
kind of food than the workers, altho no 
difference has yet been observed. The 
males live for about three weeks, and, like 
the queens, after once leaving the nest sel¬ 
dom return. 

With the departure of the males and vir¬ 
gin queens from the nest, the purpose of 
the colony has been attained in providing 
for the continuance of the species another 
year, and the closing days of its existence 
are now fast approaching. The old queen 
begins to fail, her body becomes denuded 
of hair, and her productiveness decreases. 
There are not sufficient eggs to keep the 
colony busy, and laying workers appear, 
which, however, produce only males. Fi¬ 
nally brood-rearing ceases, and the comb 
begins to mold. There is no longer an 
abundance of flowers, and the surplus of 
honey is consumed: then the older workers 
die one by one and the dozen or more re¬ 
maining become idle. “One night, a little 
cooler than usual,” says Sladen, “finding 
her food supply exhausted, the queen 
grows torpid, as she has done many a time 
before in the early part of her career, but 
on this occasion, her life work finished, 
there is no awakening.” 

There are 47 species of bumblebees 
known in America north of Mexico, and 40 
species in Amei’ica south of Mexico, one 
species ( B. dahlbomii) being common on 
the Straits of Magellan. A large and com¬ 
mon species east of the Rocky Mountains is 
Bombus americanorum , which has a tongue 
14 mm. long (Fig. 5). The colonies live in 
deserted mouse-nests both underground 
and on the surface. B. fervidus is another 
common species found in nearly every 
State in the Union and in Canada (Fig. 6). 
This species is a surface dweller, and its 
nests may be found in a variety of loca¬ 
tions. Putnam found on July 27 a nest of 
paper and rags under the floor of-a shed, 
which contained 70 bees, 150 cells with 
brood, and 200 larvae in various stages of 
growth in the pollen masses, besides 50 


176 


BUMBLEBEES 


cells of honey. B. impatiens occurs thru- 
out the eastern United States (Fig. 7). It 
is a subterranean species. A nest taken 
by Franklin, Aug. 31, contained 340 bees, 
of which 4 Avere ^queens and 15 males. It 
was 2V<> feet below the surface of the 
ground. There were 330 unbroken cells, 
the majority of which were queen-cells. 
Another very common species of bumble¬ 
bee is Bombus vagans, which ranges from 
Maine to the eastern Rocky Mountains, and 
southward to Kentucky and North Caro¬ 
lina. According to Franklin the honey- 
pots of American species appear to be 
made not of wax but of pollen grains ce¬ 
mented with propolis. 

THE PARASITIC BUMBLEBEES. 

Many bumblebee colonies are destroyed 
by parasitic or false bumblebees belonging 
to the genus Psithyrus. They are also call¬ 
ed inquiline or guest bumblebees. They 
closely resemble bumblebees in appear¬ 
ance and are both no doubt descended from 
common ancestors. About ten species are 
known in America north of Mexico, and 
three or four more in Mexico and Central 
America. It is a singular fact that not a 
single species is certainly known from 
South America. A common species widely 
distributed in the United States is Ps. 
laboriosus (Fig. 8).' The worker caste is 
entirely absent and only males and females 
are produced. They do not build combs 
nor gather pollen and nectar for their 
young, but live in the nests of the true 
bumblebees, at whose expense their brood 
is reared. 

They were long supposed to be commen¬ 
sals living with the bumblebees and doing 
little harm or possibly of some benefit; but 
much information in regard to the habits 
of two English species has been gained 
thru the observations of Sladen.* Like the 
bumblebees, they hibernate during the win¬ 
ter, but begin to fly a little later in the 
spring. A Psithyrus queen seeks to enter 
the nest of the host bumblebee soon after 
the first brood of workers has appeared. 
Little opposition is then offered by the 
doomed colony, which soon becomes accus¬ 
tomed to her presence. So long as the 

•“'One of these is Ps. vestalis, which dwells ,in the 
nest of B. terrestris. Ps. nshtoni, the representative 
of Ps. vestalis in Eastern Canada, possibly associates 
in the same way with B. terricola. —F. W. L. S'. 


workers are too few to provide ample food 
supplies, the intrduer with instinctive cun¬ 
ning waits until they have become numer¬ 
ous enough to care for herself and her 
brood. As soon as the nest has become 
populous a crisis is precipitated by the 
Psithyrus queen preparing to lay eggs. 
Aroused by this invasion of her rights, the 
bumblebee queen apparently attacks the 
usurper, altho she is doomed beforehand to 
defeat. Protected by a thick tough integu¬ 
ment and armed Avith a larger and more 
curved sting, the parasitic queen invariably 
kills the bumblebee queen. The Psithyrus 
queen is at first compelled to protect her 
eggs from the Bombus workers, but they 
soon care for her brood as faithfully as for 
their own. In Austria tAvo species of 
Psithyrus\ are reported to live amicably 
with their hosts, both producing males 
and females. 

If the Psithyrus queen Avaits too long 
and then enters a colony of the host bum- 
bleblee Avhich has a strong company of 
workers, she is at once furiously assailed 
by overpoAvering numbers; and, altho 
fighting valiantly, is finally slain. Before 
she is destroyed, hoAvever, a dozen or more 
of her assailants are sometimes killed. Tf 
two Psithyrus queens enter the same nest 
they seem neAer to fight Avith each other, 
but one soon goes aAvay. The parasitic 
bumblebees A isit a variety of floAvers, but 
they sIioav a preference for Composites 
like the thorouglnvort and goldenrod which 
are rich in nectar. Their visits are made 
in a leisurely Avay very unlike those of the 
bumblebees. 

The two genera, Bombus and Psithyrus , 
have doubtless been derived from a com¬ 
mon stock. Psithyrus sIioavs evidence of 
degeneration in the loss of the pollen- 
baskets, the smaller eyes, and the untoothed 
mandibles. In explanation of the origin 
of the parasitic habit Sladen points out 
that the queens of several common species 
of Bombus often enter the nests of other 
species of this genus, fight a duel to the 
death with the queen, and if successful 
(which is unusual) lay their eggs and as¬ 
sume the duties of the foundress of the col¬ 
ony. B. terrestris behaves in this Avay in the 
nest of the nearly-related species B. luco- 

fRepresented in .North America liv Ps. laboriosus, 
Ps. insularis, and Ps. fernaldae. — F. W. L. S. 



CAMPANILLA 


177 


rum, but with the difference that she usually 
succeeds by means of her greater alertness 
and ferocity in killing the lucorum queen, 
and, lucorum being an .early species, she 
frequently does not enter the lucorum nest 
until the first workers are beginning to 
emerge. If this practice were to become 
habitual, an inquiline bee similar to Psi- 
thyrus would be likely to result. 

Bumblebee nests are destroyed by mice, 
and Darwin suggested that in the vicinity 
of towns their numbers were partly deter¬ 
mined by the number of cats. The comb 
and brood are devoured by the larvae of 
wax moths and of several species of flies. 
Ants destroy nests in the early stages. 
Among other insects found in the nests are 


flies belonging to the genus Yolucella , 
which mimic bumblebees in their appear¬ 
ance and habits of flight so closely that 
they are often mistaken for them. Two of 
these flies were collected and sent to the 
writer as bumblebees by an entomologist of 
great experience. Like the bumblebees they 
\isit flowers for pollen and nectar. 

For further information on bumblebees 
see “Habits of Some Species of Humble 
Bees,” F. W. Putnam; “The Bombida? of 
the New World,” H. J. Franklin; and 
“The Humble-bee,” F. W. L. Sladen, Mac¬ 
millan & Co. 

BURR COMBS.— See Thick Top Frames 
under the head of Frames. 


c 


CAGES FOR QUEENS. —See Intro¬ 
ducing. 

CAMPANILLA.— There are two species 
of Convolvulaceae, or morning-glory fam¬ 
ily, which are of great importance to the 
beekeepers of Cuba as honey plants; name¬ 
ly, Ipomoea sidaefolia Choisv, and I. tri¬ 
loba L. Popular English and Spanish 
names of T. sidaefolia are white bellflower, 
campanilla blanea, campanula, Christmas 
pop, and aguinaldo de paseuas. It is a 
perennial, the vines sometimes obtaining 
the size of from two to three inches in 
diameter, and is generally found growing 
among trees and shrubs or along fences 
and stone walks. The height of bloom is 
about Christmas, for which reason it is also 
called the “aguinaldo de paseuas,” and at 
this season of the year it is a common 
sight to see almost every tree, shrub, and 
fence along the road one solid mass of 
white aguinaldo bloom. The odd feature, 
about this plant is its irregular blooming. 
It will bloom only every other day, and 
then, again, several days in succession. The 
days of blooming are always universal. 


One day every vine is in full bloom; the 
next day not a single vine is to be seen in 
bloom in miles of travel. 

PINK CAMPANILLA. 

The pink campanilla, I. triloba , is also 
known as campanilla morada, aguinaldo 
rosado, and marrullero. It blooms during 
the months of October and November. It 
is found principally in western Cuba, in 
the region known as the “vuelta aba.ja,” 
the great tobacco region; and it is the 
growing of tobacco that makes possible the 
great amount of this particular variety of 
the campanilla, for tobacco seed is, as. a 
rule, always sown on virgin soil. Large 
tracts of land, on both mountain and coast, 
are cleared every year, just to grow one 
crop of tobacco plants. When the plants 
are big enough' to be transplanted they are 
pulled and shipped by railroad, ox-cart, or 
mule-train, to where the tobacco is to be 
grown. These tobacco-seed beds are, by 
the next year, and for years to come, cov¬ 
ered by the vines of the campanilla mora¬ 
da, which in western Cuba, springs up 
wherever the land has been cultivated. 


178 


CANDY FOR BEES 



Campanilla. 


The honey from the campanilla, in color 
and flavor, is equal to alfalfa or sage. The 
comb built during the campanilla flow is 
pearly white, and when melted it produces 
wax as white as tallow. 

CAMPECHE.— See Logwood. 

CANADA THISTLE (Cirsium arvense ). 
— Altho this very troublesome weed, 
naturalized from Europe, is condemned by 
agriculturists and is outlawed everywhere, 
it is a source of a small quantity of honey 
in parts of Canada. Like most pernicious 
.weeds it belongs to the family Compositae. 
The heads are small but very numerous, 
each head composed of about 100 rose-pur¬ 
ple tubular florets. The nectar is secreted 
so freely that it rises in the corolla tubes 
to a point where it can be reached by near¬ 
ly all insects. Honeybees gather both nec¬ 
tar and pollen. The honey is light colored, 
of very fine quality with a delightful flavor, 
and is fully equal to the best clover or 
basswood honey in the market. 

Canada thistles will live in a great va¬ 
riety of conditions, but they luxuriate in 
rich bottom lands where they take almost 
complete possession of the soil. It is a 
commercial asset to the beekeeper chiefly 
in those localities where it has become a 
pest to farmers who would gladly exter¬ 
minate it root and branch. Beekeepers 
should also do everything in their power 
to destroy it; but the Canada thistle is 
difficult to eradicate since it multiplies by 


underground, creeping rootstocks, a small 
fragment of which, if left in the soil, will 
give rise to a new plant. 

CANDIED HONEY.— See Granulated 
Honey. 

CANDY FOR BEES. —There is just one 
kind of candy that is used universally by 
beekeepers for queen-cages. While excel¬ 
lent for this purpose it should not be used 
as winter food unless in pans, where, if 
it becomes soft, it will not run down and 
kill the bees. 

It is none other than what is popularly 
called the “Good” candy, after I. R. Good 
of Nappanee, Ind., who introduced it into 
this country. It was, however, first made 
many years before by a German named 
Scholz. (See “Langstroth on the Honey¬ 
bee,” page 274, 1875 edition.) By Euro¬ 
peans it is, therefore, called the Scholz 
candy. 

HOW TO MAKE. 

It is made of a first quality of extracted 
honey or invert sugar and powdered sugar. 
If honey is used it should be of the best 
quality of table extracted honey from an 
apiai’y where there is no foul brood and, 
if possible, from a locality where there has 
never been any disease. The powdered 
sugar must have no starch in it. There are 
two kinds of frosting sugar—one with 
starch an<£ the other without. The latter 
should be used. While starch is not neces¬ 
sarily fatal to queen-cage candy, expert- 




CANDY FOR BEES 


179 


ence shows that queens can be sent only 
short distances on a food containing it. 

Having' secured the rig’ht ingredients, 
the honey (or invert sugar syrup ) if gran¬ 
ulated, should be heated to a temperature 
of 140 degrees F. to liquify, and allowed to 
cool to about 100 degrees. The pulverized 
sugar should then be stirred in, a little at 
a time, with a big strong spoon or stick,* 
adding all that it is possible for the honey 
to absorb; and when the stick or spoon can 
not stir in any more, some powdered sugar 
should be spread on a molding board. The 
mixture should then be removed from the 
pan to the board and the dough kneaded 
the same as ordinary bread dough, adding 
sugar from time to time to prevent stick¬ 
ing. The candy should be worked and 
worked by some good strong arms and 
hands until all the sugar has been incor¬ 
porated that it is possible to get in, and 
yet not have it too stiff nor too soft and 
moist. The proportion should be about 
two pounds of invert sugar or honey to 
five pounds of powdered sugar. The 
kneading should be kept up for at least 
half an hour. If too much sugar is worked 
in, the candy will become dry and hard; if 
not enough, it will be soft, sticky, and 
shiny. If the candy has been handled 
properly it should hold its shape or form 
and not become sticky or “run” out of the 
candy hole in a queen-cage at a tempera¬ 
ture of 80 degrees. Summer temperature 
will seldom exceed this; and if the candy 
holds its shape at this temperature it will 
do so when it is colder. It may then be 
set away in a closed tin pan and used as 
a food to fill cages. 

During very moist hot weather it may 
be necessary, just before filling the cages, 
to knead in a little more sugar. 

During exceptionally hot summers it re¬ 
quires two pounds of invert sugar or honey 
to six of powdered sugar. 

The holes for holding the candy in 
queen-cages should be lined with paraffin 
or beeswax, and the top covered with par¬ 
affin paper. The object of this is to pre¬ 
vent the moisture of the candy from evapo¬ 
rating and being absorbed into the wood. 
This absorption and evaporation would 
make the bee-feed dry and hard. It should 
be maintained not sticky but slightly moist 
and soft, to the journey's end. 


Postal regulations in the United States 
require on the part of every queen-breeder 
who sends queens by mail one of two things 
—a certificate of inspection from a duly 
authorized bee inspector certifying that 
no bee disease has been discovered in the 
yard in which the queens are reared, a 
copy of this to go on every package; or 
in the event that there is no bee-inspection 
law, and, of course, no inspector, the postal 
authorities require a statement, duly at¬ 
tested before a notary, that the honey of 
which the candy has been made has been 
boiled 20 minutes in a closed vessel. 

But experience shows that boiled honey 
does not make good queen-cage candy. The 
character of the honey is so changed by 
boiling that queens are apt to die oh it in 
the space of a short time. The real intent 
of the regulation, which is to prevent the 
dissemination of bee disease, can be better 
subserved by using invert sugar in place 
of honey. (See Invert Sugar.) This is 
a syrup having about equal propoi'tions of 
levulose and dextrose; and in this one re¬ 
spect it is very similar to honey; but, of 
course, it lacks some of the food elements 
of nature’s product. However, because it 
has never been in contact with the bees, 
and therefore could contain no germs of 
disease, and because chemically it is so 
nearly like honey, it can be used in place of 
honey in making candy. As there is so 
much foul brood present over the country, 
it is always safer to give to bees a candy 
that contains no honey. 

Invert sugar syrup can usually be ob¬ 
tained of any large candy-maker. A very 
good article is sold under the name of 
nullomoline by the Nullomoline Co., New 
York. This is made without acids, from 
granulated sugar, and is preferable to the 
ordinary invert sugar syrup made with the 
use of acids. 

For long-distance shipments, and for 
valuable queens, where proper precautions 
are taken in securing a honey that is free 
from disease, it is advisable to use a light- 
colored extracted honey of best quality in 
making queen-cage candy. This honey 
should come from a locality where there 
has never been any foul brood, in order to 
be really safe. A queen-cage candy using 
honey will hold its shape and consistency, 
or, more exactly, a soft mealy condition, 


180 


CANE SUGAR 


slightly longer than a candy made of an 
invert sugar. It probably contains some 
food elements also that are essential to 
long shipments. For many years the only 
queen-cage candy known was made from, 
honey; but as the latter might convey bee 
disease to a new locality, an invert sugar 
candy is recommended for general ship¬ 
ments, using honey only for long dis¬ 
tances and for valuable queens. 

HARD CANDY FOR WINTER AND SPRING 

feeding; how to make it. 

Into a dish of hot water on the stove is 
slowly poured granulated sugar, which 
should be stirred constantly. The syrup 
should be very thick and the sugar all dis¬ 
solved before boiling commences. If this 
precaution is not observed, some of the un¬ 
dissolved sugar is likely to burn, injuring 
the flavor of the candy and almost surely 
causing trouble with the bees later. If 
one has a candy thermometer, lie should 
watch the temperature, and not let it go 
above 275 to 280 degrees P. Tests should 
frequently be made by dropping a very lit¬ 
tle of the syrup into cold water (about 50 
to 55 degrees F.). When the boiling has 
continued long enough the drop of candy, 
having been cooled in tbe water, should be 
hard and brittle when taken out; but when 
placed in the mouth it should soften slight¬ 
ly, and become tough. When this time lias 
arrived, the syrup should immediately be 
1 mured on to paraffined or waxed paper on 
a table. The table should be perfectly 
level, and around the outside of the paper 
should be placed wooden sticks V 4 inch 
high to confine the syrup and prevent it 
from running off. When the candy is 
nearly hard, it may be creased or cut with 
a heavy knife so that it can be broken up 
into right-sized squares when hard. 

The color of the candy when cold should 
be about that of light basswood honey. If 
it is darkened very much, it is scorched and 
unfit for the bees. To prevent the scorch¬ 
ing, the fire toward the last should be re¬ 
duced so that the syrup will boil but 
slowly. 

When the candy is first made, it is hard 
and glassy, and perfectly transparent; but 
after it stands for a little time it becomes 
somewhat watery and crystalline; but this 
is all the better so far as the bees are con¬ 


cerned, for they are enabled to take it more 
easily. 

The thin cakes of candy being only Y 4 
inch thick may be placed over the frames 
and under the regular cover, and in this 
way a colony may be saved that would 
otherwise be lost. The feeding of syrup, 
especially in the spring, is apt to cause 
great excitement and possibly robbing, and 
for this reason the candy is safer as it is 
taken slowly. 

Caution .—Whoever makes the candy 
should clearly understand that if the mix¬ 
ture is scorched, even the slightest, it will 
make unfit food for spring or winter feed¬ 
ing. When the syrup is cooked nearly 
enough, there is great danger of burning, 
and it is then that the greatest care should 
be exercised. 

CANE SUGAR. —This is the common 
name applied to the sugar-sucrose. Sucrose 
is made from the sugar cane and also from 
the sugar beet. When derived from the 
beet it should go under the name of beet 
sugar. Sucrose is found in pure honey in 
amounts varying from nothing up to 8 per 
cent. Only in a very few cases has pure 
honey been found which showed the higher 
figures. The standards for pure honey al¬ 
low 8 per cent to be present. New boney 
generally contains more sucrose than old 
honey. There are present in honey before 
heating some enzymes (unorganized fer¬ 
ments) which have the power to invert the 
sucrose. Hence on aging, if heat has not 
been applied to kill this action, the per 
cent of sucrose decreases. Sucrose on 
hydrolysis or inversion forms equal parts 
of dextrose and levulose, these latter being 
the predominant sugars of honey. See 
Sugar; Invert Sugar; also Honey, 
Analysis of. 

CANS FOR HONEY.— See Extracted 
Honey. 

CARNIOLANS. —See Races of Bees. 

CARPENTER BEES. — See Solitary 
Bees. 

CARPET GRASS (Lippia nodiflora). 
—Two other vernacular names are fog- 
fruit and mat grass-—a prostrate, creep¬ 
ing, herbaceous perennial, only a few 
inches high, which forms dense mats in 


CARPET GRASS 


181 


clamp soil and on river banks. It is of 
great value in preventing the erosion of 
sandy land and is in consequence known 
as a “sand-binder.” In Florida it would 
be a boon for that purpose alone. Stock 
will eat it; and it holds up its head Avlien 
everything else is burned up by the sun. 
The flowers are small, white, resembling' 
those of the sweet-scented garden verbena 
from China, which belongs to the same 
genus. Both species belong to the Verbe- 
naceae, or verbena family. Common car¬ 
pet grass is widely distributed in the 
warmer regions of North America, extend¬ 
ing from Central America and the West 
Indies to Florida, Georgia, and Texas. It 
is very abundant in Sutter County and in 
the Sacramento Valley, California, carpet¬ 
ing the slopes of the Sacramento River, 


where it produces a large amount of honey. 
It blooms from May until September. The 
honey is white, of the mildest flavor, and 
crystallizes with a very fine grain. In 
Texas carpet grass grows along rivers and 
small streams, but is of little importance 
as a honey plant. 

OTHER SPECIES OF CARPET GRASS. 

The carpet grasses, of which there are 
about 100 species, belong chiefly to the 
warmer regions of the Old and New 
Worlds; but are most abundant in tropical 
and subtropical America. They yield much 
nectar in Central America and are also 
valuable honey plants in the West Indies 
find the Bermudas. There are about nine 
species in the United States distributed 
over an area extending from New Jersey 



Catnip. 


182 


0 ATSCLAW 


to Nebraska and Kansas, southward to 
Georgia and Texas, and west to Arizona 
and California. 

In 1900 Lippia repens Hort.. was in¬ 
troduced from Italy into California, where 
it now covers thousands of acres. Because 
of its thickly matted growth it is widely 
used for covering lawns and tennis courts. 
Only one or two cuttings are required dur¬ 
ing the summer. It thrives in the poorest 
soils, smothers weeds, requires but little 
water, and looks as well as any grass; but 
during two or three months it turns brown 
and ceases to grow, when its appearance is 
less pleasing. A new growth appears in 
early spring. The small flowers are visited 
by many honeybees and probably the 
honey does not differ from that of the 
common carpet grass. 

Lippia lanceolata Mickx. grows in New 
Jersey, Texas, Mexico, and California, and 
is also valued as a honey plant. 

CATNIP ( Nepeta Cataria L.).—Often 
called catmint. Flowers bilabiate, nearly 
Avhite, spotted with purple. Moses Quinby 
(see Quinby) once said that, if he were to 
grow 7 any plant extensively for the honey 
it produces, that plant would be catnip; 
and very likely he was not far from right. 
But as there has never been any definite 
report from a sufficient field of it to test it 
alone, either as to quality or quantity of 
the honey, there is almost as much doubt 
in regard to it as there was at the time 
Quinby made the statement many years 
ago. Several have cultivated it in small 
patches, and have reported that in a state 
of cultivation it apparently yielded more 
honey than in its wild state, for bees were 
found on it almost constantly, during sev¬ 
eral months in the year, but rarely one 
gets a full load. It has been called the 
“bees’ bar-room,” as they are so constantly 
hanging around it. Yet no, one is pre¬ 
pared to say positively that it would pay 
to cultivate it for honey alone. 

CATSCLAW ( Acacia Greggii, Gray).— 
Known also as paradise flower and devil’s 
claws. The acacia trees are most abundant 
in Australia and Africa; but 16 species 
occur in the southern States, chiefly in 
Texas. Several species are valuable for 
both honey and pollen: A. Greggii Gray 


and A. Berlandieri Benth, are two of the 
most important honey plants of Texas, 
and yield immense quantities of excellent 
honey that ranks with the best white honey 
of the North. Several species of acacia 
are cultivated in California, and yield 
much honey. While possibly it would not 
sell alongside of our clovers, yet in locali¬ 
ties where it is produced it is praised very 
highly for table use, no honey being 
classed higher except that from huajilla. 
See Huajilla. 



Catsclaw leaf, twig, and blossoms; life-size. 


The catsclaw is a bushy tree with low- 
spreading branches, attaining a height of 
anywhere from 15 to 20 feet. It derives 
its name from the bushy and fuzzy blos¬ 
soms suggestive of the furry coat of a cat, 
and the peculiar kind of claws or hooks, 





CLOVER 


shaped very much like the claw of a com¬ 
mon house cat. If one tries to push thru 
the bushes or among the branches he will 
conclude that, unless he “backs up,” he 
may “remain hooked.” Peiliaps he will 
anyhow. 

The illustration on the preceding page 
shows a small twig, life size. The leaves 
are small and in clusters while the blossoms 
have a cottony or downy look. One of the 
seed pods, after the blossoms have been 
cast off, is shown at the upper left-hand 
corner of the plate. 

The tree comes .into bloom about the first 
of May, and yields honey for a consider¬ 
able length of time before going out of 
bloom. In July there is a second crop. 

Like the huajilla and mesquite it grows 
in the semi-desert regions of Texas and 
Arizona where it would be impossible to 
carry on farming without irrigation. There 
are vast areas in both States mentioned 
that will probably never be used for any¬ 
thing more useful to man than catsclaw, 
huajilla, and mesquite; so that the onward 
march of civilization will not displace these 
honey trees with more profitable farm 
crops. We may reasonably conclude that 
catsclaw will remain one of the permanent 
sources of honey supply. 

We are not sure but it would pay to in¬ 
troduce these valuable honey-bearing trees 
in other semiarid regions. It has been in¬ 
troduced into Southern Europe, whence 
large quantities of its flowers are exported 
to France and England. It is there known 
as mimosa. 

CAUCASIANS. —See Races of Bees. 

CELLAR WINTERING!.— See Winter¬ 
ing in Cellars. 

CELLS, QUEENS. — See Queens and 
Queen-rearing. 

CHUNK HONEY.— See “Bulk Comb 
Honey,” under head of Comb Honey. 

CLIPPING-. —See Queens. 

CLOVER (Trifolium). — No group of 
plants yields more or better honey than the 
clovers. About 250 species belong to the 
genus Trifolium; but only a few of them, 
as white clover, alsike clover, red clover, 
and crimson clover, are of great import¬ 
ance to bee culture. Under the general 


18:1 

term “clover” alfalfa, sweet clover, sain¬ 
foin clover, and pin clover are sometimes 
included; but they belong to different gen¬ 
era, and, in the case of pin clover to a dif¬ 
ferent family. So broad a license in the 
use of the word “clover” is not admissi¬ 
ble. Clover, alfalfa, sweet clover, and sain¬ 
foin all belong to the pulse family (Legu- 
minosae), a very extensive family, which 
contains many other valuable honey plants. 

Some 30 or 40 years ago a failure to ob¬ 
tain a crop of clover honey was almost 
unknown. In more recent years intensive 
agriculture has tended to exclude white 
clover from cultivated fields and to confine 
it to the roadsides, hedgerows, and un¬ 
ploughed pastures. Its place was taken 
by red clover and alsike clover, but these 



What is sweeter than honey ? 


species in turn have lately begun to disap¬ 
pear. Lands that formerly yielded clover 
in abundance, in some eases produce it 
only sparingly, or not at all, and are called 
by the farmers “clover-sick.” The cause 
of this difficulty was soon discovered to 
be an insufficient amount of lime in the 
soil. The clovers will not grow on an acid 
soil. Alsike requires less lime than red 
clover, but the time finally comes when the 
land will not support alsike. When the 
land was new, or before it was tilled, it 



184 


CLOYKK 



A field of white clover in Iowa. 


contained a larger amount of lime; but 
constant cropping lias largely exhausted 
the natural supply. Hence the soil is 
“clover-sick,” or requires lime. 

If sorrel is growing on the land, or blue 
litmus paper placed in damp soil turns red, 
it may be assumed safely that there is a 
lack of lime. Beekeepei's should carefully 
inform themselves as to whether the clover 
fields in their locality are deficient in lime 
or not, and should endeavor to induce the 
farmers to get in touch with the nearest 
experiment station and seek advice in re¬ 
gard to this matter. From 500 to 2,000 or 
3,000 pounds of ground limerock may be 
required. 

The attention of farmers should also be 
called to the part clover plays in increas¬ 
ing the nitrogen in the soil. On the roots 
of the clovers there are little nodules or 
tubercles, front the size of a pin head to 
that of a pea, in which there live multi¬ 
tudes of bacteria. These bacteria are able 
to fix the free nitrogen of the air in nitro¬ 
genous compounds, which after the death 
of the bacteria the clover plants are able 
to obtain. The fixation of nitrogen is 
aided bv lime and humus in the soil, and 
is retarded by an acid soil or one which 
is compact and not well aerated. The 


tubercles do not survive the winter, but 
are formed anew each season. 

Since alsike clover requires less lime 
than red clover, the gradual decrease of 
lime in the soil has in many localities led 
to its substitution for the latter. While 
this has been a great advantage- to bee¬ 
keepers temporarily, it will not prove a 
permanent one unless lime is applied, 
since finally the soil will become so acid 
that alsike will not grow in it. White 
clover, likewise, is largely dependent on a 
soil rich in lime, and it has been disappear¬ 
ing not alone because of intensive agri¬ 
culture, but also because of the increasing 
acidity of the land. Years ago there Avas 
no difficulty in getting annually a surplus 
of honey from white clover. 

LIMING THE SOIL AND ITS EFFECT ON 
BEEKEEPING. 

In parts of the northeastern United 
States where temperature conditions are 
favorable for the clovers, the soil is so de¬ 
ficient in lime that the clovers do not do 
well. In some regions when the soil could 
no longer support a growth of clover, 
farms have been abandoned because of the 
poverty of the soil. Within recent years 
many of these abandoned farms have been 






CLOVER 


185 


built up, and pood crops are now being- 
raised largely thru the use of lime and 
the growing of clover. 

Extension men from the agricultural 
colleges are now preaching the doctrine of 
liming the soil. County agents and farm 
bureaus are not only telling farmers that 
it pays to lime the soil, but demonstrations 
are being made on farms here and there 
to show the great value of lime. As a re¬ 
sult of all this, great areas in eastern Ohio 
and parts of New York and Pennsylvania, 


these regions alsike clover has already been 
introduced and when once it gets into a 
locality it stays, if conditions are at all 
suitable, springing up in meadows, along 
roadsides and in fence corners. 

Beekeepers in these regions will do -well 
to find out where the most lime is being- 
used by the farmers, as a guide in locating 
out-apiaries, for where farmers are using 
a ton or more of ground limestone to the 
acre, beekeeping should flourish, if other 
conditions are at all favorable. 



White clover blossom—first stage. 


outside of the buckwheat region, which 
were formerly poor territory for beekeep¬ 
ing', are now becoming good beekeeping- 
territory on account of the return of the 
clovers. The practice of liming the soil 
spreads from farm to farm, as neighbor¬ 
ing farmers become convinced that it pays, 
until large areas of good clover territory 
spread from these centers where liming 
was begun several years ago. in most of 


WHITE CLOVER (Trifolium repens 
L.).—Tn the central and eastern States no 
other honey plant is so universally known 
as white clover, and white clover honey is 
the honey par excellence —the honey with 
which all other honeys are compared. It 
is a delicious white honey of the finest 
quality. While not. so thick and heavy as 
goldenrod nor so pronounced in flavor as 
buckwheat or basswood, it yet possesses 




186 


CLOVER 


the qualities which satisfy the largest num¬ 
ber of consumers and fill most perfectly 
the demand for a table boney of the high¬ 
est grade. It is given the preference by 
most purchasers, and the highest praise 
which can be bestowed on any honey is to 
pronounce it equal to that of white clover. 
As a confectionery its appearance is most 
attractive, while for medicinal purposes it 
is unsurpassed. 

In general in northeastern America 
where it is sufficiently abundant white clo- 


sisting of a succession of hot humid days, 
altho the strain of bees and the care they 
received were important factors. The flow 
began about June 1 and continued until 
the last of August, the bees then gradu¬ 
ally changing to sweet clover and hearts¬ 
ease. During this) long even flow there were 
up to Sept. 1 only two rainy days. At 
other times the rain came during the night, 
the weather becoming clear again before 
the bees were ready to begin work in the 
morning. In central Kentucky, in 1906, 



White clover blossom — second stage. 


ver usually yields excellent honey harvests, 
which are not far from surpassing all rec¬ 
ords. In 1913, at Marengo, Ill., Dr. C. C. 
Miller obtained from 72 colonies, spring- 
count, 19,186 sections of chiefly white- 
clover honey, or an average of 266.47 sec¬ 
tions per colony. The three best colonies 
yielded 390, 395, and 402 sections respect¬ 
ively. This phenomenal surplus was 
largely due to a most favorable season con- 


115 colonies stored 12,000 pounds of white- 
clover honey and increased to 240 colo¬ 
nies. From the same apiary in the follow¬ 
ing year the product was 30,000 pounds, 
while in 1908 drouth reduced the crop to 
15,000 pounds. 

The flowers of white clover are familiar 
to every one since the plant finds a conge¬ 
nial habitat in the vicinity of human 
dwellings. It carpets the lawns, fringes 



CLOVER 


187 


the paths and roads, and is common in the 
fields and pastures. There are in each 
head or flower-cluster from 57 to 89 small 
florets. At first all the florets stand erect, 
but as the marginal ones are pollinated 
they cease to secrete nectar and are bent 
backward and downward against the stem. 
By preventing useless visits this change 
in position is beneficial to both flowers and 
insects. When they expand the flowers are 
white, but they often turn reddish after 
they are reflexed. The calyx is only three 
millimeters long so that not only honeybees, 


act as levers to depress it. The stamens 
and pistil are completely inclosed in the 
keel, and ordinarily are not visible. A bee 
can not collect pollen from white clover as 
it does from a rose, because there is none 
in sight, and it is not directly accessible. 
Bees never visit the flowers for the pur¬ 
pose of gathering only pollen, and one has 
never been observed trying to open the 
keel. 

There are 10 anthers, each of which pro¬ 
duces a small amount of pollen. The fila¬ 
ments unite to form a tube, at the bottom 



White clover blossom—third stage. 


but many other insects are able to reach 
the nectar. Honeybees also often gather 
loads of yellow pollen, altho this is not 
abundant. 

THE POLLINATION OF WHITE CLOVER. 

There are five petals. The upper petal, 
called the standard, is much the largest. 
The two lower petals partly cohere to form 
a sac termed, from its form, a carina or 
keel. The two lateral petals, called the 
aim, or wings, are attached to the keel, and 


of which the nectar is secreted. But the 
superior stamen is free, leaving two small 
openings at the base of the staminal tube 
thru which a bee may insert its tongue to 
obtain the nectar. 

It is manifest at a glance that the indi¬ 
vidual flowers of a white clover head are 
far too small to hold a honeybee. The bee 
clings with its legs to several flowers, and 
only its head rests on the flower from which 
it is sucking nectar. When a bee pushes its 
head beneath the standard, the keel and 








188 


CLOVER 


wings are forced downward, the anthers 
and stigma emerge, and a little pollen is 
deposited on the under or inner side of the 
head, which may be covered with a layer 
of moist pollen. If a pointed pencil be 
thrust into a mature flower, when it is 
withdrawn a little mass of pollen will be 
found on the other side. As soon as the 
bee moves to another flower the elastic pet¬ 
als cause the anthers to return again with¬ 
in the keel. The collection of pollen is, 
therefore, an incidental result over which 
the bee has no control. While it is visit¬ 
ing white-clover flowers, more or less pol¬ 
len is necessarily rubbed on the under side 
of the head; but a part of it is again 
rubbed off on the stigmas of the flowers 
subsequently visited, effecting cross-pollin¬ 
ation, for the stigma stands slightly in 
advance of the anthers. A part of this 
pollen may also be transferred to the pol¬ 
len-baskets, where it appears as little 
brown balls varying from the size of a shot 
to an almost inappreciable quantity. 

The pollen grains, when examined under 
a high magnifying power, appear oblong, 
cylindrical, rounded at each end, with three 
longitudinal slits or grooves on the sides, 
and the bands or spaces between the slits 
are finely roughened with many shallow 
pits or depressions. A knowledge of the 
form of the pollen is essential in order 
that it may be recognized with certainty 
either in the hive or in the honey. The 
little balls of pollen in the pollen-baskets 
appear brown instead of yellow (the color 
of the pollen in the anthers) because they 
are composed of a moist compact mass of 
grains which have been manipulated by 
the bees’ legs. 

According to Darwin, when insects were 
excluded from white clover by a fine net 
the clover was only one-tenth as produc¬ 
tive as when they were freely admitted. 

THE SECRETION OF NECTAR. 

The factors controlling the secretion of 
nectar by the flowers of white clover are 
very imperfectly understood. In England. 
Canada, and the northeastern portion of 
the United States, it is usually a good 
honey plant, but in France and Switzer¬ 
land one may travel for several kilometers 
and not see a bee on the flowers. At Rouen, 
France, during one day of white clover 


bloom a hive on scales actually lost 300 
grams in weight. In various localities in 
the United States it is also reported to be 
almost a total failure at times. One bee¬ 
keeper says: “As an actual fact, the 
amount of clover honey is not measured by 
the quantity of the bloom; for I have seen 
the fields white with an abundance of it, 
but only a fair crop. I remember one 
year when there was a great scarcity of 
bloom, and yet there was a good crop of 
clover honey. I have also seen fields white 
with clover, but no honey.” At Plainfield, 
N. J., altho the ground is often white with 
the bloom, a good flow is reported to be 
obtained only about once in 10 years. In 
general the secretion of nectar is not reli¬ 
able in sections where the mean annual 
summer temperature exceeds 77 degrees 
F.; but occasionally, if the summer is cool 
and there have been sufficient rains in the 
spring to produce a luxuriant growth, a 
good crop is obtained south of this isother¬ 
mal line. White clover is much more abun¬ 
dant on soils where the underlying rock 
is limestone than on soils derived by the 
disintegration of sandstones and shales. 
On soils rich in lime nectar is secreted 
much more freely than on neutral or acid 
soils. In southern Minnesota, southern 
Wisconsin, and southern Michigan where 
the summers are cool and the soils are of 
limestone origin, white clover seldom fails 
to yield a large surplus; but in Illinois a 
full crop is obtained only about one year 
in three, and in central Kentucky and 
Tennessee only occasionally. In the south¬ 
ern States as in Alabama and Mississippi, 
it is of little importance, as it is neither 
abundant nor a good source of nectar. 
Scholl reports, however, that white clover 
yield's a surplus in northeastern Texas. 

Climate and soil exert a very marked 
effect on the growth of white clover and 
consequently upon the yield of nectar. In 
wet clay ground in regions where the win¬ 
ters are severe, the roots may be much 
broken and drawn out upon the surface, 
or the plants may be killed outright by re¬ 
peated lifting, caused by the alternate 
thawing and freezing of the soil. The de¬ 
structive work of the frost, however, is 
much lessened by the natural mulch af¬ 
forded by the dead vegetation found in 
waste places and in meadows which have 


CLOVER 


189 



Outline map of the United States, showing roughly the area in which alsike clover is grown. The black 
area shows where alsike closer is more or less regularly used as a forage or seed crop; the hatched area, 
where it is rarely grown or only in special places. (From Farmers’ Bulletin 1151, United States Depart¬ 
ment of Agriculture.) 


not been cropped too closely. Snow also 
offers excellent protection; and, when it 
covers the ground for the most of the win¬ 
ter, clover suffers little or no damage. Win¬ 
terkilling from freezing in well-drained 
sandy soils or in warmer climates is prac¬ 
tically unknown. 

In Kentucky, and the surrounding ter¬ 
ritory, where there are light soils, it seems 
to be well established that there will be a 
very small honey flow if the preceding sea¬ 
son has been very dry. If there is no rain 
after July, the drought destroys the old 
plants of feeble vitality, checks the growth 
of offshoots, prevents the germination of 
seedlings, and retards the formation of an 
extensive root system, with the result that 
there are few blossoms and little nectar the 
following season. This statement does not 
call for discussion since all herbaceous 
plants growing in porous sandy soil suf¬ 
fer, if there is a large decrease in the nor¬ 
mal rainfall. Altho the injury wrought by 
the drought does not become apparent un¬ 
til the next season, it should not be attrib¬ 
uted to winterkilling, but to the correct 
cause—the absence of sufficient moisture in 
the soil. But if there is a good stand of 
white clover in early spring a drought in 
May or June, if copious rains follow, will 
only retard the bloom and delay the har¬ 


vest. “I have seen clover parched by 
drought in June,” says a beekeeper, “and 
not a blossom in sight. Then came a suc¬ 
cession of soaking rains, and, presto! 
bloom and a crop of honey.” Similar re¬ 
sults have been described at London, Can. 
An exceptionally dry fall after August 15 
was followed by a dry spring until the last 
of May, when a series of warm rains com¬ 
menced which continued almost daily until 
about the 20th of June. The effect was mar¬ 
velous. July found the fields and road¬ 
sides a beautiful mass of white and alsike 
clover, and the honey crop was the best, 
that memory can recall. A very cold 
spring may also cause failure, even if there 
is a normal rainfall. In 1907 in parts of 
New 5 ork the average temperature of 
April, May, and June was four degrees 
below the respective means for these 
months in other years, and there was no 
white clover honey. 

Cold or rainy weather during the honey 
flow will both lessen the quantity of nec¬ 
tar and prevent the bees from working on 
the bloom; for the best results there must 
be a series of warm, humid days. Finally 
where white clover has been grown indefi¬ 
nitely in the same fields the soil conditions 
may become deleterious. Microscopic pro¬ 
tozoa may multiply until they destroy a 




























































































190 


CLOVER 


large part of the beneficial bacteria, or the 
soil may become acid and require a liberal 
application of lime. Such land is said to 
be “clover-sick,” as explained at the be¬ 
ginning of the general article on Clover. 
Nearly all of northeastern Ohio and the 
major part of Pennsylvania show a de¬ 
ficiency of lime. This is also true of Mas¬ 
sachusetts where very little white clover 
honey is produced. The remedy, of course, 
is to apply lime as previously explained. 

In the same locality the surplus of honey 
stored from white clover varies greatly in 
different seasons and from day to day. At 
Clarinda, Page Co., Iowa, J. L. Strong 
carefully recorded from day to day for 29 
years, from 1885 to 1914, the weight of 
one hive and the weather conditions. 
White clover is the most important honey 
plant in this locality. An analysis of 
these statistics by L. A. Kenoyer (Bull. 
169, Iowa Agr. Exp. Sta.) gave the fol¬ 
lowing results: The largest amount of 
honey was brought into the hives on clear 
days. Of the entire gain in weight, 61 
per cent was made on clear days; 13 per 
cent on partly cloudy days; 13 per cent 
on cloudy days; and 13 per cent on rainy 
days. On a part of the rainy days there 
was practically no increase. In June 56 
per cent of the increase Was obtained, and 
in July about 22 per cent. The July flow 
was largely determined by that of June. 
The largest amount of honey, or 46 per 
cent, was secured on days when the tem¬ 
perature was between 80 and 90 degrees 
P. Of the total yield of honey 17 per 
cent was stored on days when the tempera¬ 
ture was less than 80 degrees, and 37 per 
cent when it was over 90 degrees. For the 
production of honey, days with a wide 
range of temperature are best. A good 
year is usually followed by a poor year. 
The average crop for 10 good years was 
136 pounds. The average crop for the 10 
years succeeding the best 10 years was 71 
pounds. A heavy snowfall in winter was 
favorable to a large yield the following 
summer. 

BEE PASTURAGE. 

There are no statistics, as in the case of 
alfalfa, giving the acreage of white clover 
in the different States of the Union. In¬ 
troduced from Europe it grows without 


cultivation over a large area in fields and 
pastures, in the vicinity of dwellings, and 
along the roads. In New England the 
coast lands, as the blueberry barrens of 
Maine and the sandy outwash plains of 
Massachusetts and Connecticut, are too 
acid for white clover; but it is abundant 
on the limestone soils of the eastern part 
of Aroostook County, Me.; in the Cham¬ 
plain Valley, Vt.; and in the Berkshire 
Valley, Mass. There is a large area of cal¬ 
careous glacial till soil in the northern part 
of the State of New York in St. Lawrence 
County. A small area of this soil is also 
found along the northern edge of Franklin 
County, and in the southern portion of 
Jefferson County it again occurs. White 
clover is here very reliable, and nowhere 
else in this country does it provide better 
bee pasturage. From Buffalo there ex¬ 
tends across the State nearly to the Hud¬ 
son River a belt of land 20 to 50 miles in 
width, extending northward along Lake 
Erie and southward among the l inger 
Lakes, covered with soils of glacial origin 
rich in lime. The clovers grow well thru- 
out this strip, and 'the secretion of nectar 
is dependable. South of this belt is the 
buckwheat region with neutral or acid soils 
on which the clovers do not prosper. In 
the southeast corner of Pennsylvania, “the 
garden of the State,” a productive lime¬ 
stone soil covers the larger part of York, 
Lancaster, Berks, and Chester counties. 
Dairy farming is one of the principal in¬ 
dustries and there is much alsike clover. 
Deep within the Appalachian Mountains, 
which occupy the central portion of the 
State, walled in by ridges 1,000 feet high, 
are many fertile valleys with limestone 
floors where all the clovers flourish. In 
western Pennsylvania the soils are more 
nearly neutral or acid and require lime. 

White clover as a honey plant is at its 
maximum in “the white clover belt,” whicli 
includes western Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, 
Michigan, Minnesota, and Iowa. But it is 
not equally abundant in all parts of these 
States, nor are the limits of the belt strict¬ 
ly defined by their boundary lines. In the 
opinion of Phillips “the best clover terri¬ 
tory in the United States is probably north¬ 
western Ohio, northeastern Indiana, Michi¬ 
gan, Wisconsin, and Minnesota, all of which 
are covered with a heavy deposit of glacial 


CLOVER 


drift, 10 to 1,000 feet deep. Of course there 
is an enormous variation depending' on the 
presence of outwashed plains, bogs, 
marshland, etc., but the moraines of the 
middle West constitute our best clover 
country.” In northwestern Ohio, Toledo 
claims to be the greatest clover seed mar¬ 
ket in the world, and nearly every farmer 
in this section is growing alsike clover for 
seed. Southern Ohio has an average an¬ 
nual summer temperature a little too high 
for the best results. In eastern Indiana 
the underlying rock is limestone, but in 
the southwestern portion the soils have a 
different origin and white clover is less 
common. In southern Michigan dairy 
farming is one of the principal industries, 
and is dependent on the great acreage of 
white clover and alsike clover which yield 
the surplus honey. In the Upper Penin¬ 
sula alsike clover is very abundant. On 
the fertile limestone soils of southern Min¬ 
nesota white clover supports a great num¬ 
ber of colonies of bees, and only rarely is 
there a failure in the crop. Thruout Iowa 
w 7 hite clover is reported to be the princi¬ 
pal source of honey. In many localities 
no other plant yields a surplus. In the 
eastern part of the State it is hardly reli¬ 
able more than two years in three, as it 
may winterkill or the season may be too 
wet or too dry. At Colo, the state center, 
there have been only four years in twenty- 
three, in which it was nearly a total fail¬ 
ure. In the western part of the State a 
fair average is an annual crop of 50 
pounds per colony. 

In no part of Illinois does white clover 
succeed so well as in the northeast corner, 
especially in Stephenson County. It yields 
less nectar in the southern half of the 
State than in the northern. Central Illi¬ 
nois is largely devoted to growing corn 
and oats. When white clover fails on the 
uplands along the Mississippi as the re¬ 
sult of dry weather a fall crop is gathered 
from Spanish needles and other fall flow¬ 
ers on the bottomlands. Northern Mis¬ 
souri is also largely devoted to growing the 
cereals and, owing to dry weather, a crop 
from white clover is obtained only about 
once in four years. The yield from fall 
flowers along the rivers is, however, usu¬ 
ally certain. The larger part of the soil¬ 
forming rocks of the Ozark Plateau in 


191 

southern Missouri is limestone; but as 
the soils are the oldest in the State and 
the land is generally hilly, much of the 
lime has been removed by leaching. White 
clover is only moderately valuablel, but 
the bee pasturage could be greatly im¬ 
proved by extensively planting sweet 
clover. 

Kentucky and Tennessee are too far 
south and the summer temperature is too 
high for white clover to be very important 
as a honey plant. The famous blue grass 
region of Kentucky, or Lexington Plain, 
is the section of the State best adapted to 
the growth of the clovers. It is a well- 
drained limestone area broken by many 
rounded hills and knobs. At Richmond a 
normal crop from white clover comes 
about once in five years, viz., 1897, 1902, 
1906, and 1910. White clover is not de¬ 
pendable in Tennessee. The climate per¬ 
haps shows as great fluctuations as that 
of any State in the Union. The limestone 
soils are favorable and when the weather 
is cool secretion is good. In the central 
valley around Nashville and in the eastern 
valley of the Tennessee River, which are 
limestone areas, white clover occasionally 
yields bountifully. At Springfield in 
Maury County, in 1913, 500 colonies in 
one apiary could not gather all the nectar 
available, but since then not more than a 
fourth of a crop has been obtained. Phil¬ 
lips roughly estimates that under good 
management tulip trees would year after 
year produce four times as much as white 
clover in this region. Unfortunately few. 
beekeepers are ready for the flow from 
tulip trees as they refuse to pack their 
bees in winter, and the climate owing to the 
frequent changes of temperature is harder 
on the colonies than that of Ohio. 

In New Jersey, Delaware, and Mary¬ 
land beekeeping is pursued chiefly as a 
sideline. White clover is valuable in 
northern New Jersey, but in Maryland it 
is not reliable. West of the Blue Ridge 
Mountains in Virginia is the Great Lime¬ 
stone Valley, which is 20 miles in width 
and extends from New York to Alabama. 
In the extreme southwestern section of 
Virginia and in eastern West Virginia 
there are a number of smaller limestone 
valleys in the mountains, where white 
clover is apparently a fair honey plant. 


192 


CLOVER 


Along the Ohio River in West Virginia 
it is fairly reliable, and in Gilmer County 
it is reported to make a luxuriant growth. 

Thruout the Coastal Plain from Virginia 
to Florida and Texas the pine barrens and 
swamps have largely acid soils, and the 
climate along the coast is subtropical. The 
leading hay crops in the cotton States are 
cowpeas and com fodder, and compara¬ 
tively few acres of alsike clover or red 
clover are harvested. In South Carolina, 
for example, only 375 acres of clover alone 
are grown. This is evidently a poor region 
for clovers of all kinds. In northeastern 
Texas, in northwestern Arkansas, and on 
the bottomlands of the rivers in the east¬ 
ern part of this State, white clover is re¬ 
ported to yield well; but it is possible 
that these reports are based largely on 
the presence of bloom rather than upon 
the amount of honey secured. In general 
white clover in the Gulf States is probably 
an unimportant honey plant; and, except 
to a limited extent in northern Alabama, 
there is no alsike clover under cultivation 
in this region. 

West of the Mississippi River (see Al¬ 
falfa, also The Honey Plants of North 
America) alfalfa is by far the most abun¬ 
dant and valuable honey plant. The acre¬ 
age of sweet clover is likewise rapidly in¬ 
creasing and promises a very valuable bee 
pasturage in the near future. I hruout 
the southern portion of this region it is 
too hot and too dry for the clovers. In 
Wyoming, Colorado, New Mexico, Utah, 
Nevada, Arizona, and Texas the area of 
clovers alone under cultivation is only 
3,480 acres. In the eastern portions of 
North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, 
and Kansas white clover is common, and 
is frequently reported as a source of hon¬ 
ey. In the river valleys of Montana both 
white and alsike clovers occur sparingly. 
White clover is abundant in northern Ida¬ 
ho, and in some localities, as Moscow, is 
reported to furnish the larger part of the 
surplus. West of the Cascade Range in 
Washington white clover is on the increase 
in the sections from which the timber has 
been cut;' but, according to Scullen, it 
probably secretes nectar less freely than 
in the Mississippi Valley. "White clover is 
also important in both Stevens and Pend 
Oreille counties in the' northWst corndr of 


the State. In Oregon, as in Washington, 
white clover is common west of the Cas¬ 
cades, but after July it dries up. Vine 
maple and willow-herb furnish most of 
the surplus. In northwestern Oregon there 
is a large'acreage of alsike clover. White 
clover is rapidly extending over the north¬ 
ern counties of California; and, as it is a 
dependable source of nectar here, this sec¬ 
tion will soon offer excellent locations for 
the production of honey. 

WHITE CLOVER, HOW PROPAGATED. 

There is no more important or interest¬ 
ing subject to the beekeepers of “the white 
clover belt” than the life history of white 
clover and its problems. The plant is 
propagated both by seeds and runners 
which I’oot at the nodes and finally become 
independent stocks. As in the case of the 
strawberry, a single plant may in a favor¬ 
able season cover with its runners a circle 
of ground two or three feet in diameter. 
If these new plants winter uninjured, 
they will bloom the following season in 
the same manner as strawberry runners. . 
The older plants, as is again true of the 
strawberry, exhausted by multiplying both 
sexually and vegetatively, are easily killed 
by drought or cold. When the ground is 
densely covered with an old growth there 
will be little opportunity for runners to 
root or seed to germinate. Consequently 
there may come years when there are few 
new plants to bloom. 

White clover seeded in the spring will 
produce, if there is sufficient rain, a heavy 
crop of bloom in July and a fair amount 
of seed. Much depends upon locality. 
Clover raised from seed is more valuable 
for nectar the second season than during 
the first. 

ALSIKE CLOVER (Trifolium In/bri- 
dum L.).—This species was called hybri- 
dum by Linnaeus since he supposed it to be 
a hybrid between white and red clover, but 
it is now believed to be a distinct species, 
It was named alsike clover from the parish 
of Alsike in Upland, Sweden, where it was 
first discovered and where it grows abun¬ 
dantly. It is now known as alsike or 
Swedish clover in Scotland, England, Den¬ 
mark, Germany, France, and America. It 
was introduced into England in 1834 and 
later into this country. It is a very hardy 


CLOVER 


193 


perennial plant adapted to cultivation in a 
cold climate. 

pollination. 

The branching leafy stems of alsike 
clover are from one to three feet long, 
erect or ascending, and rooting at the 
nodes like white clover. The small fra- 


aceessible to short-tongued insects. As the 
individual flowers are small only the head 
of the honeybee rests on the flower, from 
which it is sucking nectar, and comes in 
contact with the pollen. Few honey plants 
yield nectar in larger quantities. 

In relation to the pollination of alsike 
Dr. Ernest Kohn of Grover Hill, Ohio, 



Alsike clover. 


grant flowers are in heads and at first' point 
upward and are pink or reddish; but after 
pollination they bend downward and turn 
brown (see figure). The mechanism of the 
flower is the same as that of white clover. 
(See White Clover.) The nectar is se¬ 
creted inside of the staminate tube, and is 
7 


offers some remarkable testimony showing 
the value of bees: 

In the spring of 1918, while considering 
the location of an outyard, a farmer asked 
me to place some bees in his 40-acre alsike 
held. He had a relative who told him 
of the increase in yield due to the proximi¬ 
ty of bees- I placed 75 three-pound pack- 



194 


CLOVER 




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thrashing 


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IS 

£ 

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20 

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The circles show the location of the colonies. The numerators of the fractions represent the number of acres 
of alsike and the denominators the number of bushels threshed. 


ages in his field. His yield was three bush¬ 
els per acre. By inquiry I found that fields 
more than two miles from bees were not 
worth threshing that year. This farmer was 
well pleased, but insisted that there were 
not enough bees. As he had 40 acres for 
1919, and several of his neighbors had sown 
alsike, I placed 100 old colonies on his farm. 

I have made a complete survey of the 
township, and got all information possible 
from threshers and other sources, concerning 
about 80 square miles, giving the location 
of bees, with the number of colonies, and 
the location of alsike clover fields, with 
acreage and yield. 

The accompanying map shows in circles 
the location of bees, with the number of 
colonies. The numerator of the fractions 
represents the number of acres in alsike, 
and the denominator denotes the number of 
bushels threshed. 

The yield was not heavy at any place, as 
drought shortened nectar flow at least three 
weeks- It will be noticed, however, that 
near a large number of colonies the yield is 
three to four bushels per acre, while two 
miles or more from bees the yield is not 
more than one bushel per acre. 

The lesson of this article is interesting 
to the farmer as well as the apiarist. The 
farmers near the bees received more cash 
per acre from the seed than they did from 
any other crop produced, and at the same 
time they were storing fertility in their soil. 

Another lesson learned is that the major¬ 


ity of farmers are ‘ ‘ from Missouri ’ ’—they 
must be shown. Notice the number of al- 
sike fields near some of the bees, while mile 
after mile where there are no bees there is 
no alsike. I plead guilty to doing mission¬ 
ary work near my beevards. 

Grover Hill, O. Ernest Kolin. 

The experience of Dr. Kohn has been 
duplicated in many other localities where 
alsike is grown, particularly in Ontario, 
Canada. There the growers are asking bee¬ 
keepers to put bees on their farms. 

ALSIKE CLOVER AS A HONEY PLANT. 

Alsike clover is far more hardy than 
red clover and will grow on damp or wet 
land on which the latter will not grow. 
It is adapted to moist clay soils and sandy, 
loam soils rich in humus, but it will not 
thrive in dry sandy or gravelly land. Lime 
is essential but less is required than by 
either white or red clover. In Ontario. 
Canada, it is regarded as the foremost 
honey plant, and in many localities it is 
the only source of honey in quantities. 
Hundreds of acres are grown in this prov¬ 
ince exclusively for seed; but there is prob¬ 
ably no region in this country, in which it 
produces larger yields than in that of the 























CLOVEli 


195 


Great Lakes. From Michigan southward 
to Ohio there has been an immense increase 
in the acreage. Within 10 years it has 
been estimated that the area of alsike 
clover under cultivation has increased ten 
to twenty-fold. In perhaps one-half of 
the fields alsike is mixed with timothy, in 
one-quarter with red clover, and in the re¬ 
maining quarter alsike is grown by itself. 
In Michigan and some other States there 
would be no clover honey if it were not for 
alsike, since white clover has disappeared 
to a great extent. In the eastern States 
the culture of alsike has also spread very 
rapidly; for instance, in Lancaster County, 
Pa., about 10 years ago the hay crop con¬ 
sisted chiefly of alsike mixed with timothy; 
today three-fourths of the hay is alsike, as 
it is almost impossible to get a stand with 
red clover. Beekeeping is greatly benefited 
by the change, as there are practically no 
other honey plants of importance in this 
locality; and beekeepers declare that if the 
farmers should stop sowing alsike they 
would be compelled to stop keeping bees. 
Here the seed dealers are all encouraging 
the sale of alsike seed to the exclusion of 
that of red clover. In Kentucky and Ten¬ 
nessee it is highly prized for hay and pas¬ 
turage and its cultivation is steadily in¬ 
creasing. In Tennessee it is replacing red 
clover since there is a greater certainty of 
getting a good stand. While it will grow 
with less lime in the soil than red clover, 
it responds favorably to the addition of 
lime both in growth and in the secretion of 
nectar. In Virginia alsike is growing, too, 
in favor with the farmers. There it endures 
well adverse conditions of weather, and is 
so much better adapted for grazing pur¬ 
poses that it should be a constituent part 
of all grazing mixtures. In the West al¬ 
sike is very successful in the irrigated val¬ 
leys of the Rocky Mountains and in the 
regions of the Pacific Ocean. 

It is generally conceded that alsike clover 
yields nectar more freely, and is a more 
reliable honey plant than white clover. An 
acre of alsike has been estimated to be 
worth two or three of white clover, but 
this does not appear to hold true in all 
localities. The honey is so similar that it 
is doubtful if one can be distinguished 
from the other. It has been observed over 
and over again that apiaries in the imme¬ 


diate vicinity of alsike clover will yield 
more honey per colony than those having 
access to only white clover even in great 
abundance. A field of 20 acres of alsike 
will take care of 50 colonies of bees very 
well, provided it is supplemented by white 
clover in the vicinity. The period of bloom 
of alsike is also much longer than that of 
white clover, lasting when pastured nearly 
all summer. While alsike, as a rule, does 
not yield a heavy second crop, the late 
bloom is of great value. During the first 
year it seldom makes a heavy growth, not 
attaining its full luxuriance until the sec¬ 
ond and third year. 

The fact that alsike clover is replacing 
the red species in so many localities is of 
much importance to American beekeepers. 
Consider how many localities would be lit¬ 
erally transformed if red clover were re¬ 
placed by alsike. Beekeepers should take 
advantage of this steady movement in the 
right direction, and, in addition to preach¬ 
ing the gospel of sowing alsike, should 
offer to pay a part of the cost of the seed. 
At Medina, Ohio, it has been the practice 
for some years to furnish seed to farmers 
at half price provided that the fields, where 
it was sown, were within half a mile of one 
of the beeyards; while it has been sup¬ 
plied free to those who would sow it only 
a few rods away. As a result of this pol¬ 
icy the acreage within half a mile of the 
apiaries has been very greatly increased. 
The amount of clover honey obtained has 
become noticeably larger, and less feeding 
of sugar in the fall has been found neces¬ 
sary. After alsike has once been intro¬ 
duced it is self-sowing, and springs up 
where the other clovers fail to make a 
satisfactory growth. It is soon widely 
scattered thru the fields, improving the 
quality of the hay and increasing the 
quantity of honey. After a few years it 
will not be necessary to supply the seed 
free, for the farmers will have learned 
from experience that the crop is so valu¬ 
able that they will be willing to buy the 
seed for themselves. Care should be taken 
to ascertain that the land on which the 
seed is to be sown is suitable for the 
growth of this clover. The honey flow will 
be much prolonged if the alsike is sown 
with timothy or some other forage crop, 
since when sown alone it is often cut two 


CLOVER 


196 


weeks before other hay and before the lar¬ 
ger part of the nectar, which it is possible 
to obtain, has been gathered. 

THE CULTURE OF ALSIKE CLOVER. 

A loamy soil containing sufficient lime, 
phosphates, and vegetable matter or humus 
is best adapted to growing alsike clover. 
The ground should be thoroly ploughed, 
turning under carefully all weeas and 
grass. “The application of manures for 
the clover in any considerable amount is 
unnecessary. If clovers are grown on 
manures they will feed on the nitrogen in 
the manure; they will not draw from the 
air for that element. Growing clover on 
manures, therefore, is not the best econ¬ 
omy.” Moreover, the grasses, such as tim¬ 
othy and redtop, with which clover is usu¬ 
ally sown, will make a vigorous growth 
and crowd out the clover so that the hay 
will contain little of it. On eastern soils 
400 to 600 pounds of a fertilizer, contain¬ 
ing a moderate percentage of nitrogen and 
phosphoric acid but rich in potash, may 
be used. In the West less potash is needed. 
All the clovers require lime, but alsike will 
succeed with a less amount than the other 
cultivated species. The bacteria, which live 
on the roots and appropriate the nitrogen 
from the air, will die in an acid soil. The 
presence of sorrel indicates an acid condi¬ 
tion; or, if a piece of blue litmus paper 
placed in damp soil turns red, lime is re¬ 
quired. It may be applied in various 
forms, such as air-slacked lime or ground 
limestone; but the latter is advised as it 
is equally efficient and cheaper in price. 
From 2,000 to 4,000 pounds to the acre 
may be used to advantage. After the lime 
has been distributed by hand or a manure 
spreader, the soil should be thoroly har¬ 
rowed and leveled. 

SEEDING. 

Alsike clover may be seeded with the 
cereals, or with various kinds of grasses 
and fodder plants, or alone. As when 
fully grown it is liable to lodge and rot, it 
is advisable to sow with grass, as redtop or 
orchard grass on wet land, and timothy on 
drier land. When used with cereals, it 
may be sown either in the fall or early in 
the spring when the ground is soft and 
wet. Tt may be seeded with oats altho bar¬ 


ley is preferred, while with wheat it may 
prove an entire failure. If a heavy crop 
of grain is raised, the clover will suffer 
from want of water and a poor stand will 
be obtained. If the clover is the first con¬ 
sideration, the seeding of the nurse crop of 
grain must be very light. From three to 
four-fold as many pounds of clover can 
be obtained when it is sown alone as with 
oats. 

Alsike clover seed is about half the size 
of that of red clover, and it may be easily 
separated from the latter by means of a 
sieve with meshes of the proper size. It is 
desirable that the seed should be tested, as 
much inferior seed containing a great quan¬ 
tity of weed seed is placed on the market. 
When alsike is sown alone 12 to 16 pounds 
to the acre are recommended. If, however, 
it is sown with timothy or redtop, as ad¬ 
vised above, from 2 to 5 pounds of alsike, 
12 pounds of timothy, or 10 pounds of red- 
top, may be used. These numbers are only 
approximate and will vary according to 
conditions. Red clover is sometimes seeded 
with alsike, as it increases the crop the first 
year or two and disappears later. It is 
desirable that the seed should be lightly 
covered with a smoothing harrow. 

CURING ALSIKE FOR HAY. 

In curing alsike for hay great care 
should be taken to prevent the leaves and 
smaller stems, which contain the larger 
portion of the proteins, from being lost; 
and to protect it as much as possible from 
exposure to rain or dew, or to the sun. It 
should not be cut before it is in full bloom 
and the blossoms are beginning to turn 
brown; but, if permitted to stand too long, 
the stems will become woody. It. is usually 
cured in the windrow, avoiding any un¬ 
necessary exposure to the sun, which causes 
the leaves to bleach and become brittle. 11' 
raked into windrows, or bunched, or placed 
in the mow when wet with either dew or 
rain, it will be injured. It should never 
be stored in stacks outdoors, if this can be 
avoided. As a forage plant it is equal or 
superior to red clover or timothy, produc¬ 
ing a large flow of very rich milk. 

GATHERING THE SEED. 

The seed is always saved from the first 
crop of blossoms, and it should be allowed 


CLOVER 


197 


to stand about two weeks longer than when 
cut for hay. It should always be mowed 
either early in the morning, or late in the 
evening, when it is wet with dew, other¬ 
wise the riper pods with the best seed will 
fall off and be lost. After mowing it is 
turned once or twice and housed as soon 
as dry. It is thrashed with a elover-huller 
made expressly for clover seed, and then 
cleaned with a fanning mill with appro¬ 
priate sieves. In small quantities it may 
be more satisfactorily thrashed with the 
flail. Timothy seed is very nearly the 
same size and for its removal a fanning 
mill having a proper blast arrangement is 
required. As the alsike weighs 60 pounds 
to the bushel and timothy 45, there is no 
great difficulty in doing this effectually. 
On one estate in Sweden where 20 acres 
were set apart for raising the seed, the 
average annual production for five years 
was 133 pounds per acre, while the pro¬ 
duction one year was 200 pounds per acre. 

THE FUTURE OF ALSIKE CLOVER IN THE 
UNITED STATES. 

During the last few years a new condi¬ 
tion of things has arisen. More and more 
farmers who formerly grew red clover in a 
large way have found that their soil had 
become clover-sick—that is, deficient in 
lime to such an extent that they were 
forced to try some other crop. In some 
cases they have grown timothy; but the 
demand for this kind of hay is growing 
less and less because the automobile and 
farmers’ tractors are rapidly taking the 
place of horses. Timothy is well adapted 
for feeding horses. In the meantime diet¬ 
itians and the public' in general are begin¬ 
ning to learn the value of milk as a food, 
and especially milk as a restorative to those 
who have a weak digestion. Some sani¬ 
tariums are making a specialty of healing 
by the use of milk alone. In order to get 
plenty of milk, cows should be fed on a 
legume of some sort. Alsike, especially 
where the soil is deficient in lime, meets 
the situation. It costs only about half as 
much to seed a given acreage of ground 
with alsike as it does with red clover. 

Immediately following the period of the 
Great War help was scarce and high-priced. 
While the farmer knew that lime would 
restore his clover-sick soil, his lime cost 


money, and, moreover, it required extra 
help—help that he could not get—to put it 
on the land. As alsike readily grows on a 
soil deficient in lime the farmer put that 
into his ground, and, quite to his surprise, 
it made* rich and valuable hay for his 
cows; and, moreover, the farmer discov¬ 
ered that alsike hay would grow on land 
too wet or too dry for red clover. All of 
•these factors have made a marvelous in¬ 
crease in the use. of alsike clover over the 
clover regions of the United States. In 
some cases the red clover has almost disap¬ 
peared, and alsike has taken its place. In 
other instances the farmers have bought 
lime and put it on the land at the rate of 
two tons per acre. When thus applied 
they can grow red clover. But these cases 
were comparatively rare. 

There has been another powerful factor 
that has stimulated the use of alsike in 
place of red clover. The county agents, 
mentioned at the outset, have been urging 
the use of alsike in place of red clover 
where the farmer could not or would not 
lime his -soil. In some instances the county 
agent has been advocating a moderate 
amount of lime and seeding with alsike. 
The richer in lime, the better the growth 
of this valuable legume. 

The author believes, therefore, that al¬ 
sike, as well as the new annual sweet clover, 
will, to a great extent, in the future take 
the place of red clover. Both are invalu¬ 
able for dairy purposes; and as milk must 
be had in increasing quantities, especially 
during the hot weather, for babies, so al¬ 
sike and sweet clover will take the place of 
timothy and red clover. 

It is not necessary in a work of this 
kind to state that alsike is the greatest 
honey plant known to beekeepers east of 
the Mississippi River and north of the 
Ohio. Along with the demand for milk 
will come the demand for honey. In the 
language of the good Book, “Milk and 
honey shall he eat.” 

IS ALSIKE POISONOUS TO WHITE-NOSED 
HORSES ? 

Occasionally complaint is made that al¬ 
sike produces a form of skin disease in 
white-nosed horses. In reply Dr. J. Aiken- 
head says: “I have been practicing the 


198 


CLOVER 


veterinary profession since 1874—18 years 
in Ontario and since then in Maryland, and 
I have never seen a case of poisoning’ from 
alsike clover. I have been called to see 
many cases supposed to be the result of 
poisoning from alsike pasture fields, but- 
have had dozens of the same kind of cases 
on pastures that never had alsike clover on 
them. I have had many patients which, 
when'green food was cut for them, would 
eat the alsike clover first, showing that 
they preferred it to other kinds of grass. 

I find from my experience that alsike 
clover makes the best kind of pasture for 
all kinds of stock, and ranks next to al¬ 
falfa for bay.” 

RED CLOVER (Tri folium pratense L.). 
— Red clover is pollinated chiefly by bum¬ 
blebees, and is therefore called a bumblebee 
flower. This reciprocal relation will be 
made clear by a brief history of the intro¬ 
duction of red clover into New Zealand. 
There were neither bumblebees nor honey¬ 
bees in those islands at the time of their 
discovery; consequently, Avhen the,colonists 
attempted to grow this valuable fodder 
plant it failed to produce seed. To remedy 
this difficulty about 100 bumblebees, be¬ 
longing to three different species, were im¬ 
ported from Europe, and subsequently the 
red clover heads became fertile. It seems 
to have been supposed that any bumblebee 
would answer for this purpose, as one of 
the species brought from Europe was Bom- 
bus terrestris, which has too short a tongue, 
and has formed the habit of biting holes in 
the corolla tubes and robbing the flowers of 
their nectar without rendering any service 
in return. After the holes have once been 
made, other insects, which are themselves 
unable to puncture the corolla, use them to 
abstract the nectar. Thus, so far as the red 
clover is concerned, it would have been bet¬ 
ter if this bumblebee had never been 
brought to New Zealand. In the course of 
time this fact was learned by experience; 
and as recently as 1005 the New Zealand 
government wrote to an experiment station 
in Canada inquiring in regard to the bum¬ 
blebee useful in pollinating red clover in 
that country. As has been pointed out by 
Dr. Graenieher, two of the common and 
hardy bumblebees (Bombus americanorum 
and B. fervidus), which have tongues 14 


millimeters long, would be well adapted for 
this work. See Bumblebees. 

In a favorable season, when there is an 
abundant rainfall, and the flowers of the 
red clover are fully developed, a bee can 
not reach the nectar unless it has a tongue 
9 millimeters long. As the tongue of the 
Italian bee is only G 1 /^ millimeters in 
length, the nectar is then Avholly inacces¬ 
sible to it. This has been the cause of 
much regret among beekeepers, for these 
flowers not only secrete nectar very freely 
but the nectaries are much less influenced 
by weather conditions than those of many 
other plants. Repeated attempts have 
been made to develop a permanent strain 
of red clover bees; but all such attempts 
have proved unsuccessful. It is no easy 
matter to lengthen the tongue of the hon- 



Common red clover. 


eybee 2% millimeters. The production of 
a race of red clover with shorter corolla 
tubes has also received consideration. 

But the second crop of red clover usu¬ 
ally has shorter corolla tubes, and occasion¬ 
ally in very dry seasons the tubes are so 
short that large yields of honey are ob¬ 
tained. The late G. M. Doolittle said that 
two or three times in 30 years at Boro¬ 
dino, N. I ., red clover had been a very 
valuable source of honey; and that one 
year he obtained fully 60 pounds to the 
colony on the average. W. Z. Hutchinson 
stated that he remembered one year when 
his bees stored 500 pounds of pure red 
clover honey; as surplus, in the section 
honey-boxes. It was when the second crop 



Peavinc, or mammoth reel clover; life size, 








200 


CLOVER 


had been stunted by drouth. The blacks 
stored none of' the honey, the hybrids 
stored a little, but the bulk of the 500 
pounds was furnished by the pure Ital¬ 
ians. 

A remarkable illustration of the correla¬ 
tion existing’ between the weather and the 
length of the corolla tubes of the red clover 
was observed by the author in 1906. There 
was almost a drouth during’ the latter part 
of the season at the north beeyard, two 
miles north of Medina. Adjoining this 
yard were several fields of red clover, for 
the farmers were furnished with seed of 
red clover and alsike free of charge. Ow¬ 
ing to the dry weather the corolla tubes of 
the red clover heads were shorter than usual, 
and great numbers of bees were attracted 
by the nectar which was now within their 
reach. When one of the farmers began to 
cut his red clover that season there came 
near being a bad stinging-fracas; for when 
the cutter-knives of the mower went thru 
the field they stirred up the bees, with the 
result that they attacked the horses and 
the man on the mower. So greedily did 
the bees work on that field that it looked 
as tho they were not going’ to let anybody 
cut off their honey supply. Other farmers 
in the vicinity also had considerable trou- 
ble in cutting their red clover because the 
beads were so covered with bees. 

Singularly enough, at Medina, and the 
south beeyard, only two miles away, there 
was plenty of rain. When the author went 
over a big field of rank clover at the south 
yard, scarcely a bee could be found; while 
quite the reverse had been true the whole 
season on the fields at the north yard, where 
there had been a drouth. The clover at the 
home and south yard, by reason of the plen¬ 
tiful rains, had attained a rank growth. The 
corolla tubes were so long that the bees 
could not get any nectar from them, and 
consequently there were no bees on the 
heads. Thus two beekeepers living only 
two miles apart might have arrived at dia¬ 
metrically opposite conclusions as to the 
value of red clover as a honey plant. 

» \ 

PEAVINE OR MAMMOTH CLOVER 
(Trifolium pratense perenne ).—As the 
English name indicates, this is the largest 
variety of red clover. It blooms principal¬ 
ly in the months of August and Septem¬ 


ber. It is an excellent forage plant to 
plow under for the purpose of reclaiming 
an exhausted soil. The flowers have the 
same structure as those of red clover, and 
probably yield nectar under similar condi¬ 
tions. 

CRIMSON. CLOVER ( Trifolium incar- 
natum). —Other English names are Ital¬ 
ian clover and carnation clover. It is also 
called annual clover, since if sown in the 
fall it will form a stand before cold weath¬ 
er, remain green thruout the winter, start 
again very early in the spring, and mature 
its seed before summer. It grows wild in 
southern Europe and in a few more north¬ 
ern localities; and is. widely cultivated 
for forage in Italy, Germany, France, and 
Great Britain. It was introduced into 
this country about 1822,' and during the 
last 30 years has been extensively culti¬ 
vated in the sandy soils of the middle and 
southern States. In the northern States 
it is usually killed by the severe winters. 

In the southern States it is being intro¬ 
duced very extensively by the farm bu¬ 
reaus and by the extension men. But it 
can not be grown successfully unless the 
land is limed. When this is done it makes 
a very fine and valuable forage crop for 
cattle and horses, and an excellent bee pas¬ 
turage. It is being introduced very largely 
especially in North Carolina and South 
Carolina. 

CRIMSON CLOVER AS A HONEY PLANT. 

The sessile flowers are in oblong terminal 
heads 1 to 2 inches long. A field of crim¬ 
son clover in full bloom possesses great 
beauty, and passers-by often stop to gather 
and admire the flowers. It is difficult for 
one who has never seen an acre of crimson 
clover to comprehend the beautiful display 
presented by the broad expanse of deep 
red flowers mingled with the vivid green 
of the leaves. The structure of the flower 
is very similar to that of red clover. The 
corolla tube is 8 or more millimeters long: 
and, as in the case of red clover, is adapted 
to bumblebees, which are cofinnon visitors 
to this species. It is likewise much more 
productive when cross-pollinated than when 
self-pollinated. At Medina, Ohio, almost 
as many honeybees have been observed on 
the flowers as have been seen on buck- 


('LOVER 


201 



Crimson clover. 


wheat; and so eagerly did they seek the 
nectar that as fields in full bloom were 
ploughed under they still continued to fly 
over the land. In view of the length of 
the corolla tube it would seem to be impos¬ 


sible for honeybees to obtain all of the nec¬ 
tar under normal conditions. It is a special 
advantage that it blooms earlier than the 
other clovers, filling in the interval between 
the bloom of the orchards and that of white 



202 


CLOVER 


clover. The quality of the honey appears 
to be very similar to that of red clover. 

CULTURE OF CRIMSON CLOVER. 

Land should be selected for growing 
crimson clover that is well drained, has 
been previously cultivated and leveled, is 
fairly fertile, contains sufficient lime, and 
has been inoculated with the proper bac¬ 
teria. As the seedling's are tender and 
easily destroyed, it is a good plan to test 
the suitability of a locality by growing 
first a small experimental plat. At the 
time of seeding the soil should be well 
settled, fine, and in a moist condition. If 
crimson clover follows a crop, as potatoes, 
which has been well fertilized, the soil will 
probably be sufficiently fertile; but other¬ 
wise an application of barnyard manure 
or about 400 pounds of acid phosphate is 
desirable. If the soil is acid it should 
be limed as described for the other clovers. 
In sections where crimson clover has been 
grown previously, inoculation is usually not 
required, but in a new section it is gener¬ 
ally necessary. The beneficial effects of 
inoculation were very clearly shown by ex¬ 
periments performed at the Alabama State 
Agricultural Experiment Station. When 
the plants were inoculated 4,057 pounds 
of crimson clover were obtained, but in the 
absence of inoculation only 761 pounds. In 
another test the .inoculated plat yielded 
6,100 pounds of cured hay per acre, while 
the uninoeulated was a total failure. 

SEEDING. 

Crimson clover is usually seeded at the 
rate of 15 pounds to the acre, altho the 
quantity used may vary from 12 to 20 
pounds according to conditions. It may 
be broadcasted by hand or drilled in; but 
should not be covered deeper than one inch 
in sandy soil and half an inch in clay soil. 
Ten pounds of seed per acre, if every seed 
germinated, would produce 30 plants to the 
square foot; but in actual experience much 
of the seed fails to appear above ground. 
If seeded in early spring, blooming time 
comes during hot dry weather, which kills 
many of the young plants; sometimes, how¬ 
ever, an excellent crop is obtained if there 
is an abundance of rain and the tempera¬ 
ture continues moderate well into the sum¬ 
mer. South of the Ohio River crimson 


clover may be sown from August to Octo¬ 
ber, but north of this boundary it must be 
sown during July or August. It should be 
stated that in the northern part of the 
State of Ohio there have been many fail¬ 
ures. One of our standard writers on agri¬ 
culture says that thousands of dollars have 
been wasted by farmers in trying to grow 
crimson clover; yet at Medina, Ohio, four 
or five acres each year have been seeded 
with no failure. The reason for this suc¬ 
cess is largely that the ground is thoroly 
underdrained and highly enriched with 
barnyard manure. 

A fine stand of crimson clover has been 
obtained by seeding the land immediately 
after a crop of potatoes, which had been 
planted comparatively early, had been re¬ 
moved. Before sowing the clover the soil 
was worked with cutaway and Acme har¬ 
rows. Sown in August it wintered splen¬ 
didly, in September fairly well, but later- 
seeded plants were almost a total failure. 
But it is seldom grown alone, usually be¬ 
ing seeded with corn, wheat, rye or other 
grains, and with buckwheat, cow peas, tur¬ 
nips, truck crops, or cotton. When seeded 
with wheat, rye, or winter oats, both the 
clover and the grain may be cut at the 
same time the following spring; and a 
larger yield is thus obtained than if the 
clover were sown alone, and it is also 
prevented from lodging badly. A most 
luxuriant growth of wheat and clover has 
been obtained at Medina by April 25, the 
wheat acting as a mulch during the win¬ 
ter. 

SEEDING CRIMSON CLOVER AVITH 
BUCKWHEAT. 

Crimson clover may be grown in land 
lightly seeded Avith buckwheat or cow peas, 
these crops affording protection from the 
heat of the sun in midsummer. The buck- 
Avheat and clover come up together, but the 
buclvAvheat being the stronger grows more 
rapidly, and the clover makes but little 
showing until the buckwheat is harvested. 
Then the crimson clover during the cool 
moist Aveather of fall rapidly covers the 
ground. Should frost kill the buckwheat, 
the clover will rise above it in a very brief 
period; while the dead buckwheat straw 
makes an excellent mulch. The finest crop 
of crimson clover ever obtained at Medina 


COMB FOUNDATION 


203 


was sown in this way, and turned under 
the following June for planting potatoes. 

SEEDING CRIMSON CLOVER WITH CORN. 

Some of the best crops of crimson clover 
at Medina have been secured by broad¬ 
casting the seed among early corn at about 
the time of the last cultivation. A rotary 
seed-sower was used, the operator sitting 
on horseback in order that the top of the 
corn might not interfere with the distribu¬ 
tion of the seed. The horse’s ears should 
be covered with small bags to prevent the 
entrance of the flying seed. Probably half 
of the crimson clover raised in this coun¬ 
try is sown among corn. Westgate says: 
“It is usually possible to make such a seed¬ 
ing, obtain a good growth during the fall 
and early 'spring, and mature a crop of 
hay in time for breaking up the land for 
another crop of corn. South of the lati¬ 
tude of central Delaware it is even possi¬ 
ble to mature a crop of clover seed in time 
for corn-planting. In this way it is pos¬ 
sible to grow a crop of corn each year, and 
at the same time steadily increase the fer¬ 
tility of the soil for a series of years. 
Treated in this manner each succeeding 
crop of corn can ordinarily be materially 
increased. Instances are reported where 
the yield of com has been gradually in¬ 
creased by this means from 10 bushels per 
acre at the start until as high as 70 bushels 
per acre were secured.” 

PLOUGHING UNDER TO IMPROVE THE SOIL. 

It has been estimated by an experiment 
station that a good stand of crimson clover 
ploughed under while in bloom is equiva¬ 
lent to 10 tons per acre of the best stable 
manure. As it blooms so early, it may be 
ploughed under for most crops. It is also 
an excellent cover crop for orchards, and 
is a good green feed for poultry in win¬ 
ter. Were it not for the danger of win¬ 
terkilling, it would probably be much more 
widely cultivated. 

THE QUALITY OF CRIMSON CLOVER HONEY. 

The quality of the honey from crimson 
clover is said to rank fairly well with that 
of any other clover. In fact, the honey 
from any of the clovers is good. There is so 
little crimson clover grown, comparatively, 
that a strictly crimson clover honey is un¬ 
known in the market. What little is pro¬ 


duced is probably mixed with that of other 
clovers. In any case it would not impair 
the quality of the honey from any other 
source. 

On the culture of crimson clover see 
“Crimson Clover: Growing the Crop,” by 
J. M. Westgate, Farmers’ Bulletin 550. 

COLOR OF HONEY.— See Honey and 
its Color. 

COMB FOUNDATION.— The invention 
of the movable frame by Langstroth; the 
honey-extractor by Hruschka; the bellows 
smoker by Quinby, and last, but not least, 
comb foundation by Mehring, made it pos¬ 
sible. to keep bees on a commercial scale 
never b* fore attempted. 

Comb foundation is just what its name 
signifies. It is the base, midrib, or foun-. 
dation of honeycomb without the super¬ 
structure of the cells. If a piece of comb 
be taken and sliced down on both sides 
nearly to the bottom of the cells, there 
will be found the foundation of the comb, 
with initial cell walls, and hence the name. 
The comb foundation of commerce is much 
the same thing except that it is artificial, 
made of pure beeswax, with walls enough 
heavier so that the bees can use the sur¬ 
plus in drawing out and extending the 
cells into completed comb. 

Comb foundation is made by pass'ng a 
thin sheet , of pure beeswax between a set 
of rolls or dies, the surfaces of which have 
been stamped or engraved in such a way as 
to give the imprint of the natural base of 
the honeycomb itself. The invention or 
discovery, rather, lay in the fact that the 
bees would utilize this article made by 
man, and change it into perfect comb in¬ 
side of 24 or 48 hours when honey is com¬ 
ing in at a good rate. 

THE HISTORY OF THE INVENTION OF COMB 
FOUNDATION. 

To J. Mehring of Frankenthal, Ger¬ 
many. is accorded the credit of having in¬ 
vented comb foundation in 1857: but his 
product Avas very crude, having only the 
indentation of the bottoms of the cells 
with no cell Avails. In 1861 Samuel Wag¬ 
ner, the first editor of the American Bee 
Journal, improved the foundation of 
Mehring by adding shallow cell walls. 
This, besides giving the bees wax to build 


204 


COMB FOUNDATION 


the cells, also strengthened the sheet itself. 
Up to this time the article had been made 
between engraved flat metal plates; but 
Wagner was the first to conceive the idea 
of turning out the product between a pair 
of suitably engraved or stamped rolls op¬ 
erated on the principle of a mangle or a 
common laundry wringer. But, evidently, 
be never developed the principle. 

FOUNDATION-ROLLS. 

Tn 1866 the King brothers of New York, 
and in 1874 Frederic Weiss, made founda¬ 
tion-rolls ; but, apparently, the product 
that they turned out from these rolls was 
very crude. It was not until 1875 that A. I. 


« 



Original Washburn foundation-mill. 


Root, in collaboration with a friend of his, 
A. Washburn, a fine mechanic, brought out 
a machine on the mangle principle that 
turned out sheets good enough and rapidly 
enough to be of commercial importance. 
This old original Washburn machine was 
so nearly perfect that its product was the 
equal of that from any cut mill made on a 
similar pattern today. 

About this time, also, or perhaps a little 
later, Frances Dunham and J. Vandevort 
of New York built rolls that turned out an 
excellent product. About the same time 
J. E. Yan Deusen, also of New York, built 
a machine that made foundation having flat 
bases, and incorporated in it fine wires. 
While the flat bases were not natural, of 
course, yet the purpose was to get a thinner 
base and to use wire. The bees, it is true, 
would reconstruct the bases, but they ap¬ 
parently did not take to flat-bottomed 
foundation as well as to the article having 
natural bases, and it subsequently disap¬ 


peared from the market. In later years 
Charles Olilm of Wisconsin built a ma¬ 
chine for engraving rolls with angle bases 
by the use of cutting-knives or gravers. 

Early in 1900 E. B. Weed, the man who 
developed what is known as the “Weed 
process” foundation, worked out a plan 
for making rolls using metal type, cast at 
a type-foundry, and of the same metal 
that is used in printers’ type. This orig¬ 
inal machine developed some defects that 
were not easy to overcome. Final!v in 
1918-1919 H. C. Blanchard and 11. H. 
Root worked out the problem, so that it is 
now possible to make a comb foundation 
by using die-cast faces that are a perfect 
duplicate of the bottom of natural comb. 
The new foundation, including a method 
of refining, is sold under the trade name 
of Airco. 


It was not possible, by using cutting 
knives, to engrave rolls so as to give the 
exact natural base; but it was possible to 
make a steel die perfect in all respects, 
and from this to cast 
hard-metal type that 
would give for the first 
time in the world’s history 
a comb foundation having 
a base with the same an¬ 
gles and nearly as thin as 
in natural comb. The dia¬ 
gram accompanying will 
explain more exactly. The 
old engraved or cut face 
on soft metal is shown in 
the heavy black line 
marked B. The new one 
is shown by the light line 

, , Drawing illustrat- 

with the sharper angles— ing the difference 

a difference of 20 degrees. ]? etw f e f. tlle , Airc ° 

° . foundation A, and 
Until 1919 no foundation the old founds- 
i ,i i i tion, B. The lat- 

eA ei ptlt OB tile mai ket tor has the thick- 

had a base that the bees er b , ase > the flatter 

angle, and the 
cud not have to modify, unavoidable d i s- 

requiring, of course, the 
outlay of a good deal of physical energy on 
the part of the bees, to say nothing of the 
time consumed in reconstructing the base. 



As a matter of fact, the bees after a 
fashion worked over a flat-bottomed foun¬ 
dation of years ago, as was previously 
explained. The old foundation from 
the engraved rolls was not accurate, be- 












COMB FOUNDATION 


205 


cause, it was impossible to cut or engrave 
tl>e die faces on a soft metal having a 
curved surface that would be as symmetri¬ 
cal and accurate as the bees make them and 


troublesome in the old cut mill. The dis¬ 
tortion of the base on the old soft metal 
would very quickly become greater; and 
so after a very short time the foundation. 



A plaster cast, cross section view of the old comb foundation showing the flat angle 
of 140°. At the right the bees have built this same, foundation into comb, thinning the 
base and changing the cross section angle to 120° 


at the same time hold their shape. A 
metal that is soft enough to cut or stamp 
will wear rapidly, and at the same time 
flatten out so that the angles will become 
still more at variance with those of nat- 


never perfect at the start, becomes less and 
less suited to the requirements of the 
bees. 

Comparative tests in the hive show that 
the bees appreciate having foundation that 


Plaster casts of (1) natural comb, 
(2) Airco comb foundation, (3) Airco 
comb foundation with one end drawn 
out by the bees into comb. Notice that 
the pencil lines drawn thru the various 
bases are all parallel, showing, there¬ 
fore, that the angles are the same in , 
all three or the angle as the bees make 
it. 



two pieces of comb founda¬ 
tion imbedded in plaster of 
Paris. After it had hard¬ 
ened a cross section was 
made. 




ural comb. By using’ a cast-type face, 
made of a metal so hard that it could be 
neither cut nor stamped, it is possible to 
get away from the wear and crushing so 



AU this foundation was refined by the AIRCO 
process, but only two pieces, the two the bees ac¬ 
cepted first, were milled on AIRCO mills This 
shows the bees’ preference for the natural base. 


they do not have to modify. In making 
these tests, strips of foundation, old milling 
and new, were put'side by side in the same 
frame in the center of a strong colony. It 
was apparent that the bees in most cases 



' The AIRCO comb foundation (AIRCO milling. 
AIRCO refining) compared with foundation milled 
and refined by the old process. The bees’ prefer¬ 
ence, as might he expected, is unmistakable. 















206 


COMB FOUNDATION 


would draw out the new or natural-base 
foundation much more readily than a 
foundation which had flattened or distorted 
angles, as shown in the diagram at B. 

FLAT-PLATE FOUNDATION-MACHINES. 

About the time that the Root-Wasliburn 
comb-foundation rolls were being devel¬ 
oped, the Given press using' flat die-plates 
was brought out. Some few preferred the 
product from that machine because, as they 
said, the foundation could be made right 
on the wires of a frame, and because the 
bees could work the wax a little more 
readily. The reason for this was that no 
press at that time (in the early 80’s) had 
been made that could exert as great a 
pressure as that given by a pair of rolls; 
and the result was, there was a large waste 
of wax in the bases. The foundation made 
good combs, and the bees worked it read¬ 



ily; but the. individual sheets were too ex¬ 
pensive as compared with -the product 
turned out on rolls by the manufacturers, 
and so the Given press disappeared from 
the market. 

In the early 80’s various flat-plate ma¬ 
chines were brought out. Among the num¬ 


ber was one using flat dies made of plaster 
of Paris. By taking a perfect sheet of 
comb foundation it was possible to take off 
molds in plaster. But these molds would 
not stand pressure, and therefore it was 
necessary to pour melted wax over them 



Standard comb foundation-rolls. 


and close the dies. As soon as the wax 
cooled, the dies were opened and the sheet 
removed. But difficulty was experienced in 
getting this cast foundation (for that is 
just what it was) from the plaster molds. 
About this time, also, electrotype plates 
were taken off from a perfect sheet of 
foundation—a process that was compara¬ 
tively simple, and one that any electrotype 
founder could readily carry thru. Various 
patterns of these copper-faced machines, 
including the Given, appeared on the mar¬ 
ket; but the only one that survived at the 
time was the Rietsche press, made in Ger¬ 
many. A good many thousands of these 
were sold in Europe; but the objection to 
it was the waste of wax left in the cell 
bases. None of the Rietsche presses have 
been sold in the United States. 

In 1921 The A. I. Root Company built 
a flat plate press for making a wood base 
foundation that at this writing (July, 
1921) promises to be a success. This will 
be referred to more specifically a little far¬ 
ther on under Wiring Frames. 

WEED SHEETED FOUNDATION. 

Up till 1895, practically all the sheeted 
wax used in making comb foundation was 
made by dipping a thin board into melted 
wax and then into cold water. Two sheets 
of wax of the size of the dipping board 
were thus produced. The thickness of the 
sheet was regulated by the number of dip¬ 
pings. For thin foundation a single dip 





















COMB FOUNDATION 


207 


was sufficient; for brood foundation, two 
or three dips were required. But the ob¬ 
jection to this was that the Avax sheet 
was thicker at the bottom than at the top. 
This was overcome somewhat by reversing 
the ends of the board when dipping. 

Many efforts had been made to produce 
wax sheets in continuous rolls; but it was 
not till 1895 that E. B. Weed built a wax- 
sheeting machine that would turn out wax 
sheets any length desired, and of an ab¬ 
solutely uniform thickness. The quality 
and quantity of this product Avere such that 
every manufacturer of comb foundation in 
the world, with one or tAVO exceptions, has 
abandoned the old sheeting methods and 
adopted the Weed process. Probably 95 
per cent of all the comb foundation made 
in the United States turned out by manu¬ 
facturers is first sheeted on the Weed ma¬ 
chine and then put thru embossing rolls 
generally called “comb-foundation ma¬ 
chines.” 

FOUNDATION MADE BY LARGE FACTORIES. 

The art of making foundation is very 
complicated, and its manufacture has now 
gravitated into the hands of the large sup¬ 
ply manufacturers Avho are able to turn out 
a product Avhieh for quality and thinness 
of base is far superior to that made by in¬ 
dividual beekeepers. It is a trade in itself 
to make foundation having thin bases, be¬ 
cause an average beekeeper does not pos¬ 
sess the requisite skill to make foundation 
Avithout Avasting wax and ruining the deli¬ 
cate die faces of the comb-foundation 
rolls. 

Great improvements have been made in 
refining wax. by which the use of all acids 
is eliminated. The result of the new treat¬ 
ment is to retain the natural aroma of vir¬ 
gin wax, and at the same time make it 
more dense and ductile for the bees. 

AVHAT FOUNDATION HAS ACCOMPLISHED. 

Before the economic uses of comb foun¬ 
dation as noAV employed in modern api¬ 
culture are discussed, it is proper to make 
a statement of what can be accomplished 
by the use of the invention. Its introduc¬ 
tion has solved many difficult problems of 
the earlier days. Our forefathers had dif¬ 
ficulty, for example, in getting the bees to 
build combs straight and all Avorker cells. 


Before this invention, drones Avere reared 
in enormous numbers because there was so 
much drone comb. In modem apiculture 
only a very few, and those the most select 
for breeding, are reared. By the use of all- 
Avorker foundation there will be but very 
feAv drones in a hive. The rearing of so 
many useless consumers not only involved 
a serious drain on the resources of the col¬ 
ony, but it took the labor of the nurse bees. 
The elimination of drones by the use of 
•comb foundation materially increases the 
Avorker force in a colony, and this has made 
it possible to increase the actual yield of 
honey per colony proportionally. See 
Brood and Brood-rearing and Drones. 

Mention is made of the fact that our 
forefathers were unable to secure straight 
combs in their movable frames. The combs, 
besides having an excess of drone-cells, 
Avere more or less Avavy, and it Avas not a 
little difficult to get the bees to build their 
product on a straight line and parallel 
Avith and directly underneath the top-bar • 
of the frame. (See Frames, also Combs.) 
Y-shaped comb-guides, or narroAv strips of 
Avood, the edges of which projected down¬ 
ward, Avere used as a eoaxer to get the bees 
to build their combs parallel with the top- 
bar. But every now and then they would 
build them crosSAvise, zigzagwise, and 
every other Avise except the right way. The 
use of even a narrow strip of foundation 
compels the bees to start the comb on a 
center medial line beneath the top-bar of 
the frame; and Avhen a, full sheet is used, 
the comb built from it is not only true and 
straight, but it aa’ ill be all Avorker, as before 
explained. 

THE EVOLUTION OF THE SECTION HONEY BOX. 

The old box hive of our fathers con¬ 
tained combs built (irregularly in small 
boxes holding from five to ten pounds, the 
ends of these boxes being glassed. But 
such a package Avas too large for retail 
purposes. The time came when there Avas 
a demand for a small package, or one 
holding about a pound. Comb foundation 
made it possible for the beekeeper to com¬ 
pel his bees to build combs straight and 
even in little boxes holding approximately 
a pound. Without comb foundation, comb 
honey in sections would be impossible; 
and therefore the invention of foundation 


208 


COMB FOUNDATION 


paved the way for the one-pound honey 
section box that sprang into use shortly 
after comb foundation was introduced on 
a commercial scale. See Comb Honey. 

FOUNDATION AND ITS ECONOMIC USES. 

Comb foundation may be divided into 
two general classes: That designed for the 
brood-chamber and that for the supers, or 
where the surplus honey is stored. Each of 
these general classes is subdivided still fur¬ 
ther, viz., “thin super,” running 10 to 11 
square feet to the pound; “extra thin,” 12 


Heavy and medium brood. Light brood. 


Thin super. Extra thin super. 

to 18 for the supers or sections: “light 
brood,” used only in the brood-nest, run¬ 
ning 8 to 9 feet; “medium brood,” for the 
brood-nest, 7 to 8 feet. Thin super is 
generally used for sections, and light brood 
for the brood-frames. 

The four illustrations used above repre¬ 
sent the different grades. The medium has 
been used for the brood-nest, because of 
its tendency to resist sag while the bees 
are drawing it out into comb; stronger, 
because there is more wax in the corners 
of the hexagons. It has been found that 
bees will utilize all the wax in the walls, 
and draw it out into cells. The more wax 
that can be given to them in the wall, the 
quicker they will draw it out into comb. 
The objection to the medium brood is the 
expense. 

WHAT WEIGHT OF FOUNDATION TO USE. 

The light brood is now generally used 
for the brood-nest where frames are wired. 
As will be seen by comparison of illustra¬ 


tions, there is less of wax in the wall and 
less strength to the sheet. On this account 
it is not recommended that light brood 
foundation be put into brood-frames that 
are not wired, yet it is advisable that all 
brood-frames be wired. The thin super 
has lighter walls still than the light brood: 
and the extra thin super lighter walls still 
and a thinner base. Both of these are for 
use in sectional honey boxes. 

The ordinary thin super is generally 
preferred because the bees are less in¬ 
clined to gnaw it down; and when they do 
begin work on it they draw it out more 
readily. The extra thin is preferred by 
some, when full sheets are used, because it 
is believed it makes less midrib. 

It was formerly supposed that the heav¬ 
ier grades of foundation used in sections 
would cause the bees to build too heavy a 
midrib in the combs; that such heavy mid¬ 
rib would be very objectionable to the con¬ 
sumer, in that it would give rise again to 
the stories about manufactured comb 
honey. (See Comb Honey.) But late ex¬ 
perience seems to indicate that the bees 
will generally thin down the heavier grades, 
and, what is more, will accept the founda¬ 
tion much more readily than the extra 
thin grades. But the real objection to 
heavy foundation is the expense. 

Owing to the tendency of foundation to 
cause midrib in comb honey, some think 
that using a starter would remove the ob¬ 
jectionable feature. They argue that near¬ 
ly all the comb would have to be natural, 
and it would, therefore, be delicate and 
friable like the old comb honey on the 
farm. But it has been shown that in a 
majority of cases, the natural-built comb 
will be composed of store or drone cells, 
the bees being able to build these larger, 
heavier cells more readily. Some recent 
tests seem to show that natural-built drone 
comb has as much or more wax to the 
cubic inch than worker comb built from 
full sheets of thin worker foundation. If 
the bees, on the other hand, would make 
their natural comb all worker, the result¬ 
ant comb for ddicacy and friableness 
would be all that could be desired. Drone- 
comb cappings do not have nearly the 
pleasing appearance of worker. If for no 
other reason, full sheets of worker foun¬ 
dation should be used. 















COMB FOUNDATION 


209 


MEANS FOR SUPPORTING FULL SHEETS IN 
BROOD-FRAMES. 

With ordinary brood-frames at least, or 
shallow extractmg-frames, it is quite im¬ 
portant to use some sort of support for the 
foundation; and-unless these supports are 
used, the wax stretches in drawing out into 
comb. What is of still more importance, 
the finished comb will have no stability in 
the frame. When colonies are hauled over 
rough roads to out-apiaries the frames get 
some severe jolts. The super combs also 
receive more or less rough handling at ex¬ 
tracting time. They are often shaken to 
remove the bees, and in the extractor are 
subjected to severe centrifugal force which 
throws the honey out of the cells. On ac¬ 
count of all this it is very important to 
have the comb when drawn from the foun¬ 
dation held by means of wires of a fine 
gauge, these wires being strung across the 
frames before the foundation is inserted. 

VALUE OF WIRING BROOD-FRAMES. 

Some beekeepers secure the foundation 
to the top-bar without using any stays or 
wires to hold the sheet in place; but the 
great majority seem to prefer to have all 
their frames wired—that is to say, strands 
of No. 28 wire stretched vertically, hori¬ 
zontally, or both, across the frame; these 



Method of drawing the wire preparatory to fastening. 

are then imbedded into a sheet of founda¬ 
tion which fills the frame. The combs, 
when drawn from the foundation, will be 
better anchored to stand the rough 
usage of the extractor, and to stand ship¬ 
ment when colonies are sent by express or 
freight or hauled over rough roads to out- 
yards. 

Most beekeepers say that the expense of 
the wiring is so slight in comparison with 
the great benefits secured that they could 
not think of dispensing with it; and, what 


is of considerable importance, during the 
process of drawing out the foundation the 
wires tend to reduce materially the stretch¬ 
ing of the wax. 

There has been almost endless discus¬ 
sion in the bee journals on how to prevent 
foundation, from stretching or sagging in 
brood-frames while being drawn out. 
When the bees build combs from it there is 
a slight expansion of the sheet horizon¬ 
tally and vertically. The greatest stretch¬ 
ing, however, occurs after the comb is fulIn¬ 
drawn during hot weather and when the 
cells are filled with honey. This stretching 
or elongation of the cells vertically causes 
that portion of the comb for two or three 
•inches beneath the top-bar to be slightly 
distorted. Instead of being exactly hexa¬ 



gonal the two \ertical sides of the cells 
will be elongated, making the cell deeper 
than wide. The diagram will show what 
occurs. The stretched cells the queen will 
avoid for egg-laying. The result will he 
no brood nearer than two inches of the top- 
bar unless the foundation is properly 
braced. The space above where the dis¬ 
torted cells are, is filled with honey—in a 
few instances with drone brood. But this 
rarely occurs, for the reason that these cells 
are neither drone nor worker, and conse¬ 
quently the queen avoids them, and the 
workers fill them with honey. 

The result of this stretching or distor¬ 
tion of the cells is to reduce the brood 
capacity of the hive, either eight or ten 
frame Langstroth, by about 20 per cent. 
As a single brood-chamber ten-frame 
Langstroth is not large enough to accom¬ 
modate the average good queen in the 
height of the breeding season, even if all 
the cells of the frames were occupied by 
the queen, it will lie seen that this distor¬ 
tion or stretching makes its capacity just 
that much shorter still. Obviously it is 
impossible for the average beekeeper, own¬ 
ing hundreds and perhaps thousands of 
these hives, to enlarge their capacity with¬ 
out going to great expense. But, fortun- 











210 


COMB FOUNDATION 


ately, it is- possible for him to increase the 
capacity of his broocl-frames for holding 
brood by approximately 20 per cent by so 
staying or supporting the foundation (and, 
later on, the comb) so that it can not sag. 
This is accomplished by the use of full 
sheets of worker foundation wired in such 
a manner that stretching, either vertically 
or horizontally, is made impossible. 

HOW TO WIRE FRAMES. 

Almost every beekeeper has his own 
particular method which he considers much 
better than the other fellow’s. The result 
is that hundreds of different schemes have 
been shown in the bee journals, some of 
which are good, some of which are good 
but too expensive, some of which are bad, 
and some of which are not only poor but 
expensive. 

In the early 80’s, A. I. Root, in order 
to prevent stretching in all directions, used 
a series of vertical wires passing thru 
holes in the top and bottom bars, then 
two diagonal wires reaching from the two 
upper corners of the frame down to the 
middle of the bottom-bar. A metal bar 
reaching from this point to the top was 
then used to support the center of the top- 
bar, which Avas *4 inch thick and % wide. 
The completed frame is shown in the illus¬ 



tration. This plan of wiring gave excel¬ 
lent results and solid frames of brood go¬ 
ing clear to the top-bar. The objection 
to the method Avas the expense- and the ten¬ 
dency of the bees to leave a ridge next to 
the metal support on the middle. Many 
used these frames without any Avires what¬ 
ever. The top-bar would sag, and, worse 
than all, burr and brace combs would be 
built. See Frames, subhead thick-top 
FRAMES. 

Along in the ’90’s the whole beekeeping 
Avorld, in order to avoid burr and brace 
combs (see Frames), Avent over to a frame 
having a thick top-bar which, of course, 
could not sag. This made it impracticable 


to wire frames on the vertical plan. Hori¬ 
zontal Avires were then used, passing thru 
holes pierced in the end-bars, four holes 



Fig. 1.—This will prevent the sagging of the foun¬ 
dation, hut is altogether too expensive and compli¬ 
cated. It would not permit of electrical imbedding. 


to the end-bar. This method Avas generally 
used by most beekeepers, and continued on 
until 1918 and ’19, when it Avas discovered 
almost all at once that it did not prevent 
the elongation or distortion of the cells 






\ 



-- \ 


/ 




FIG.2 

/ \ 



Fig 2. — This will prevent sagging, but is too com¬ 
plicated. and will not admit of electrical imbedding. 

two or three inches below the top-bar. At¬ 
tention was directed to the fact that some 
beekeepers in California were using a 
combination of the four horizontal and 
diagonal Avires in a manner that would pre- 



Fig. 3.—The old-style horizontal wiring that was 
used for a good many years. It made nice beauti¬ 
ful combs, but did not prevent the distortion of the 
cells within two inches of the top-bar. 

































































COMB FOUNDATION 


211 


vent the stretching of the cells and allow 
the brood to extend clear up to the top-bar. 
This matter was presented thru the col¬ 
umns of Gleanings in Bee Culture in 1911), 



Fig. 4.—This is the same as No. 3, except that 
double wires are used. The sheet of foundation 
should be placed between the two sets of wires. Like 
No. 3 it will not prevent sagging near the top-bar. 

with the result that the whole beekeeping' 
world seemed to wake up to the fact that 
the breeding capacity of a Langstroth hive 
could be increased at a very slight expense. 


the most practicable plan seems to be to 
use four horizontal wires, and then diag¬ 
onal wires reaching from the two bottom 
holes and passing either up over the top 



Fig. 7. — This will preveilt sagging, but is too 
complicated, and does not permit of electrical im¬ 
bedding. 

of the top wire, or, better still, running up 
to the top-bar, at which point it is held by 
a staple or nail. See Figs. 7, 9, 10, 12, 13, 
14, and 15. It is very important, as will be 
shown later, to have the sheet of foundation 



Fig. 5.—This is very good. It will prevent sag¬ 
ging of the foundation, but will not permit () f elec¬ 
trical imbedding because the wires intersect at 9. 




? ' 





r 

< 

; 



1 



£ 




FIG.8 

r 






Fig. 8.—This plan is the same as No. 3 except that 
nails are driven in the end-bars as indicated. This 
prevents the wires from cutting into the wood. 


Hundreds of different schemes for wiring 
were then sent in, some of which were 
good, but most of them either poor or ex- 


placed between the four horizontal wires 
on the one side and the two diagonal wires 
on the other. Where both diagonal and 



Fig. 6.—This is faulty, like No. 5, and is more 
difficult to accomplish. 


pensive. For the benefit of those readers 
who have not seen this discussion it has 
been thought best to reproduce a number 
of the plans that were described, pointing 
out, by the legends beneath, the bad and 
good features of all of them. 

In a general way it should be stated that 



Fig. 9.—This is one of the best of any of the 
plans shown. The sheet of foundation should be 
placed between the diagonal and the four horizon¬ 
tal wires, when imbedding with electricity can be 
accomplished. It effectually prevents sagging of 
the foundation, but is not quite equal to the plans 
shown in Figs. 14 and 15. 


horizontal wires are on one side of the 
sheet it is impossible to use electricity for 
imbedding, on account of the “short cir¬ 
cuits” caused by the intersecting of the 
wires. These short circuits cause some of 

































































































































212 


COMB FOUNDATION 


the wires to become red-hot, while some of 
them will hardly be warm. By placing, the 
sheet between the two sets of wires, the 
intersecting wires are insulated so that the 



Fig. 10.—This is the same as Fig. 9. but it re¬ 
quires an extra hole thru the top-bar. It is, there¬ 
fore, unnecessary. 


electric current can be passed thru both 
the horizontal and diagonal wires all at 
the same time, all of them having the 



that brood in combs wired this way would go clear 
to the top-bar. Because of the difficulty of electric¬ 
ally imbedding on account of the wires’ intersecting 
at the tops, Nos. 14 and 15 are recommended in¬ 
stead. 


right imbedding temperature. The plan 
that the publishers finally adopted is the 
one shown in Figs. 15 and 16, the end-bar 



Fig- 12.—This is very good, but not as simple as 
Fig. 9. and is defective in that it will not allow 
electrical wiring. 

having four holes pierced in the regular 
way. At the bottom of each end-bar is a 
shallow saw-cut, which, when the bottom- 
bar is nailed in place, makes an additional 
hole. The wire is first passed thru the 
two saw-cuts next to the bottomdoar at 1 


and 2, Fig. 15. Then it is threaded back 
and forth thru the holes 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 
and 10 successively until the last hole is 
reached. The slack is taken out when the 



1'i.g. 13.—This plan is good, but it requires two 
extra holes in the bottom-bar. 


wire is fastened at the last hole. The 
wire passing thru the saw-cuts is made 
slack, as will be explained later. 



Fig. 14.—This and No. 15 are the plans that the 
author recommends more than any of the other 
plans here shown. 

Jt is easier to do wiring with the frame 
upside down, resting it -on a slanting 
board. The wires in place, a full sheet of 
foundation is now laid on them, after 



Fig. 15. — This is the same as Fig. 14, except that 
it uses two tacks or nails for the top support in¬ 
stead of one. Both 14 and 15 permit of electrical 
imbedding provided the directions are followed. 

which the slack wire next to the bottom- 
bar, which passes thru the two saw-cuts in 
the end-bars, is drawn down over the 
sheet of foundation, and hooked over two 
nailheads, A and B, Fig. 15, driven in the 
top-bar. 






























































































































COMB FOUNDATION 


213 


If the work has been done right the 
sheet of foundation will be under the two 
diagonal wires and over the four horizon¬ 
tal wires. After the wire has been hooked 
over the nail-heads the remaining slack is 
taken up and fastened by winding it 
around the other tack. This is driven 
home, after which the two nails in the top- 
bar are driven down. The foundation is 
secured to the top-bar by one of the wedge- 
shaped strips described further on. 



The two diagonals, while on one side of 
the sheet, and the four horizontals, can all 
be imbedded by electricity at one operation 
in one circuit, as will be explained further 
on. 



in the center of the bottom-bar. The wire 
is then passed thru slot No. 1 in the end- 
bar, thru the before-mentioned staple, C, 
and then on thru Nos. 3, 4, etc. The 
strand next to the bottom-bar is grasped 
on each side of the staple, and hooked over 


tacks A and B in the top-bar as shown op¬ 
posite. This plan stiffens the comb next 
to the bottom-bar, and for extracting it 
will be better than either Figs. 14 or 15. 
It takes, however, a little extra work and 
wire. 

Where there is much work to be done in 
wiring and imbedding, a frame-holder or 
form should be made. The general design 
of it is shown in the illustration below. It 
consists of two parts—a general frame¬ 
work to hold the frame at an angle of 45 
degrees while the wires are being threaded 
thru the holes back and forth. This is 
hinged at the bottom to a boai'd. The 
frame to be wired is laid on, when the 
four horizontal wires are threaded back 
and forth, including the wire next to the 
bottom-bar. The sheet of foundation is 
laid on the four horizontal wires, bot¬ 
tom-bar upward. The strand of wire 
close to the bottom-bar, which is now at 
the top, is drawn down and hooked over 
one or two nails as the case may be, after 
which all the wires are drawn taut and 
fastened. This leaves the sheet of founda¬ 
tion between the four horizontal wires and 
the two diagonal wires running to the 
top-bar. As soon as this is done the frame¬ 
work holding the frame and the founda¬ 
tion is pushed down to a horizontal posi¬ 
tion. This act closes the electric circuit, 
when the wires are heated and imbedded. 
As soon as they sink into place, the frame¬ 
work is lifted up to the 45-degree angle, 
when the circuit is broken. The wired 
frame with its foundation may now be 
taken out. 

A very convenient tool is a little wooden 
roller to bring pressure on the foundation 
and on the wires while hot. The three op¬ 
erations are shown successively in the half¬ 
tone engraving below. 



Frame for wiring and imbedding the wires. 



























214 


COMB FOUNDATION 


THE WOOD-SPLINT PLAN. 

Dr. C. C. Miller of Marengo, Ill., over¬ 
came the difficulty of cells next to the top- 
bar stretching, by using wooden splints in¬ 
stead of wires. These he secured in the 
manner described in his “Fifty Years 
Among the Bees.” 

The splints should be about 1/16 inch 
square and about 14 inch shorter than the 
inside depth of the frame. A bunch of them 
should be thrown into a square shallow tin 
pan that contains hot beeswax. They will 
froth up because of the moisture frying out 
of them. When frothing ceases, and the 
splints are saturated with wax, they are 
ready for use. The frame of foundation is 
laid on the board as before. With a pair of 
pliers a splint is lifted out of the wax (kept 
just hot enough over a gasoline stove), and 
placed upon the foundation so that the 
splint shall be perpendicular when the frame 
is hung in the hive. As fast as a splint is 
laid in place, an assistant immediately 
presses it down into the foundation with 
the wetted edge of a board. About 114 


has been built down, but the cells not very 
fully drawn out, they will do more or less 
at gnawing a passage. To make a success 
the frames should be given at a time when 
work goes on uninterruptedly until full- 
depth cells reach the bottom-bar. 

Under some conditions the bees will 
gnaw around the wooden stays, as shown 
by the illustration. This occurs more par¬ 
ticularly when bees have not much to do; 
and when they run across anything which 
is fibrous they will then show a disposition 
to remove it. 

The suggestion has been made that in no 
case should the splints be allowed to pro¬ 
ject beyond the edge of the foundation: or, 
better still, the sheet should reach clear to 
the bottom-bar. 

But, there is no reason why the founda¬ 
tion should not expand between the vertical 
splints the same as it expands between the 
vertical wires. While Dr. Miller says that 



inches from each end-bar is placed a splint, 
and between these two splints three others 
at equal distance. When these are built 
out they make beautiful combs, and the 
splints do not seem to be at all in the way. 

A little experience will enable one to 
judge, when putting in the splints, how hot 
to keep the wax. If too hot there will be 
too light a coating of wax. 

It must not be understood that the mere 
use of these splints will under any and all 
circumstances result in faultless combs built 
securely down to the bottom-bar. It seems 
to be the natural thing for bees to leave a 
free passage under the comb, no matter 
whether the thing that comes next, below 
the combs be the floor board of the hive or 
the bottom-bar of the frames. So if a frame 
be given when little storing is going on, 
the bees will deliberately dig away the 
foundation at the bottom; and even if it 


lie has had no trouble of that sort, it is 
because he uses foundation heavy enough 
so that he overcomes this stretching or ex¬ 
panding. As the wooden supports prevent 
the sagging of the foundation or the comb 
only after it is drawn out, and do not se¬ 
cure the comb to the frame, it may be a 
question whether it is not safer and more 
satisfactory all around to use wires pre¬ 
viously shown, especially if one is going to 
do very much extracting or intends to ship 
or move bees to any extent. The splints only 
prevent the sagging of the foundation while 
being drawn out, but during moving or 
extracting do not hold the comb securely 
like wires threaded thru the end-bars, as 
shown on previous pages. 



COMB FOUNDATION 


PAPER AS A BASE FOR FOUNDATION. 

Other devices have been used, such as 
paper imbedded in the center of the foun¬ 
dation; but this is very objectionable be¬ 
cause the bees soon discover that this is a 
foreign substance, and proceed to tear it 
out bit by bit, utterly ruining the foun¬ 
dation. They do not always do this; but 
sooner or later they will; when they have 
nothing else to do they will begin to tear 
out the paper, thinking, perhaps, that the 
fiber is a part of the silken gallery of the 
moth worm. 

COMBS BUILT FROM FOUNDATION PRESSED 
ON THIN WOOD VENEER. 

Years ago A. I. Root tried comb founda¬ 
tion pressed out of pure beeswax on each 
side of a sheet of thin basswood veneer, 
but his foundation, so made, was very crude, 
and finally the plan was given up as it 
was believed that bees needed holes thru 
the combs in winter. The authors began 
experimenting with wood veneer founda¬ 
tion again early in 1920. Such combs have 
been in use ever since. So far as can be 
determined there is no appreciable gnaw¬ 
ing of the wood, and, the cells being per¬ 
fect, the bees draw out the foundation im¬ 
mediately into perfect combs. 

With the wood veneer foundation the 
frames can be made with thin top-bars 
and thin bottom-bars, allowing at least 
three extra rows of cells. Moreover, the 



Comb built on wood veneer foundation, in thin top- 
bar frame. No sagging, no imperfect cells. 


brood and honey being that much closer to 
the top-bars, the bees enter the supers more 
readily. This is especially important in 
case of comb-honey production. 

The great advantage of an indestructible 
comb is the freedom from stretching of the 
cells and the increased amount of room 
thereby made possible for brood-rearing. 


In comb-honey- production especially it is 
often difficult to get bees to enter the supers 
if there is room for the storing of honey 
in any great quantity under the top-bars 
of the brood-frames. Absolute freedom 
from stretching adds nearly 25 per cent to 
the brood capacity of the hive. 

A wood base foundation also makes a 
much stronger comb—one that will stand 
hard usage in an extractor and a greater 
speed, insuring dryer combs. 



Worker brood reared close to top-bar in comb built 
from wood veneer foundation. This particular 
comb is one of ten in use for more than eighteen 
v months, the hive wintering out of doors. 

These combs seem to be a success, but 
they have not yet been tried on a large 
enough scale to permit a positive state¬ 
ment of their value. 

INDESTRUCTIBLE COMBS. 

In spite of all the experimenting - that 
has been done with various forms of wir¬ 
ing the frames, including vertical wires, 
horizontal wires, diagonal wires, wires in¬ 
corporated in the foundation itself, etc., 
it is admitted that while the most ap¬ 
proved methods of wiring prevent comb 
breakage for ordinary handling of the 
combs and even to a great extent in the ex¬ 
tractor, yet the very best plans of wiring 
do not prevent all sagging of combs and 
consequent construction of storage-cells or 
even drone-cells in the upper part of the 
frames. The comb does not have to sag- 
very much before the cells become unfit for 
worker brood. 

The aluminum combs, introduced in 
California in 1919 and 1920, which are a 
modification of the old metal combs experi¬ 
mented with by Quinby, have been given 
extensive tests in all parts of the country. 
While it is too early yet to predict the final 






216 


COMB FOUNDATION 


outcome of the tests it is known that queens 
lay in aluminum combs only when there 
are no natural wax combs at their disposal, 
it is also known that in many localities 
queens cease laying sooner after the honey 
flow than they do when they have wax 
combs. This is a serious objection, for if 
true it would result in older bees to go into 
winter • quarters with bees which probably 
would not winter as well as would younger 
bees. There is no question also but that 
there is much more danger of overheated 
and chilled brood in the aluminum combs, 
as aluminum itself is one of the best con¬ 
ductors of heat of any of the metals. -In 
England, where a somewhat different form 
of aluminum comb has been tried, the con¬ 
sensus of opinion is that the hives must 
be well insulated and also shaded if alumi¬ 
num combs are used. 

Some advocates of aluminum combs see 
a future for them for extracting purposes 
only; but since modern methods of ex- 
tracted-honey production contemplate more 
or less exchange of combs between ex- 
traeting-supers and brood-chambers and 
since the queen is usually allowed the run 


IMBEDDING THE WIRE. 

Various methods of imbedding the wire 
have been used; but one of the simplest 
is the spur wire-imbedder. 



Spur wire imbedder. 


A sheet of foundation is laid on a board 
of such size that it will just go inside of 
the frame. A frame with wires stretched 
across it is laid on top. The wide-toothed 
spur imbedder, after being heated by being 
placed over the top of a common lamp, is 
drawn over the wires, the operator exert¬ 
ing a slight pressure as he does so, causing 
the wires to be imbedded in the foundation. 
The hot teeth, as they pass over the wire, 



A. 0. Miller s soldering iron with the point grooved so that it may he used for imbedding wires. 


of the first and sometimes the second super 
of extracting-conibs during the fore part 
of the season, it is evident that an extraet- 
ing-comb must be a good brood-comb also. 

The aluminum comb should not be con¬ 
demned without a very thoro test; but so 
far as the experience of the authors is con¬ 
cerned and so far as they have collected re¬ 
ports from other beekeepers, this much 
can be said: Aluminum combs have not 
yet proved to be an unqualified success. 
They may serve in a limited capacity in 
one way or another, but the fact remains 
that, since many who have tried them have 
abandoned them, any one desiring to test 
them should not invest too much capital in 
them at the start. 


cause a little bridge of melted wax to form 
across a wire. The sheet is, therefore, tied 
at intervals between each of the teeth. 

Another tool that has found favor with 
quite a number, including A. C. Miller of 
Providence, R. I., and Dr. Burton N. 
Gates, apicultural instructor, Amherst, 
Mass., is a small soldering iron with a fine 
groove just wide enough to ride over a 28- 
gauge wire, such as is used for wiring the 
frames. This little tool, after heating over 
a common lamp, is drawn slowly over the 
wires, one by one. As it passes over, it 
heats the wire, causing it to imbed itself in 
the foundation as it cools. The tool is 
heated again, and applied to the other 
wires in like manner. 

















COMB FOUNDATION 


217 


IMBEDDING BY ELECTRICITY. 

After all is said and done, the most sat¬ 
isfactory method of imbedding wires in 
comb foundation is by means of electricity ; 
and if one has access to an electric-light 
circuit, as so many beekeepers now have, 
the best way is to imbed all the wires at 
once by attaching the current to the tacks 
on the outside of one of the end-bars of 
the frames, around which the ends of the 
wires are wrapped, the current then flow¬ 
ing thru all the wires. Dry batteries may 
be used for this purpose, but it takes eight 
to a dozen batteries to heat all four wires 
quickly, and even then it is a rather hard 
strain on the batteries. For heating one 
wire at a time it takes four cells. The 
trouble with dry batteries for imbed¬ 
ding is that they must be fresh to be effi¬ 
cient, and after a little of this kind of 
work they are no longer fresh. 

Obviously with the straight electric-light 
current, if that were attempted, the wires 
would be heated red-hot in an instant, or, 
what is more likely, a fuse somewhere on 
the circuit would be blown out. The cur¬ 
rent must first be run thru a “resistance” 
to reduce it, just as steam when run thru a 
steam engine is exhausted, and of much 
lower pressure thereafter. If' one has an 
electric flatiron to put on the cii’euit, that 
furnishes about the right amount of re¬ 
sistance. In that event the two wires that 
go to the switch which turns the flatiron on 
and off, have just about the right amount 
of current to do the imbedding nicely. If 
there is no switch, the flatiron may be 
hooked in on one of the wires, the current 
going first thru the flatiron before it goes 
thru the wires in the frames. 

With no electrically heated flatiron avail¬ 
able, a resistance coil can be made in a few 
minutes’ time. First, get about 400 feet of 
No. 24 iron wire. The exact amount can 
not be given, for the wire varies slightly in 
size; furthermore, different operators may 
prefer different currents to work with. The 
best plan is to get 400 feet of the wire and 
then not use quite all of it, if more heat is 
desired. In order to have the wire in con¬ 
venient form to handle, wind it on a long 
iron rod, or pipe, the outside diameter of 
which is about ] /2 of an inch. Twist the 
wire around one end of the pipe tightly, so 


it will not slip; then have some one else 
turn the pipe slowly, while you wind it on 
evenly and tightly, with no space between 
the coils. When it is all wound on, let the 



Electrical imbedding device. 


wire loosen up, cut the end that was first 
twisted on and slide the whole thing off the 
pipe. Hang the coils on nails in the wall 
or ceiling, being careful that the different 
lengths of the wire do not touch each other. 
The electricity after passing thru all these 
coils of wire will be “tame” enough to be 
handled by any one. These directions are 
for the standard voltage, 110, found almost 
universally. It makes no difference whether 
it is direct current or alternating—one 
works as well as the other. 

ANOTHER METHOD OF REDUCING ELECTRIC 
LIGHT CURRENT. 

Jay Smith has devised another and 
much simpler method for reducing any 
electric-light current sufficiently so that it 
may be used for imbedding the wires in 
connection with the imbedding form de¬ 
scribed above. (See article in Gleanings in 
Bee Culture, December, 1917, page 938.) 
This simple device is merely a quart Mason 
fruit jar with two wires or strips of copper 
or brass extending down into some water. 
A pinch of salt should be added to allow 
the current to pass thru the water. The 
current from one wire of the circuit passes 
into the jar thru one electrode, thence thru 
the water to the other electrode, then to 
the imbedder. The other electric wire 
passes directly 1o the imbedder. The 














218 


COMB FOUNDATION 


To Source of Power ^ 



strength of the current used may be 
changed by merely changing the strength 
of the salt-water solution in the jar. 

USE OB 1 SMALL ELECTRIC TRANSFORMER. 

The small transformers sold by supply- 
dealers for use in imbedding can be at¬ 
tached to any electric-light socket having 
110-115 volt 60-cycle alternating current, 
and it gives, without the use of batteries, 
just the right amount of current for im¬ 
bedding all four wires at once, or only one 
wire, at the will of the operator. It is 
used in connection with the imbedding 
form described elsewhere, and is a very 
satisfactory method of imbedding. 



To do the imbedding, take a board wider 
than the frame and near one end screw two 
pieces of sheet brass, which will stick up 
about an inch. These are to be spaced the 
right distance apart, so that if the end-bar 
of the frame is pushed up against the piece 
of brass, one tack, around which the end of 
the wire is wrapped, will touch one brass 


spring and the other tack the other. For 
best results there should be a switch for 
turning the current on and off. 

The sheet of foundation should be on top 
of the wires, instead of the wires on top of 
the foundation. Where diagonal wires are 
used the sheet of foundation should be put 
between the diagonal and the horizontal 
wires. This prevents -the bees from mak¬ 
ing holes where the wires cross. As soon 
as the current is turned on with the left 
hand, a light wooden roller, that will just 
tit inside the frame, should be rapidly 
rolled across the wax, pressing it down over 
the heated wires. 

Imbedding all four wires by means of 
electricity, while not particularly easy for 
the first few frames, is far more rapid 
than any other method and capable of the 
very finest work. A good operator that 
has imbedded a few hundred wires can do 
the work so nicely that it is almost impos¬ 
sible to detect which side of the founda¬ 
tion the wire went in, the wire itself show¬ 
ing no more on one side than on the other. 

IMBEDDING ONE WIRE AT A TIME WITH 
AUTOMOBILE BATTERY IMBEDDER. 

There has recently been placed on the 
market a A ery handy electric imbedding* de¬ 
vice which uses the current of an ordinary 
automobile storage battery. From the ac¬ 
companying* illustration it will be seen that 



Electric imbedding device. 


this tool imbeds one wire at a time. The 
current enters the wire at either end thru 
brass springs attached to the ends of the 
tool. When in use the tool should be 
pressed firmly down upon the wire with a 
form block beneath the foundation and 
wires, and held just long enough for the 
current to heat the wire until it has melted 
the wax and thoroly imbedded the wire into 
the wax. Then when the tool is removed 
the wax instantly cools, leaving the wire 
firmly joined into the wax. When using a 
12-volt battery less time is required than 
with a 6-volt battery. 

This tool does very rapid work and is 


























COMB FOUNDATION 


219 


just the thing' for the beekeeper who has 
an automobile with electric storage bat¬ 
tery, but who has no other source of get¬ 
ting current. This tool may also be used 
to good advantage from any electric light 
circuit when used in series with proper re¬ 
sistance, such as an electric flatiron de¬ 
scribed elsewhere, or with a small trans¬ 
former. 

FASTENING FOUNDATION TO THE TOP-BARS 
OF BROOD-FRAMES. 

After the frames have been wired, but 
before the wires are imbedded the founda¬ 
tion is fastened to the top-bars, either with 
the Van Deusen wax-tube or double groove- 
and-wedge plan shown next. 

Some of the supply factories furnish 
these kinds of top-bars because some 
beekeepers still prefer them. There is a 
double groove, one of which is in the cen¬ 
ter of the top-bar. In this groove is in- 



Wedge top-bar method of fastening foundation. 



Corner-cut top-bar method of fastening foundation. 


serted the sheet of foundation, as at D. 
The wedge-shaped strip of wood B is then 
driven into the other groove as far as it 
will go, crowding the central partition 
firmly against the foundation. It is very 
important that it be driven below the sur¬ 


face of the wood, as otherwise it may work 
out, allowing the foundation to fall out. 
When the work is properly done it is thus 
held .firmly in place without any special 
tools or fussing with melted wax. 

Another top-bar known as the corner- 
cut top-bar is used now in preference to 
the other plan. The loose triangular strip, 
when toe-nailed as shown in the illustration, 
grips the foundation firmly. 

There are a few who prefer the melted- 
wax plan of fastening foundation. Where 
the under side of the top-bar is plain with¬ 
out grooves or molded edge, this is perhaps 
the best. The best tool for depositing a hot 
stream of wax along' the edge of the foun¬ 



dation is undoubtedly the Van Deusen wax- 
tube fastener. It. is simply a tube tapering 
to a small hole at the apex. On one side 
is bored another small hole which may be 
opened or closed with the thumb. When 
the tube is stood up in a cup of hot wax 
the air will escape from the upper hole, and 
the wax flow in at the other small hole at 
the bottom. The thumb is closed over the 
upper one, while the tool with the con¬ 
tained wax is raised to the top-bar. Then 
the thumb is lifted from the upper hole 
and the jioint slowly drawn along the edge 
of the foundation in contact with the top- 
bar, leaving a fine stream of hot wax to 
cement it. 

FASTENING FOUNDATION IN SECTIONS. 

Foundation starters, or preferably full 
sheets, are used also in comb-honey sec¬ 
tions. There are two different ways for 
fastening the foundation to the sections, by 
pressure and by melted wax. The pressure 
method is little used now, because it takes 
longer and the wax is not so firmly secured 
to the sections. Moreover, it Avastes foun¬ 
dation. 

By far the best plan of securing founda¬ 
tion in sections is with melted Avax, either 
by the use of additional Avax applied Avith 
the Van Deusen Avax tube or by the hot¬ 
plate method which melts a small quantity 
of the Avax on the edge of the foundation. 
If full sheets of foundation are used in¬ 
stead of starters, the sheets if desired may 

























220 


COMB FOUNDATION 


be fastened not only at the top but two- 
thirds the way down each side, provided 
the wax-tube method is used. It is not a 
good plan to fasten the full length on each 
side, as this would have a little more ten¬ 
dency to cause the foundation to buckle. 
On the other hand, if a full sheet is 
fastened at the top only, the bees by clus¬ 
tering on one side sometimes swing the 
sheet away from the center of the section. 

To do rapid work with the Van Deusen 
wax tube, a rack should be made to hold 
four sections at a time. On a board should 
be nailed four blocks a little less than half 
as thick as the section is wide and of a 
size that vstill just fit inside the section. The 
blocks should be so spaced that four sec¬ 
tions slipped over them will be close to¬ 
gether. A section-holder should be crowded 
around the four sections, the foundation 
placed in position, and the operator will 
then be ready for the wax tube. If he 
desires to apply the melted wax to the 
sides of the foundation as well as the top, 
the wax should be started on the side of 
the section, allowed to run down to the 
corner, then across the bottom or what is 
really the top of the section, and then 
two-thirds the way up the other side. Of 
course, as the tube is moved along, the 
rack should be turned accordingly, so that 
the wax may run downhill, thus facilitat¬ 
ing the work. As soon as one section is fin¬ 
ished the tool is moved to the next, and 
so on. 

THE HOT-PLATE FASTENER. 

The hot-plate type of fastener, original¬ 
ly devised by Arthur C. Miller., melts a 
small amount of wax on the edge of the 
foundation so that it adheres instantly to 
the wood. This is used more than any 
other method, principally on account of 
the neatness and the strength of the work. 
Moreover, it is the most rapid of any plan. 
There are a number of these fasteners on 
the market, all of which do good work. 
Some of them fold N the sections as well as 
fasten the foundation. This is quite an 
advantage. 

In most of these hot-plate fasteners the 
heat is furnished by a small alcohol or 
kerosene lamp placed directly under the 
plate to be heated. This plan is sometimes 
objectionable, owing to the difficulty of 


maintaining a constant temperature. In 
ease of the kerosene lamp there is always 
more or less soot which sometimes gets on 
to the sections, spoiling their appearance. 
Tn the Rauchfuss fastener this difficulty is 



Byard fastener. 


overcome by the use of an alcohol lamp, 
which is much cleaner, altho the heat is 
not quite as easily controlled. 

The Root fastener is a small hand tool, 
which is hung over the lamp to be heated. 


To use it, a rack should be made to hold 
four sections as described above, and the 
section-holder slipped over them. Then 
having put the foundation in place and, 










COMB FOUNDATION 


091 



Vv oodraan combined folder and 
foundation-fastener. This tool is con¬ 
structed of metal and does line work. 



MBS 


Rauchfuss combined section folder 
and fastener. One of the simplest and 
best combined tools on the market. 



Lewis foundation-fas¬ 
tener. A simple and 
rapid outfit. 



The Root section-folder and steam foundation- 
fastener. Steam is generated in the small boiler, 
rises thru the tube and keeps the plate at a con¬ 
stant and uniform temperature. 


while pressing lightly on the upper edge 
with the fingers of the left hand, the oper¬ 
ator should slide the hot blade under the 
edge of the wax as it rests against the 
wood. All surplus melted wax will be 
wiped off on to the wood so that the foun¬ 
dation will be most firmly attached. The 
tool will remain hot long enough to fasten 
all four starters. 

The Root steam foundation-fastener has 
a hot plate kept at a constant temperature 
by means of steam. There is no trouble¬ 
some lamp to work over, no soot, and, of 
course, .absolutely no danger of fire from 
wax dropping into the lamp. Moreover, 
the steam is also used for dampening the 
sections, for this deyice is a folder as well 
as a foundation-fastener, a most desirable 
feature. Sections dampened by steam ai’e 
not easily broken and there is no danger 
that the wood may swell so that the section 
when folded is diamond-shaped. 

When the foot-treadle is pushed forward 
the notched ends of the section, are firmly 
crowded together. The same movement 
brings the steam-heated plate into position. 
The starter is dropped into place and held 
for an instant, until enough wax is melted 
to hold it firmly. The same backward 
movement of the foot that releases the 
section causes the hot plate to move out of 
the way so that the finished section with 
its foundation is ready to be placed in the 
super. It is impossible to remove founda- 
tiou so fastened without actually tearing 
the sheet. 














































































222 


COMB FOUNDATION 




2 

As the foot swings forward, the corners of the 
section are forced together and at the same time the 
hot plate slides into position ready for the starter 
or full sheet of foundation to be applied. 


4 

Fifty or seventy-five sections may he thoroly 
dampened in a few seconds’ time by allowing the 
steam to blow thru the V grooves. Steam-dampened 
sections almost never break, and the sections re¬ 
main true and square. 


1 

When the foot is in the back position the hot 
plate is out of the way—nothing to interfere with 
putting the section in position ready to fold. 


3 

The movement of the foot backward slowly with¬ 
draws the hot plate. The wax is all wiped off on to 
the section and the foundation is firmly “cemented” 
in place. 








COMB FOUNDATION 


223 



The different methods of cutting foundation for the sections. 


STARTERS VS. PULL SHEETS FOR SECTIONS. 

In the illustrations under Comb Honey, 
showing the supers, only narrow sheets of 
foundation (or starters) are shown in the 
sections. The expert comb-honey producer 
will never be content with a starter. He 
will buy his foundation of such size that 
he can cut it to suit his own individual no¬ 
tions. Some comb-honey producers cut it 
in sheets one-fourth of an inch narrower 
and half an inch shorter than the inside of 
the section. It is then fastened to the top, 
as shown previously, with any one of the 
several styles of foundation-fasteners. 
Others cut the sheets in the shape of a 
letter V; still others use half a sheet. 

But the great majority of producers pre¬ 
fer to use two pieces—a large one secured 
to the top, and a strip about % inch wide 
fastened to the bottom. The larger sheet is 
so cut as to reach within Yg or inch of 
the bottom starter when in place to allow 
for stretching. 

During the subsequent process of draw¬ 
ing out, the bees will make one complete 
.comb, which is fastened to the top and 
bottom. Where only a starter or even one 
large sheet is put into a section, the fin¬ 
ished comb in some instances may be 
fastened only at the top and part way 
down on each side; but when the bottom 
starter is used in connection with a large 
sheet of foundation, there surely will be a 
fastening at the bottom as well as at the 
outer edges. The result is a comb fastened 
to all four sides, one that is neater in its 
general filling, and, in consequence, will 
command a higher price; and last, but not 
least, a section that will stand shipping. A 
nice super of sections with combs not 
fastened at the bottom is liable to arrive at 
destination in bad condition—many of the 
combs broken out; and it is, therefore, 
always advisable to use a bottom starter. 


A few beekeepers advise cutting the 
foundation so it will just neatly fill the 
section on all four sides. A section is then 
slipped over a block a little less than half 



Fig. 1. 

Long sheets of foundation laic! in the box ready to 
cut. (The distance between the saw-cuts de¬ 
termines the size of the starters.) 



Pig. 2. 

Box turned over for cutting. Use sharp thin knife 
wet with soapsuds, and cut on drawing stroke only. 



Pig. 3. 

The box reversed to original position with founda¬ 
tion cut to size ready to take out. 


























224 


COMB HONEY 


its thickness so that when one of these just- 
right-sized sheets of foundation is laid on 
(he block, the foundation will be perfectly 
entered in the section. With the Van 
Deusen wax tube shown on a previous 
page the sheet is then secured to all four 
sides by the stream of hot wax. 

Probably the nicest plan—the one that 
furnishes the most perfect comb honey, is 
the scheme of having the section-blanks 
grooved about % inch wide and half the 
depth of the section on a medial line run¬ 
ning from end to end of the blank as 
shown. Squares of comb foundation cut 
slightly larger than the inside surface of 
the section are slipped into the groove be¬ 
fore the section is folded. The founda¬ 
tion should not be cut so large that, the 
sheet would buckle after the section is 
folded. 

Neither melted wax nor hot plate—in 
fact, no heat of any kind—is needed to 
hold the sheet in place. The work of in¬ 
serting the sheet is quickly and neatly 
done, and at the same time the foundation 
can expand slightly in the groove while 
being drawn out, provided the sheet is not 
cut too large in the first place. 

It should be mentioned that there is one 
difficulty—that of cutting the sheets of ex¬ 
actly the right size. If one has never used 
this method, he should cut two or three 
trial sheets and try them out first. When 
the sheet is cut right for the inside of the 
folded section there should be a slight 
amount of end and side play to allow for 
a slight expansion that necessarily takes 
place when the sheet is drawn out. When 
the right size has been determined on, a 
wooden form should be made as sliown in 
Fig-s. 1, 2, !1, so as to cut the sheets exactly 
right. 

Experience shows that when the sheet of 
foundation fills the section a much more 
perfect comb honey is produced than when 
there is a large sheet and a small one at 
the bottom, and certainly better than when 
a starter is used and fastened at the top 
only. If the right methods of production 
are employed, when these full sheets are 
used, the combs will be even, well filled 
out, without an open corner. Some strains 
of bees, if crowded for room, will some¬ 
times run the filled cells of honey clear 
to the wood, without leaving any so- 


called “pop-holes,” or, more exactly speak¬ 
ing, a line of unsealed cells next to the 
wood on the sides and bottom. 

The best arrangement for cutting the 
foundation is the miter-box. This device 
can be quickly made by almost any one, 
the construction being plain from the illus- 
strations. The box should be placed on a 
table with the saw-cuts down as in Fig. 1, 
and from five to twenty sheets of founda¬ 
tion laid in, care to be taken to see that 
the ends are even. Then the cleated board 
should be put on top of the sheets of foun¬ 
dation, and the box turned over so that 
it rests on the cleats, as shown in Fig. 2. 
For cutting, a keen-edged butcher-knife 
should be used. It need not be hot, if kept 
well lubricated with soapy water. The 
knife should be held at an angle as shown, 
and moved rapidly but lightly back and 
forth, cutting only on the drawing stroke. 
If the saw-cuts are carefully spaced and 
the whole box put together in a square 
workmanlike manner, the sheets can be 
quickly and accurately cut. 

COMB HONEY. —While all honey in the 
comb is what may be called “comb honey,” 
yet the term as ordinarily used refei’s to 
small squares of comb, built into frames of 
wood technically called section honey-boxes, 
or “sections” for short; therefore all ref¬ 
erences to comb honey, whether in the mar¬ 
ket quotations or in the ordinary literature 
relating to bees, are understood to apply to 
the article built in sections. 

More recently little chunks of sealed 
comb honey about an inch and a half 
square are being put up in paraffin paper, 
and the whole slipped into a neat little 
carton. This is what is called the “indi¬ 
vidual comb-honey service,” and may be 
found in some of our best restaurants, 
hotels, and dining-cars. 

In the southern States there is another 
article called chunk or “bulk comb honey.” 
The combs are built usually in shallow ex- 
tracting-frames, and cut out in various¬ 
sized chunks of a size that will fit tin buck¬ 
ets or glass jars. The spaces between the 
coxnbs and 'around them are filled with a 
good quality of extracted honey. They are 
sealed or covered with the ordinary covei' 
of the tin bucket. Bulk comb honey is pro¬ 
duced very largely, particularly in the 


COMB HONEY 


225 


South, and where bulk honey is sold, very 
little comb honey in sections is produced. 
Bulk comb honey has the advantage that 
it does not require as much skill to produce 
it as the ordinary comb honey in sections; 
neither is it necessary that every piece of 
comb be as perfect as to capping, filling, or 
shape. In localities where there is any sus¬ 
picion of manufactured comb honey, bulk 
comb honey is readily sold. Generally 
speaking, its sale is confined to the south¬ 
ern States—Texas and the Southwest, while 
in the North, and practically all the rest of 
the United States, comb honey is put up in 
sections. 

The time may come, however, when con¬ 
sumers everywhere will learn to appreciate 
bulk or chunk comb honey, especially after 
they learn that it costs less to produce and 
at the same time retains nearly all the fine 



eating qualities of the article in sections. 
It may also come to pass that cut comb 
honey wrapped in paraffin paper, and fur¬ 
ther protected with a neat carton, will take 
the place of section comb honey. There is 
no doubt that such honey will ship better 
than comb honey built solid in sections. 

The greatest objection to the use of bulk 
comb honey in the northern States is the 
danger of the liquid portion granulating. 
When this takes place the whole will have 
to be melted up in a wax-extractor, even 
tho the comb honey is not candied. 

When the extractor was first invented, 
in 1865, it was supposed that nothing 
but honey out of the comb would be sold 
for the reason that it could be produced 


more cheaply. But our best connoisseurs 
now know that even our very best extracted 
honey seldom has the fine delicate aroma of 
honey that is held in the comb, just as 
nature gives it to us. Comb honey holds 
the flavor and the delicate aroma of the 
individual flowers from which it was gath¬ 
ered much better than after it is removed 
from the comb. The flavors of honey, it is 
said, are made up of ethyl alcohols that are 
very volatile. It follows that, when the 
honey has been removed from its original 
container, on exposure to air, it loses some 
of its flavor, especially if it be heated to 
prevent granulation. (See Extracted 
Honey, Bottling Honey, and Granu¬ 
lated Honey.) If ever a majority of con¬ 
sumers prefer comb honey, it will be be¬ 
cause to them it has more flavor, and be¬ 
cause, probably, the crushing of the deli¬ 
cate cells in the mouth gives the eater a 
certain degree of satisfaction since he 
has something to “chew.” Extracted honey 
on the other hand is swallowed, while comb 
honey is masticated, or “chewed,” as food 
should be. Of course the little pellets of 
wax, after the honey mas been eaten, are 
generally expelled. To some this very ac¬ 
cumulation of wax in the mouth is an ob¬ 
jection, and many will be found who pre¬ 
fer extracted honey, because they prefer 
to have something they can chew on bread 
and butter and biscuit, without having 
wax mixed with the food. 

Comb honey has been determined by 
Professor Hawk, the great food specialist, 
to contain vitamines. By referring to the 
article, Vitamines in Honey, it will be seen 
that these are an inscrutable something 
that makes life and growth possible, with¬ 
out which the average animal or man 
would die in a comparatively short space 
of time. While it has not yet been proved 
that extracted honey contains vitamines, it 
has been shown that comb honey does. For 
a fuller examination of the subject, see 
Vitamines in Honey, at the (dose of this 
book. 

Unfortunately of late years, many honey- 
dealers have refused to handle comb honey 
because of the amount of breakage and 
leakage and the tendency to granulate after 
cold weather has set in. The result is that 
the demand for extracted has increased 



226 


COMB HONEY, APPLIANCES FOR 


while the call for comb honey has become 
less and less. That is wrong'. So long as it 
is admitted that comb honey has a little 
finer flavor than the same honey out of the 
comb, beekeepers should foster the de¬ 
mands of all classes of consumers. When 
it is remembered that comb honey, as a 
rule, retails at two or three times the price 
of extracted, it goes to show that there are 
thousands and thousands of consumers who 
prefer honey in that form, even if they 
have to pay double price. 

In the early 80’s the statement was made 
that comb honey could be manufactured— 
“combs made out of paraffin, filled with 
glucose, and capped over with appropriate 
machinery.” This canard went like wild¬ 
fire over the country; and even to this day 
there are some who believe that honey in 
sections is manufactured, because it is un¬ 
like the honey they saw on the old farm. 
Except in a very small way it is impossible 
to make honeycomb as perfect and delicate 
as the bees do. On a commercial basis it is 
an utter impossibility. Dies could be made 
that would press wax in a semi-melted con¬ 
dition in the shape of a honeycomb. So 
far, so good; but it would be impossible to 
make any dies that will free themselves 
from the comb after it is pressed into shape 
without tearing' the comb to pieces. Any 
mechanic or die-maker knows that the idea 
is utterly absurd. Even if it were possible 
to construct the combs, it would be impos¬ 
sible to fill them with glucose, and equally 
impossible to spread a film of wax over the 
filled cells that would come anywhere near 
imitating the appearance of comb produced 
by the bees. Any consumer who has a sus¬ 
picion that combs in sections are manufac¬ 
tured, has only to look over a dozen or 
more sections at any grocery. He will find 
no two of them alike. If combs were built 
from dies, they would appear all alike, like 
the common rough-faced cement blocks 
which are made in one mold. But a com¬ 
parison of any two boxes of comb honey 
will show that bees make each section dif¬ 
ferent from all others. The attachments 
at the sides of the sections vary, as well as 
the surfaces of the cappings. 

It is hardly necessary to tell the reader 
of this work that combs are not manufac¬ 
tured; but sometimes he will meet prospec¬ 
tive customers who will tell him in the 


most brazen way that the product he is 
trying to sell them is “manufactured.” 

COMB HONEY, APPLIANCES FOR. 

—Years ago, most comb honey was pro¬ 
duced in glass boxes. These were about five 
inches square, fifteen or sixteen inches 
long, glassed on both ends. They were not 
altogether an attractive package, and were 
never put upon the market without beihg 
more or less soiled with burr-combs and 



propolis. As they held from 10 to 15 
pounds of honey each, they contained a 
larger quantity than most families cared to 
purchase at once. To obviate these and 
other difficulties, what is popularly known 
as the “section honey-box” was invented, 
holding little less than a pound. 

It was what was wanted—a small pack¬ 
age for comb honey. Thus was accom¬ 



plished, not only the introduction of a 
smaller package for comb honey, but one 
attractive and readily marketable. The re¬ 
tailer is able to supply his customer with 
a small quantity of comb honey without 

























COMB HONEY, APPLIANCES FOR 


227 


daubing, or fussing with plates. The 
housewife, in turn, has only to lay the 
package upon a plate, pass a common table 
knife around the comb, to separate the 
honey from the section proper, and the 
honey is ready for the table, without drip. 

WHAT SIZE OP SECTIONS TO USE. 

A few years ago there were a good many 
varieties and sizes and styles of sections on 
the market. For instance, there were the 
two-pound prize sections, the half-pound 
sections, and three-quarter pound sections; 
but in later years everything has been 
reduced down to practically three styles: 
viz., the 4)4 x 4)4 x 1% beeway sections, 
the plain 4)4 x 4)4 x 1%; and the 
4 x 5 x 1% plain sections. All of these 
three hold a scant pound of honey, section 
included; but under the federal net-weight 
law (see Labels) and some state laws it is 
not permissible to include the square of 
wood around it, and therefore the section 
must be sold in weights from 10 ounces for 
the lightest to 14 ounces for the heaviest. 



Doolittle's single-tier wide frames. 


While it might be desirable to have some¬ 
thing holding an even pound, yet no two 
sections will run exactly the same weight. 
See Grading Comb Honey. 

TALL VS. SQUARE SECTIONS. 

The standard section for a good many 
years has been and is 4)4 inches square; 
but, notwithstanding, during all this time, 
a good many beekeepers, principally in New 


York, have been using a section taller than 
broad. The late Capt. J. E. Hetherington, 
ay ho had the reputation of being the most 
extensive apiarist in the world, used a 
section 3% x 5. Other beekeepers in NeAV 



Comparative size of tall and square sections of the 
same weight. 

York use them slightly larger or slightly 
. smaller, but of the same proportion. See 
Hives. 

Some of the reasons that have been 
urged in favor of the tall sections are as 
follows: 

1. Weight for weight, and for the same 
thickness of comb, a tall section presents a 
bigger appearance than the average square 
one. In the 4 x 5 x 1% tall plain section, 
for example, there is about the same actual 
weight as the 4)4 x 4)4 x 1)4 plain; and 
yet, as will be seen by the engravings, the 
former looks the larger. As a result the 
tall box brings in some of the markets 
from one to two cents more per pound, 
but in other markets it brings no more. 
If this Avere the only reason why the tall 
box is preferred, we would say nothing 
about it here; but there are other reasons 
for this preference. 

2. By long association we have come to 
like the proportion of objects all about us 
that are taller than broad. Doors and Avin- 
dows of their present oblong shape are 
much more pleasing than if square. Nearly 
all packages of merchandise, such as drugs 
and groceries, are oblong in shape—that is, 
taller than broad. To cater further to this 
taste, brought about by long association 
Avitli the common objects around us, the 
tall section was introduced, and outside of 
its relative appearance of bigness as com- 



















































228 


COMB HONEY, APPLIANCES FOR 


pared with the square box, very many con¬ 
sider the tall one much more pleasing'. 

3. R. C. Aikin, one of the closest observ¬ 
ers in all beedom, laid it down as a rule 
that “in comb-building the downward prog¬ 
ress exceeds the sidewise in the proportion 
of about three to two .... If, then, 
comb construction goes on in this way, a 
section as wide as deep will be finished 
down the center before it is at the outer 
edges.” A tall section, then, more nearly 
conforms to the natural instincts of the 
bees. 

4. A greater number of tall sections 
holding approximately a pound can be 
accommodated on' a given hive surface. 

5. A tall section will stand shipping 
better, because the perpendicular edges of 
contact of the comb itself are greater than 
in a square box. This is not theory, but 
shipments of comb honey by the carload 
prove this. 

GLASSED SECTIONS. 

Glassed sections were simply sections of 
comb honey with squares of glass fitted in 
between the projecting sides of the section. 
The glass was held either by glue, tin 



An English glassed section. 


points, or paper pasted over the top and 
bottom of the section, and lapping over 
upon the glass a little way. When the 
section was sold to the retailer, the glass 
was included in the price of the honey. Of 
course, the producer could afford to sell 


glass at the price of the honey per pound; 
but under the federal net-weight law this 
is prohibited. On account of the fact that 
the producer has to pay the cost of the 
glass, glassed comb honey has practically 
disappeared from the market. 

pasteboard cartons for one-pound 

SECTIONS OF COMB HONEY. 


While sections with glass panels have 
been practically eliminated from the mar¬ 
ket, comb honey in paper cartons is becom¬ 



ing more and more popular. In some cities 
a definite ordinance requires that all food 
packages be sealed to keep out insects, 
and especially flies, that carry the germs of 
disease. It is evident that legislation of:' 
this kind will go from city to city and from 
State to State. But suppose there is or will 
be no legislation, the housewife sometimes 
has trouble with a section of honey break¬ 
ing and leaking over her groceries when 
delivered. She will thereafter buy her comb 
honey put up in neat cartons* that specify 
the exact weight of the honey, not includ¬ 
ing the section, as it is not allowable to sell 
the section by weight, section and all. 

Several attractive designs of cartoned 
comb honey are now on the market; and 
the fact that the demand for comb honey 

* The paper cartons are comparatively cheap and 
can Ire given away with the honey. The glass-panel 
scheme protects the honey, but it is too expensive 
to furnish with the honey. 




























COMB HONEY, APPLIANCES FOR 


229 


in this shape is growing, even where there 
is no legislation requiring sealed packages, 
shows that not many years hence comb 
honey will have to be put up in that form, 
if for no other reason than to shut out the 
typhoid house fly. 

Some beekeepers sell their honey in fold¬ 
ing cartons, the top and bottom sliding into 
slits provided. But such cartons do not 
seal the package hermetically. 

The publishers of this work have for 
several years back put out a package sealed 
with glue under the name of “Airline,” 
such name being drawn from the name of 
A. I. Root, the original author of this 
work, and president of the company. Air¬ 
line means beeline; and the fact that the 
A. I. Root Co. is selling comb honey in 
these sealed packages—tens of thousands 
of dollars in value—shows that the demand 
for comb honey put up in attractive form, 
and sealed from the typhoid fly and other 
insects, is on the increase. 

For hints on marketing see Extracted 
Honey, Bottling Honey, Peddling Hon¬ 
ey, and particularly Marketing Honey, 
found in their alphabetical order. 

DEVICES FOR HOLDING SECTIONS WHILE BE¬ 
ING FILLED ON THE HIVE. 

Sections cannot very well be placed on 
the hive to be filled by bees without some 
sort of arrangement to hold them. There 
are a score of different sorts of wide 
frames, racks, trays, boxes, clamps, all of 
which possess some special features. It 
would be impracticable to show all of 
them; but for the sake of illustrating some 
principles it may be well to mention some 
of those that have been used most largely. 

What was known as the double-tier wide 
frame was perhaps the first device for hold¬ 
ing sections in the hive. This consisted of 
a frame of the same inside depth and 
length as the ordinary brood-frame, but of 
the same width as the section, eight sec¬ 
tions to the frame. It was used very 
largely for a while, but in the course of 
time it was discovered that it had several 
objectionable features. First, a whole hive¬ 
ful of them gave the bees too much capac¬ 
ity to start on and, as a consequence, this 
discouraged them from beginning work. 
Second, they did not permit tiering up to 
advantage. 


The Doolittle surplus arrangement con¬ 
sisted of a series of single-tier wide frames 
having no projections to the top-bars, altho 
shallow wide frames have been made with 
such projections. Both the double and 
single tier wide frames had the merit of 
protecting the surfaces of the sections from 
travel-stain and bee glue. 

T SUPER. 

The T super at one time was one of the 
most popular forms of section-crates, and 
a few prefer it to anything else. It is so 
named for the T tins that support the 
sections. The tins are folded in the form 



Regular T super. 


of a letter T inverted, such construction 
making a very stiff and rigid support. This 
appliance takes separators very nicely, the 
separators resting on the T tins. 

Some, like the late Dr. Miller, prefer to 
have the T tins rest loosely on a little piece 
of strap iron, or bent staple, both for con¬ 
venience in filling the supers, and in emp¬ 
tying the same after the sections are filled. 
But there were others who objected to 



loose pieces, and preferred the super with 
stationary tins, the tins being nailed to the 
bottom inside edges of the super. 

But the T super has its objections. If 
the sections are inclined to be a little out 






















230 


COMB HONEY, APPLIANCES FOR 


of square, or diamond-shaped, when folded, 
they will not be squared up in the .T super 
unless an extra set of T tins or strips of 
wood are used to fill up the gaps between 
the rows on top. And, again, it is not 
practicable to alternate the several rows 
of sections. Sometimes, in a poor honey 
flow, it is desirable to move the center row 
of sections to the outside, and the outside 
to the center. 

SUPERS WITH SECTION-HOLDERS FOR BEEWAY 
SECTIONS. 

The dovetailed super with section-hold¬ 
ers for beeway sections is the form of 
super that has been, perhaps, used more 
largely than any other. It is a sort of 
compromise between the old-style wide 
frames and the T super. It consists of a 
series of section-holders that are open at 
the top. Each holder is supported at the 
end by a strip of tin nailed on the inner 
edge of the ends of the super. 

Four sections in each section-holder are 
held snugly and squarely in position with 
no spaces between the rows of sections as 
in the case of the T super. When beeway 



Super for beeway sections. 

sections are used the bottom-bars of the 
sections are scored out to correspond with 
the beeways. Between the rows of sections 
is dropped a wooden separator, as shown 
at D. 

SUPER SPRINGS. 

In the illustration of the Hilton super, it 
will be noted that thumbscrews are used to 
crowd a follower up against the sections. 
In the other form of T super a super 
spring between the side of the super and 
the follower performs the same office. In¬ 
deed, this spring is used nowadays in near¬ 
ly all modern section-supers. 


There is no denying the fact that in any 
form of surplus arrangement the sections 
and separators should be squeezed together 
to reduce accumulations of propolis. The 
objection to thumbscrews or wedges is that 
if the sections in a super become swelled 



Super-springs. 


by dampness, the rigid screw or wedge Be¬ 
comes stuck and this sticking makes it hard 
to remove the sections. If the joints of the 
sections have been moistened to prevent 
breakage when the sections are folded, 
when the super is put on the hive there is 
a slight shrinkage. This shrinkage makes 
more trouble than swelling, for the con¬ 
tents of the super become so loose that the 
wooden wedges fall down, leaving the sec¬ 
tions very loose in the super. Of course, 
the bees improve the opportunity to crowd 
a line of propolis in all the cracks. 

To remedy all this trouble the steel super 
spring has come. Its pressure is constant. 
It adapts itself to any swelling that may 
occur, and equally adapts itself to any 
shrinking, so as to press the parts together 
at all times enough to prevent the bees 
from crowding in propolis. 

In the illustration it will be seen at B, B, 
B, that a spring is crowded vertically be¬ 
tween the side of the super and post of 
the fence. When a follower is used, two 
springs (one at each end) are crowded 
vertically or diagonally between the side of 
the super and the follower. Some use only 
a single spring at the middle of the 
follower. 

SEPARATORS. 

In connection with appliances for hold¬ 
ing sections in the hive, there is a device 
known as the separator, or fence. These 













COMB HONEY, APPLIANCES FOR 


231 


separators are put in alternation, one in a 
place between the several rows of sections. 
Each separator consists of a strip of wood 
or metal a little less in width than the 
height of the sections, and in length 
equal to four sections standing side by 
side, or the separator may be a fence made 



Separator. 


of the same size, but consisting of horizon¬ 
tal strips. The purpose of the separator 
or fence is to prevent the bees from build¬ 
ing their comb from one section to an¬ 
other. Without them the sections or combs 
would be irregular in weight and unmar¬ 
ketable. Some will be too lean, while oth¬ 
ers will be so fat that their surfaces will 
be bruised by coming in contact with other 
sections when they are put in a shipping 
case for marketing. 

Since the net-weight law went into effect 
(see Labels; also Grading Comb Honey) 
unseparatored comb honey cannot be 
graded satisfactorily. The law has in effect 
made the use of separators imperative. 

THE FENCE 'AND PLAIN-SECTION 
SYSTEM. ■ 

The sections and section-supers shown 
heretofore have been of the beeway type. 
Bi-ood-frames, when in the hive, must be 
placed a bee-space apart; so also must 
the sections. Almost the first honey-boxes 
that were introduced had the bee-space cut 
out of the top and bottom of the sections 


M 


Fence. 


themselves, so that they could be placed 
directly in contact with each other or the 
separator. This kind of section continued’ 
almost up to 1897, when there was intro¬ 
duced a section without beeways, having 
plain straight edges all around. This had 


been used for some 10 or 12 years pre¬ 
viously by various beekeepers who found it 
to be in every way satisfactory. But plain 
sections (even width all around, without 
beeways) necessitate some scheme for hold¬ 
ing them a bee-space apart while on the 
hive. Accordingly, a separating fence 
was devised, having transverse cleats at 
regular intervals on both sides, binding the 
series of slats together—cleats so spaced as 
to come opposite the uprights in the sec¬ 
tions. It will be seen that the fence 
system provides for a narrower section, and 
yet this same section holds as much honey 



as one % inch wider, because the extra 
width is taken up by the thickness of the 
cleats on the fences, as shown at A A A in 
previous cut or what would be in the old 
section two beeways of 3-16 inch each. In 
the cuts shown below there are specimens 
of beeway sections and no-beeway, the last 
being generally termed plain sections. The 
plain save a little wood, and consequently 





Beeway and plain sections. 

take somewhat less room in shipping cases. 
The twelve and twenty-four pound ship¬ 
ping cases can be made somewhat smaller, 
because it is not necessaiy to have each 
comb bee-spaced apart in the marketing 
cases, the same as while on the hive. More¬ 
over, the plain straight edges of plain sec¬ 
tions offer special advantages in the matter 
of scraping. There are no insets, often 
roughly cut (as in beeway sections), to 
work into and around with a scraping- 
knife. A single sweep of the knife on 
each of the four edges will remove the 
propolis, or, better still, if the blade of 
the knife is long enough, one can scrape 





























































































































232 


COMB HONEY, APPLIANCES, FOR 



two edges at a time. Weight for weight, 
and of the same filling, a comb in a plain 
section looks fuller than one having bee- 
wavs. The illustration on this page 
shows beeway sections in one shipping case, 
and plain sections in the other. (Plain 
sections in upper case.) 

The fences are made up of a series of 
slats having a scant bee-space between each 
slat; and as the cross-cleats, or posts, are 
% inch shorter than the length of the sec¬ 
tion, the beeway is very much wider. In¬ 
stead of being a narrow opening thru the 
top as in the old section, the opening is 
clear across the top, and part way down 
and up each of the sides. This gives the 
bees freer communication, and, in conse¬ 
quence, has a tendency to reduce the size 
of the corner holes in each section. 

Horizontal openings between each of the 
slats allow free communication from one 
section to another, not only crosswise but 
lengthwise of the super. On account of 
this a good many have already testified 
that they secured much better and more 
perfect filling of combs in plain sections 
than in the old style with solid separators; 
that the bees enter plain sections sooner, 
and that in some markets better prices are 
secured. There are others who say they 
can see no difference. 

Under the same conditions the plain sec¬ 
tions will be filled no better than the bee- 
way. If there is any difference in the 


filling, it is because the one offers special 
advantages in the way of freer communica¬ 
tion. In the ordinary old-style, with 
solid separators, each section, so to speak, 
is shut off in a little box by itself, and it 
has been proven that bees are disinclined 
to work in little compartments almost com¬ 
pletely shut off from the rest. Open-corner 
sections, divided off by means of slatted 
separators, without cleats, should and 
would be filled just as well as plain sec¬ 
tions divided off by fences. The conditions 
will be precisely the same, because the bee- 
ways, made part and parcel of these sec¬ 
tions, exactly correspond to the beeways 
(cleats) on the fences. But one would lose 
many of the advantages of plain sections, 
if he were to adopt the open-corner boxes. 
They would not look, with even filling, as 
pretty as plain sections. 

SUPERS FOR PLAIN SECTIONS. 

In the main, supers for plain sections 
differ very little from the section-holder 
super already shown and described for the 
old-style sections. The section-holders 
themselves are the same width as the sec¬ 
tions. Between each row of sections in a 

v 

section-holder is placed a fence, the end- 
post of the fence resting upon the strip of 
tin nailed on the bottom inside edge of the 
end of the super. An additional fence is 
inserted on the outside of each outside row 
of sections, because it was demonstrated by 










COMB HONEY, TO PRODUCE 


S. T. Pettit that a perforated divider, or 
what is exactly the same thing in principle, 
the fence, when placed between the outside 
rows and the super sides, will result in 



Super for 4 ti. x 414 plain sections. 

having those outside rows of seot : ons filled, 
in many instances, as well as those in the 
center. The reason of*this is, that it places 
a wall of bees on each side of the fence, 
between the comb honey and the super 



Super for 4x5 plain sections. 


side; and these walls of bees, so to speak, 
help to conserve the heat so they can draw 
out the comb and complete the sections on 
the outside as well as in the center. 

COMB HONEY, TO PRODUCE.— In 

order to secure comb honey the colonies 
must be very strong—that is to say, the 
hives must be fairly boiling over with bees 
—so strong, indeed, that some of the colo¬ 
nies will be inclined to swarm as soon as 
the honey flow starts. But of this, men¬ 
tion will be made later on. 

There is not much use in trying to pro¬ 
duce comb honey, if the colonies are only 
two-thirds or one-half strength. In order 
to bring all of these up to honey-gathering 
pitch the reader should turn to the general 
subject of Building up Colonies found in 
its alphabetical order. Be sure that the 
directions that are given are carefully fol¬ 
lowed. Assuming that this has been or will 
he done, it is also important that there 


should be the proper proportion of bees of 
flying age — that is, fielders. A colony, for 
example, might have enough bees, hut an 
insufficiency of bees old enough to go to 
the fields. Many a beginner fails right 
here. The bees should not be younger than 
10 days or two weeks. It will, therefore, 
require that eggs that have been laid to 
produce bees for the field should be laid 
from a month to six weeks ahead of the 
expected harvest. 

If it is not practicable to build up the 
colonies by uniting, or if it is desirable to 
run for both comb honey and extracted, 
the medium colonies may be left as they 
are, and run for extracted honey, and 
those of proper strength run for comb 
honey. The weak colonies — that is, those 
of two and three frame size — should be 
united to the medium-strength colonies; 
for even in the production of extracted, 
more honey, relatively, will be secured per 
1000 bees from a strong colony than from 
a comparatively small or medium force. 

The medium colonies can he built to 
proper comb-honey pitch without uniting, 
provided the weather conditions are such 
that the bulk of the eggs can be laid from 
a month to six weeks ahead of the harvest. 
If that is not possible, it will he necessary, 
perhaps, to unite. 

Colonies that are very strong in the 
spring will build up faster, relatively, than 
the weaker ones; and these can sometimes 
supply frames of emerging brood and bees 
to the stocks that are below par, as ex¬ 
plained at the outset. 

In order that the colonies may build up 
properly in early spring, they should lie 
well housed—preferably in double-walled 
hives. If they are in winter packing-cases, 
as described under Wintering Outdoors. 
leave the packing on until settled warm 
weather has arrived. Cool or frosty nights 
will quickly penetrate the walls of hives 
having only a single-board thickness. This 
necessarily cuts down the brood-rearing, 
and consequently reduces the amount of 
honey, either comb or extracted, that will 
he secured. 

There should also he a liberal supply of 
stores in the hives the previous fall, not 
only to prevent starvation, but to make 
brood-rearing possible. If the supply is 
scant, the amount of brood and bees in the 






















234 


COMB HONEY, TO PRODUCE 


brood-nest will be correspondingly small, 
and then it may be necessary to resort to 
stimulative feeding. (See Feeding to 
Stimulate.) But experience lias shown 
over and over again that the feeding 
should be done in the fall if possible. If 
it is done in the early spring it has a 
tendency to over-stimulate. It forces the 
bees out of the hive on cool days when they 
ought to be inside; and, therefore, it is 
highly important that all colonies be lib¬ 
erally supplied with stores, either natural 
or artificial, in late fall. 

At this point the reader should read 
carefully the article Building up Colonies. 
Failure to have the colonies of the right 
strength at the beginning of the honey 
flow may mean a failure of the crop. 

Having gotten the colonies up to comb- 
honey pitch, it will be found that some of 
them, as soon as the harvest opens, will be 
inclined to swarm. This may be shown by 
the building of initial queen-cells or clus¬ 
tering out in front of the entrance. Cells 
should be cut out. every 8 days; and while 
this practice does not entirely stop swarm¬ 
ing it goes a long way toward checking 
and preventing it entirely in most of the 
colonies. There will be some other stocks 
that will make no effort to swarm at all. 
These should be carefully noted, and queens 
from them be used for breeding. The 
swarming nuisance can be very materially 
reduced by breeding from the queen Avhose 
colonies keep on storing honey without 
swarming. This was the practice of the 
late Dr. C. C. Miller, one of the best comb- 
honey producers in the United States. 

Just as the harvest opens or a little be¬ 
fore, as may be shown by the combs being 
whitened and bulging near the top, the hive 
should be lifted up on four blocks as illus¬ 
trated and described under the head of 
Swarming, Prevention of. It has been 
proven that the giving of a large amount 
of bottom ventilation in this way will check 
swarming to a very great extent. - This 
ventilation should be supplied a little be¬ 
fore the harvest opens, to prevent queen- 
cells in colonies that are not inclined to 
swarm, and discourage the building of such 
cells in colonies that show a disposition to 
swarm. 

Swarming may also be discouraged by 
the use of a super of shallow extracting- 


combs, and, after the bees are started in 
this, substituting a super of sections. Ex- 
tracting-combs may also be put in the side 
of a comb-honey super, as explained fur¬ 
ther on, or partially built sections from 
the previous season, called bait sections, 
may be used. A couple of these placed in 
the center of each super on the hives will 
do much to discourage swarming and get 
the bees up into the super. 

Where one is at home, or can be near his 
comb-honey-producing bees, the preventive 
measures already described are advised; 
but, if for any reason the producer must 
be away from his bees thru the middle 
hours of the day or if he operates out- 
yards, it is advisable to. shake the swarm 
so that the work can' be performed at the 
convenience of the apiarist. The shake- 
swarm plan has been used to a limited 
extent, altho it should be said that the 
majority of comb-honey producers, where 
they can do so, allow the first swarm to 
come off naturally, hive it on the old 
stand, carrying the parent colony to an*- 
other stand, or allowing it to stand be¬ 
side the new hive, but with the entrance 
at right angles. The comb-honey super, 
if there was one on the old hive, is 
given to the swarm. As soon as most of 
the brood emerges, the parent colony is re¬ 
moved, when the flying bees join the swarm. 
This keeps down increase, and at the same 
time boosts the swarm so that it produces 
a large crop if the season hangs on long 
enough. For particulars regarding any or 
all of these methods, see Swarming, Pre¬ 
vention of; also Artificial Swarming. 

In all the foregoing, it is assumed that 
the main harvest of nectar comes on at the 
time expected. Sometimes clover or other 
sources furnishing the main crop will be 
out in abundance, and yet not yield a drop 
of nectar. At otlier times there will not 
be much clover in sight, and the bees will 
gather a large amount of honey. 

When the season is poor, it is better for 
the beginner at least to run for extracted, 
and that is why the author advocates the 
production of both comb and extracted 
honey at the same time. Either the Barber 
or the Townsend plan will commend itself 
at such times. If the season starts in well, 
and the colonies are strong, practically all 
comb honey can be produced if desired. 


COMB HONEY, TO PRODUCE 


235 


It may be necessary to use bait sections to 
start the bees going above. More about 
this will be said further on. 
BROOD-CHAMBER SHOULD BE FILLED WITH 
BROOD. 

Another important requirement in comb- 
honey production is that the brood-cham¬ 
ber be well filled with brood at the begin¬ 
ning of the honey flow, thus making it 
necessary that the bees begin work in the 
supers at once to provide a place for the 
incoming nectar. While the same condi¬ 
tion is desirable in extracted-honey produc¬ 
tion, it is not so essential as in comb-honey 
production, since the giving of a super of 
empty extraeting-eombs constitutes a strong- 
invitation to the bees to “come up stairs” 
and expand their work into the supers even 
tho there may still be some empty comb 
below. To a certain extent, the bees must 
be forced into comb-honey supers by a 
lack of room in the brood-chamber for the 
incoming nectar. Too often in comb-honey 
production the honey flow begins before 
the brood-chamber is filled with brood, 
and if storing is begun in the brood-cham- 
ber and honey is sealed down close to the 
brood, the bees usually enter the supers re¬ 
luctantly, being apparently satisfied with 
the snug and thrifty condition of having- 
sealed honey above and around the brood 
area as if prepared for winter. Under 
such conditions the bees sometimes act as 
if they had finished the seasons work, even 
tho the honey How is just beginning, and 
they often waste much valuable time loaf¬ 
ing even during a good honey flow. Such 
colonies are usually among the first to pre¬ 
pare to swarm. 

On the other hand, colonies that have 
their brood-chambers well filled with brood 
when the honey flow begins, should enter 
and begin work in the supers promptly and 
should expand their work into additional 
supers, building combs in advance of their 
needs so that, even tho they may be much 
stronger than the colonies which began 
their storing within the brood-charnber, 
they are much less inclined to swarm. 

This highly desirable condition in all, 
or nearly all, of the colonies at just the 
right time is not easily attained, and too 
often only a small percentage of them hap¬ 
pen to be just right in this respect when 
the honey flow begins; for it means that 


just at the beginning of the honey flow 
the colonies must have consumed practical¬ 
ly all of the honey that had been stored 
within the brood-chamber for winter and 
spring, and at the same time must reach 
their maximum in brood-rearing. Colonies 
that happen to be in this condition just 
at the right time are usually the ones which 
work in the supers with the greatest energy 
and give the least trouble from swarming. 

To find the proper size for a brood-cham¬ 
ber that would hold just enough honey to 
carry the colony up to the beginning of 
the honey flow (at which time the honey 
should be practically all used up and the 
combs of the ln’ood-chamber almost com¬ 
pletely filled with brood) has been the 
dream of comb-honey producers for years. 
But the great variation in the way the bees 
come thru the winter, the variation in the 
amount of honey stored previous to the 
main honey flow from minor sources, and 
the variation in the time of the beginning 
of the honey flow have prevented the at¬ 
tainment of this goal. 

Many comb-honey producers who have 
an equipment of 8-frame hives use two 
stories previous to the honey flow, to pro¬ 
vide sufficient room for extra stores and 
brood-rearing, permitting the' queen the 
free range of both stones. When the 
honey flow begins the hives are reduced to 
a single story by taking away most of the 
honey and leaving most of the brood. At 
the same time two comb-honey supers are 
usually given so that the total hive capac¬ 
ity is not reduced. 

The combs that were removed (which 
may contain considerable honey and brood) 
are then given to other colonies, which need 
not be strong and which are not used for 
comb-honey production, where they are to 
be refilled with honey as the brood emerges, 
then put back upon the hives again after 
the comb-honey supers have been removed 
at the close of the season. The hive-bodies 
containing the combs that were removed 
may be piled six or seven high on top of 
weaker colonies. These “piles” soon be¬ 
come powerful colonies because of the 
large amount of emerging brood. 

While this involves considerable labor it 
puts the colonies in excellent condition to 
begin work immediately in the comb-honev 
supers, ft is open to the objection that 


236 


COMB HONEY, TO PRODUCE 


two sets of combs must be sorted, and it is 
sometimes necessary in this sorting- to leave 
some of the combs which have a rim of 
sealed honey in the upper portion, these 
being combs from the upper hive-body. 
The plan is an excellent one, however, and 
may be used even with the 10-frame hive. 

To bring’ about similar results with less 
labor some comb-honey producers who use 
the 10-frame hive have provided a shallow 
extracting- super for each colony. These 
shallow extraeting'-supers contain the extra 
stores needed for safety during- the spring-, 
thus permitting the standard brood-cham¬ 
ber to be used almost entirely for brood. 
They are taken off at the beginning of the 
honey flow- when the comb-honey supers 
are given. In this way, the objectionable 
barrier of honey at the top of the hive is 
removed; and the comb-honey supers are 
placed down adjacent to the brood, which 
is a great advantage in stimulating the 
bees to expand their work into the supers 
and in reducing the tendency to swarm. 
This principle has been recommended by 
several extensive beekeepers even when ex¬ 
tracted honey is being produced. 

The shallow extracting-supers should be 
tiered up on weak colonies which are not 
being- used for comb-honey production, for 
they should be refilled with* honey as the 
small amount of brood which they usually 
contain emerges. After they have been 
filled with honey these food chambers are 
ready to be given back to the colonies after 
the crop of comb honey has been removed 
from the hives. 

The extra stores provided by either of 
these plans stimulate the bees to rear a 
large amount of brood during the spring, 
usually resulting in at least one standard 
brood-chamber being well filled with brood 
at the beginning of the honey flow and 
colonies, so strong that they begin work 
in the supers with a rush. 

Thus by using a separate chamber for 
honey and a brood-chamber slightly smaller 
than the capacity of good qiieens, the safe¬ 
ty of the colonies, so far as stores are con¬ 
cerned, is insured without laborious and 
expensive feeding which is too often not 
done when most needed; and, at the same 
time, the objectionable rim of honey at 
the top of the hive can be lifted off and 
the comb-honey supers placed upon a 


brood-chamber almost full of brood and 
practically free from honey. 

Where honey granulates readily the 
large surplus of stores may -sometimes be 
objectionable, but where honey granulates 
readily comb-honey production is not ad¬ 
visable anyway. Colonies so provisioned 
usually build up so strong in the spring 
that most of the extra honey may be used 
up and the combs in the food chamber a re 
refilled with honey from early sources. 

WHEX AND IIOW TO PUT ON SUPERS. 

If the colony is in one story and the bees 
begin to work well in the field, while the 
combs are whitened near the tops, and the 
frames fairly well filled with brood and 
honey, supers should be put on. 

The usual practice is to put the comb- 
honey super on at the start; but Italians 
especially are sometimes slow about enter¬ 
ing the sections unless the colony is quite 
strong. 

Two correspondents sent to Gleanings in 
Bee Culture their method of using extract- 
ing-combs to bait the bees above. One uses 
a whole super of shallow extracting-combs, 
and the other uses both sections and ex- 
tracting-eombs in the same super. Both 
are given here. The first mentioned writes: 

I have been, for-several years, very much 
interested in trying and comparing different 
methods of handling bees for honeycomb. 
I have been in the business for eight years, 
and have had fair success. For the first 
five years I tried a different method each 
year. Three years ago I tried an experiment 
that succeeded so well I have followed it up, 
and have in a measure overcome the two 
greatest difficulties that I had to contend 
with—loafing and swarming. We use the 
eight-frame dovetailed hives with section- 
holders for 414 x 414 sections. Our bees 
would always begin to loaf or hang out dn 
the front of the hives when -we put on the 
sections, and most of them would do but 
little in the sections until they had lost 
several days, and then would swarm, thus 
losing several days of the first alfalfa bloom. 

I had 60 colonies of Italians in my out- 
apiary, and in trying my experiment I tried 
to be fair. I took 30 supers of half-depth 
extracting-frames full of comb from the 
home apiary, and put them on 30 hives in 
the out-apiary at the same time that I put 
sections on the other 30 hives. In four or 
five days the extracting-combs were full of 
new honey, and the bees excited and busv 
at their work, while most of those having- 
sections were loafing, and some .had 
swarmed. 


COMB HONEY, TO PRODUCE 


237 



Super containing two cxtracting-frames with wide end-bars, so that they take up the same amount of room 

as a section-holder. 


I raised the combs by putting a super of 
sections between them and the brood-nest. 
At the end of two weeks from putting on 
the combs those sections under the combs 
were better filled than those on the hives 
that had no .combs. As soon as the combs 
were sealed, I put them away to extract, 
having that amount of honfey extra, and the 
bees started nicely in their work. I had 
only about a third as many swarms from 
those hives as from the ones with sections 
and no combs. 

I liked the plan so well that last, year I 
had enough of those little combs built to 
furnish a super of them to every colony that 
was to be run for section honey. 

I tried the plan again this year, and from 
75 colonies at the out-apiary I had 8000 fine 
white marketable sections, about 50.0 lbs. of 
unfinished and imperfect sections, 1500 lbs. 
of extracted honey, and 60 lbs. of beeswax, 
and two barrels of vinegar. 

Mancos, Colo. Mrs. A. J. Barber. 

Other correspondents to Gleanings- in Bee 
Culture have reported good results from 
following the same methods. It. is partic¬ 
ularly applicable where both comb and ex¬ 
tracted are called for. 

E. D. Townsend of Northstar, Mich., the 
other correspondent, goes one step further 
than the Barber plan by producing comb 
and extracted honey in the name super. 


Instead of putting on a case of extracting- 
combs, and afterward substituting therefor 
one containing sections, he has a special 
super which contains hath extracting- 
■ combs and sections. 

The illustration shows a comb-honey 
super containing 4x5 sections. This is 
equipped precisely the same as any other 
super for sections except that it has ex- 
traeting-combs with closed-end frames on 
each outside. When it is placed on a hive 
the bees immediately occupy the drawn 
comb at the sides of the super and begin 
their storing. The combs already drawn 
out are very inviting places in which the 
bees can begin storing honey. Having 
made a nice start in the two side extracting- 
combs they work toward the center — that 
is to say, they begin to draw out the full 
sheets of foundation in 4 x 5 sections next 
to the combs, and store in them. When 
work is once in full progress in the side 
sections of the super, the center ones will 
take care of themselves with the result 
that every section is finished about the 
same time, and of about equal fullness. 
When the super is completed, the two ex- 
tracting-combs will be filled and capped as 




238 


COMB HONEY, TO PRODUCE 



The work well started in the extracting-combs at the side of the comb-honev super. Note that the row of 
sections just back of the extracting-frame is well along and that the second row back is started. 


well as the section lioney-boxes. The for¬ 
mer can be extracted and used again. 

It will be seen that the extracting-combs 
serve the purpose of excellent baits. Mr. 
Townsend draws attention to the fact that, 
when such baits are placed at the sides. 
instead of in the center, they cause an even 
filling of the entire super; whereas by the 
old plan of putting bait combs in the mid¬ 
dle of the super the storing begins around 
the baits, gradually working from the cen¬ 
ter to the outside. This naturally brings 
about a better filling of the center sections, 
leaving those toward the sides at a much 
later stage of comb-building and filling. 
The result of this is that the center sections 
will be filled in advance of the outside 
ones; and by the time these latter are 
filled, all the former will be travel-stained, 
and may induce swarming in the mean 
time. 

When Mr. Townsend first began this 
scheme of comb and extracted honey pro¬ 
duction from the same super he had in 
mind only baiting the bees up into the sec¬ 
tions; but he incidentally discovered that, 
inasmuch as the bees would enter such 
supers without hesitation, he thereby almost 
entirely ..overcame swarming, 


It is well known, that after bees are 
once started going above, there is less in¬ 
clination on their part to swarm. Mr. 
Townsend finds that the two side extract- 
ing-combs that he puts in every comb-super 



Ono of Jay Smith’s hives, showing extracting-combs 
at the side of the super, a la Townsend. 


start the bees into the super about as read¬ 
ily as they would if containing extracting- 
combs only. The whole effect of this pro¬ 
cedure is such that swarming is reduced to 
a minimum — almost brought under control. 
















COMB HONEY, TO PRODUCE 


239 


For the local markets, the side extract- 
ing-combs can be cut out and sold for 
chunk honey at about the same price as 
that in the sections; so that there need be 
practically no loss; or when there is a call 
for liquid honey it can be extracted. 

The deep super, already described, with 
its 4x5 sections and section-holders, is 
well suited to carxy out the Townsend plan. 

Even the shallower supers using 
sections can be similarly arranged. 

Jay Smith of Vincennes, Ind., among 
many others who have been using the 
Townsend plan with good success, writes: 

I have been using Mr. Townsend’s plan of 
putting extracting-combs at the outside of 
the sections, and feel that in this Mr. Town¬ 
send has given the bee fraternity a most 
Valuable kink. In the engraving will be 
seen a super just set on the hive. The bees 
immediately took possession to clean it up. 
They will at once go to work and store hon¬ 
ey in the comb. The other picture shows 
the work as it progresses. The outside ex- 
tracting-frame is partly capped. The comb- 
honey section next to it has honey in it, 
while the third has work just commenced. 
After the bees begin in the center ones, 
they will push the work there a little faster, 
with the result that the entire super is 
finished at once and can be set aside for 
market without sorting. 

I anr running 80 colonies on this plan 
this year, and I have never had a single 
case of loafing, and the bees work with, all 
the energy they possess. When I read of 
some who let the hive-bodv get clogged with 
honey, and the bees cluster out, and they 
‘ ‘ shake ’ ’ energy into them, I thought the 
beekeeper was the one who needed shaking 
instead of the bees. With the above system 
I usually have about six per cent of swarms. 
This was the worst year for swarms I ever 
had, and the per cent of swarms was ten. 

BAIT SECTIONS. 

Some beekeepers, however, while admit¬ 
ting the excellence of the plans given for 
those who want part of their crop in ex¬ 
tracted honey, say that there is no need to 
use extracting-frames to start the bees at 
work in supers, since the same thing can 
be better accomplished by means of what 
are called “bait sections,” thus securing the 
entire crop in sections. 

A bait section is one which has been 
partly filled with honey, which honey is 
afterward emptied out by the bees, gener¬ 
ally in the fall. If is thus a section con¬ 
taining drawn comb, but having no honey 
in it, is to all intents and purposes an 


extracting-comb on a small scale. Bait 
sections thus prepared are kept over win¬ 
ter, to be used at the beginning of the next 
honey harvest. 

If a single bait section is put in the 
middle of the first super that is given to a 
colony, some claim that the bees will be¬ 
gin work in it as promptly as they will be¬ 
gin work in an extracting-comb. Others 
use more than a single bait in a super, but 
there may be no great advantage in this, 
and the number of baits should be limited 
as much as possible, for when a section is 
thus filled the second time it is not so 
beautiful as one filled the first time. A 
bait section is not needed in any super 
after the first. 

One serious objection to bait sections is 
their tendency to granulate early; and on 
account of this they should never be put 
into a shipping case with other sections of 
comb honey. They are never as nice, and 
should always be sold near home as soon as 
possible after they are taken off the hive. 

Some producers have made the serious 
mistake of putting their bait sections when 
completed in with other sections and send¬ 
ing them in one case to the city market. 
As these baits granulate very quickly, the 
city dealer is quick to discover it, and he 
will, therefore, conclude that the whole 
case is just as bad. 

WHAT TO DO WHEN THE BEES REFUSE TO 
ENTER THE SECTIONS. 

There have already been given some 
general suggestions that should enable the 
producer to get the bees up into the supers. 
One is, to give the bees a super of empty 
extracting-combs; and then when they 
have once started in them, place a super 
of sections, between it and the hive. An¬ 
other is, to use the extracting-combs as well 
as sections in the same super, a la Town¬ 
send ; and still another is, to use bait sec¬ 
tions. And still another is to run the colo¬ 
nies two-story during the breeding season, 
then remove the upper story, and put on 
a super of sections as explained else¬ 
where. When all of these devices fail, it 
may indicate that the weather is too cold, 
even tho there is plenty of bloom, or the 
colony not strong enough to go into the 
supers. If the weather is cool or chilly or 
the colony not strong enough, no amount 


240 


COMB HONEY, TO PRODUCE 


of ‘‘baiting” will get the bees above. The 
weather conditions must be right, and 
honey must be coming in at a fairly good 
pace, even if the colony is strong enough, 
before the bees will go above. But when 
they are once started they will keep it up 
as long as anything is coming in. 

If some colonies are storing in the 
supers, and others are not, it indicates that 
the weather conditions must be right; and 
the presumption is that the laggards are 
not strong enough to go above. If they 
have plenty of bees, it is sometimes advis¬ 
able to give a super from some other hive 
in which the bees have already started 
building comb and storing’ honey. In 
other cases, either bait or empty combs 
may be used on the sides. It is important 
that the bees in hot weather are not driven 
out of the supers by the direct rays of the 
sun. In some localities at least, shade 
must be provided, so that the bees will be 
protected during the middle hours of the 
day. See Apiary, and especially “Shade- 
boards.” 

If the bees of a strong colony hang out 
in front of the entrance, while the bees of 
other colonies are storing honey, perhaps 
enlarging the entrance or putting the hive 
up on four blocks, as shown and illustrated 
under Swarming, may serve the purpose 
of getting the bees inside at work in the 
supers. 

It sometimes happens that the brood-nest 
is not filled with brood and honey. Until 
that takes place, there will not be much 
work done in the supers unless the colony 
is very strong or honey coming in rapidly. 


TIERING UP. 

After work is begun in the first super, 
if no other supers are given until the 
combs are built out, it should be noted that 
the space within the super that can be oc¬ 


1 

=—=1 



fBS 



Fig. 1. — A prompt be¬ 
ginning in the first super 
is important. 


cupied by bees is 
being reduced as the 
combs are drawn 
out, until finally 
there is only about 
one-fourth of an 
inch left between 
the comb and the 
separator, so that 
most of the bees 
are crowded out 


and must go back into the brood-cham¬ 
ber. This is almost sure to cause the 
colony to work less vigorously. The same 
thing happens if the bees are driven from 
the super because it is too hot or because 
the hive is not well ventilated. If the col¬ 
ony is strong enough to draw out the foun¬ 
dation uniformly in all of the sections, 
and the honey How is promising, a second 
super should be given, even tho but little 
honey is stored in the first one. 

In order to induce additional comb- 
builders to go up into the supers, this sec¬ 
ond super may be placed below the first 
one. If conditions are favorable, the foun¬ 
dation in the second super will be drawn 
out within a few days and these shallow 
cells can be used for the evaporation of 
the incoming nectar. The bees apparently 
enjoy spreading out the raw nectar, a little 
in each cell, thus hastening its ripening by 
increasing the surface of the nectar ex¬ 
posed to the air. Before much honey has 
been stored in the second super it may in 
turn be raised up and a third super given. 
This operation may be repeated as often 
as necessary to keep the bees busy drawing 
out foundation and to attract more and 
more of the younger bees from the brood- 
chamber into the supers. In order to hasten 
the completion, of the first super that was 
given, it may be placed immediately above 
the super in which the bees are drawing out 
foundation, while the other supers are 
arranged above it in the order that they 
were put on the hive, the one in which the 
least work is done being placed on top. 

If it were possible to foretell the num¬ 
ber of supers that each colony would finish 
during the honey flow, it would be well to 
induce the bees to draw out the foundation 
and begin comb-building in that many su¬ 
pers as early in 
the honey flow as 
possible, then give 
an extra one to be 
placed on top as 
soon as the foun¬ 
dation is complete¬ 
ly drawn, the pur¬ 
pose of this extra 
super being to con¬ 
tain the overflow 

of nectar during 
Fig. 2.—Second super ,, „ 

placed below the first, the process oi rip- 



i 




2 — 

m 





















COMB HONEY, TO PRODUCE 


241 


ening. This extra super, having served as 
an evaporating chamber this season, can 
then be taken off before the combs and 
sections become soiled with propolis and 
be given as the first super next year. 

CAUTION. 

Colonies that are not strong enough to 
send a large force of comb-builders into 
the first supers should not have their super 
room expanded so rapidly. A good rule to 
follow is to place the new super under 
those in which work has been started, pro¬ 
vided the colony is strong enough, and the 
honey flow is good enough to cause the 
bees to draw out the foundation uniform¬ 
ly thruout the super. If they draw out 
only those in the middle of the super, the 

second super 
should be placed 
on top at first, 
and no super 
should be raised 
up and another 
put under it until 
the foundation has 
b e e n completely 
drawn in all of the 
sections. If the 
honey flow is slow 
or if the nectar is 
thicker when first 
gathered, the work 
of drawing out the 
foundation, comb-building, the ripening 
of nectar, and sealing the honey may all 
be done in a single super. In this case the 
newly added super should be placed on top. 

The thing to keep in mind when adding 
supers is to avoid, on the one hand, too 
many unfinished sections by giving addi¬ 
tional room too fast; and to avoid, on the 
other hand, the lack of stimulation which 
comes from newly added room for new 
work and an abundance of comb surface 
for ripening nectar. The surplus apart¬ 
ment, whether made up of one super or 
half a dozen supers, should have some 
fresh foundation being drawn until near 
the close of the honey flow. Rapid expan¬ 
sion of super work should take place dur¬ 
ing the early part of the honey flow, while 
during the latter part of the honey flow 
the super work should he concentrated. 

During hot weather added ventilation 


may be given by pushing the first super 
forward on the brood-chamber about an 
inch. This will form an opening at the 
back of the hive just above the ends of the 
top-bars of the brood-frames. Such open¬ 
ings should not be made between the 
supers, since the bees may fail to finish the 
sections nearest opening's. 

The beekeeper who by skillful supering 
is able to entice most of the rapidly on¬ 
coming younger 
bees into the su¬ 
pers early in their 
lives, and who 
keeps his colonies 
comfortable at all 
times, thereby in¬ 
creases his crop. 
With most of the 
younger bees in the 
supers and most of 
the older bees in 
the fields during 
the heat of the 
day, the colonies 
work w i t h the 
greatest energy 
and are much less 
inclined to swarm than when the supering 
is not properly managed. 

AS CLOSE OF HONEY SEASON APPROACHES. 

The first step in anticipation of the clos¬ 
ing of the season is the giving of additional 

super room more sparingly. After the 

beekeeper has been doing his utmost to in¬ 
duce the bees to occupy and begin work in 
more and more supers during the fore part 
of the honey flow, the tendency is to go 
ahead giving additional room at the same 
pace too long. At a certain stage in the 
honey (low the emphasis should change 
from the expansion of the surplus room to 
a concentration of the super work to the 
smallest number of supers possible and 
still give the bees sufficient room. 

Tt is sometimes a good thing if the bee¬ 
keeper runs out of supers during the latter 
part of the honey flow, for it is surprising- 
how much can be done in the way of fur¬ 
nishing enough room without giving addi¬ 
tional supers by shifting supers from one 
colony to another, thus giving a little more 
room to colonies that are beginning to he 
crowded and reducing the super room in 


p 

.-i 

z — 


/ 


3 ■= 

CD 

1 ’ 


Fig. 3.—Third super 
placed below and first 
just above it. 


p 

1 

3 — 


2 — 


/ — 


4 — 

Q 

J—-aa4 


Fig. 4. — First super left 
in same position until 
finished. 





























242 


COMB HONEY. TO PRODUCE 


those having more than they need. In fact 
there comes a time during the latter part 
of the honey flow when it is better to have 
the colonies crowded a little for super 
room, but the difficulty is to know when 
this time has arrived. The bees will usu¬ 
ally stand a degree of crowding at this 
time which earlier in the season would 
have caused them to swarm or to loaf bad¬ 
ly. Any new supers that are given at this 
time should usually be placed on top of 
those already on the hive. 

The second step in preparation for the 
close of the season is that of reducing the 
number of supers on each hive to one or 
two as soon as possible, concentrating the 
unfinished sections in these supers. Some¬ 
times the bees are slow about sealing the 
honey, when it may be necessary to tier up 
the supers, four, five, or even six high, be¬ 
fore any of them are ready to be taken off. 
At other times they seal the honey more 
promptly, so it is not necessary to tier up 
more than three supers high. Usually the 
bees seal honey more promptly toward the 
latter part of the honey flow. 

As a rule it is not advisable to leave the 
supers on until all of the sections are fin¬ 
ished ; for the longer the honey is left on 
the hives, the more travel-stained it will 
become, and the more it will be soiled with 
propolis. This is especially true late in the 
honey flow. When most of the sections are 
finished the super should be taken off and 
the unfinished sections sorted out t<? give 
back to the bees for.completion. It is not 
safe to assume that a super is ready to be 
taken off by looking in at the top only. It 
is better to look in at the bottom also, for 
sometimes the sections of honey are sealed 
near the top and not sealed near the bot¬ 
tom. 

Let us suppose that, as the close of the 
season approaches, a colony has five supers, 
four of which are nearly filled, and work 
has just been started in the fifth, there be¬ 
ing enough unfinished sections scattered 
thru the four supers to fill one super. If 
these four supers are now taken off, the 
unfinished sections sorted out and assem¬ 
bled in one super which is put back on the 
hive, the work of finishing these sections 
will be carried on more rapidly, especially 
if the super of nearly finished sections is 
placed next to the brood-chamber, with the 


one in which but little work has been done 
on top. 

Of course these four supers would prob¬ 
ably not all be ready to be taken off at 
once, but by going over all the supers every 
four or five days at this time, taking off 
and sorting those nearest completion, the 
supers can soon be reduced to a single 
nearly finished one for each colony, with 
an empty or nearly empty one to act as a 
safety valve if more room is needed. If 
there are not enough supers, in which but 
little work has been done, to go around, an 
empty super should be given, pi’ovided 
there is still enough nectar coming in so 
that the bees will draw out the foundation,, 
for the nearly finished super is usually fin¬ 
ished more promptly if the bees are per¬ 
mitted to build comb in another super at 
the same time. 

If the beekeeper has guessed well, the 
lower one of these two supers should be 
nearly finished just before the honey flow 
entirely ceases and the upper one should 
have but little unsealed honey stored in it, 
yet the foundation should be well drawn out 
and some of the combs at least partly built. 
This super, if taken off promptly and the 
bees permitted to cleati Out the little honey 
it contains, is just right for the first super 
next year. It is not possible always to 
guess so well as this, and while some colo¬ 
nies may come out just right, others will 
store considerable honey in the top super, 
while still othei's will not complete the 
lower one, so a further but final sorting of 
sections becomes necessary. 

During the time this last super is being 
finished it is well to watch closely for colo¬ 
nies that are good finishers, as usually sev¬ 
eral colonies will be found in an apiary of 
sixty to eighty which do much better work 
at finishing than the others. These should 
lie marked to be used in the final work of 
finishing. 

The third step toward closing the season 
is that of removing all of the supers, doing 
this, if possible, before the honey flow en¬ 
tirely ceases and before the bees begin to 
varnish the cappings of the honey and the 
section boxes with propolis. The sections 
in the nearly finished supers should again 
be sorted and the unfinished ones given 
back to those colonies which were marked 
as the best finishers, This time, in assem- 


COMB HONEY, TO PRODUCE 


243 


bling these unfinished sections in the su¬ 
pers, those nearest completion should be 
placed in the middle, putting sections only 
partly filled in the outside rows. These 
sections for the outside rows may be taken 
from those supers which were on top act¬ 
ing as safety valves. As these supers are 
now arranged, the finishing is to be done 
in the middle of the super where it will be 
done more promptly, while the comb-build¬ 
ing, if any, is done on the two outside rows. 

WHAT TO DO WITH UNFINISHED SECTIONS. 

The supers in which but little work has 
been done can now be piled up crisscross 
near the apiary and the bees invited to 
help themselves, provided there are enough 
such supers so that the bees will not crowd 
each.other so much that they will tear down 
the comb. This, of course, should not be 
done if there is any foul brood among the 
colonies or if the apiary is too close to a 
neighboring residence. 

The last supers which were given to the 
finishing colonies should not be left too 
long, but should be removed as soon as 
most of the sections are finished. Usually 
it does not pay to return the unfinished sec¬ 
tions from this last lot of supers for com¬ 
pletion. Some of these may be sold as 
culls, or cut out and sold as chunk honey. 
Many comb-honey producers extract the 
honey from these unfinished sections and 
save the combs for bait sections the next 
season. 

The important thing in taking care of 
unfinished sections to be used again the 
next year is to take them off before the 
wood is soiled with propolis and the foun¬ 
dation gnawed at the edges and also var¬ 
nished over with propolis. 

If the honey flow fails suddenly, afford¬ 
ing no opportunity to return unfinished 
sections to the bees for completion, they 
may be completed by feeding back extract¬ 
ed honey. (See Feeding Back.) In this 
case, the unfinished sections may be sorted 
into different grades and the lightest ones 
extracted to secure the honey to feed back 
in finishing the heaviest ones. 

Feeding back extracted honey to secure 
the completion of unfinished sections was 
formerly practiced to a considerable extent 
by comb-honey producers, but has been dis¬ 
continued by most of them. Comb hone} 


finished by feeding back is usually inferior 
in appearance, tends to granulate early in 
the winter, and much more honey must lie 
fed than is finally stored in the sections, a 
large amount being consumed by the bees 
during the process. Successful feeding 
back depends so much upon selecting colo¬ 
nies that are in just the right condition for 
this work and upon weather conditions at 
the time the feeding is done, that few 
will care to attempt it, preferring to sell 
the unfinished honey as culls and extract¬ 
ing that which cannot be sold in this way. 

HOW TO TAKE OFF COMB HONEY. 

The most satisfactory arrangement for 
getting bees out of supers is the double¬ 
end Porter bee-escape. This is mounted in 
a board, cleated at the ends and sides, in 
such a way as to provide a bee-space on 



one side, so that it can be placed between 
the supers and the brood-nest beneath. But 
care should be taken that it be placed right 
side up—that is, the side up as shown in 
the illustration. Tf the device be put on 
in the morning, practically all the bees will 
lie out of the super by the next morning. 



One method of putting on one of these 
escape-boards is as follows: With a hive- 
tool, screw-driver, putty-knife, or pry, 
loosen the super so that propolis connec¬ 
tions will be broken. With one hand tilt 
up the super at one end enough to make a 
gap, and with the other hand take the 
smoker and blow in two or three whiffs of 
smoke to drive the bees back. Lift the end 
of the super up a little further so• that it 
will stand at an angle of nearly 45 degrees. 
With the free hand set down the smoker 












244 




COMB HONEY, TO PRODUCE 



Method of inserting the escape-board. 


and pick up the escape-board, which should 
be leaning conveniently against the leg. 
Slide this on top of the hive as far as it 
will go, bee-space side up. Let the super 
down gently on the escape-board, and, last 
of all, bring the escape-board and super 
into alignment with the hive. This method 
eliminates hard lifting, saves time, pre¬ 
vents angering the bees, and avoids killing 
them. See illustrations above. 

The best time to put on Porter escapes 
is always in the morning. The held bees in 
the supers will leave to go to the field dur¬ 
ing the day and, of course, can not get 
back. If 30 or 40 of the escapes are put 
on, the next morning about nine o’clock 
there will be 30 or 40 supers ready to 
come off, with but few bees in them. If 
there are three or four bees left, or a doz¬ 
en, they will usually take wing as soon as 
the super is uncovered. 

In taking off comb honey during a good 
honey flow, bee-escapes are not needed. In 
fact for out-apiaries it is inconvenient to 
use them, since an extra trip must be made 
to put them in place, but at the close of the 
season bee-escapes are almost a necessity. 

When removing supers during the honey 
flow without bee-escapes a good operator 
soon leams the trick of driving the bees 
out quickly and taking the super away be¬ 
fore any can return. As the cover is lifted, 
the bees should be started down at once 
with smoke and kept on the go until they 
leave the super. They must not be permit¬ 
ted to stop on the way to fill themselves 
with honey, for when they once get their 
heads into the cells, they pay but little at¬ 
tention to smoke. 


Quite a number of bees can be brushed 
off the top of the sections when the hive is 
first opened, brushing and smoking at the 
same time. While the bees are being driven 
down, the super should be pried loose from 
the one below but not lifted until most of 
the bees are out, when one end of the super 
is lifted quickly, and at the same time 
pulled backward slightly, so it will rest 
upon the super below at one end, while 
being brought almost to a vertical position, 
when the bees that are on the bottom of 
the super should be brushed off. All this 
should be done so quickly that the bees on 
the bottom of the super do not have time 
to get back among the sections before they 
can be brushed off. 

If robbers are not troublesome the 
supers still containing a few bees may be 
simply leaned against the hive, standing on 
end, until the bees go out of them. If rob¬ 
bers begin to come, the supers can be piled 
up in the apiary, eight or ten in a pile, 
placing the first one on a hive cover or bot¬ 
tom, being careful to leave no openings 
where bees can enter. The top of the pile 
may be kept closed with a hive cover or an 
inner cover which is pushed off as each 
super is added, then quickly put back in 
place on the top of the pile. As these piles 
are uncovered from time to time in adding- 
more supers many of the confined bees es¬ 
cape. Finally while loading the supers to 
take them home, most of the remaining 
bees will leave them. 

Sometimes the sections of honey can be 
sorted in the apiary without robbers both¬ 
ering, and the unfinished sections returned 
to the bees at once ? but frequently this 













COMB HONEY, TO PRODUCE 


245 





A corner of a se< tion of honey enlarged to show the dust of wood and propolis scattered over the surface 
of the cappings. This trouble is caused by carelessness in cleaning the propolis from the wood. 


eannot be done and it becomes necessary 
to haul the supers home to lie sorted, .un¬ 
less there is a small portable honey-house 
at the apiary. When the supers are sorted 
at home, the unfinished sections can be 
taken to another apiary to be visited the 
next day, or given to any colonies that 
will finish them. 

STORING COMB HONEY. 

It was formerly advised that comb honey 
be stored in a well-ventilated room and the 
supers piled in such a manner that the air 
could circulate freely among the sections, 
the theory being that this arrangement 
would permit a further ripening of the 
honey after being removed from the hives. 
The plan is open to the serious objection 
that honey so exposed may absorb moisture 
if subjected to any great variation in tem¬ 
perature, for warm air which may contain 
considei*able moisture coming in contact 
with cold honey, if chilled sufficiently, will 
give up some of its moisture, causing con¬ 
densation on the surface of the honey. 
Honey that is well ripened is usually safer 
if the supers are piled in tight piles, the 


piles being closed at top and bottom. Its 
aroma will be better also. 

SCRAPING SECTIONS. 

In order to make sections present a clean 
and marketable appearance all the propolis 
should be scraped off. Some and perhaps 
most beekeepers prefer for this purpose a 
common case knife, and others a sharp 
jackknife. Sometimes the edge of a scrap¬ 
ing-knife is ground square, and the scrap¬ 
ing is done with a corner of the knife. 
But the general practice seems to favor 
the ordinary edge. Others prefer to use 
No. 2 sandpaper. A sheet of it is laid 
flat, on the table; and the section, edges 
down, is rubbed back and forth on the 
rough surface. If the day is not too warm, 
nor the propolis soft, the sandpaper will 
do faster work than a knife. But the edges 
of the sections are a little roughened, and 
more or less fine dust at times gets on the 
surface of the comb. Sometimes a dealer 
on receiving such honey objects to this 
dust, thinking it to be the excrement of the 
moth worm. (See cut.) The objection is 
also made that the sandpaper fills up with 







24 G 


COMB HONEY, TO PRODUCE 


bee glue, and that is true. But sandpaper 
is cheap, and when one sheet is filled, an¬ 
other can be used, and so on. 

When one has a large amount of comb 
honey the work can be done with sand¬ 
paper more expeditiously by fastening it 
on a revolving cylinder or on the flat sur¬ 
face of a revolving disk operated by foot 
power or a small motor. Where one has a 
gasoline engine for a large power-driven 
honey-extractor, he can use that as a motor 
power. 

It was stated that rubbing the section 
on a flat sheet of sandpaper by hand leaves 
the edges rough, and dust on the surface 
of the comb. The illustration, which is 
enlarged to illustrate the details, shows 
how the fine dust lodges on the comb and 
how the edges of the sections are rough¬ 
ened, leaving hairs or fibers of wood cling¬ 
ing to the edges. The authors experience 
is, however, that a power-driven cylinder 
or disk on account of the high speed, does 
not scratch the sections nor leave the sur¬ 
faces of the comb covered with dust. 

BOOMHOWER KNIFE-SCRAPING TABLE. 

Prank Boomkower of Gallupville, N. Y., 
has a section-scraping table like the one 
shown herewith. As will be seen, two 
scrapers can work at a time, the sides of 
the box or tray being cut away in such a 



Knife-scraping table. 


way as to allow a knife to scrape down 
clear past the edge of the section. Each 
section, as it is scraped, is put into the 
shipping case. 

Those with only a few sections will not 
be likely to have such a table, and some 
large producers might prefer not to use it. 
Any ordinary table may be used for the 
work, or a board on the lap will answer. 


It is easier to do the work sitting. A block 
2 inches thick, more or less, and 4 inches 
square, the size not being important, lies 
on the table, or on the board on the lap. 
When the section is placed upon this block, 
projecting over one side, it allows free play 
for the knife. If the super is of such 
character that the sections may be taken 
out en masse, the work may be greatly 
shortened by cleaning all the tops at one 
operation, and the bottoms in the same 
way. No matter what the super, one may 
shorten the work in this way: Make a 
rim, or box without top or bottom, whose 
depth is an inch less than the height of 
the sections to be cleaned, and an inch or 
so wider and longer than the superful of 
sections. Have two boards as large as, or a 
little larger than, the rim mentioned. Lay 
a board on the table, set the rim on the 
board, and then fill the rim with sections. 
Put into one end a thin board as a fol¬ 
lower and wedge it up. Do the same at one 
side. Now, with a cabinet-maker’s scraper 
or some other tool scrape the propolis off 
the entire surface. Follow this up with 
No. 2 sandpaper. Now lay the other board 
on top of the sections. Turn the whole 
thing upside down. Take the top board off 
the sections. Loosen the wedges as much 
as necessary to. let the rim drop down on 
the board and then wedge tight again. 
Scrape and sandpaper as before. The sec¬ 
tions may now be taken out and finished on 
the little blocks as before mentioned. It is 
a convenience to have a large table and a 
number of boards. Each board may be slid 
along on the table out of the way, or it 
may be piled up on another boardful of 
sections. 

Both scraping and sandpapering will 
work better when it is so cool that the glue 
is brittle. Indeed, sandpaper will not work 
on soft glue. 

GRANULATED COMB HONEY; WHAT TO DO 
WITH IT. 

If dealers are not suspicious regarding 
comb honey nor have had their heads filled 
with stories of artificial comb honey, they 
can probably sell granulated comb honey 
at very near the same price as that whicli 
is still in the liquid form; for granulated 
honey in the comb is fine for table use. 
Some explanation should be made, how- 

















COMB HONEY, TO PRODUCE 


247 



The Peterson capping-melter and wax-separator here recommended for liquefying 
candied honey. Altho designed for melting cappings as explained under Extracted 
Koney, it may be used as a liquefier if a screen is put across the open end to prevent 
the solid portions from sliding out. As soon as the honey is melted, it runs out, away 
from the heat. 


Back View of Melter 
Showing Space For 
Knives if 


ever, to the effect that the honey going 
“back to sugar” does not indicate at all 
that the bees were fed sugar syrup, and 
that nearly all kinds of pure honey will 
granulate in time. See Granulated Hon¬ 
ey. 

The Jews, in their religious festivals, 
at certain seasons of the year, use consid¬ 
erable granulated comb honey. The honey 
and wax make up the right combination for 
their purpose, and very often granulated 
comb honey can be sold to the Jews at fair 
prices. 

If it is impossible to sell granulated comb 
honey at a reasonable figure, it may be 
melted up in a capping-melter, and the 
liquid honey and wax saved and sold sepa¬ 
rately. If there is any great amount of 
honey to melt up in this way a large cap- 
ping-melter should be used, for it is im¬ 
portant to have a good-sized heating sur¬ 
face so that the melted honey and Avax may 
be separated as soon as possible. If a small 
melter is used and overloaded, much of the 
honey is likely to be confined in close con¬ 
tact with the heated surface for some time; 
and this, in connection with the wax, im¬ 
parts to it a flavor that, while not disagree¬ 
able, distinguishes it from honey not so 
treated. On this account the outlet of the 


melter must not be allowed to dam up so as 
to confine the honey. 

A framework, on Avhick a Avide board 
may be secured directly over the melter, 
should be made to fit the top of the melter. 

Use a sharp butcher-knife or steam un¬ 
capping-knife to cut the comb out of the 
section, then strike the notched or dove¬ 
tailed corner of the section, causing it to 
fly open allowing three sides of the section 
to lie flat on the board. Beginning at the 
right-hand end, move the edge of the knife 
Avith a scraping motion toward the left, 
holding the section in the left hand by the 
fourth side, which should be. at right angles 
to the other three sides lying flat on the 
board. Then use the other edge of the 
knife; and, beginning at the top of the 
fourth side, cut down to the board, thus 
removing quickly all the wax adhering to 
the Avood. With a little practice the honey 
may be cut out of the sections very rapidly 
—perhaps faster than the melter can han¬ 
dle it; but in the intervals the heaps of 
scraped sections may be removed, and neAv 
cases of honey set in readiness on the 
bench. 

The mixture of melted honey and Avax, 
as it comes from the melter, should pass 
directly into a separator made on the prin- 

















COMB HONEY, TO PRODUCE 


248 


eiple of the Aikin separator. The large 
cut shows the whole melter', separator, etc. 
At the end of the day, or when the work is 
finished, the honey should be drawn off as 
close as possible to the wax, so that the 
smallest amount will be left to cool with it. 
The reason for this is that any honey is 
given a slightly waxy flavor if allowed to 
cool under wax. As soon as the honey is 
drawn off, and while it is still warm, it 
should be strained thru a cheese cloth, so 
that it will be ready for market. 

HOW TO KEEP COMP, HONEY AND AT THE 
SAME TIME PREVENT IT FROM 
GRANULATING. 

It is sometimes desirable to keep comb 
honey for a better market, or hold it for a 
reserve supply the year round. To keep 
it with unimpaired flavor it must not be 
subjected to dampness. Jf Avater con¬ 
denses on the surface of the comb, the 
honey is soon diluted, and then it sours. 
On this account the honey should never be 
put into a cellar or other damp room. It 
should be kept in a warm dry room; and 
that there may be a free circulation of air, 
without admitting bees or flies, the win¬ 
dows should be covered with painted wire 
cloth. The publishers are accustomed to 
keep comb honey the year round, and 
rarely does it deteriorate in the least. The 
same plan will, in the main, apply to keep¬ 
ing extracted honey. During damp and 
rainy weather, the doors and windows of 
the honey-room or honey-house should be 
closed and opened again when the air is 
dry. 

Comb honey should under no circum¬ 
stances be stored where it is likely to 
freeze, as freezing contracts the wax so as 
to break the combs and let the honey run. 
It should be kept as nearly as possible 
between 80 and 90 degrees F., not be ex¬ 
posed to rapid changes in temperature at 
any time; and it should never go be¬ 
low 70, if it is possible to avoid it. Varia¬ 
tions of temperature have a strong tend¬ 
ency to make honey granulate; and noth¬ 
ing ruins comb honey quicker than this. 

Perhaps one in a small way might be 
able to keep a room hot by the use of a 
hard-coal stove, from which a regular heat 
will be given off; but this would be expen¬ 
sive, and make the honey cost too much. 


In some instances one might store the 
honey in the cellar near the furnace. This 
would give a uniform heat night and day. 
After the furnace goes out for the winter 
the honey should be moved to where it is 
dry. 

THE TEMPERATURE TO ARREST GRANULATION 
AFTER IT BEGINS. 

The publishers of this work made some 
experiments to see how hot they could keep 
the room and not have the combs melt 
down. They found that the temperature 
must not go higher than 103° F. While 
this may seem excessively high, yet, if the 
honey begins to granulate the only way to 
arrest the process is to bring the tempera¬ 
ture up to 103°, and maintain it there. 
But there is the difficulty. They accom¬ 
plished it by putting steam coils in the 
room with sufficient radiation so that the 
temperature could be held between 101° 
and 103°. If it goes above the high point, 
an automatic regulator, something on the 
plan of an incubator-valve, allows the heat 
to escape. As the temperature drops, this 
valve closes. 

They kept some 2000 lbs. of honey in 
this room for two months. Some of the 
honey had already begun to granulate, and 
it was their hope that they could not only 
arrest the granulation but bring the gran¬ 
ulation back to a liquid condition. In this 
last they were disappointed, but they suc¬ 
ceeded admirably in stopping the process 
that would have soon ruined this whole lot 
of honey. 

They are not sure but a temperature of 
100° F. might do as well, and possibly such 
a degree would be safer for the average 
person to use, because, if the thermometer 
shows higher than 103°, there is great dan¬ 
ger that the combs will be overheated, sag, 
and set the honey to leaking. It should be 
stated that a temperature of 100° F., while 
it will stop granulation will cause the 
honey to become very thick and waxy. 
This is objectionable to some of the trade. 

COMBS.- —Under Honeycomb, further 
on, comb is discussed as a container to hold 
the honey gathered by the bees, its general 
structure, how the bees build it without 
artificial aid, and the so-called artificial 
comb, which does not exist, and never did. 
Under Comb Foundation is described par- 


COMBS 


249 


ticularly how combs are built by the use of 
artificial aids; under Manipulation of 
Colonies, how combs or frames are han¬ 
dled ; and under this head will be dis¬ 
cussed the economic and comparative value 
of good and poor combs when used in 
brood-frames. 

In the olden days, before foundation was 
known, there was a mudh larger proportion 
of inferior and bad combs than there is 
today when, in a well-regulated apiary, 
they are built almost entirely from full 
sheets of foundation. (See Comb Foun¬ 
dation.) By the use of foundation and 
self-spacing frames, it is possible to have 
every comb in the hive a good one—all of 
them uniform, with little or no drone 
comb, and as flat as a board, containing 
very few drone-cells. 

The beekeeper who has modern hives 
well painted, and yet who has the average 
natural-built or poor combs, will lose a 
large part of the value of his investment. 
The rearing of drones means a big waste 
to the colony; and while it is possible, as 
will be explained further on, to ipake the 
bees build all-worker combs without any 
artificial aids, the problem is far easier to 
use full sheets of foundation well wired, 
or better yet use wood base foundation, 
as explained and illustrated in Comb Foun¬ 
dation,’ subhead wiring frames. 

There is not a better asset in the bee- 
yard than a full quota of good combs. 
If the extracted-honey producer has only 
enough to fill the hives at the approach of 
the honey flow, he will lose a large amount 
of honey by not having an extra supply 
on hand. Inserting frames containing full 
sheets of foundation will help out some in 
an emergency. While the bees may draw 
them out, it absorbs a large force of bees 
that might otherwise be occupied in the 
field gathering honey. Nor is this all. The 
beekeeper who has a large stock of good 
straight combs on hand can control swarm¬ 
ing to a great extent as well as secure a 
larger crop of honey. (See Swarming.) 
In the production of extracted honey there 
should be at least two extra supers of 
drawn combs in reserve. These should be 
kept, carefully stored in empty supers or 
hive-bodies bee and moth tight, awaiting 
the harvest. 

Some years ago, when the author was op¬ 


erating outyards for extracted honey, we 
managed without any swarming until we 
ran out of drawn combs. The only thing we 
could give the bees was full sheets of foun¬ 
dation in brood-frames. As soon as we 
supplied them with these, swarming com¬ 
menced. They acted as if they were dis¬ 
gusted because they had to stop and build 
combs, and then they proceeded to swarm. 
While we could have extracted the filled 
combs already on the hives and returned 
them, such combs were only partly sealed, 
and, of course, the honey was not thoroly 
ripened. As explained under Extracted 
Honey, the quality of the honey is very 
greatly improved by leaving it on the hives 
until every cell is sealed. By leaving it on 
the hives two or three weeks longer in 
warm weather the honey will acquire a 
certain mellowness and richness that are 
delicious. 

The novice will see, then, the importance 
of having a large stock of empty combs on 
hand. If one does not have the combs, how 
can he get them? They can be secured by 
giving the bees frames of foundation in 
the fall, when they are gathering an in¬ 
ferior honey. They may then be extracted 
and held in reserve until the following sea¬ 
son, until the main crop of white table 
honey comes on. Of course, one can have 
the combs drawn out during the main 
honey flow; but that will probably mean 
some swarming and a decrease in the crop. 
The swarming nuisance can be materially 
reduced by alternating the frames con¬ 
taining brood with frames of full sheets 
of foundation. Bees will quickly draw 
out the combs, and the queen will enter 
them. This will usually check swarming; 
but it may mean increasing the force of 
bees that will come on at a time of year 
when they will be of little use to the col¬ 
ony but will simply be consumers. 

the economic waste from the use of 

POOR COMBS. 

At the outset mention was made of the 
economic difference between good and 
poor combs. The accompanying illustra¬ 
tion will give an idea of what constitutes a 
good comb, a medium one, and a poor one. 
First of all, the combs should be well 
wired to stand rapid handling, moving full 
colonies from one yard to another, and 


250 


COMBS 



1, perfect; 2, good; 3, medium; 4, poor combs, 













COMBS 


251 



zmm 

ia 


< 


BamBwwaw 


in&HHrtpH 

i MMpMwwaw^iBl 




S835Sg6S%885SS888^^ 


Tl ie upper frame, by mistake, contained no foundlation, altho it was wired. Note the drone-cells The 
lower frame contained a full sheet of foundation, and every cell is a worker-cell. 


more or less rough usage in and out of the 
extractor. (See Comb Foundation and Ex¬ 
tractors.) When the honey is thick the 
extractor must be revolved at full speed; 
and unless the combs are well wired or on 
a wood base they are liable to break out of 
the frames. 

It is essential, also, that the comb be 
well fastened to the end-bars, and built 
clear down to the bottom-bar. No. 1 is an 
illustration of a fairly good comb. No. 2 
is fair. No. 3 is a poor one, and both 2 
and 3 are defective in that they are only 
partially attached to the end-bars. In a 
year or two perhaps, especially during a 


good honey flow, the combs may be ex¬ 
tended and attached to the end-bars. If 
the flow is an extra heavy one the bees 
may build them down in contact with the 
bottom-bars as shown in No. 1. If the 
comb is attached only to the top-bar as in 
No. 2 there will be a bee-space next 
the end-bars and the bottom-bars—just the 
nicest place for a queen to hide when one 
desires to locate her. 

Attachments to the bottom-bars can be 
made very quickly by turning a super 
upside down, and leaving it so for a week 
or two, or even twenty days, during which 
the bees will probably build the comb 











252 


COMBS 


upward and attach to the bottom-bar, which 
is now at the top. (See Reversing.) No. 
4, while fairly well fastened, is very bad 
on account of the presence of so much 
drone comb. It may be used for the pro¬ 
duction of extracted honey; but the objec¬ 
tion to it is that the queen, unless exclud¬ 
ing' zinc is used, may go on it and fill it 
with drone eggs. Extracted honey can be 
produced in it as well as in all-worker 
comb, but the average beekeeper will do 
well to cut out any comb like No. 4 and 
melt it. 

The ideally perfect comb is one that is 
attached to all four sides of the frame, and 
which has no holes like No. 2. In a good 
honey flow these holes will be filled up, but 
probably with drone-cells; and the pres¬ 
ence of these is as bad as the holes them¬ 
selves. 

There are about 132 square inches in the 
surface of a standard Langstroth comb, 
and this will make the average comb con¬ 
tain approximately 6500 worker-cells on 
the two surfaces provided the comb is per¬ 
fect. If the combs are like No. 4, it Mull 
be seen there is a big loss in the breeding 
capacity for worker brood. One may, 
therefore, have a ten-frame hive and still 
have only fifty or sixty per cent capacity 
for Avorker brood. As it takes approxi¬ 
mately a cell of honey to raise a cell of 
brood, it will be seen that a given area of 
drone brood will mean an equal area of 
honey that is actually lost. 

HOW TO MAKE BEES BUILD ALL-WORKER 

COMB WHEN ONLY STARTERS ARE USED. 

If one thinks he cannot afford the ex¬ 
pense of full sheets of foundation, it is 
well to know how to make the bees elimin¬ 
ate all drone combs. E. D. ToMmsend of 
Northstar, Mich., tells in Gleanings in Bee 
Culture how this may be accomplished. 

The secret seems to be in having just the 
right number of workers and just the right 
amount of honey coming in, so that the bees 
will draw out the combs no faster than the 
queen can occupy them with brood. As long 
as this condition lasts we sliorild expect the 
bees to build worker combs. Prom this m'o 
see that, in order to get good results in 
comb-building from a natural swarm, this 
colony should be of just the right size, and 
there should be a honey tlou T of three or four 
pounds a day. 


We will suppose a large swarm is hived 
during a period when honey is coming in 
freely. At this time there is too much honey 
coming in for the best results in comb-build¬ 
ing in the brood-nest, if the wdiole force of 
workers is compelled to do all their M r ork in 
the brood-nest. The remedy is to put most 
of the workers at work in the supers. Most 
beginners fail in doing this; but the princi¬ 
ple is to make the surplus receptacles more 
inviting to the workers than the brood-nest, 
and the bees will immediately go up into the 
supers on being hived. Our comb-honey super 
with extracting-combs at the sides makes an 
ideal arrangement for this very thing. 

It is plain to see that, if most of the hon¬ 
ey being carried in is placed in the sections, 
vdiere it should be, the queen will not be 
hurried to keep pace with the workers, con¬ 
sequently nearly all-worker comb will be 
built. The brood-nest, should be tilled with 
comb duting the first 23 days after the 
swarm is hived, for the queen must keep up 
with the workers and lay in nearly every 
cell as fast as it is drawn out, or the bees 
will begin' to store honey in the cells. When 
this condition arrives, the bees, on .the sup¬ 
position that the queen has reached her lim¬ 
it, and that the-rest of the combs will be 
used for storing honey, begin to build the 
storage size or the drone-cells in the brood- 
nest. This is likely to occur in about 23 
days after the swarm is hived; for by this 
time the brood is beginning to hatch out in 
that part of the hive wfiiere the laying be¬ 
gan. From this time on the queen has near¬ 
ly all she can do to keep the cells filled with 
eggs vdiere the young bees are hatching. 
This means that the comb-building part of 
the hive is neglected, and that the bees 
build store or drone comb to a great extent 
until the hive is filled. 

There are artificial ways of handling bees 
so that they will build good worker combs. 
I refer to the plan of shaking the bees into 
an empty hive, in the same way that a swarm 
is hived. If a colony is divided into nuclei 
of, say, two or three combs each, and each 
nucleus given a young queen reared the same 
year, such little colonies will build very nice 
Avorker combs; but the beginner will not be 
interested in this artificial way of making 
increase, for he should stick to the natural- 
swarming plan for his increase until such 
time as he has had experience and made 
a success of getting a crop of honey. In 
fact, there are many things to be learned 
before a beginner should take up artificial 
ways of making increase. 

CONTRACTION. — Along in the 80’s 
contraction of the brood-nest during the 
summer seemed to be all the rage. It was 
argued that most colonies, Italians especial¬ 
ly, after they had put a little honey in the 
brood-nest, would be disinclined to go 


CONTRACTION 


253 


above into the supers. To force them 
above, some beekeepers took out three or 
four of the brood-frames below and con¬ 
tracted the brood-nest and then placed su¬ 
pers on top. This was very pretty in the¬ 
ory, and in practice it did force things. It 
forced the bees into the supers, but more 
often forced swarming. 

Another set of contractionists argued in 
favor of hiving swarms in a contracted 
brood-chamber. They did not believe in 
contracting tbe brood-nest in an established 
colony; and, therefore, when they con¬ 
tracted at all they did so only during 
swarming time. This form of contraction 
is certainly better than the other; but, as 
the years go by, less and less is heard about 
contraction and more and more about ex¬ 
pansion—how to get stocks strong—big, 
rousing, powerful colonies. ( See Hives, 
Comb Honey, to Produce; also Building 
up Colonies.) An eight-frame brood-nest 
is usually small enough. Indeed, a ten- 
frame may be none too big. See Hives, 
Dimensions of, elsewhere, for the further 
consideration of this subject. 

For contraction during the winter see 
Wintering Outdoors. 

EXCESSIVE CONTRACTION AND HOW IT MADE 
POOR SEASONS IN THE 80 ; S. 

In his early experiments Langstroth 
found that the stoi’age of too much honey 
in the brood-chamber previous to the be¬ 
ginning of work in the boxes could be 
greatly reduced by the use of a shallow 
hive, and in adopting the particular depth 
of the Langstroth hive he was greatly in- 
tluenced by this fact. In effect the shallow 
hive cuts off the honey at the top and per¬ 
mits placing the boxes down close to the 
brood, which is so important in inducing 
the bees to begin work in the boxes. 

Langstroth built his hive to hold 10 
frames and considered this to be the best 
size for the production of honey in the 6 
to 10 pound boxes which were the “supers” 
of that time. 

In using the Langstroth hive to produce 
honey in sections, beekeepers soon learned 
that better results could be secured from 
the weaker oologies by removing any combs 
not well filled with brood at the beginning 
of the honey flow and filling the vacant 
space with wide frames, each holding eight 


sections, or with thick division-boards, 
which came to be known as “dummies.” 
Later, the wide frames and side storing 
were abandoned and dummies became a 
part of the regular equipment for comb- 
honey production. 

REDUCTION IN THE SIZE OF THE BROOD- 
CHAMBER. 

Since the majority of colonies usually 
have some combs not filled with brood at 
the beginning of the honey flow, many bee¬ 
keepers in the 80’s reduced the size of the 
hive, cutting it down to eight frames, in 
order to make sure that most of the colo¬ 
nies would have their brood-chambers full 
of brood at the beginning of the honey 
flow. In this case, if any colonies should 
become crowded for room before the main 
honey flow, a comb of emerging brood 
could be exchanged with an empty comb 
from some colony with less than eight 
frames of brood. In other words, these 
beekeepers reasoned that better results 
could be secured thru a series of years by 
using a brood-chamber which averaged a 
little too small instead of one averaging a 
little too large. 

These problems were discussed freely in 
the bee journals from 1885 to 1890, at 
which time the eight-frame hive had prac¬ 
tically become the standard hive in this 
country. It should be remembered that at 
this time comb honey was being produced 
by a great majority of beekeepers. 

Later, howevei’, it was found that the 
advantage of the eight-frame hives was be¬ 
ing lost, for after a few years they in turn 
were not well filled with brood at the be¬ 
ginning of the honey flow. Within a few 
years beekeepers were reporting the same 
difficulties with the eight-frame hive that 
they formerly had experienced with the 
ten-frame hive. Instead of recognizing the 
cause of the smaller colonies being in the 
reduced capacity of the brood-chamber, 
with its attendant danger of a shortage of 
honey at the most critical periods, many 
beekeepers sought a remedy in a further 
reduction in the size of the brood-chamber. 
The dummies of the days of the 10-frame 
hive were again brought into use, and the 
“contraction” of the brood-chamber was 
advocated by most comb-honey producers. 


254 


CONTRACTION 


FURTHER CONTRACTION OF THE EIGHT- 
FRAME HIVE. 

This time the brood-chamber was re¬ 
duced from eight frames to five frames. 
This contraction was done by some at the 
beginning of the honey flow when the 
comb-honey supers were put on and by 
others only when hiving swarms; but since 
most of the strong colonies swarmed and 
the weak ones had to be contracted to in¬ 
duce them to work in the supers, most of 
the colonies were contracted to five frames 
at some time during the season, the con- 
tractionist advising that parent colonies be 
contracted to five frames and supplied with 
a super in order to utilize them as well as 
the swarm in honey production. 

At this time many of the leaders in bee¬ 
keeping in this country considered five 
frames to be sufficient capacity for the 
brood-chamber except during the period of 
heaviest brood-rearing just previous to the 
honey flow from clover when the brood- 
chamber was temporarily expanded to eight 
frames. These things were taught in the 
beekeeping literature at the time; and at 
a beekeepers’ convention held in Chicago 
in 1893 when the question was asked as to 
the proper size for the brood-chamber for 
comb-honey production, it was found that 
the majority of those present favored a 
brood-chamber of five or six frames capac¬ 
ity. 

POOR SEASONS FOLLOWED REDUCTION IN 
SIZE OF BROOD-CHAMBER. 

It is not surprising that the beekeeping 
industry suffered a period of severe depres¬ 
sion at about this time, for the small hives 
and severe contraction of that period, to¬ 
gether with the gradual elimination of 
basswood and fall flowers, made the exist¬ 
ence of colonies of bees a precarious one 
indeed unless much feeding was prac¬ 
ticed. The series of so-called poor sea¬ 
sons in the clover regions which followed 
the contraction fad almost wrecked the 
industry in this excellent honey-producing 
region, and looking back now it seems re¬ 
markable that beekeeping has even partial¬ 
ly recovered from the terrible setback of 
that time. 

In November, 1891, Hutchinson wrote in 
the editorial columns of the Beekeepers’ 
Review as follows: “In 1888 the average 


yield in my apiary was 10 pounds per col¬ 
ony. In 1889 it was 20 pounds; in 1890 
not one pound; in 1891, five pounds. * * 

* * The honey stored in my apiary the 
past four years would not have kept us in 
food more than one year. Tam forced to 
believe that hundreds of beekeepers could 
make a similar report.” After some re- 
,marks about the changes in his location, 
brought about by better agricultural meth¬ 
ods, he continues: “What puzzles me is 
that we had good crops for ten years, then 
poor crops for four years. It seems as 
tho the change ought to have been more 
gradual.” 

POOR SEASONS CAUSED BY LACK OF STRONG 
COLONIES. 

That the management was more at fault 
than the seasons was well brought out in 
the same journal the next month by Tay¬ 
lor, who wrote as follows: “In my home 
apiary the past season, I had one swarm 
for about every 25 colonies, an average of 
about five pounds of comb honey to the 
colony. But there was one colony that 
cast a swarm and gave a surplus of 75 
pounds of comb honey over and above suf¬ 
ficient winter stores for the two colonies. 

* * * * There was no accession of bees 
from other colonies nor any robbing. 
Wherein was the power of this colony? 
Was it from the fortuitous conjunction of 
conditions at the most favorable times so 
as to produce extraordinary exertion at the 
nick of time? Did it possess a secret 
knowledge of some rich acre of clover in 
a sunny nook? Or was it possessed of 
inbred characteristics which gave it pow¬ 
ers to excel? If in the first or last, as 
seems most likely, we have in them a rich 
field for exploration. He who finds out 
how to time the conjunction of conditions 
and to perpetuate the most desirable char¬ 
acteristics will abolish poor seasons, not 
simply find a doubtful remedy therefor.” 

Early the next year the same writer re¬ 
vealed this desirable “conjunction of condi¬ 
tions, which has since played such an im¬ 
portant part in “abolishing poor seasons,” 
in the following significant statement: “In 
the leanest of the late lean years, every 
colony that cast a swarm as soon as the 
first opening of the white clover has given 
me more than an average amount of sur- 


COTTON 


255 


plus comb honey, and by that I mean more 
than an average in good seasons. Now it 
has come to be a fond dream of mine that 
all reasonably good colonies having good 
queens can be brought to the swarming 
point by that time.” 

The poor seasons continued for many 
years in the clover region when comb honey 
was produced. In 1901 in a personal inter¬ 
view with the writer, James Heddon, who 
at that time was a leader in American bee¬ 
keeping, stated that his location had failed 
during the preceding 15 years, and that he 
had given up hope that the State of Michi¬ 
gan would ever produce another crop of 
honey. 

GOOD SEASONS ARE RETURNING. 

Gradually, however, the tide turned in 
the direction of better crops, as beekeepers 
learned to leave more honey in the hives 
and quit nursing .along little colonies in 
little brood-chambers by furnishing them 
food on the “from hand to mouth” plan. 
Gradually the colonies of better beekeepers 
have grown larger and larger until now 
even the 10-frame Langstroth hive has be¬ 
come too small in many cases to hold all 
the brood of a good colony at the begin¬ 
ning of the honey flow, and those who are 
using a smaller hive now usually expect to 
have two stories better filled with brood at 
the beginning of the honey flow than was 
the single story of 25 to 30 years ago. The 
comb-honey producers of the present who 
are still using the eight-frame hive do not 
find it necessary to take out empty combs 
from the brood-chamber and insert dum¬ 
mies to fill the vacant space. Instead of 
this they are making increase with the 
extra frames of brood left over when they 
reduce this hive from a two-story hive to 
a single story at the time the comb-honev 
supers are put on at the beginning of the 
honey flow. 

These changes for the better have come 
about so gradually that many beekeepers 
have failed to notice the changes in their 
management which are largely responsible 
for them, and some are inclined to believe 
that the seasons are growing better. Others 
say that we have developed better queens 
which can fill 12 to 15 frames with brood 
instead of 5 to 8 as during the days of ex¬ 
tremely small brood-chambers. 


But to be convinced that the greater 
amount of stores which the better beekeep¬ 
ers are now leaving with the bees is largely 
responsible for the better conditions of to¬ 
day, it is only necessary to visit a few of 
the many beekeepers who still compel their 
colonies to live from hand to mouth, for 
some have not yet learned the lesson from 
the period of depression from which our 
industry has not yet fully recovered. 

CORAL-BERRY. —See Buckbusli. 

CORN SYRUP.— See Glucose. 

CORN SUGAR.— See Sugar. 

COTTON (Gossypium ).—The number 
of species of cotton have been placed from 
five to fifty-four, but conservative author¬ 
ity admits of seven well-defined species. 
The number of varieties with English 
names is very large, but the common names 
give no assistance; they even tend to lead 
the botanist astray as to the origin of the 
species, e. g., a cotton called Siamese comes 
from America. Only four or five species 
are of interest to the beekeeper. The Asi¬ 
atic cottons (Gossypium herbaceum) are ex¬ 
tensively cultivated in India and China, 
and have been known for more than 200(5 
years. American upland cotton was long 
referred to this species by mistake. Tree 
cotton ( G. arboreum ), a taller species with 
purple flowers, is a native of Africa, but 
was held sacred by the Hindus of India 
and cultivated about their temples. The 
botanical name of the Egyptian cottons is 
uncertain, but by many they are considered 
forms of G. barbadense. 

Two species of cotton are cultivated in 
the United States. They are Sea Island 
cotton ( G. barbadense ) and American up¬ 
land cotton (G. hirsutum ). Sea Island cot¬ 
ton yields a very fine long staple (IV 2 to 2 
inches in length), but it is grown only 
along the coast of South Carolina and in¬ 
land in southern Georgia and northern 
Florida. Upland cotton (G. hirsutum) 
forms more than 99 per cent of the cotton 
crop of the United States. Two principal 
commercial types are grown in the United 
States—short staple upland cotton (fibers 
under 1% inches in length), which has by 
far the largest acreage; and long staple 
upland cotton (fibers U/g to lfl /2 inches 
long), which is largely confined to the Ya- 


25G 


COTTON 


zoo Delta, Miss., a few counties in South 
Carolina, and the Imperial Valley of south¬ 
ern California. Egyptian cotton, which 
has a very long staple (1to 1 % inches), 
is grown in the Salt River Valley, Ariz. 
Cotton was cultivated in Mexico and Peru 
at the time of their discovery by the Span¬ 
iards, and the American species probably 
originated in tropical America. The Asi¬ 
atic cottons have white seeds while the 
American cottons are black-seeded. There 
is a valid species of cotton indigenous to 
the Sandwich Islands and another to the 
Society Islands. 

Upland cotton ( G. hirsutum) is a peren¬ 
nial, but is commonly treated as an annual. 
It requires at least six months free from 
frost. The plant grows from 3 to 10 feet 
tall and bears alternate, palmate leaves 
with 3 to 5 lobes. The large erect flowers 
are 3 inches across and on the first day 
are a creamy white or pale yellow, but soon 
after midday they begin to turn reddish 
and on the second day are a deep reddish 
purple. The flowers of Sea Island cotton 
are yellow with a reddish purple spot at 
the base of each of the 5 petals. The 5 
sepals are united into a cup or calyx, and 
below the flower there is an involucre or 
whorl of 3 green leaf-like bracts. The in¬ 
volucre becomes dry and brittle and is 
often torn off with the boll by careless 
pickers. 

LONG STAPLE AND SHORT STAPLE COTTON. 

AVhen ripe the boll, or seed vessel, splits 
into 3 to 5 lobes, locules, or locks, contain¬ 
ing the seeds covered with long fibrous 
bail's or cotton, a provision for their dis¬ 
persal by the wind. A lock seldom con¬ 
tains more than 9 seeds. Cotton fiber is 
known as lint, floss, or staple and varies 
greatly in length, the greatest difference 
between short staple and long staple varie¬ 
ties being nearly an inch. When the fibers 
are under lVs inches in length the cotton 
is short staple, and ivhen more than this 
length it is long staple. In Sea Island cot¬ 
ton the staple or lint may be 2 inches long. 
The lint varies greatly in strength, and in 
color from white to yellowish brown. As 
the fiber dries it becomes flattened and 
twisted into a spiral like a corkscrew, when 
it can be spun into a thread, even by the 


fingers, since the spirals adhere to each 
other. 

THE COTTON BELT. 

Cotton ranks second in value among the 
ci’ops of the United States, and in the cot¬ 
ton belt its value exceeds that of all other 
crops combined. In 1920 the acreage was 
35,504,000 acres and the average annual 
number of bales produced during five 
years (1914-1918) was 12,424,000. The 
northern limit of cotton-growing in this 
country follows closely the mean annual 
temperature line of 77 degrees, and very 
little cotton is grown where there are less 
than 200 days without frost. There must 
be an annual rainfall of 23 inches. The 
cotton belt comprises chiefly eastern North 
Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, north¬ 
ern Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, the 
western lowlands of Tennessee, Arkansas, 
Louisiana, Oklahoma, and eastern Texas; 
the densest areas are in the Piedmont Pla¬ 
teau and Upper Atlantic Coastal Plain of 
South Carolina and Georgia, the Black 
Prairie of Alabama and Mississippi, the 
Yazoo Delta in northwestern Mississippi, 
the Red River Valley in Arkansas, and, 
most important of all, the Black Prairie of 
Texas. 

The thirteenth census gives the acreage . 
under cultivation in the southern States as 


follows: 



State. 

Acres. 

Bales. 

Virginia . 

. 25,000 

1,480 

North Carolina . . 

. 1,274,400 

665,130 

South Carolina . . . 

. 2,556,460 

1,279,800 

Georgia . 

. 4,883,304 

1,992,408 

Florida . 

. 263,454 

65,053 

Alabama . 

. 3,730,482 

1.129,500 

Mississippi . 

. 3,400,216 

1,127,156 

Tennessee . . . 


264,562 

Arkansas . 

. 2,153,222 

776,879 

Oklahoma . 

. 1,976,935 

556,472 

Louisiana . 

. 937,011 

268,909 

Texas . 

. 9,930,17'9 

2,455,174 


American upland cotton ( G. hirsutum ) 
is almost exclusively planted over this vast 
area. More than 600 varieties have been 
named and described, which are divided 
into groups according to the size of the 
boll, the length of the staple, and earliness 
of fruiting. The big boll group is the 
most popular and widely grown since, the 
cotton can be more easily and quickly 
picked. 

NECTARIES. 

The cotton plant has both floral and 
extra-floral nectaries. The floral nectary 














COTTON 


257 


consists of a narrow band of papilliform 
cells at the base of the inner side of the 
calyx. The five petals overlap except at 
their base, where there are five small open¬ 
ings leading down to the nectar. These 
gaps are protected by long interlacing 
hairs, which exclude insects too small to 
be of use as pollinators, but present no ob¬ 
struction to the slender tongues of long- 
tongued bees and butterflies. Trelease saw 
the flowers visited by many bees, and Allard 
saw honeybees, bumblebees, and solitary 
bees ( Melissodes ) enter the corolla. After 
the flowers have changed in color from 
pale yellow to red, they cease to secrete 
nectar, and bees pay little attention to 
them. 

There are two sets of extra-floral nec¬ 
taries — the involucral nectaries and the 
leaf nectaries. Below the flower there are 
the three leaf-like bracts called the involu¬ 
cre. At the base of each of these bracts 
there is a nectary both on the inner and 
the outer side — six in all. The three inner 
involucral glands are situated between the 
calyx and the involucre, and are present 
in both the American and Asiatic species 
of cotton, but are sometimes absent in in¬ 
dividual flowers. In form they are round, 
shield-shaped or heart-shaped. The three 
outer involucral glands are at the base of 
the bracts on the outside. They are en¬ 
tirely absent in the Asiatic cottons. Great¬ 
ly magnified, “they strikingly resemble a 
shallow round dish with the bottom covered 
by a layer of large shot.” According to 
Trelease the involucral nectaries secrete 
nectar abundantly, which in the daytime 
attracted bees, ants, and humming-birds, 
and at night two species of moths. 

The statement has been made that hon¬ 
eybees gather the surplus of cotton honey 
wholly from the leaf nectaries, but this is 
incorrect. Many beekeepers report that a 
large quantity of honey is gathered from 
the bloom. At Waxahachie, Texas, so lit¬ 
tle honey is gathered on the uplands until 
cotton blooms that it is necessary to feed 
the colonies. Late in the fall, 1909, at 
Trenton, Texas, cotton bloomed profusely 
from the middle of October until mid-No¬ 
vember and two supers of honey were se¬ 
cured. The bees were laden with pollen as 
well as nectar, and the queens laid as in 
the spring. Prominent beekeepers at Cor- 


dele, Ga., and Sulphur Springs, Ark., re¬ 
port that cotton blossoms yield a great 
amount of excellent honey. 

The leaf nectaries are located on the 
under side of the main rib of the leaves, 
and vary in number from one to five. They 
are absent from individual leaves and en¬ 
tirely wanting in Gossypium tomentosum. 
They are small pits, oval, pear-shaped, or 
arrow-shaped with long tails running down 
toward the base of the leaves. In the 
Tropics they are soon overrun and black¬ 
ened by a growth of mold. (Tyler, J. T. 
The Nectaries of Cotton. Bu. PL Ind. Bull. 
131, Pt. 5, 1908.) The leaf-glands seem 
to be most active at the time the leaf 
reaches full maturity. When the conditions 
are favorable nectar will collect on these 
glands in such large drops that it can be 
readily tasted, and a bee can obtain its 
load in a very few visits. Honeybees then 
neglect the blossoms, and honey comes in 
very rapidly. The honey secured from the 
foliage of the cotton does not differ either 
in color or flavor from that gathered from 
the flowers. Samples submitted to the 
United States Bureau of Chemistry were 
reported to be normal pure honey. 

COTTON AS A HONEY PLANT. 

The surplus obtained depends largely 
upon locality, soil, season, and atmospheric 
conditions. There are many factors which 
influence the nectar flow and cause it to 
vary in different places and at different 
times. One of the most important factors 
is the soil. Cotton is grown on a great 
variety of soils as sandy loams and clay 
loams. Rich alluvial soils and black prairie 
soils are admirably adapted to its culture; 
but, by the use of fertilizers the poor pine 
lands of the Atlantic slope and in the vicin¬ 
ity of the Gulf can be made to produce a 
crop. Lime seems to be required, since the 
Black Prairie of Texas, the most important 
cotton area in the United States, is under¬ 
laid by Cretaceous limestone. Little nec¬ 
tar is secreted by cotton on light sandy 
soils, and even in the black-land area on 
the lighter soils the plant is unreliable. The 
growth of the plant may be as luxuriant as 
on the heavier soil, but no matter how 
promising its appearance no cotton honey 
is obtained. A beekeeper at Levita, Texas, 
states that on the river locations in the tim- 


258 


COTTON 


ber region he never obtains any surplus 
from cotton, but that five miles southward 
on the black land of the prairie he secures 
a large amount of honey. On the lighter 
and drier soils of the uplands the color of 
the honey is reported to be lighter than on 
the bottom lands. 

Thruout the larger part of the Atlantic 
and Gulf Coastal Plain cotton does not 
secrete sufficient nectar to afford a surplus. 
Opinions differ greatly as to its value as a 
honey plant and are often contradictory. A 
series of accurate observations in the dif¬ 
ferent states by a flower biologist is greatly 
to be desired. In North Carolina the cot¬ 
ton belt, which occupies a portion of the 
Coastal Plain, is the poorest section of 
the State for beekeeping. Altho cotton 
covers over 2,000,000 acres of South Caro¬ 
lina there are no reports of a surplus from 
this source. At Cordele, Ga., from one to 
three supers of cotton honey may be stored, 
and in other portions of southern Georgia 
it is apparently of value; but in northern 
Georgia it is a minor honey plant. In Ben 
Hill County it was formerly an excellent 
source of honey, but since the advent of the 
boll weevil the cotton fields do not supply 
much nectar. In Alabama at Demopolis a 
beekeeper states that bees will’ not work on 
cotton if they can find anything else, even 
bitterweed. In Talladega County, north¬ 
ern Alabama, cotton does not yield a sur¬ 
plus but furnishes a part of the winter 
stores. A beekeeper at Greenville in the rich 
Yazoo bottoms along the Mississippi, a cen¬ 
ter of cotton production, is positive that the 
greater part of his surplus comes from cot¬ 
ton, but another beekeeper in the same 
town is just as positive that none of his 
surplus comes from this source. In west¬ 
ern Tennessee a part of the surplus is re¬ 
ported to come from cotton. In Louisiana 
bees are said to be seldom seen on cotton, 
altho it is the staple crop. In the Arkan¬ 
sas River Valley in Arkansas there is an 
immense acreage of cotton, and 96 pounds 
per colony in an apiary of 12 colonies was 
obtained chiefly from this source. In Pu¬ 
laski County at Sulphur Springs a great 
amount of cotton honey is secured. In 1918 
the surplus was 40 pounds per colony, but 
in 1919 only 20 pounds. In Oklahoma cot¬ 
ton ranks next to corn both in acreage and 
value. Temperature and rainfall permit 


of its cultivation in every part of the State 
except along the north border. A dense 
area occurs near the center of the State, 
and another in the southwest counties. The 
humid conditions required to stimulate the 
secretion of nectar occur only occasionally, 
and it is consequently a very unreliable 
honey plant. It is, however, frequently re¬ 
ported as furnishing more or less surplus, 
the flow in Love County lasting from July 
20 to September 30. 

It is in Texas that cotton rises to the 
rank of a great honey plant, where it 
yields nearly one-fifth of the entire crop 
of honey produced in this State. Altho 
there are 10,000,000 acres of cotton under 
cultivation it is chiefly in the Black Prairie 
that cotton secretes nectar abundantly. 
Either to the east or west of this belt the 
honey flow shows a marked decrease. In 
Metagorda County on the coast cotton se¬ 
cretes nectar well only occasionally. At 
Bay City cotton is not dependable, but in 
some seasons good yields are secured from 
it. At New Braunfels and northward to 
Waxahachie cotton is the main dependence 
for honey. “In an average season,”' accord¬ 
ing to Scholl, “a good yield may be ex¬ 
pected from cotton in the black land dis¬ 
tricts and the river valleys. Under favor¬ 
able conditions it is not excelled by any 
other nectar yielder in the cotton-growing 
belt. On poor soil and on sandy land it 
does not secrete nectar plentifully and in 
some sections under certain weather condi¬ 
tions not at all.” On the bottom lands of the 
Brazos River there are cotton plantations 
which are several thousand acres in extent. 
Cotton is the only source of nectar, and an 
average of about 75 pounds of bulk comb 
honey is secured annually; one season the 
surplus exceeded 100 pounds per colony. 
In 1919 one of the larger producers of the 
cotton belt, before the beginning of the 
fall flow, had taken off 20,000 pounds, and 
there still remained in the hives 10,000 
pounds to be extracted. For the fall flow 
5,000 pounds would not be an overestimate. 
Waco, McLennan County, is near the cen¬ 
ter of the cotton belt; and in this county 
and around Waxahachie more than 500,000 
acres of cotton are cultivated. The api¬ 
aries are numerous and often average per 
colony 60 to 70 pounds of honey. In Hunt 


COTTON 


259 


County, northern Texas, cotton is also the 
main dependence for a honey crop. 

HONEY FLOW. 

The honey flow may last from June until 
long after the first frosts, yielding in some 
localities as much surplus as all other 
sources combined. Even after the first 
frost, if there is pleasant weather, the bees 
may continue for two weeks longer to work 
upon the plants and make a large increase 
in the honey crop. Cotton yields best when 
the atmosphere is warm and damp. The 
yield is most abundant in the early morn¬ 
ing, and deci-eases toward the middle of 
the day as the atmosphere becomes drier. 
In the afternoon, unless the season is very 
dry and hot, the yield begins to increase 
again. During cloudy days or when the 
atmosphere is damp, nectar is secreted 
abundantly thruout the entire day. The 
flow has also been observed to increase to¬ 
ward the close of the season. 

COTTON HONEY. 

Cotton honey is very light in color and 
mild in flavor when thoroly ripened, and 
it compares favorably with the very best 
grades of honey. When first gathered cot¬ 
ton honey has a flavor very characteristic 
of the sap of the cotton plant itself, but 
this disappears as the honey ripens. During 
a heavy flow there is a strong odor in the 
apiary like that produced by bruising cot¬ 
ton leaves. At Trenton, Texas, in 1909, 
during a very long drought a very fine and 
pure grade of cotton honey was obtained 
from cotton growing on rich bottom land. 
It was so thick that it was almost impossi¬ 
ble to extract it, and entirely out of the 
question to strain it thru even a single 
thickness of cheese cloth. It was light in 
color, mild in flavor, and very heavy, and 
was considered superior to the famous hua- 
jilla honey. Ordinarily cotton honey gran¬ 
ulates quickly, and in the granulated form 
is almost pure white and very fine-grained. 

THE HONEYBEE AND THE COTTON-GROWER. 

How far is beekeeping beneficial to the 
cotton-grower by more effectively pollinat¬ 
ing the flowers and increasing the number 
of bolls? This is a question of far-reach¬ 
ing importance which deserves careful at¬ 
tention. The percentage of cotton flowers 
that develop into mature bolls is generally 


low, a great number proving sterile. The 
pei’iod during which pollination is possible 
is only a few hours in length. The flowers 
open soon after sunrise, and at midday 
commence to wither and close in the eve¬ 
ning when the stigma is dry. On the sec¬ 
ond or third day they fall off from the 
plant. The long staple varieties of cotton 
are better adapted to cross-pollination than 
the short staple. In the former the pistils 
are longer than the stamens, the stigmas 
standing 15 mm. (7/12 of an inch) in ad¬ 
vance of the anthers, while in the flowers 
of the short staple varieties the pistils are 
of the same length as the stamens, and the 
anthers come readily in contact with the 
stigmas. According to ft. M. Meade the 
bolls of the long staple varieties have 23 
to 45 per cent of aborted seeds, which it 
seems not unreasonable to attribute in part 
to imperfect pollination. He found by ex¬ 
periment that the bolls failed to set unless 
at least 25 grains of pollen were applied to 
the stigma. Even with this number only 
one or two seeds matured to each cell or 
lock, whereas the normal number should 
be 8 or 9. In order that all the ovules or 
young seeds may mature there should be 
over 50 grains of pollen placed on the 
stigma. In 1913 Meade performed the 
following experiment at San Antonio, 
Texas, to determine whether complete pol¬ 
lination would increase the number of bolls 
produced. A long staple cotton (Durango), 
in the flower of which the stigma stood 
in advance of the anthers, and a short 
staple variety (Acala), in which the stig¬ 
mas were on a level with the anthers, were 
selected. Two rows of each variety (or 4 
in all) were planted. One row of each va¬ 
riety was carefully pollinated by hand, the 
other row of each variety was left un¬ 
touched. The following results were 
noted: (1) The hand-pollinated rows were 
much more productive than the rows un¬ 
touched. (2) The long staple cotton (Dur¬ 
ango) received greater benefit (nearly 11 
per cent increase) from artificial pollina¬ 
tion than did the short staple cotton (Ac¬ 
ala). Insects were not excluded from any 
of the flowers and the weather was clear 
during the experiment. Meade concludes 
that growers of the long staple varieties 
might find beekeeping a distinct advan¬ 
tage to the cotton crop. The value of hon- 


260 


COTTON 


eybees in this connection is recognized in 
some localities. Unfortunately Meade’s 
death prevented further continuation of 
the experiments. 

THE IN.SECT VISITORS OF COTTON. 

Manifestly, as is easily proved by ob¬ 
servation, cotton bloom yielding little or 
no nectar will receive fewer visits from 
bees than bloom in which nectar is abund¬ 
ant. But the pollen grains of cotton are 
very large and the supply is ample. If 
there were many colonies of bees in the 
vicinity, the pollen alone would probably 
attract sufficient visits to effect pollination. 
At Thompson’s Mills, northern Georgia, 
Allard carefully observed the insect visit¬ 
ors of cotton. One hundred and twenty 
insects entered the flowers. Of this num¬ 
ber 45 were- long-tongued bees belonging 
to the genus Melissodes, 45 were honey¬ 
bees, 6 were wasps (Elis plumipes ), 16 
were bumblebees, and 8 were small soli¬ 
tary bees. At the beginning of the experi¬ 
ments species of Melissodes (M. bimacu- 
lata ) were very common in the cotton 
fields, especially on heavy red clay soils. 
At first honeybees entered the flowers but 
later confined their visits solely to the 
outer involucral nectaries. They were es¬ 
pecially common near domestic colonies or 
bee-trees. Many bees (1500) were ob¬ 
served to inspect the flowers without en¬ 
tering them, which would indicate that 
they contained little nectar. It would ap¬ 
pear from these observations that there 
were not sufficient honeybees in the cotton 
fields to properly pollinate the flowers and 
that the presence of more colonies would 
have been beneficial. It is evident that in 
order to pollinate the vast area of cotton 
bloom numberless bees are necessary. Sev¬ 
eral colonies should be located on every 
acre. Certainly the experiment is well; 
worthy of trial. 

COTTON IN THE SOUTHWEST. 

There is evidence that cotton was grown 
in Arizona by the prehistoric cliff-dwellers 
before the discovery of America. The In¬ 
dians and early settlers likewise attempted 
the cultivation on a small scale of short 
staple cotton. About 1900 a variety of a 
long staple was introduced from Egypt 
where in the valley of the Nile it had been 


grown successfully for many years. At 
the Government Experiment Station at 
Sacaton a new variety, known as the Pima, 
was developed from the Egyptian plant. 
No other cotton in the world has a greater 
length (1% inches) or a greater degree of 
fineness. In 1911 about 400 acres of Pima 
cotton were planted in the Salt River Val¬ 
ley. This was the beginning of the growing 
of long staple cotton as a commercial crop 
in Arizona. The acreage gradually increas¬ 
ed until 1917, when the supply of long sta¬ 
ple cotton used in the manufacture of au¬ 
tomobile tires became wholly inadequate, 
and the price increased to one dollar per 
pound. One of the large American tire 
companies in the spring of 1918 bought 
several thousand acres of land in the Salt 
River Valley and seeded them with the 
American variety of Egyptian cotton. The 
alfalfa growers ploughed up their fields 
and raised cotton instead. In 1920 about 
110,000 acres of long staple cotton were 
growing in Maricopa County, and it was 
expected that the crop would be 100,000 
bales. The average yield is one-half a 
bale per acre, but on fertile soil one bale 
per acre is not unusual. 

The high price of cotton also greatly 
stimulated its production in southern Cali¬ 
fornia; Imperial Valley, Palo Verde Val¬ 
ley, and Kern County are recognized as 
cotton-growing centers. In Imperial Val¬ 
ley, Calif., and Lower California, it is es¬ 
timated that in 1920 there were 120,000 
acres of short staple and 33,000 acres of 
long staple cotton. The total acreage in 
California was about 200,000 acres. It 
was demonstrated that long staple cotton 
can be grown satisfactorily in this State 
where there is a season of 250 frostless 
days and high temperatures occur while 
the crop is maturing. But the recent de¬ 
cline in the price of cotton has checked its 
cultivation thruout the Southwest, and 
many acres in the Palo Verde Valley were 
not harvested in the fall of 1920. 

Cotton does not yield as much nectar 
per acre as alfalfa, and, in localities where 
it has largely supplanted alfalfa, beekeep¬ 
ers are not securing as large a surplus as 
formerly. In the vicinity of Chandler, Ariz.. 
90 per cent of the alfalfa has been ploughed 
up and the land planted with cotton. In 
the Buckeye Valley alfalfa has been large- 


CUCUMBER 


261 



CUCUMBER. 

Staminate flower on the left, pistillate flower on the right. 


ly replaced by cotton, which here yields so 
little nectar that 2,000 colonies have been 
moved out of the valley.' The larger acre¬ 
age of cotton, and the longer blooming 
season will to some extent compensate for 
the decrease in the alfalfa acreage. 

ASIATIC COTTON. 

About two-fifths or 40 j:>er cent of the 
world’s cotton is grown outside of the 
United States, chiefly in Egypt, India, and 
China. India is the most ancient cotton¬ 
growing country, and five centuries before 
the Christian era the clothing of the peo¬ 
ple consisted chiefly of cotton garments. 
It produces about 18 per cent of the total 
cotton crop of the world. In Egypt, which 
ranks third in the production of commer¬ 
cial cotton, the crop can be raised only 
under irrigation. The land suitable for 
this purpose is restricted to the delta and 
a strip along the river about a mile wide. 
The Asiatic cottons, cultivated as a com¬ 
mercial crop, are varieties of G. herbaeeum. 
China produces about 16 per cent of the 
M T orld’s cotton; and Russia, Peru, and Bra¬ 
zil also yield a small amount. 


CRIMSON CLOVER.— See Clover. 

CROSS BEES. —See Anger of Bees 

CROSSES OF BEES.— See Hybrids. 

CUCUMBER (Cucumis sativus L.).—In 
the vicinity of pickle factories large areas 
are devoted to growing cucumbers. Two 
factories at Marengo, Ill., are supplied by 
600 acres which yield from 75,000 to 
100,000 bushels of pickles annually. The 
fields vary in size from half an acre'to 
three or four acres, and the ground is 
completely covered by the large heart- 
shaped leaves. The total number of acres 
cultivated for cucumbers thruout the coun¬ 
try must be very large. As many as 300,- 
000 cucumbers have been produced on a 
single acre, but this is more than double 
the average crop. 

In the absence of bees cucumber blos¬ 
soms, whether in the field or hothouse, 
remain barren. The stamens and pistils 
are in different flowers on the same vine, 
the staminate flowers being more abundant 
on the main stems and the pistillate on the 
lateral branches. The former are some¬ 
times incorrectly called “male” and the 




262 


CUCUMBER 



latter “female” blossoms. The nectar is 
secreted in the bottom of a cup formed by 
the fusion of the floral leaves at base. In 
the staminate flowers this cup is covered by 


A part of the “apiary” located above the wires 
some twelve feet from the ground. 

the fleshy expanded stamens, and access to 
the nectar is gained thru three narrow 
lateral passages between the anthers. 
When an insect inserts its tongue in one 
of these passages both sides of its head 
are dusted with pollen. In the pistillate 
flowers the pistil rises from the center of 
the cup. The staminate flowers are the 
larger and open first. 

In order that the pistillate flower may 
be fruitful, pollen from the staminate 
flowers must be brought to the stigmas; 
and in the fields this work is chiefly per¬ 
formed by honeybees, other insects than 
bees being of little importance. A market 
gardener in Manitoba states that during 
three years he was unable, without colonies 
of the domestic bee, to obtain more than a 
dozen cucumbers, and in the case of these 
exceptions the flowers were pollinated by 
hand. He purchased a colony of bees, later 
increasing them to eleven colonies. That 
year cucumbers to the value of $55 were 
sold. It may be regarded as an axiom in 
cucumber growing: No bees, no fruit. 

Cucumbers raised under glass must either 


be pollinated by hand or by. hives of bees 
placed at each end of the hothouse. In 
Massachusetts, Ohio, and New Jersey cu¬ 
cumbers are grown very extensively in hot¬ 
houses, and more than 2000 colonies of 
bees are required annually to pollinate the 
blossoms. A single grower is reported to 
have 40 acres under glass. Pollination was 
formerly effected by hand, but the bees 
have proved most efficient pollinators, and 
enormous crops of cucumbers are obtained. 
The cucumbers themselves are much more 
symmetrical in shape, bringing a better 
price. In the small greenhouses many 
bees are lost by bumping up against the 
glass. In the large ones there is very little 
trouble of this sort. See Fruit Blossoms, 
subhead “pollination op cucurbitaceous 

FRUITS.” 

The honey obtained from cucumber blos¬ 
soms is pale yellow or amber, and has at 
first a rather strong flavor, apparently 
suggestive of the fruit; but this probably 
largely disappears in time. In localities 


Looking down between two of the rows of cucum¬ 
ber vines growing seven to nine feet high. 

where there are pickle factories beekeepers 
find the cucumber a valuable addition to 
the honey flora. Sufficient honey for win¬ 
tering is often secured besides a small 
surplus. 

The cucumber has been in cultivation in 
















DANDELION 


263 


India for over 3000 years and was known 
to the Greeks and Romans. According to 
De Candolle it was one of the fruits of 


Egypt regretted by the Israelites in the 
desert. 

CYPRIAN BEES.— See Italians. 


D 


DANDELION (Taraxicum officinale 
Weber.)—Other English names are lion’s 
tooth, blowball, yellow gowan, and priest’s 
crown. It is widely distributed over Europe, 
Asia, North America, the Arctic regions, 
and in many other parts of the civilized 
world. At Medina, as is shown in the 
photograph, and in many other localities 
the flowers are in some years so abundant 
that the fields and lawns are an almost 
unbroken sheet of golden yellow. The 
effect is most cheerful and pleasing, and in 
its season there is no other wild flower that 
can vie with the dandelion for ornamental 



A dandelion lover. 


purposes on a large scale. Coming as it 
does in early spring, preceding fruit bloom, 
it is a most valuable plant for bees. Some 
seasons it furnishes not a little honey, and 
besides it affords a large amount of pollen 
at a time when bees require a rich, nitro¬ 
genous food for brood-rearing. 

The dandelion belongs to the Compositae, 
and is related to the hawkweed and chicory. 
The head or capitulum consists of from 
100 to 200 florets. The corolla of each 
floret is strap-shaped, but at base unites 
to form a short tube which holds the nec¬ 


tar. At night and in damp weather the 
head closes so that there is little visible 
except a protecting whorl of green bracts. 
The pollen and nectar are thus completely 
sheltered from dew and rain. In fair 
weather the hour of opening in the morn¬ 
ing varies from 6 to 8 or 9 o’clock, and the 
time of closing from 2 until sunset, accord¬ 
ing to the month and latitude. The flow¬ 
ers open much later in September than in 
midsummer, and in northern regions than 
in the United States. The dandelion often 
blooms a second time in the fall, but much 
less freely than in spring. 

As the nectar and pollen are readily 
accessible a great variety of insects are 
attracted, and more than 100 different 
species of bees and flies have been ob¬ 
served seeking the flower food of this spe¬ 
cies. The supply of nectar some seasons 
is abundant. The pollen is plentiful and a 
special source of attraction. The grains 
are large, many-sided, and spinous, and so 
firmly do they hold together that bees can 
carry large packets of them. 

In many widely separated localities a 
surplus of dandelion honey is not infre¬ 
quently obtained, and occasionally it is 
placed on the market. A beekeeper in 
central Illinois reports that about 10 
pounds of dandelion honey per colony was 
one season stored in the supers. In Colo¬ 
rado it is common for the hives to be filled 
with dandelion honey, and a few beekeep¬ 
ers have offered the extracted honey for 
sale. Finished sections can also be pro¬ 
duced. But most of the dandelion honey 
gathered is consumed in the hives before 
alfalfa begins to blossom. In many loca¬ 
tions it is more highly prized than fruit 
bloom. In Vermont, hive after hive is 
filled with dandelion honey; and, with the 
exception of the clovers, it ranks with the 


264 


DANDELION 



A part of a field of dandelion in full bloom at Medina. This, and other fields like it near Medina fur¬ 
nish considerable honey and pollen in early spring—just when they can do the most good. We do not find 
that the plant hurts the hay or pastures in the least. 


best honey plants of this section. Altho 
it does not possess a fine flavor, it is used 
as a breakfast honey. On many farms 
in Ontario and Quebec dandelion produces 
more honey in early spring than any other 
plant. A strong colony will store in the 
super from 30 to 40 pounds. On May 29, 
1916, the warmest day of the month, the 
temperature at noon being 75 degrees, 
there was, says Sladen, a gain of nine 
pounds and twelve ounces for the 24 
hours, by a colony on scales at the Experi¬ 
ment Earm, Ottawa, mainly from dande¬ 
lion. This plant is also said to yield a 


surplus at Fort William. It is apparent¬ 
ly rapidly spreading, both in Canada and 
the United States, and becoming yearly of 
more importance to bee culture. 

The dandelion is also a valuable honey 
plant in Europe, and is listed in the honey 
floras of Spain, Holland, Austria, Ger¬ 
many, and Norway. In Holland, in May 
the meadows are often literally covered 
with a golden carpet of dandelion bloom. 
In southern Germany it is abundant, and 
furnishes the first honey of the season. It 
has a deep-yellow color, and crystallizes, 
after extracting, in a week or two. Very 









DANDELION 


265 



A large specimen of dandelion blossom, buds, and leaves—life size. The blossom here shown is larger 
than the average. The usual size is about two inches across. 


little of it is left in the hive at the begin¬ 
ning of winter, which is fortunate, since it 
is too hard to be easily eaten by the bees. 

The flow from dandelion in May lasts 
for about two weeks, and is increased by 
a succession of warm days. The honey 
varies in color from bright yellow to a deep 
amber—a little darker than that of golden- 
rod. Comb built when bees are working 
on dandelion is a beautiful shade of light 
yellow, even the older comb becoming yel¬ 


lowish. When newly gathered the honey 
has the strong odor and flavor of the dan¬ 
delion flower; but when fully ripened it 
has an agreeable taste, altho persons ac¬ 
customed to a mild honey might consider 
it too strong. If the brood-chamber is 
crowded with it, it is likely to be carried 
up into the super, injuring the quality of 
the surplus. It is thick and viscous, and 
crystallizes with a coarse grain in a short 
time. It would seem as tho a variety of 











266 


DEVELOPMENT OF BEES 


this species might he obtained which would 
yield nectar freely over a wide area. 

There are several species of dandelion 
which, like the honeybee, possess the power 
of reproduction by parthenogenesis. The 
upper half of the unopened heads of T. 
vulgare, T. intermedium, T. obovatum, and 
of several other species, has been cut off 
with a razor, and all the anthers and stig¬ 
mas removed before they had ripened, so 
that fertilization was impossible, yet the 
plants developed perfect fruits. 

The dandelion has both beauty and util¬ 
ity, and an attempt to exterminate it, even 
if this were possible, would be a grave mis¬ 
take. “Of the attractiveness of the bloom 
there can be no doubt. Attentively consid¬ 
ered it will be seen that it is a model of 
symmetry.” It is of no injury in the hay 
fields, and as a pasture feed it increases the 
flow of milk and improves its quality. 
Tons of the leaves, both wild and culti¬ 
vated, are boiled as “greens” and afford a 
most palatable and wholesome food—to be 
had for the gathering. Large quantities 
are also salted for winter use. The roots 
serve as a tolerable substitute for coffee, 
and are reputed to be of medicinal value 
in cases of disordered liver. The seeds 
are eaten by poultry, and even the flowers 
are occasionally utilized. 

But more than one futile crusade has 
been organized against the dandelion based 
on the complaint that it is a pestiferous 
weed in lawns. However, a rich soil 
and a dense turf wull do much to eradicate 
or exclude it; but happily nature has made 
its wholesale extermination difficult. Con¬ 
trary to general belief, it can be killed in 
most cases if it be cut off level with the 
ground. If this is not effective a drop of 
kerosene applied with a spring-top oil-can 
will do it. If the dandelion is not invul¬ 
nerable, it is invincible. Says A. I. Root: 
“This plant has been called only a pest, 
but it is one of God’s greatest and most 
precious gifts in making our northern 
Ohio clay soil ‘a land flowing with milk 
and honey,’ and both at the same time.” 

DAISY. —See Asters. 

DEMAREE PLAN OF SWARM CON¬ 
TROL. —See Swarming. 

DEXTRIN.— See Honey. 


DEVELOPMENT OF BEES.— The lit¬ 
erature on the development of the honeybee 
available to the beekeeper is scant. This is 
especially true as regards the development 
in the egg (embryology) and the metamor¬ 
phosis. The origin of drones 'from unfer¬ 
tilized eggs has been much discussed in the 
journals devoted to beekeeping, but such 
discussion has, as a rule, contributed but 
little to our knowledge of the facts. This 
condition of affairs is somewhat surprising, 
considering the attention which has been 
given to the anatomy of the honeybee, and 
also to the development in the egg. The 
facts concerning this development are well 
known, having been decribed by the fol¬ 
lowing investigators: Butschli (Germany) 
in 1870, Ivowalevsky (Russia) in 1871, and 



Fig. I.—Group of tissue cells from the skin of 
a young salamander (greatly magnified). N, nu¬ 
cleus. Two cells are shown in process of division, 
and are indicated by their lighter shade. 

Grassi (Italy) in 1884. The metamorphosis 
was described in detail by Anglas (France) 
in 1900. 

Before taking up a description of the 
development of the bee, a few words should 
be said in regard to what the student of 
plant or animal life knows as a cell. This 
word has several meanings, but is used here 
in a restricted and special sense. All plants 
and animals are, without exception, com¬ 
posed of one or more cells. The cell is the 
unit of structure, as the brick is the unit 
of structure of the chimney, or the soldier 
of the army. Cells are commonly micro¬ 
scopic in size, so that it requires many 
millions of them to make up even so small 
an animal as a bee. A group of typical 


DEVELOPMENT OF BEES 


267 





Fig. 2.—-Three stages to the development of the egg (greatly magnified). The earliest stage at which 
the rudiments of the appendages are seen is represented by a and b; a, egg seen from the ventral (lower) 
side; b, from the right side; c, later stage, showing the development of the mouth parts, silk glands, etc.; 
d, embryo just prior to hatching, the development within the egg being completed; An, anus; Ant, antenna; 
Br, brain; 1L, 2L, 3L, thoracic legs; Lb, labium (lower lip) ; Lm, labrum (upper lip) ; Md, mandible; MT, 
malpighian tubules; 1 Mx, 2Mx, first and second maxillae; SlkGl, silk gland; Sp, rudiment of spiracle; Tr, 
trachea; VNC, ventral nerve cord. 


tissue cells is shown in Fig. 1. A cell may 
be defined as “a mass of protoplasm (liv¬ 
ing material) containing a nucleus.” Both 
nucleus and protoplasm are interdepend¬ 
ent; neither is capable of continued exist¬ 
ence without the other. The nucleus (N) 
is a body usually more or less rounded in 
form, containing within it a substance com¬ 
monly believed to be the bearer of the 
hereditary qualities of the individual and 
of the race. Every cell is to a certain ex¬ 
tent independent, carrying on its own vital 
functions, such as the assimilation of nour¬ 
ishment and the elimination of waste. In 
addition, in the higher organisms, it usual¬ 
ly has a special function; for example, 
the special function of the liver cell is to 
secrete bile, that of the nerve cell to trans¬ 
mit nerve impulses. All the cells in an 
organism are, however, so co-ordinated 
that the sum total of their activities is a 
unified whole, that is, an individual, capa¬ 
ble, under the proper conditions, of main¬ 
taining itself and contributing to the re¬ 
production of its kind. One property of 
the protoplasm and nucleus of a typical 
cell is the power of multiplying by self¬ 
division. This division always produces 
daughter cells, each receiving a part of 


the parent cell. In Fig. 1 two cells are 
in process of division. 

On beginning its development every egg 
is essentially a single cell. In addition to 
the protoplasm and nucleus of a typical 
cell, the egg contains also a certain amount 
of non-living material, yolk, which serves 
as a store of food for the developing em¬ 
bryo. Before it can begin development, the 
unfertilized egg or female cell must usually 
be first united with a much smaller and 
more condensed cell, the spermatozoon, or 
male cell. This cell supplies the male half 
of the inherited characters and also stimu¬ 
lates the egg into development. This phe¬ 
nomenon is fertilization. In certain cases 
eggs may develop without the stimulus of 
the spermatozoon, and they therefore in¬ 
herit their characters only thru the mother; 
this is parthenogenesis. 

The development of the egg or cell 
formed by the union of the male and fe¬ 
male cells consists in its repeated division, 
by which many cells, united together, are 
formed; the shifting and rearrangement of 
these to form organs and tissues; the grad¬ 
ual appearance of differences between the 
cells forming the various tissues and or¬ 
gans, so that the cells become changed or 














268 


DEVELOPMENT OF BEES 


modified in accordance with the function 
which they are to assume. 

The egg of the honeybee is shaped 
somewhat like a banana and is about 6-100 
of an inch long. One end is slightly larger 
than the other, the egg adhering to the bot¬ 
tom of the cell by the smaller end. The 
embryo is always formed on the longer or 
convex side of the egg, its lower or ventral 
surface directed outward, the head at the 
larger end. The egg is in appearance pearly 
white, and slightly translucent. It is cov¬ 
ered externally by a very thin but tough 
membrane whose surface is covered by a 
delicate network of ridges. The egg of the 
bee contains a relatively large quantity of 
yolk, the protoplasm being comparatively 
small in amount. On this account cell 
division is restricted to the interior of the 
egg, the cells thus formed later rising to 
its surface to form a layer from which all 
the parts of the future larva are formed. 

The first conspicuous evidence of the 
future embryo is the appearance, during 
the second half of the second day, of a 
bandlike thickening on the long side of the 
egg (Fig. 2). On this thickening, at the 
larger end of the egg the appendages begin 



a lai'va. Flnt, fore intestine; Hint, hind intestine; 
Mint, mid intestine; VNC, ventral nerve cord. 

to appear as rounded protuberances, the 
antennae (Ant) and the mouth parts (man¬ 
dibles and maxillae, Md. lMx, 2 Mx) being 
the first to appear. Behind them are the 
rudiments of the three pairs of legs (L 1, 
L 2, L 3). At about the same time the 
rudiments of the stigmata and tracheal sys¬ 


tem appear as a single row of pits on each 
side (Sp). The rudiments of the silk or 
spinning glands (Slk G) also appear as 
pits just behind the second maxillae. On 
the upper or dorsal side of the head are 
also seen two pairs of swellings (Br) which 
constitute the rudiments of the brain. At 



Fig. 4.—Four stages in the development of the 
honeybee: a, egg; b, young larva; c, old larva; d, 
pupa. 

this stage, therefore, nearly all of the im¬ 
portant organs of the larva are outlined. 
The changes leading to the completed larva 
are illustrated by Figs. 2c and 2d. In Fig. 
2c a number of important changes are seen 
to have taken place. The bandlike embryo 
has widened, growing toward the dorsal 
or concave side of the egg. The mouth 
(Mth) and anus (An) appear as deep pits 
at the two opposite ends of the embryo. 
They join with cell masses on the interior 
to form the alimentary canal, the parts 
forming the fore and hind intestines, the 
cell masses the mid intestine (Fig. 3, Mint). 
The mouth parts have changed little, but 
the upper lip (Lm) is now represented by 
a flap-like growth. The Malpighian tu¬ 
bules, MT, the excretory organs of the 
larva, have arisen as outgrowths of the 
hind intestine. The pits constituting the 
tracheal invaginations have enlarged to 
form sacs, and each of these in turn sends 
out three hollow outgrowths, one of which 
extends forward and one backward, to 
meet those of the neighboring segments, 
and one extends downward to join the cor¬ 
responding branch in the same segment on 
the opposite side (Fig. 2, Tr). The pit-like 
rudiments of the silk-glands (Slk-Gl) have 






DEVELOPMENT OF BEES 


269 


grown backward to form long tubes. The 
rings or segments of the body are now 
marked off by constrictions, as they are in 
the larva. In Fig. 2d the development in 
the egg is practically completed. The im¬ 
portant changes to be noted are: The dis¬ 
appearance of the rudiments of the anten¬ 
nae and legs, the joining together of the 
second maxillae to form the lower lip; the 
completion of the tracheal loops (Tr), and 
the development of the nervous system. 
The dmbryo has by .this time completely 
surrounded the egg, closing up the gap on 
the back as seen in Fig. 2b. The embryo 
next breaks the egg shell and becomes a 
larva, the development in the egg having 
lasted a trifle over three days. 

It is interesting to note that cleavage and 
in general what may be called “the prepa¬ 
ration of the materials,” from which the 
parts of the embryo are formed, consume 
from 42 to 44 hours, or over half of the 
entire period of development. After this 
the embryo develops very rapidly, as shown 
by the three embryos represented in Fig. 2. 
The embryo represented by Fig. 2, a and 
b, is about 45 hours old; Fig 2c, about 56 
hours old; while that shown by Fig. 2d is 
completely developed. 

The yolk, which forms the greater part 
of the egg, remains in the interior of the 
egg, the embryo being formed on the exte¬ 
rior and then gradually surrounding the 
yolk, the lateral edges of the embryo finally 
uniting in the dorsal mid-line. The yolk 
meanwhile is being used up by the growth 
processes and undergoes considerable 
shrinkage. Toward 1 the end of development 
it becomes enclosed in the mid-intestines 
and is finally digested there. 

In respect to their later development 
insects are usually divided into two classes 
—those with a complete metamorphosis 
and those with an incomplete metamor¬ 
phosis. The honeybee is an excellent illus¬ 
tration of the first class, while the grass¬ 
hopper is an illustration of the second. 
When the young grasshopper hatches from 
the egg it is clearly recognizable as a grass¬ 
hopper and would never be mistaken for 
another insect, since it resembles the adult 
in every important particular except that 
its wings are only short pad-like struct¬ 
ures. Moreover, its food and habits of 
life are those of the adult, and it faces 


the same difficulties and dangers. Its de¬ 
velopment into the adult is simple; it is 
little more than an increase in size. The 
honeybee, on hatching from the egg, is, 
however, quite a different creature from 
the adult, being without organs of locomo¬ 
tion ( legs), touch (antennae), or sight 
(eyes). Moreover, its integument is thin 
and not hardened as in the adult. The lar¬ 
val stage in insects with complete meta¬ 
morphosis is a short cut in development, 
by which the young insect is enabled to ob¬ 
tain food more advantageously and to grow 
more rapidly, and, in the case of the bee, 
is also protected from enemies. The bee 
larva is especially adapted by nature for 
rapidly digesting and assimilating food. 
As Fig. 3 shows, its mid-intestine or stom¬ 
ach occupies the greater portion of the 
body of the larvae. As one beekeeper ex¬ 
pressed it, “a larva is all stomach.” For 
this reason and- because of the rich and 
easily digested food supplied by the work¬ 
er bees, and also because the young or 
larval bee is not required to use up any 
energy in escaping enemies or in obtain¬ 
ing food, all its energies being bent on eat¬ 
ing and growing, it is enabled to complete 
its growth in a short space of time. This 
is accomplished in the case of the worker 
bee in a little less than five days. When 
the larva is first hatched it lies bent in the 
fomi of the letter C on the bottom of the 
cell. As it increases in size it becomes 
more tightly curled until, when about three 
days old or a trifle older, it is so large that 
it covers the bottom of the cell with its 
back against the wall of the cell and its 
two ends close together. It should be noted 
that a larva of this age is actually much 
larger than those commonly supposed by 
beekeepers to be three days old and is 
much too large to be used in queen-rear¬ 
ing. Notwithstanding its cramped position 
the larva does not alter its position in the 
cell, but remains curled on the bottom. 
Since the walls of the cell prevent further 
expansion in that direction the larva grows 
in the only other direction possible — that 
is, toward the mouth of the cell. When a 
larva is nearly full grown it fits the cell 
like a tight plug, and if it could be frozen 
or otherwise fixed in this position, when 
taken out it would present a veritable cast 
of the lower half of the cell, reproducing 


270 


DEVELOPMENT OF BEES 


its rounded bottom and its six flat sides. 
In fact, during the fourth and fifth days, 
the larva fits the cell so snugly that its 
removal is scarcely possible without severe 
damage to either larva or cell. It is thus 
evident that, during the later stages of 
growth, the larva is greatly distorted. 
When removed from the cell, however, it 
presents the appearance shown in Pig. 4c, 
and it is scarcely conceivable that such a 
plump-looking creature could ever have oc¬ 
cupied such narrow quarters. During the 
first three days of the larval stage of the 
worker bee, and during all of the larval 
stage of the queen, it is fed a highly nitro¬ 
genous food produced by the nurse bees. 
The origin of this food, whether it is a se¬ 
cretion from special glands of the nurse 
bees, or is regurgitated from their stom¬ 
achs, is not at present known. After the 
first three days, however, the worker bees 
are fed honey and pollen. When the larva 
has attained its full size, which in the case 
of the worker bee occurs after about five 
days, it is sealed up in its cell by the work¬ 
er bees, which place a thin cap of porous 
wax and pollen over the mouth of the 
cell. Next the entire interior of the cell is 
lined with a delicate but tough silken co¬ 
coon spun by the larva and secreted by 
special glands which become active at this 
time—the silk-glands (Fig. 2, c and d, 
SlkGl). To accomplish this task the larva 
has to turn lengthwise of the cell at least 
twice. At the time of spinning the cocoon 
a connection between the mid and hind in¬ 
testines (Pig. 3, Mint, Hint) becomes es¬ 
tablished, and the dark-colored residue of 
the food digested during the feeding period 
is evacuated on the bottom of the cell, usu¬ 
ally in its angles. Soon after the spinning 
of the cocoon, which consumes about one 
day’s time, the larva gradually becomes 
motionless, lying extended on its back, 
with its head toward the mouth of the cell. 
The larva now becomes a semipupa or 
pronymph. Its form is much like that of 
an old larva, but its color seems paler and 
less glistening. If touched a semipupa 
seems soft and pulpy, and if an attempt is 
made to renfove it from the cell it will be 
found very delicate and easily ruptured. 
After about three days in this stage, or 
four days after capping, the semipupa 
moults its larval skin and becomes a pupa, 


with the form and all the parts of an adult 
bee (Pig. 4d). These—legs, antennas, etc. 
—have been developing rapidly during the 
semipupal stage, but were covered and 
therefore hidden from view by the larval 
skin. On the eleventh day after hatching, 
the eyes begin to turn from white to pink, 
which color later turns to reddish brown 
and finally, on the sixteenth day, to black; 
the thorax at the same time becomes a light 
yellowish brown. On the nineteenth day 
after hatching the development is- com¬ 
plete, the young bee sheds its pupal skin 
and gnaws its way out of the cell. The 
duration of the larval and pupal stages in 
the development of queens and drones is 
different from those of the worker. See 
Bee Metamorphoses, in “Beekeepers’ Dic¬ 
tionary,” in the back part of this work. 

It is evident that, during the period after 
the larva is sealed up in the cell, the de¬ 
velopmental changes which it undergoes 
must be active and radical indeed in order 
to bring forth a creature as different from 
the larva as is the adult bee. The follow¬ 
ing is only a brief sketch of these complex 
processes. In general they involve a tear¬ 
ing down and rebuilding of many of the 
tissues of the bee as well as the coming 
into activity of portions of the larva which 
have been dormant ever since it left tbe 
egg, or even before this time. To the for¬ 
mer category belongs in particular the ali¬ 
mentary tract, which is literally tom down 
and cast away, being replaced by new cells. 
To the latter category belong the legs, 
wings, and eyes, which are developed from 
groups of cells whose activities have been 
held in abeyance during the larval period. 
These are formed from growth centers of 
the body wall which are formed before the 
larva hatches from the egg, but which are 
quiescent during the growth period of the 
larva. After the larva is sealed up these 
rudiments are roused into activity. The 
legs and wings are formed in pockets of 
the body wall, and, after the moult of the 
propupal skin, are pushed out by blood 
pressure from the interior, as the fingers 
of a glove may be pushed out by blowing 
into them. The muscles of the larva are 
partly torn down and replaced by new 
muscles, and partly persist as the muscles 
of the adult. The changes undergone by 
the nervous system and the trachea are 


DIAGNOSING COLONIES 


271 


much less radical. All these changes con¬ 
sume energy, which is shown by the fact 
that there is considerable loss of weight 
during the pupal period. This energy is 
stored up in the larva largely in the form 
of fat contained in the fat-body which 
surrounds the mid-intestine. 

DEXTRIN. —This may be regarded as 
an intermediate product between starch and 
the sugar dextrose. When starch is treat¬ 
ed with dilute acid, or acted on by heat or 
by certain ferments, it becomes soluble in 
cold water and loses its gelatinous charac¬ 
ter. It is then dextrin. Dextrin is found 
in all starchy foods which have been con¬ 
siderably heated, viz., toast and the brown 
crust of bread. It is produced commer¬ 
cially for use as an adhesive. Postage 
stamps and gummed labels are nearly al¬ 
ways coated' with dextrin. Dextrin is 
found to a large extent in commercial glu¬ 
cose or corn syrup and to a very small ex¬ 
tent in normal honey. Honeydew honeys 
contain larger amounts. See also Sugar. 

DEXTROSE. —This is the name of one 
of the five common food sugars. It is 
variously termed dextrose, starch sugar, 
corn sugar, grape sugar, or glucose. It 
occurs in honey, of which it constitutes a 
little less than one-half the solid part. It 
is also found in many fruits, Dotably 
grapes; hence the name, grape sugar. Com¬ 
mercially, it is to be found in invert sugar, 
of which it constitutes one-half, and in 
commercial glucose or corn syrup, where 
the proportion is somewhat smaller. It is 
interesting to note that practically all the 
starch we eat is converted into dextrose 
during digestion. See also Invert Sugar 
and Sugar. 

DIAGNOSING COLONIES .—The term 
“diagnosing,” when used in bee culture, 
applies to a method or methods of deter¬ 
mining the internal condition of a colony 
from surface indications, mainly at the en¬ 
trance, and without opening the hive. In 
the height of the honey flow, expert bee¬ 
keepers, when rushed with their work, can 
tell pretty accurately what colonies in the 
yard are or will be needing attention by a 
glance at the hive. The knowledge of how 
to do this enables the expert to administer 
treatment at once to colonies that would 


be likely to swarm and go to the woods 
during his absence, or which might other¬ 
wise begin to loaf for the simple reason 
that they would not have a single cell of 
storage space available. When bees are 
crowded for storage room they will even 
occupy cells that the queen would use for 
breeding; and the result is she is so cramp¬ 
ed for space in which to lay eggs that she 
is “honey-bound.” If the honey flow con¬ 
tinues there will not be young brood to 
come on to supply bees to care for the late 
flow. 

All this goes to show the necessity of 
giving the powerful colonies room when 
they need it. To go thru every hive, comb 
by comb, in the height of the season would 
be impossible; and so the expert beekeeper 
picks out by surface indications first those 
colonies that need attention at one or more 
of his yards, then, later on, takes care of 
those that are in no urgent need of care. 
But knowing how to pick out those that 
will swarm or waste valuable time in the 
height of the season, is a trick of the trade 
worth knowing. Even the -beginner who 
has only a few colonies will find that, after 
a little practice, he can pick out his best 
ones by looking at the outside. If Mr. Be¬ 
ginner is a professional man, busy during 
the hours of the day with other work, he 
can, at his odd moments, when at home, tell 
which colonies should have immediate at¬ 
tention. This saves his time, of which he 
may not have too much at his disposal. 

TO DETERMINE WHETHER A COLONY NEEDS 
ROOM. 

Now then for the “know how.” The 
most reliable indication of what a colony 
is doing or will do is the flight of the bees 
going in and out of the hive. If one col¬ 
ony, for example, has its bees pouring in 
at the entrance by the score, and coming 
out in the same way, and another one right 
by the side of it has only one-half or one- 
fourth as many going in and out, it is 
very evident that the first mentioned is 
very strong and will shortly need room, 
even if it does not already. The last-men¬ 
tioned colony may have a poor queen. It 
may have had poor food during the win¬ 
ter, or insufficient protection. As a nat¬ 
ural consequence it will probably have only 
about one-half or one-fourth as many fly- 


272 


DIAGNOSING COLONIES 


ing bees. It will not need more room, and 
for the time being can be allowed to take 
care of itself. The other colony, with its 
busy rush of bees going in and out, should 
be opened up. If it has little spurs of wax 
built along the top edges of the comb, if it 
is full of brood, and if, further, storage 
space is being cramped, another super 
should be added. It is possible, if the 
weather is getting hot, that the entrance 
should be enlarged. See Entrances. 

At the same time that the entrances of 
the strong flyers are being observed it is 
advisable to get back of the hives of such 
flyers, and by hefting see whether the hive 
is getting heavy. With a little practice 
one can get a pretty fair idea of the 
amount of honey in the hive by lifting or 
attempting to lift the back end of the hive. 
If the bees are flying strong, and the hive 
seems light, it will, of course, have plenty 
of room for the storage of new honey. But 
if it feels heavy, or too heavy to lift, then, 
of course, room should be given at once. 

In like manner the apiarist should go 
thru the whole apiary, walking down the 
rows, carefully inspecting the entrances, 
and hefting the hives. In five minutes’ 
time he can go thru 100 colonies, laying a 
stick, block, or a small stone as a distin¬ 
guishing' mark on top of the strong fliers 
and heavy hives. All others he will ig¬ 
nore for the time being. He and his men 
will then proceed to examine the indicated 
colonies first. These may use up all extra 
supplies he has brought with him, if it is 
an outyard. Later on, when he has more 
time, he can take care of those that are not 
flying strong to determine whether the 
queen herself is inherently poor or 
whether the colony did not have a fair 
chance at the start on account of insuf¬ 
ficient protection or poor food. If it is a 
nucleus or a late swarm in the fall, no 
matter how much protection it might have, 
it would have insufficient bees to protect 
it. 

At this point the beginner, at least, 
should make a careful distinction between 
the playflights of young bees (see Play- 
Flights) and bees that are rushing to and 
from the fields. In the case of the former 
the bees will be seen flying nervously 
around the entrance, some going in and 
some flying aimlessly around in the air for 


several minutes near the front of the hive. 
When busy at work going to the fields 
they will fly from the entrance directly to 
some distant point, as soon as they rise 
above surrounding objects. In the same 
way they will come in from the field going 
directly into the entrance, or perhaps 
dropping on the alighting-board or ground 
near by if heavily laden. 

Neither must the beginner be confused 
by a case of robbing and bees actually at 
work in the fields. When the colony is 
being robbed out, only one hive, or at most 
two or three, in the apiary will be in¬ 
volved. The sound of robbing is quite dif¬ 
ferent from the sound of actual workers. 
In robbing, the bees stealthily dodge in at 
the entrance as if they expected to be 
grabbed by the defenders of the home. 
Real busy honest workers going to and 
from the fields show no such dodging or 
nervousness. For the behavior of robber 
bees, see Robbing. 

HOW TO DETECT INCLINATION TO SWARM. 

A surface indication of natural swarming 
is a large bunch of bees—three or four 
quarts of them—clustered closely around 
the entrance of the hive during the middle 
hours of the day, with only a few bees 
flying to and from the field. This big 
crowd of bees out in front means nothing 
if the weather is excessively hot and there 
•is no honey flow on at the time. If the 
entrance is small* a powerful colony will 
cluster out in front during very hot weath¬ 
er, and it may do so during a honey flow 
toward night, but not usually during the 
day unless the hive is out in the open ex¬ 
posed to the boiling rays of the sun. In 
that case shade-boards should be applied— 
see shade-boards unde the head of Apiary ; 
and the entrance should be enlarged—see 
Entrances. 

If the colony persists in clustering .out 
in front during the time when other bees 
are actively going to the fields, and not 
many workers going in and out, it may 
indicate that the bees are preparing to 
swarm. An examination of the hive will 
probably show swarming cells more or less 
toward completion. Merely cutting out the 
cells may not prevent swarming. If the 
entrance has not been enlarged, treatment 
should be applied as recommended under 


DIAGNOSING COLONIES 


273 


Swarming, particularly under Swarming, 
Prevention of. 

During very hot sultry weather in the 
height of the honey flow,' half of the 
best colonies in the apiary may have a 
quart of bees clustered out in front at 
night. This indicates nothing abnormal; 
for when all the field bees are in the hive 
there is not room enough to accommodate 
them and yet allow for proper ventilation. 

When everything is progressing normal¬ 
ly, and the colony is doing just what it 
ought to do, there will be a contented roar 
at the entrance of each colony gathering 
honey. If a match be ignited and held 
near the entrance, it will be found by the 
direction of the flame, that the air is going 
in at one side and coining out at the other 
side of the entrance. The contented roar 
one hears in an apiary where the bees are 
evaporating nectar into honey can be ob¬ 
served distinctly as one goes down thru 
the yard. It is a kind of noise that is 
sweeter than music to the owner of the 
bees. They have toiled hard during the 
day, and are now working to evaporate the 
nectar that they have gathered. At the 
same time that they evaporate they are 
ripening and converting the nectar, or su¬ 
crose, into invert sugar, or honey. The 
mere fanning at the entrance only elimin¬ 
ates the surplus of water, and it is an in¬ 
dication that the colony during the day has 
done enough work to require night work. 
This contented roar that one hears in front 
of a strong colony occurs only during the 
height of the honey flow or during exces¬ 
sively hot weather, when there is no flow 
on. But the roar of honey evaporation, 
or nectar evaporation, rather, is much more 
pronounced than the buzz or noise from a 
hive on account of the heat. A colony can 
not stand a higher temperature, no mat¬ 
ter what the weather is, than 95 degrees F. 

THE PRESENCE AND KIND OF QUEEN. 

There is another indication of the in¬ 
ternal condition of the colony, and that is, 
the way bees carry in pollen. It used to 
be said that they will not bring in pollen 
if a colony is queenless. This is true only 
in part. When it needs pollen it will bring 
it in whether there is a queen or not. But 
a colony that has a good queen, and plenty 


of room for breeding, will require much 
more pollen than one that has no queen or 
a poor one. When it is possible to see many 
busy flying bees going into the hive, and 
a great deal of pollen going in, it indicates 
that that hive probably has a good queen, 
and that breeding is progressing in a per¬ 
fectly normal manner. Bnt when little or 
no pollen is coming in, and the bees are not 
flying much, it shows that the colony did 
not have a fair chance during winter or 
spring, or that it has a poor queen. On 
the other hand, the colony may have ever 
so good a queen; but if there is any large 
amount of foul brood, either American or 
European, there will be but little need of 
pollen. 

. DEAD BROOD AT THE ENTRANCE. 

If one can tell the difference between a 
young baby queen and young workers dead 
at the entrance he will be able to tell 
whether supersedure is taking place within 
the hive. If the old mother fails the bees 
will proceed to raise a number' of cells. 
The first virgin that emerges will be quite 
liable to puncture the cells of all of her 
rivals and sting them. These victims will 
be thrown out at the entrance, clearly in¬ 
dicating that some young miss is boss of 
the ranch. 

An inspection of the entrances will like¬ 
wise show, oftentimes, whether a colony is 
on the verge of starvation, whether its 
brood has been chilled or overheated, or 
whether there are moth worms in the hive 
When several full-grown larvae or perfect¬ 
ly formed young bees, brown or yellow, are 
found dead in front of the entrance, it may 
indicate any one of the possibilities just 
mentioned. When the bees are on the 
verge of starvation they will not only stop 
brood-rearing but they will carry out their 
young larvae. They apparently go on the 
principle that they should save able-bodied 
living bees rather than to lose all in the 
attempt to raise the babies. 

In early spring some of the young brood 
near the outside edges will become chilled. 
This brood will be taken out of the cells 
and deposited in front of the entrance. At 
other times, if the hive-entrance should be 
closed for a short time on a very hot day 
so that the bees are on the verge of suffo¬ 
cation, not a little of the brood will be 


274 


DIAGNOSING COLONIES 


overheated. That which dies will be car¬ 
ried out in front. 

When the moth worm is present (see 
Bee Moth) some of the brood will be de¬ 
stroyed along the line of the galleries made 
by the worms. These will be deposited in 
front of the entrance the same as larvae 
dead from any other cause. 

The presence of dead young brood out 
in front of the hive is always an indica¬ 
tion that something is wrong. When it is 
dead from overheating or chilling there is 
nothing that the apiarist can do, because 
the damage is already done; but when it 
is dead because of near starvation, colo¬ 
nies should have immediate attention. In 
the case of the wax moth, the galleries 
should be removed as soon as it is conveni¬ 
ent to do so. 

WINTER DIAGNOSIS. 

During winter and early spring one can 
often get a very fair idea of what is tak¬ 
ing place in the colony by entrance diag¬ 
nosis. If the front of the hive and ground 
in front are spotted with yellow, yellowish- 
brown, or brown or black spots, and if, 
further, there is a large lot of bees out in 
front with abdomens looking greasy and 
black and much distended, it shows the 
presence of dysentery, and probably no at¬ 
tention need be given, because nothing can 
be done, since the colony will die away, 
in all probability. Before that eventuality 
takes place, the entrances should be closed 
to prevent robbing. 

During late winter or early spring, in 
front of some of the best colonies may be 
found perhaps a hundred or more dead 
bees. If their bodies are shrunken, and if 
there are no yellow or brown spots, it may 
be assumed that the colony is in a pros¬ 
perous condition, and that the dead bees in 
front are only the superannuated that 
would have died anyway. Beginners very 
often ask, when they see dead bees in 
front of a hive, what the matter is. The 
fact is, there is nothing wrong. If, on the 
other hand, there should be a quart or two 
of dead bees, their bodies ill-smelling, it 
would indicate that the colony is pot win¬ 
tering as well as it should; but usually 
when there is an abnormal number of 
deaths, it is because of dysentery induced 
by insufficient protection or poor food, or 


by the well-meaning owner who is tinker¬ 
ing with his colony during midwinter to 
see how they are coming on. 

During late winter or early spring it is 
not advisable to open up the hives any 
more than is absolutely necessary. This 
“necessary” should be only when the col¬ 
ony needs feeding. 

To determine which colonies are running 
short, it is advisable to lift up on the back 
of the hive. 

ADULT BEE DISEASES. 

The presence of bee paralysis or of the 
disappearing disease can be determined by 
the behavior of sick bees in the grass near 
the entrance. Bees affected with paralysis 
have swollen bodies looking something like 
those that are affected with dysentery. Oc¬ 
casionally they will void a yellowish trans¬ 
parent fluid, but not an opaque yellow, or 
a brown or black substance such as ap¬ 
pears in the case of dysentery. (See Dys¬ 
entery.) Bees affected with the disappear¬ 
ing disease show no swollen abdomens. 
They will run at a furious pace in the 
grass, some of them crawling up on spears 
of grass and weeds, and finally dying. For 
particulars of how to treat, see Diseases 
of Bees. 

FOUL BROOD BY THE ODOR. 

The presence of American foul brood in 
an advanced stage can sometimes be de¬ 
tected by the odor at the entrance of a hive 
affected. When one finds, as he goes thru 
the apiary, an odor resembling that of an 
old gluepot, having some suggestion of 
spoiled meat, he would do well to place his 
nose near the entrance of some of the 
colonies. The author has on one or two 
occasions discovered the presence of foul 
brood by the odor at the entrance, even 
when an examination of the combs for the 
time being has failed to reveal any dead 
larvae in the cells. Such diagnosis for foul 
brood, however, is by no means reliable; 
but when the familiar odor is detected near 
a hive, all colonies near by should be ex¬ 
amined. 

Occasionally the old queen may be found 
in front of the hive dead. If it is during 
the spraying season it may be surmised 
that she was killed by one of the poisons 
used for spraying fruit trees, to kill the 


DIAGNOSING COLONIES 


275 


codling moth. The hive should be exam¬ 
ined at once, and either a laying queen be 
given or a ripe cell. 

CHECKING UP SURFACE INDICATIONS. 

So far, surface indications shown at the 
entrance will indicate to an expert, and 
even to a beginner who has made a study 
of the matter, how to determine which colo¬ 
nies will need attention first, or what is the 
probable condition of any or all of the 
colonies. Except in the case of hunting 
for positive evidence of foul brood, either 
American or European (see Foul Brood), 
it is not necessary to examine every square 
inch of comb or brood. A good beekeeper 
will diagnose his colonies first by the en¬ 
trance. He will then, if necessary, get a 
much closer knowledge of what a colony is 
doing by looking at a single frame of 
brood in the center of the brood-nest. A 
quick glance at this frame will show 
whether the queen is a good or a poor one. 
If in a little doubt after examining the 
first frame, he may pick out another frame, 
after which he will apply treatment if any 
is needed. See Brood and Brood-rearing. 

In short, when a beeman goes thru his 
apiary he should use methods which will 
give him a knowledge of his colonies and 
of what they are doing—in as short time as 
possible. In this way he saves labor and 
will increase his profits. 

The author has personally handled sev¬ 
eral outyards, largely by surface indica¬ 
tions, or, as here defined, diagnosing from 
the outside. By placing a stick, stone, or 
other identifying object on top of the 
hives that needed attention at once, as de¬ 
termined by surface indications, he used to 
manipulate only those colonies, and leave 
the rest alone until they could work up to 
a pitch when they likewise began to show 
they were doing business. 

DISEASES OF BEES.— A few years 
ago it was believed that bees were freer 
from disease than perhaps any other class 
of animated nature, for the reason that in¬ 
dividual members of the colonies were so 
constantly giving way to the younger ones. 
But this has been shown to be, to some ex¬ 
tent at least, a mistake. Apparently there 
are at least three or four distinct dis¬ 
eases with which the beekeeper has to con¬ 


tend ; and it is well for the beginner to 
have an idea, at least, of what they are 
like. The time to cure a disease of a 
contagious character is to take it at the 
start, or, better still, take precautionary 
measures such as will prevent its making 
even a beginning. 

IIOW TO AVOID DISEASE. 

Contagious diseases spread very rapidly 
among bees, just as they make rapid head¬ 
way in crowded centers of the human fam¬ 
ily. Unfortunately, bees are disposed to 
rob from each other during a dearth of 
honey; and, if the germs of disease or 
infection reside in the honey, they may be 
scattered over the entire apiary in a few 
days. Any infected colony is naturally 
weakened and discouraged, and as a result 
the bees do not make the defense that they 
would under normal conditions. During a 
dearth of honey the healthy bees all over 
the yard are quite disposed to rob the 
weak or the sick ones, so that the infection 
is scattered right and left. 

One of the best precautions against dis¬ 
ease is good food, and keeping all colonies 
strong. A healthy human being is much 
more able to resist the germs of infection 
than one who is “all run down.” A per¬ 
son, for instance, is not likely to come 
down with typhoid fever unless his system 
is greatly reduced. 

TWO CLASSES OF DISEASES. 

The diseases with which the beekeeper 
has to contend may be divided into two 
classes—those that affect the mature flying 
bees, and those that attack the brood. The 
latter are considered under Foul Brood. 

Among the diseases that attack the ma¬ 
ture bees may be mentioned “spring dwin¬ 
dling.” This, perhaps, should hardly be 
considered a disease, but it is a malady 
with which one has to deal. Still another 
trouble is dysentery. This in some cases 
may be a germinal disease; and in most 
cases assumes the nature of ordinary diar¬ 
rhea. See Dysentery. 

BEE PARALYSIS. 

This is a disease that is much more prev¬ 
alent and virulent in warm than in cold 
climates. Almost every apiarist in the 
North has noticed at times one or two colo- 


276 


DISEASES OF BEES 


nies in his apiary that show bees affected 
with it. Yet it seldom spreads or makes 
any great trouble; but, unfortunately, this 
is not true in some parts of the South and 
West. In the South it is known to affect 
whole apiaries, and seems to be contagious. 

SYMPTOMS. 

In the early stages an occasional bee will 
be found to be crawling from the entrance, 
with the abdomen greatly swollen, and in 
other respects the bee has a black, greasy 
appearance. While these sick bees may 
be scattered thru the hive, they will sooner 
or later work their way toward the en¬ 
trance, evidently desiring to rid the colony 
of their miserable presence. The other 
bees also seem to regard them as no longer 
necessary to the future prosperity of the 
colony. In fact, they will tug and pull at 
them about as they would a dead bee until 
they succeed in getting them out in the 
grass, where the sick bees seem willing to 
go and die alone. 

Another symptom is, that the bees often 
show a shaking or trembling motion. Along 
with this is an effort to scratch and tug at 
their abdomens with their legs as if there 
was an itching or irritation. 

TREATMENT AND CURE. 

In most cases, destroying the queen of 
the infected colony, and introducing an¬ 
other from a healthy stock, affects a cure. 
This would seem to indicate that paralysis 
is constitutional, coming from the queen; 
but in the South, where the disease is much 
more prevalent and destructive, destroying 
the queen seems to have but little effect. 
Spraying the combs with a solution of salt 
and water, or of carbolic acid and water, 
has been recommended; but these do little 
or no good. One writer recommends re¬ 
moving the diseased stock from its stand, 
and putting in its place a strong healthy 
one. The affected colony is then removed 
to the stand formerly occupied by the 
healthy bees. He reports that he tried this 
in many cases and found that an absolute 
cure followed in every instance. The ra¬ 
tionale of the treatment seems to be that 
the bees of the ordinary colony having bee 
paralysis are too much discouraged to re¬ 
move the sick: as a consequence, the source 
of infection—that is, the swollen, shiny 


bees—are allowed to crawl thru the hive at 
will. But when the colonies are transposed, 
the healthy vigorous bees of the sound 
stock carry the diseased bees entirely away 
from the hive. The sick and the dying re¬ 
moved, the colony recovers. 

0. 0. Poppleton of Florida had a large 
experience. One plan that he used is as 
follows: 

He sprinkled sulphur over the affected 
bees and combs, but not until all the brood 
in the diseased colony had been removed, 
and put them into a strong healthy one. 
Mr. Poppleton said that sulphur kills all 
unsealed brood and eggs but no harm re¬ 
sults from putting the brood among 
healthy bees, as he found the source of the 
malady is not in the combs or brood. He 
repeatedly put combs from colonies af¬ 
fected with paralysis into healthy ones and 
never (but once) did the disease develop 
in any such colony, and that was a year 
afterward. 

At first, said Mr. Poppleton, the disease 
seems to get worse instead of better. The 
colony will dwindle, but in two weeks there 
will be a decided improvement, and finally 
it will be cured. In many cases, he thought, 
it might be necessary to repeat the applica¬ 
tion of the sulphur about 10 days after 
the first time. This makes sure that, every 
bee has received a curative quantity of the 
sulphur, even if it were not in the hive at 
the first dose.* 

While the foregoing plan worked well, 
yet, because it is attended with a rapid 
reduction of the strength of the colony so 
treated, and because the disease has a ten¬ 
dency to run in certain strains that are 
very susceptible to it, Mr. Poppleton 
thought that, in the long run, it might be 
better to use the following plan: Form as 
many nuclei from strong healthy stocks as 
there are sick colonies to be treated. As 
soon as the nuclei have young laying 
queens, give to each, as fast as they can 
take care of them, one or two frames of 
the oldest capped brood from each of the 
paralytic colonies, and thereafter till all 
the brood of such colonies is used up. Next 
destroy the diseased bees and queen with 
sulphur fumes, fumigating the hives at the 
same time. 

* Always dust the sulphur on in the evening. 



DISEASES OF BEES 


277 


BEE PARALYSIS IN AUSTRALIA; DEVELOPING 

A STRAIN OF BEES IMMUNE TO IT. 

As already mentioned, bee paralysis 
seems to be more virulent in hot climates 
than in cold ones; and it also appears that 
some strains of bees are less immune to it 
than others. F. R. Beuhne of Tooberac, 
Australia, one of the most extensive bee¬ 
keepers of that country, has had a very 
large experience with it. But Mr. Beuhne 
has it well under control by developing and 
propagating a strain of vigorous leather- 
colored Italians. The yellow strains he 
does not find to be very resistant to the 
disease. It appears that, by paying care¬ 
ful attention to breeding, the tendency to 
contract this disease may be almost entirely 
eliminated, and Mr. Beuhne has succeeded. 
On one occasion he had shipped into his 
locality 50 colonies, and almost immediate¬ 
ly every one of them became badly affected. 
By killing off the queens and introducing 
his own stock he cured the disease. 

Repeated tests have shown that paralysis 
is never transmitted by the brood or combs, 
but that it is carried by the dead or sick 
bees. It is, therefore, important, in giving 
the combs to the nuclei, that there be no 
dead bees in the cells. 

ISLE OF WIGHT DISEASE. 

This is a condition that was first de¬ 
scribed from the Isle of Wight, south of 
Great Britain, in 1904. It continued from 
year to year until it came very near 
wiping out all the bees on the island. It 
was feared that it might get on the main¬ 
land of England, and in 1907 it did make 
a start there. At first but little attention 
was paid to it; but the beekeepers of the 
British Isles learned that it is something 
very serious -—- much more so than Euro¬ 
pean or American foul brood. 

A careful reading of the reports in the 
British Bee Journal, covering a period of 
ten years, indicates the symptoms of Isle • 
of Wight disease are as follows: 

A few bees will be crawling out of the 
hives the same as when attacked by bee 
paralysis, crawling up spears of grass; and 
if they can fly at all, it is but a few feet. 
In a few cases the abdomens are distended 
by fecal accumulations. In other and most 
cases there is no distention. Sometimes the 


smaller or the larger wings in some speci¬ 
mens seem to be out of joint. In bee 
paralysis the wings appear normal, but 
show a tremulous motion; but very little 
of this tremulous condition has been seen 
'in the Isle of Wight disease. The bees 
sometimes lose the use of one or more pair 
of legs or drag their hind legs, tho the 
others may be more or less vigorous. The 
bees become listless, and cluster in bunches 
around the entrance of the hive. In bee 
paralysis there may be somewhat similar 
clustering; but the bees are more scattered. 
The affected bees of the Isle of Wight dis¬ 
ease, from reports, are rarely black and 
shiny as in the other disease. In fact, in 
many cases they seem to be quite normal ih 
their appearance, differing only in their 
behavior. As the disease advances, the 
crawling bees will drag their abdomens on 
the ground, seeming not to have the power 
to carry them as they ordinarily do, owing 
to their inabijity to take the cleansing 
flight. As it progresses further, every bee 
in the hive will be involved, and finally the 
cluster will be reduced to just a very few 
in the hive centering around the queen. 
The queen seems to be the last one af¬ 
fected. 

The intestines of some of the infected 
bees are said by some writers to contain 
a large amount of undigested pollen. 
When this disease is contracted, the bees 
seem to have an unusual fondness for 
nitrogenous food, even gorging themselves 
with pollen of all kinds without collecting 
any in their pollen-baskets. This is doubt¬ 
less what causes the abdomens of some of 
the bees to be swollen. So distended at 
times are they that it appears to interfere 
with the proper action of the breathing 
spiracles. 

Sometimes, more especially in early 
spring, the affected bees seem to lose con¬ 
trol of the muscles of the bowel and dis¬ 
charge a liquid looking very much like that 
of ordinary dysentery. 

CAUSE AND CURE OF ISLE OF WIGHT DISEASE. 

The Isle of Wight disease is the most 
serious of any adult-bee disease known to 
bee culture—possibly even more serious 
than either of the brood diseases, bad as 
they are. While its ravages at present 
writing seem to be confined entirely to 


278 


DISEASES OF BEES 


Great Britain, there is, of course, danger 
that it may spread to other countries thru 
the importation of queens or bees from the 
British Isles. 

For many years the cause of this disease 
was unknown. In 1912 and 1913 it was be¬ 
lieved that it was due to a protozoan, Nos- 
ema apis; and this view was held until 1920, 
when Drs. Rennie and White, and Elsie J. 
Harvey of Great Britain (particularly the 
last named), discovered that the primary 
cause was not due to a protozoan or a bac¬ 
terium, but to a parasite or a mite, Tarso¬ 
nemus woodi. This parasite, according to 
their paper, published in the Transactions 
of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, Yol. 
LII, Part 4, attacks the bees thru the 
breathing orifices. To quote exactly it 
“occupies a very restricted region in that 
part of the tracheal system which has its 
origin at the anterior thoracic spiracle. In 
a well-established case of infection it will 
be found that, extending inward from this 
spiracle on either side indifferently, para¬ 
sites in all stages of development may be 
present in any part of this portion of the 
respiratory system, whilst the ill effects of 
their presence may be seen not only in the 
region of occupation but in the muscular 
tissue to which these extend. It is not an 
infrequent occurrence in advanced cases of 
the disease for these wider tracheae to be 
occupied by mites in closely packed forma¬ 
tion. All stages of development occur; 
e. g., ova, larvae, nymphs, and adults may 
be found together. In the smaller branches, 
frequently these are occupied as far as 
their diameter will permit, when a single 
individual may be found practically block¬ 
ing the tube, and sometimes a linear suc¬ 
cession of individuals may be seen in such 
a position. * * * Tim primary para¬ 

sitic invasion takes place thru one or both 
of the first pair of spiraeular orifices, and 
apparently thru these alone.” The infec¬ 
tion may be on one or both sides. Quoting 
again: “A single mite may enter the bee, 
or several may enter together or at inter¬ 
vals. * * * It is usually only during 

the latter stages of attack that the mite 
attains the smaller tracheae, the thoracic 
air-sac, and the vessels of the head.” 

In speaking of bees obtained from Italy 
and elsewhere, Dr. Rennie says: “In all, 
several hundreds of bees were obtained 


from this source. These, along with others 
obtained direct from Italy, were searched 
for the presence of Tarsonemus. The re¬ 
sult of these examinations was that the 
bees were found entirely free from the 
parasite. The evidence is so far satisfac¬ 
tory that it may be accepted that Tarsone¬ 
mus is not being introduced to this country 
in Italian bees. Smaller numbers of Dutch 
bees so imported have also yielded on ex¬ 
amination a similar result. Bees in limited 
numbers have also been obtained from 
Switzerland and from North America, all 
i of which were also free from this para¬ 
site.” On the question of whether bees in 
England are more susceptible to this dis¬ 
ease, Dr. Rennie says again: 

“It has been suggested that British bees 
of the present time are of a deteriorated 
breed, and have lost resisting power, so 
that Tarsonemus, a relatively non-patho- 
genic parasite ordinarily, is able to breed 
excessively. My provisional answer is that 
other racial forms are relatively affected. 
For example, Egyptian, Dutch, Punic, and 
Italian bees can be readily infected, and in 
these Tarsonemus multiplies with disastrous 
results, as in British bees. But the ques¬ 
tion of the ability of a stock to survive a 
prolonged period of Tarsonemus infection 
is not a simple one. Amongst other fac¬ 
tors it involves the question of relative fer¬ 
tility of particular queens, as well as that 
of individual tolerance of the parasite.” 

In a later paper published in the Report 
of the Aberdeenshire & Kincardinshire 
Beekeepers’ Association for 1920, pages 
19-21, Dr. Rennie goes somewhat more into 
details as follows: 

“The organism now known to science by 
the name of Tarsonemus woodi, n. sp.—to 
give its full description—which is invari¬ 
ably present in bees suffering from Isle 
of Wight disease, is a soft-bodied, bean¬ 
shaped, scantily haired, colorless, eight¬ 
legged creature, invisible to the naked eye. 
It belongs to the class, Acarina, and ranks 
amongst the tiniest of a group of animals 
whose popular title serves in our language 
as a common term to indicate excessive 
smallness. This particular mite, tho one 
of the minutest of its class, has a complex 
organization, and has much in this respect 
in common with the bees themselves. Be¬ 
yond a knowledge of external detail, of 


DISEASES OF BEES 


279 


little interest to the lay reader, we have not 
yet learned very much regarding its life 
and habits. The fully grown egg-laying fe¬ 
male, the largest of the species, is about 
1/130 of an inch in length. She lays eggs 
singly, at intervals, which almost immedi¬ 
ately after deposition are larger than her¬ 
self, and where a few of such females are 
present in the air tubes of a bee, these 
early become packed with rows of sausage¬ 
shaped eggs. Erom the egg there emerges 
a six-legged young form or larva, which 
in turn becomes transformed into an eight¬ 
legged immature adult. The adult female 
alone of all the forms possesses a breath¬ 
ing system similar to that of the bee itself, 
but with a smaller number of spiracles. 
She is a tracheate mite, while her mate 
breathes thru the general surface of his 
body. The male Tarsonemus is the small¬ 
est of all the forms and is not usually 
larger than 1/230 of an inch. It seems 
likely that the pairing of the mites takes 
place within the bee, and that subsequently 
the fertile females migrate to the outside 
and enter fresh hosts. These mites thus 
do not appear normally to exist apart 
from the bee for any great length of time. 
They are true parasites, breeding and in¬ 
creasing in numbers within it, feeding upon 
its blood, which they do by piercing with 
needle-shaped mandibles the breathing 
tubes, and imbibing the surrounding blood. 
This repeated pricking maintains a con¬ 
tinued irritation in the walls of the tra¬ 
chea, which results in their becoming thick¬ 
ened, blackened in color, and brittle in tex¬ 
ture. The air supply is impeded and viti¬ 
ated by the crowds of parasites, and it 
has been a matter of surprise to us to find 
that bees are able to work and live as 
long as they do whilst harboring these 
parasites. It is the disorganization of the 
colony, resulting from the prolonged in¬ 
fection of large numbers, which is the es¬ 
sential crisis in this disease, rather than 
the actual mortality amongst the bees, 
which may be a long-delayed event. 

“In the course of the investigations at 
present in progress, thousands of individ¬ 
ual bees have been examined during the 
last nine months. In every stock suffering 
from Isle of Wight disease, Tarsonemus 
woodi has been found in every sick mem¬ 
ber of these. These examinations covered 


bees taken from diseased stocks in all the 
years from 1916-1921. One of the most 
important discoveries has been that for 
some time before the disease becomes ap¬ 
parent to the beekeeper thru the familiar 
crawling symptoms, there may be a quite 
high proportion of infected individuals in 
the stock; bees foraging and carrying pol¬ 
len or nectar have frequently been found 
in this condition, both in stocks showing a 
proportion of “crawlers” and in stocks 
supposed to be healthy. 

“Such discoveries admitted of at least 
two possible interpretations. It might be 
that Tarsonemus woodi was not causally 
connected with Isle of Wight disease, but 
was merely a common and comparatively 
harmless inmate of the bee, or one which 
became established in an otherwise smit¬ 
ten bee. It may be mentioned that ap¬ 
pearances within infected bees are very 
much against such a view. On the other 
hand, there was the possibility that some 
time might elapse after infection was es¬ 
tablished in a stock, while the mite brood 
was slowly increasing in numbers, during 
which the infected bee was able to continue 
working. There would thus be a period 
of infection in which the presence of the 
disease was unsuspected by the beekeeper, 
because the bulk of the bees continued to 
work, a period of small undetected losses, 
whilst all the time the proportion of in¬ 
fected bees was mounting up within the 
stock. Results have shown that the de¬ 
gree and rate of infection within a stock 
depend in some measure upon the continu¬ 
ance of fresh infections from the outside, 
as well as upon other factors which need 
not here be discussed in detail. The real 
test lies in the continued observation of 
such stocks, and in all of those which have 
been under our observation, with the ex¬ 
ception of a very few cases not yet ac¬ 
counted for, the familiar symptoms of the 
disease eventually developed and the stock 
died out. More convincing evidence could 
not be obtained, and I regard the proof 
that Tarsonemus woodi is causally related 
to Isle of Wight disease as virtually com¬ 
plete.” 

A careful reading of the two papers 
seems to show that the real cause of the Isle 
of Wight has been discovered. It is en¬ 
couraging to know that so far the authori- 


280 


DISEASES OF BEES 


ties above mentioned have not found any 
Tarsonemus woodi in any of the bees from 
Italy or any other foreign country, includ¬ 
ing North America. So far, however, only 
a few specimens have been inspected from 
these other countries. Provisionally in 
America at least, it may be hoped that 
there is no disease of the kind here. The 
nearest to it that is found here is what is 
known as the disappearing disease. But 
this has one marked characteristic or symp¬ 
tom that is decidedly different from any 
found, in the Isle of Wight disease. Colo¬ 
nies infected with the latter seldom recover 
without treatment, and the disease con¬ 
tinues on unabated unless there is an extra 
good queen, in which case she may supply 
new bees faster than the old bees die off. 
In the case of the disappearing disease of 
this country, so far as known, the malady 
or disease or whatever it is, never lasts 
more than 10 days, at the end of which 
time the trouble disappears—hence the 
name, disappearing disease. 

It appears that the parasite, Tarsonemus 
woodi, may be found in apparently per¬ 
fectly normal or healthy bees. Bees car¬ 
rying the mites will go to the fields and 
apparently function as well as bees that 
are healthy or without the mite; but, as 
the parasite begins to develop, the first 
symptom of their host or victim will be 
its inability to fly, altho it may appear to 
be perfectly normal in all other respects. 
After a time it joins other affected bees 
out in front of the entrance of the hive, 
there to die. The disease, therefore, is in¬ 
sidious in that a beekeeper may have it and 
not know it until in the later stages he 
finds evidence showing disjointed wings 
and many bees crawling around in front 
of the entrance. It is rather remarkable, 
even where only one or two of the first 
pair of spiracles may be affected, that 
paralysis of one or both of the wing mus¬ 
cles takes place. Apparently the perfect 
functioning of the first pair of tracheae is 
necessary in order to insure a normal flight 
on the part of the bees. 

That the closing of the spiracles from 
any cause has a direct influence on the 
wings is proved by the fact that the same 
effect is produced by using any other 
means of closing these openings, such as 
warm paraffin. Experiments by Rennie 


have shown that, when these orifices are 
closed with paraffin, flight is made impos¬ 
sible almost immediately, altho the bee 
seems to be perfectly normal in all other 
respects, and may continue so for several 
weeks at a time. The fact that it can not 
fly, however, soon results in the clogging 
of the intestinal passage. This was what 
gave rise to the belief that the disease or 
malady was due to a protozoan or bac¬ 
terium in the intestines. Bees normally will 
not discharge their feces except in flight. 

In this country beekeepers will often find 
in the apiary crawling bees unable to fly. 
Such bees are not infrequently found at 
the beginning of a honey flow or during a 
temporary attack of disappearing disease. 
While it is possible that the parasite may 
be in this country, the presumption is 
rather in favor of the supposition that 
some foreign substances—possibly some 
dirt or pollen grains—have closed the first 
pair of spiracles, thus bringing on paraly¬ 
sis of the wings. Until more definite proof 
is furnished, this can be only a surmise or 
a guess. Until then the beekeepers of the 
United States should send all cases of bee 
paralysis, disappearing disease, and all bees 
around the entrance that are unable to fly, 
to the Bureau of Entomology, Washington, 
D. C. 

In the mean time the hope has been en- 
tei'tained in this country that the Isle of 
Wight disease can not thrive here. The cli¬ 
matic conditions in this country are so dif¬ 
ferent from those in Great Britain that a 
disease that might thrive in a damp or 
humid amosphere might find it difficult to 
get a foothold here. The papers given 
above would seem to indicate that the hope 
is not well founded, because the authori¬ 
ties state that other races of bees can be 
readily infected with the parasite, 

SUGGESTED CURE FOR ISLE OF WIGHT DISEASE. 

It lias been found that Tarsonemus 
woodi affects mainly the old or field bees. 
Whether the mite or parasite lodges in the 
blossoms that have been infested by other 
bees is not yet shown; but, in the absence 
of any evidence to the contrary, it may be 
inferred that flying bees going to a neigh¬ 
boring hive by mistake might carry the 
parasite from colony to colony. One 
would naturally expect, as in the case of 


DISEASES OF BEES 


281 


foul brood, that the hives near the one 
infected, with the entrances in the same 
direction, would soon have the parasite. It 
would also be inferred that the pests would 
be carried thru the agency of robbing. It 
might also be transmitted thru hives and 
appliances. 

Nothing in the report by Rennie, White, 
and Harvey gives a treatment or cure for 
the Isle of Wight disease; but it has been 
suggested in the British Bee Journal that 
traps might be used to catch the incoming 
bees of colonies badly infected, and then 
giving young vigorous queens so that the 
new young blood would take the place of 
the old. If all the bees carrying the para¬ 
site could be trapped out there would be 
a possible chance that their successors 
might be freed from the parasite. 

In the Bee World (British) reports give 
hope that the destruction of all bees in 
colonies affected with Isle of Wight dis¬ 
ease, and putting the brood and the queen 
in an incubator until most of the brood 
emerges, may effect a cure. As only the 
adults are affected, especially the flying 
bees, this looks reasonable and in entire 
harmony with the facts regarding the cause 
now believed to be proved. It is to be hoped 
that this cure will be absolute. If so, it 
will be no more difficult to apply than the 
cure for American foul brood, based on 
the same principle of the removal of the 
infected material. 

THE DISAPPEARING DISEASE. 

This is a malady v,ery similar to the Isle 
of Wight disease. It has been found in 
numerous apiaries of the United States. 
At one time it was believed that this might 
be Isle of Wight disease; but at the pres¬ 
ent time the evidence would seem to indi¬ 
cate that it is something else. There are 
two distinguishing symptoms that would 
seem to put the disappearing disease in a 
class by itself. As already pointed out, it 
disappears in from ten days to two weeks. 
This is something that seldom if ever oc¬ 
curs in the Isle of Wight disease, the 
ravages of which continue on indefinitely 
mitil the colony succumbs. Another marked 
symptom from that found in the Isle of 
Wight disease is the fact that sick bees 
with disjointed wings in front of the en¬ 
trance run like crickets, or as if in great 


distress. They keep up this mad rush until 
exhausted. From this time on the symp¬ 
toms are similar to those observed in the 
Isle of Wight disease. 

In 1915 (which was unusually wet) there 
was a scourge in this country, particularly 
around Portland, Ore. Many of the symp¬ 
toms were the same as those described for 
the Isle of Wight disease and bee paraly¬ 
sis. In the disease reported from the 
Northwest, it was stated that the brood 
itself was sometimes involved. But if there 
was a large loss of bees it is apparent that 
the brood would be neglected, and there¬ 
fore die of starvation. 

A condition similar in many respects 
was noticed down in the Mississippi Val¬ 
ley, in parts of Texas, California, and in 
some of the West Indies in 1915, and in 
the ’90’s in Florida; but as soon as settled 
warm, dry weather came on it disap¬ 
peared. 

Again in 1917 there was an outbreak in 
the United States. The author examined a 
number of apiaries where these attacks 
occurred. In a few cases whole colonies 
were depleted of bees. In other cases the 
owners of the apiaries reported that if the 
decimation continued there would not be a 
bee left in any hive; but fortunately the 
disease, whatever it was, after reaching a 
certain height would suddenly disappear, 
and lienee it is called the “disappearing 
disease.” The name seems to be appro¬ 
priate because the bees disappear as the 
disease itself disappears or the colonies 
dwindle down. During the last few years 
this disease has in many places materially 
cut down the honey crop and in some cases 
has wiped out entire apiaries. In 1919, 
Herman Ahlers of Oregon reported a loss 
of 400 colonies from this cause. This, in¬ 
stead of being the disappearing disease, 
might have been the real Isle of Wight dis¬ 
ease. The former, apparently, does not kill 
colonies outright. 

While the author was in California in 
1919 an outbreak of the disappearing dis¬ 
ease was observed in certain parts of Ven¬ 
tura County during the spring of that 
year. He was asked to investigate and 
give his opinion. An investigation showed 
a typical case of the disappearing disease. 
In ten days’ time all active symptoms of 
the malady had disappeared, and the colo- 


282 


DRIFTING 


nies assumed their normal condition with¬ 
out any treatment whatever. But as the 
disease or malady developed right in the 
midst of a honey flow the crop was lost. 

The cause of disappearing disease is not 
definitely known. In some cases at least 
Nosema apis has been found in the intes¬ 
tinal tract of dead specimens taken from 
affected colonies. The Nosema was at one 
time supposed to be the cause of Isle of 
Wight disease. It is probable, however, 
that disappearing disease has no relation 
to Isle of Wight disease, altho the outward 
symptoms are much the same. 

THE MAY DISEASE. 

In Europe, especially in Germany and 
France, there has been reported a disease 
not unlike the Isle of Wight trouble, ex¬ 
cept that it is never seen after early 
summer. In France it has been called 
mal de mai; in Great Britain, “May dis¬ 
ease; in Germany, Maikrankheit. They 
all refer, of course, to the same condition; 
but apparently the symptoms of this dis¬ 
ease are not the same as those of the Isle 
of Wight disease. It comes on in May and 
June, and then disappears. It is more in 
the nature of dysentery, and warm weather 
seems to abate it. It is probable that it is 
not the same condition as described for the 
destructive Isle of Wight disease. 

DISTANCES BEES FLY.— See Flight 
of Bees. 

DIVIDING. — Under the head of Arti¬ 
ficial Swarming, Increase, Nucleus, and 
Swarming, are shown various methods of 
dividing. But dividing, as it is ordinarily 
understood, has to do with the operation of 
increasing the number of colonies or stocks 
by taking part of the frames and adhering 
bees, with or without a queen, and putting 
them in another hive on another stand. 
Generally speaking, dividing is unscientific 
and wasteful, while artificial swarming or 
division on the plans described under Nu¬ 
cleus and Increase are scientific and prof¬ 
itable, because they are worked in such a 
way as to secure a honey crop as well as an 
increase in the number of bees or colonies. 
Dividing may be performed so as to ruin 
all chances of a honey crop, and in addition 
leave the apiary with a lot of weak nuclei ' 
in a totally unfit condition to go into winter 


quarters, for it is an axiom in beekeeping 
that one good, strong colony will secure 
more honey than that same colony unintel- 
ligently split into halves and put on two 
different stands. 

DOMESTIC ECONOMY OF THE 
HIVE. —See Bee Behavior, Brood and 
Brood-rearing; also Development of 
Bees. 

DRIFTING. —This is a word that has 
been coined by beekeepers to designate bees 
in the air that by mistake have gone into 
the wrong hive. Young bees in their play- 
flights (referred to under “Playflights of 
Young Bees and under Robbing), not hav¬ 
ing thoroly learned the location of their 
homes, will drift to a hive or hives where 
many bees are flying strongest, and go in 
just as if it were their regular home. Even 
the old bees, when all the hives are set out 
of the cellar, will very frequently drift 
into the wrong hive. The colonies that are 
making the biggest hubbub in front of the 
entrance will attract flying bees from their 
weaker neighbors. 

Drifting also takes place when a large 
number of similar hives are placed in one 
row. When the conditions at each entrance 
are practically the same, the bees become 
more or less confused. Sometimes drift¬ 
ing under conditions like this results in 
robbing. If there is any disease in any 
hive, drifting will carry it to the neighbor¬ 
ing hives. Under the head of Apiary is 
emphasized the importance of so placing 
the hives in a yard that each colony of bees 
can recognize its own entrance. The hives 
should face different points of the compass, 
except toward the north, and stand near 
some distinguishing object. Shrubs or 
bushes of different sizes, a tree, a stump 
here and a building there, all serve the 
purpose of giving each hive a location and 
an identity all its own. 

When the hives are placed in pairs there 
it not much danger of the bees of the weak¬ 
er colony drifting into the stronger one, 
for the bees seem to know the difference 
between right and left in going back home; 
but they do not readily distinguish their 
own individual entrance when the hives are 
painted the same color, and when each hive 
looks exactly like other hives in the row. 

The arrangement of the hives in the 


DRONES 


283 


publishers’ Cuban apiary, as illustrated 
under Apiaries, is very bad, and decidedly 
conducive to drifting. The hives would not 
have been so placed except that the apiarist 
was very mueh cramped for room. It would 
have been far better if he had reversed the 
entrances and placed the hives, some zig- 
zagwise and some square with the world. 

Many of those using the quadruple win¬ 
ter packing cases, having two entrances on 
the side, report considerable drifting and 
great variation in the size of colonies in 
the spring. This can be corrected by nail¬ 
ing a board three or four inches wide be¬ 
tween the two entrances. 

Drifting when taking bees out of the 
cellar can be avoided somewhat if the direc¬ 
tions are followed under Wintering in 
Cellars, subhead “Time of Day to Take 
Bees Out.” Drifting can be avoided when 
locating bees at outyards by moving them 
toward night, and placing them on their 
stands when it is too late for them to fly, 
being careful to place the hives so that 
each colony will easily distinguish its own 
hive. Next morning they will mark their 
entrances. 

WHY ARE NOT DRIFTING BEES STUNG LIKE 
ROBBERS. 

The novice will, perhaps, ask the ques¬ 
tion why, when bees drift into the wrong 
hive, they are not instantly killed by the 
guards at the entrance, the same as hap¬ 
pens in a case of robbing. When bees drift, 
as already explained, it is because a new 
condition has been created, or because the 
young bees when at play have not yet 
thoroly learned their location. When they 
go by mistake into the hive, they enter as 
tho it were their owrt hive. Robber bees 
(see Robbing) show by their nervous ac¬ 
tions that they are afraid of being grabbed 
by the guards of the hive they propose 
invading. Their guilty actions, seeking by 
stealth or quick dodging to get into the 
hive, betray them at once. On the other 
hand, the drifting bees show no such be¬ 
havior, and of course go directly into the 
hive as if they belonged there. 

In the case of bees just out of the cellar, 
many, rushing out into the air, scarcely 
know whence they came, and the result is 
they will return to the entrance of the 
strongest flyers, or where the greatest dem¬ 


onstration is being made, and so go in 
without arousing suspicion. 

When bees are out for a playflight there 
will be a big hubbub in front of the hive 
whence they came. Other young bees in 
the air, or in near-by hives, attracted by 
their antics in the air, are quite inclined to 
join in the fun, for fun it evidently is. 
When the frolic is over, nothing can be 
more natural than for the whole bunch of 
them to go into the hive whether they 
belong there or not. If the hives are 
properly located, there will be very little 
drifting as a result of playflights. 

DRONES. —These are the male bees of 
the colony. They are large noisy fellows 
that do a great amount of buzzing, but 
never sting anybody, for the very good rea¬ 
son that they have no sting. The beekeeper 
who has learned to recognize them, both by 
sight and sound, never pays any attention 
to their noise, but visitors are many times 
frightened by their loud buzzing. 

If the colonies are prosperous, one may 
find eggs in the drone comb of some of the 
best hives as early as March, but not, as a 
general thing, until April. The drone-cells 
can be told from the worker at a glance 
by the size. (See Honeycomb; also Brood 
and Brood-rearing, large cut.) Whenever 
eggs are seen in the large cells, it may be 
assumed they are drone eggs. It is not 
meant by this that the eggs that produce 
drones look any different from any other 
eggs that the queen lays, for in appear¬ 
ance they are precisely the same. They are 
the same in every respect, except that the 
eggs that produce the worker bees have 
■been impregnated, while the others have 
not; but more of this anon. The egg, like 
those producing workers, remains brooded 
over by the bees until it is about three days 
old, and then by one of nature’s wonder¬ 
ful transformations it is gone, and a tiny 
worm appears, a mere speck in the bottom 
of the cell. This worm is fed as before, 
until it is about a week old, and is then 
sealed over like a worker larva, except that 
the cap to the cell is raised considerably 
more; in fact, the cappings very much re¬ 
semble a lot of bullets laid closely together 
on a board. (See Brood and Brood-rear¬ 
ing.) The young drones will begin to cut 
the caps of these cells in about 24 or 25 


284 


DRONES 


days; the caps come off in a round piece, 
very much like those from a queen-cell. 

The body of a drone is hardly as long as 
that of a queen, but it is so much thicker 
thru than that of either queen or worker 
that no one will ever mistake him for eith¬ 
er. His two compound eyes are much 
fuller, his head is much thicker, and his 
wings larger. He has no baskets on his 
legs in which to carry pollen, and his 
tongue is so unsuited to the gathering of 
honey from flowers that he might starve to 
death in the midst of a clover field in full 
bloom. 

THE MATING OF QUEEN AND DRONE. 

The young drones are ready to leave 
their hive after they are about two weeks 
old*, and they do this shortly after noon 
of a warm pleasant day. They come out 
with the young bees as they play, and first 
try their wings; but their motions are far 
from being graceful and easy, and they 
frequently tumble about so awkwardly that, 
as they strike against one’s face, he might 
almost think them either drunk or crazy. 
It is not easy to decide how old a drone 
must be to fulfill the sole purpose of his 
existence, the fertilization of the queen, 
but it may be from 25 to 30 days. 

Some facts seem to indicate that drones, 
as well as the queen, may fly long distances 
from the hive—perhaps two miles or more. 
There is now satisfactory evidence that the 
meeting between queens and drones takes 
place not very high up from the ground. 
Several observers have reported seeing this 
meeting not far from the hives, during the 
swarming season. The queens and drones 
sally forth during the middle of the day, or 
afternoon, and in from 15 minutes to an 
hour, or possibly two hours, the queen 
returns with a white appendage attached 

*AGE or sexual maturity op drones. 

By a histological and anatomical study of the 
drone organs and their secretions, as well as by 
other means, Bishop (Bishop, Geo. H., 1920, Fer¬ 
tilization in the Honeybee) found that the drone 
is not sexually mature at the time of emergence, 
but undergoes a further growth period of at least 
nine to twelve days. During this period many 
changes takes place in the drone organs, especially 
up to the sixth day, after which the changes are 
slight. 

F. W. L. Sladen, Apiarist of the Canadian De¬ 
partment of Agriculture, conducted some experi¬ 
ments by carrying virgin queens and young drones 
to an island for mating. He reports that queens 
mated to drones under two weeks of age produce 
a large percentage of infertile eggs, thus confirming 
in a practical way the findings of Bishop. 


to the extremity of her body, that 
microscopic examination shows to be the 
generative organs of the drone. These 
facts have been observed by hundreds of 
beekeepers, and are well authenticated. In 
attempts to have queens fertilized in wire- 
cloth houses the author, after letting the 
queens out, has seen the drones pursue 
them until both vanished from sight. Still 
another fact: If one takes a drone in his 
hand some warm afternoon just as the 
drone has sallied from the hive, and presses 
him in a certain way, he will burst open, 
something like the popping of a grain of 
corn, extruding the very same organ that 
is found attached to the queen, and dying 
instantly. 



Drone bee enlarged four times. 


The manner in which the meeting of the 
drone and queen takes place has been wit¬ 
nessed a great many times; but two state¬ 
ments will suffice to describe the act. 

I have this day witnessed the act of copu¬ 
lation between a queen and a drone. About 
2:30 o’clock on the afternoon of Thursday, 
July 2, I was standing near a fertilizing-box 
filling a feeder when my attention was at¬ 
tracted by an unusual commotion in the way 
of extra loud buzzing, as of drones on the 
wing. I looked and saw a queen rapidly 
flying toward the fertilizing-box, evidently 
her home. She was closely followed by two 
drones, one of which turned and flew off, but 
the other remained in pursuit. They were 
flying not six inches from the ground, and 














DRONES 


285 


were not over eight feet from the fertiliz¬ 
ing-box when the act took place. It was 
done so quickly that I marveled at it, and 
I wish here to record the facts as I wit¬ 
nessed them. I could not see that the queen 
was flying in any but the usual way when re¬ 
turning to her hive, but the drone was un¬ 
usually swift of wing. They were both fly¬ 
ing rapidly ; and as they flew the drone made 
two circles about the queen as tho to head 
her off; and as these circles were made 
about the queen she rose slightly each time. 
Directly after making the second circle 
about the queen the drone flew at her like a 
worker with the intention of stinging in 
earnest. His abdomen was curved, and his 
wings rattled in about the same manner. Di¬ 
rectly the drone was in contact with the 
queen there was a sudden lurch sidewise, 
and they went together some distance into 
the field until I lost sight of them. As they 
flew together they much resembled workers 
when they attempt jointly to bear off their 
dead. I remained by the fertilizing-box 
perhaps three minutes, and saw the queen 
return and enter, bearing the marks of hav¬ 
ing met a drone. I still lingered by the 
box, and soon saw a worker bear out the 
telltale white speck. I later opened the 
box, and saw the queen bearing the usual 
thread from the male contact. A queen bee 
is very swift of wing; but I am convinced 
that a drone is ten times swifter; for to be 
able to encircle the queen in the manner 
this one did, such must be the fact. 

Swarthmore, Pa. E. L. Pratt. 

Mr. Pritchard thus describes it: 

I find that the meeting usually takes place 
not more than 15 feet from the ground. 

During the warmest part of the day the 
drones congregate in sheltered locations in 
such large numbers as to make a loud hum¬ 
ming noise. This attracts virgin queens out 
seeking their mates. In one instance in 
particular about 3 o ’clock in the afternoon 
a loud humming was heard near our apiary. 
Investigation showed that it was made by 
an unusually large collection of drones in 
the air. Unfavorable weather had kept them 
in the hives for two days back, but now the 
sun was out bright, and both virgins and 
drones were coming out in astonishing num¬ 
bers. When a virgin came from under the 
tree tops a number of drones (in some in¬ 
stances apparently 20 or more) would circle 
close about her, the bunch resembling a 
small but very active swarm. They would 
dash high and low for a few seconds when 
one of the drones would clasp her and they 
would fall together, the rest of the drones 
following them nearly to the ground. Four 
such swarms of drones were seen at one 
time after a queen. 

On two occasions I have seen drones meet 
with the queen close to the entrance of the 
hive. In both of these instances they met 
facing each other, clinging by their fore 


legs, their bodies being perpendicular. Si¬ 
multaneously a sharp sound like a miniature 
explosion was distinctly heard when they 
dropped to the ground. 

The manner in which the queen frees her¬ 
self from the drone is similar to that of a fly 
caught in a spider web, whirling around 
and around, while the drone clings to any¬ 
thing he can grasp. In this way the male 
organs are torn from him and carried away 
by the queen. M. T. Pritchard. 

Medina, 0. 

DOES THE' DRONE HAVE ONLY ONE PARENT ? 

One of the most wonderful things about 
the drone, or male bee, is that it is hatched 
from an egg that is unimpregnated. So 
wonderful, indeed, is this that the matter 
was for years disputed. By unimpreg¬ 
nated is meant that queens that have never 
met the male bee at all will lay eggs, and 
these eggs will hatch,-but they always pro¬ 
duce drones, and never workers. Those 
who have had the care of poultry are well 
aware that the hens will lay eggs right 
along, if no cock is kept in the yard at all; 
and a pullet will lay her full quota of eggs, 
even if she has never seen a male bird. 

Nearly the same is true with regard to 
the queen bee. If she fails to meet a 
drone during the first 30 days of her life 
(if the bees do not kill her before), she 
usually begins to lay eggs; but she never 
lays as many, or with the same regularity, 
as a fertile queen. If no cock is kept, the 
eggs a hen lays, if she is allowed to sit, 
never produce any chicks. The eggs laid 
by a queen, under the same circumstances, 
do hatch, but always produce drones. There 
is one more fact connected with the com¬ 
mon fowl: If a male bird is put in the 
yard with the hen for one day only, good 
fertile eggs will be laid for many days, 
possibly a whole laying. If a Black-Spanish 
cock should get among a flock of white 
hens for a single day, all the eggs laid for 
many days afterward will produce chicks 
with more or less black feathers on them. 
The point to be observed is that the eggs 
of even the common fowl are fertilized as 
they are laid by the hen, or possibly a few 
days before. With the fowls, one meeting 
with the male bird suffices for the fertiliza¬ 
tion of an egg daily, for a week or more; 
with the queen bee, for her whole life of 
three or even four years. 

The hen does not have the power of 


286 


DRONES 


laying fertile or unfertile eggs at will; but 
a queen bee lays both fertilized and unfer¬ 
tilized eggs, alternating from one kind to 
the other in rapid succession. Skillful 
microscopists have carefully dissected eggs 
from worker-cells, and found the living 
spermatozoa. These living spermatozoa 
were precisely identical with those found 
in dissecting a mature drone. Again: 
Every egg a queen lays passes a little sac 
in her body containing a minute quantity 
of some fluid; the microscope shows that 
this fluid contains thousands of these sper¬ 
matozoa. 

Again, the egg that is taken from a 
drone-cell contains no trace of spermatozoa. 
Therefore, like the unimpregnated egg of 
the common fowl, it should never hatch. 
Strange to say, it does hatch and produce 
the drone. The first glimpse one gets of 
the little bit of animated nature is the tiny 
speck alive at the bottom of the cell. Does 
he grow out of nothing, without parentage, 
at least on the paternal side? If his mother 
was an Italian, he is also an Italian; if a 
black queen, he is also a black. It is neces¬ 
sary to conclude, perhaps, that he is the 
son of his mother, and nothing more. The 
egg that has never been impregnated in the 
usual way, must, after all, have some living 
germ incorporated in its make-up, and this 
germ must come only from the mother. 

The reader will see how clear it is that 
drones are in no way affected by the fertil¬ 
ization of the queen; or, in other words, 
that all daughters of a purely fertilized 
Italian queen produce drones absolutely 
pure whether they have been fertilized by 
a black drone or not. 

drones from worker bees. 

Drones are also. hatched from eggs laid 
by worker bees. These drones are usually 
smaller in size than those from a queen, 
because they are generally reared in 
worker-cells, and the question as to whether 
they are capable of fertilizing queens, so 
as to be of some value, like other drones, 
is one that has never been decided. Some 
facts have been brought to light that seem 
to offer good evidence on each side of the 
question; but, so far, there is nothing very 
definite. 

COST OF REARING MANY DRONES. 

Until the invention and general adoption 


of foundation, there was no easy way of 
repressing the production of drones in far 
greater numbers than could ever be desir¬ 
able. (See Comb Foundation.) Since 
the introduction of that article, it is found 
to be quite an easy matter to make almost 
every cell in the hive • a worker-cell. On 
the other hand, one can have a hive entirely 
filled with drone comb, and a good queen 
could be induced to raise nearly, if not 
quite, a full quart of drones at a time. By 
this means one can have his drones raised 
from such stock as he chooses, and he can 
save the vast amount of honey that has so 
long been wasted by rearing an unneces¬ 
sary number of drones. 

As many as several pounds of drone 
larvae have been found in a single hive in 
which no foundation has been used; and, 
to save the honey they would consume, it 
is customary to shave their heads off with 
a very sharp knife. This is certainly rather 
expensive business. 

Since the life of every colony depends 
on the mating of its queen, nature is very 
lavish in providing a great number of 
drones in order that the virgin may be suc¬ 
cessful in her bridal flight, even tho there 
are very few bees in the immediate vicinity. 
But where several colonies are kept in one 
apiary, and especially where they are run 
for honey production, the rearing of so 
many drones is an unnecessary expense, 
the cost of which is nicely shown in an 
article written by G. M. Doolittle, in which 
he says: 

Taken in round numbers, a square foot of 
comb will give 8000 workers or about 5000 
drones. It takes 24 days to perfect the 
drones while the workers will emerge in 21 
days from the laying of the egg. And it will 
take about the same amount of food for the 
rearing of each, since both occupy the same 
space; and when all these 8000 workers have 
emerged from this foot of comb we have a 
fair-sized swarm of honey-gatherers added 
to the other forces of the hive, which will 
almost if not quite turn failure into a suc¬ 
cessful surplus. 

This general subject is covered in Combs 
and in a more technical article called Par¬ 
thenogenesis elsewhere in this book, and 
also under head of Queens. 

REARING DRONES OUT OF SEASON. 

When the honey flow is drawing to a 
close, and the bees may be expected to be- 


DRONES 


287 



THE LAMENT OP THE DRONES. 


Grace Allen, Nashville, Tenn. 


No more? 

Not ever, ever more within the hive 

No more to feel its friendly shelter ’round? 

No more to share its pulsing peace, alive 
With vibrant hum of motion and of sound? 
And we so powerful-winged and light of heart 1 
Of all this life we love are we a part 
No more? 

No more. 

Not ever, ever more within the hive. 

An unimaginable end has come. 

The things are turning dead that were alive 
And all the singing voices turning dumb 
And Life herself, who one time bade us be, 

Has turned away her eyes, which we shall see 
No more. 


gin disposing of their drones, take frames 
containing drone brood from the colonies 
having the best queens to breed from, and 
place them in a strong colony. The colony 
should be made and kept queenless as long 
as it is desirable to have drones in the 
yard; or, if not made queenless, should be 
given one pint or more of syrup (two parts 
of water to one of sugar) every day as 
long as drones are needed. The feeding 
must be kept up, for bees are very easily 
discouraged; and if a stoppage occurs in 
the daily supplies they will not hesitate to 
pull the young drones out of their cells 
and sacrifice them without mercy. 

DRONES FROM DRONE-LAYERS. 

Queen-breeders find that one or more 
drone-layers of good stock, rearing fully 
developed drones, if supplied with plenty 
of worker brood, will furnish a fine lot of 
nice drones in and out of season; but 
drones from laying workers, or from queens 
that have never been fertilized, probably 


And this the end ? 

No end but this for those uncounted days 
Of banqueting, or those mad hours of bliss 
We went careening, careless thru the ways 
Of miracle and light? No end but this? 

No end but this. No proud sustaining thought 
Of deed with rapture or with patience wrought— 
No end but this. 

More and more 

The dripping night that stalks without the hive 
Draws round us dread and ghostly, grim and 
stark; 

Within, the deepest shadows are alive 

With warmth and fragrance, and the very dark 
Dreams day to come. But tho the great sun burns 
A million dawns awake, the day returns 
To us, no more—no more. 


should be avoided. Drones from queens 
that have once laid worker eggs, and then 
failed, are as good as the drones from any 
queen. 

DESTRUCTION OP DRONES IN THE FALL. 

This does not necessarily occur in the 
fall, but may take place at any time in the 
summer. Drones have been killed off be¬ 
tween apple bloom and white clover, only 
because supplies ceased, causing the bees 
to become discouraged and give up swarm¬ 
ing for the time being. There is no way 
in which one can tell so well that the yield 
of honey has ceased as by the behavior of 
the bees toward their drones. When, in 
the midst of the honey season, a worker is 
seen buzzing along on the back of a drone 
that seems to be doing his best to get away 
from the hive, it may be concluded that the 
yield of honey is failing. So far as known, 
bees do not sting drones, but they some¬ 
times pretend to do so. It is probable that 
it is only a feint to drive them away. The 











288 


DRONES 


poor drone, at such times, after vainly try¬ 
ing to go back into the hive, will sometimes 
take wing and soar away off in the air, 
only to return after a time to be repulsed 
again, until, thru weakness perhaps, and 
want of food, he flutters hopelessly in the 
dust, and so submits to the fate that seems 
to be a part of the inexorable law of nature 
and of his being. 

DRONES WITH HEADS OF DIFFERENT COLORS. 

This is a queer feature in natural history. 
Almost every summer some one writes or 
sends specimens of drones with heads of 
different colors. The matter has been re¬ 
ported and commented on at different times 
in Gleanings in Bee Culture. Not only are 
drones with white heads occasionally 
found, but also with heads of a cherry 
color; again, of a bright green, and at 
other times yellow. Why should this pecu¬ 
liarity show itself in the drones more than 
in the queens and workers? Again, why 
should heads be the subject of these bright 
rainbow colors? See Hermaphrodite 
Bees. 

RESTRAINING UNDESIRABLE DRONES. 

Drones undesirable fot breeding purposes 
may be prevented from going out to meet 
the queens, by keeping them from going out 
of the hive, or by letting them go out into 
a cage thru which workers can pass and 
they cannot. This is done by taking advan¬ 
tage of the fact that a worker bee will 
pass readily thru slots in perforated metal 
(or between bars properly spaced) where 
a drone cannot. 

THE PROPER SIZE FOR THE PERFORATIONS. 

The oblong holes must be of such a size 
as to permit the easy passage of workers, 
but exclude not only drones but even 



Perforated zinc. 


queens (see Extracted Honey and 
Swarming). It is no great task to make 
the perforations drone-excluding; but to 


make them queen-ex eluding at the same 
time, and yet not hinder the easy passage 
of workers, requires a very nice adjustment 
in the width of the perforations. The first 
sheet of perforated zinc was cut in Eng¬ 
land, and imported to this country. This 
had perforations 18-100 of an inch in 
width. While this answered a most excel¬ 
lent purpose, a few claimed that queens 
would occasionally get thru it. To obviate 
this, zinc was made with the perforations 
a little narrower. 

The width of this was 5-32 or 16-100 of 
an inch. While no queen succeeded in get- 



Wood and wire honey-board. 

ting thru this, reports, as well as the 
author’s experience, showed that this size 
was too narrow. It not only proved to’ be 
a great hindrance to the workers when 
their honey-sacs were empty, but, when 
gorged with honey, they were scarcely able, 
if at all, to pass thru. Later, perforated 
zinc was made in this country on a different 
pattern, but with perforations exactly 163- 
1000 of an inch in width, or a trifle smaller 
than the foreign. Years of experience 
have shown that this is right for perfor¬ 
ated metal but too wide for wire bars. 

In 1908 there was put on the market a 
new form of queen-excluder consisting of 
wire bars held at the required distances 
apart by means of soft-metal cross-ties at 
eyery two or three inches. These bars con¬ 
sist of No. 14 hard-drawn galvanized wire 
that has been straightened in a wire- 
straightener so that it is as true as a die. 
Contrary to what one might expect, the 
spaces between these bars are more exact 
than the width of the various perforations 
in sheet metal. In the process of making, 
the bars are laid in metal forms Raving 



















DRONES 


289 


grooves that are spaced exactly right, and 
then a soft metal in a molten state is made 
to flow in certain cross-grooves of the 
metal form. As the metal cools almost in¬ 
stantly, the wires are held at exactly the 
right intervals. The smooth rounding 
edges of the bars afford less obstruction to 
the bees passing and repassing, and prac¬ 
tical tests show that this form of excluder 
is much superior to the old perforated 
metal. On account of the rounding smooth 
edges of the wires, they must be slightly 
closer or 162-1000 of an inch. 



Full-sized wire-excluder. 


In the manufacture of the perforated 
zinc, unless the dies are very sharp, there 
will be a slight rough burr edge on the 
under side of the sheet. It is impossible 
to remove this edge without reducing the 
width of the perforation. For this reason 
the wire excluder is superseding the other 
form of perforated zinc. 

DRONE-EXCLUDING ENTRANCE-GUARDS. 

If a strip of perforated zinc or wire 
excluder is placed over the entrance, the 
worker bees can go out, but the drones 
cannot. 



Wire entrance-guard. 


When it is desirable to get the drones all 
out of a hive without permitting any to get 
back again, the guard is put over the en¬ 
trance and all the bees are shaken in front 
of the hive. The workers will, of course, 
crawl back on the combs; but the drones 
will have to stay out, and the queen* too, 

*This method is sometimes used to catch the 
queen in a colony of black bees. 


unless she is put in the hive. In the 
morning, when the drones are stiffened 
with cold, they may be fed to the chickens 
or otherwise destroyed. 



The drone-excluder just described is not 
automatic. Accordingly, Henry Alley of 
Wenham, Mass., devised the one shown 
next. 

This is similar to the one just described, 
only it has a wire-cloth cone in the top. The 
drones, after making a fruitless attempt to 



Perforated zinc Alley trap. 


pass the metal, will enter the wire-cloth 
cone in the top, and escape; however, none 
will go back the way they came, but will 
huddle together outside and await their 
fate. 



Wire and zinc Alley trap. 


If it is desirable to get the drones into a 
box, so they may be carried to some other 
apiary, for instance, a cage is made with 

























































290 


DYSENTERY 


an upper story, and a couple of these wire 
cones conduct the drones “upstairs.” If 
any worker bees should go up too, they can 



Manner of attaching wire Alley trap. 

readily go up thru the perforated zinc. 
This latter arrangement is shown in the 
cut above. 

DYSENTERY. —This is really a form 
of diarrhea that afflicts bees. It is not a 
disease as would be the case in real dys-- 
entery, but a functional disorder due to 
too long retention of the feces, bad food 
or improper protection, or both. The term 
“dysentery” is here retained, not because 
it is accurate, but because it has been used 
so generally in bee literature. 

SYMPTOMS. 

The fecal discharge is thin and watery, 
ill-smelling, and from a light yellow to a 
dark brown. In advanced cases the color 
is almost black. The abdomens of the bees 
are swollen considerably, and sometimes 
are almost twice the size of those of normal 
bees. The bees have a dark greasy-looking 
appearance, and act listless. Individual 
bees will be seen crawling out of the en¬ 
trance, and the front of the hive will be 
stained with yellow, brownish, or nearly 
black splotches. Ordinary .dysentery, 
when destructive, is a malady that shows 
up only during winter or early in the 
spring. 

At any time of the year, however, when 
the weather has been cold or rainy for sev¬ 
eral days, normal bees as soon as they can 
fly will void on the hives, walks, and 
ground yellowish-brown spots or dark 
spots or dark strings of excrement in a 
more solid form. Bees that have been con¬ 
fined in the cellar all winter and have win¬ 


tered well will, when set out, void their 
feces in a more or less liquid form over 
everything. (See Bees as a Nuisance.) 
Some of the hives at this time in the spring 
may have real dysentery; but probably the 
majority of them, if they wintered well, 
will be in a perfectly normal condition. 
The presence of these spots on the hives 
during summer is not a bad omen, because 
active bees, when shut in the hives after 
flying for several days, always throw out 
some discharge when they fly. 

In an advanced form of dysentery—the 
kind that destroys bees or colonies—the 
outside of the hives will be badly smeared 
up with dark-brown (almost black) stains. 
These stains, when the trouble has pro¬ 
gressed to a point where most of the bees 
are dead, will be smeared all over the 
combs and the inside of the hive; and 
when the colony reaches that stage no 
amount of good weather will help it. The 
queen, however, will be all right, and may 
be introduced into any colony. The bees 
remove the feces from the queen as fast as 
necessary, so that she never suffers as do 
her subjects from an impacted bowel tract 
that causes dysentery. 

CAUSE OP DYSENTERY. 

The real causes are bad food and long- 
continued low temperature that prevents 
bees from flying. In order to keep up suffi¬ 
cient animal heat the bees have to overeat, 
surcharging their intestines. The long- 
retained fecal matter results in purging or 
dysentery. Any food alone would hardly 
produce the disease, as one rarely, if ever, 
finds bees suffering from anything they will 
gather, in warm summer weather. Aster 
honey (see Aster) or the sweet juices gath¬ 
ered from rotten fruit or eider are very 
productive of this complaint, and are 
almost sure to kill bees at the approach of 
cold weather. A woman once boiled up a 
mass of sweet apples and allowed the bees 
to extract the sweetness because, as she 
said, she could not afford to buy sugar 
for them. They all died of dysentery long 
before spring. Where dampness accumu¬ 
lates from the breath of the bees, and set¬ 
tles on the combs, diluting the honey, it 
may cause trouble. Sorghum syrup has 
brought on k very aggravated form, and 
burnt candy or sugar is almost sure death 





DYSENTERY 


291 


to bees during cold weather, altho such 
feed may be given with impunity in the 
middle of the summer. 

iAll candy or honey containing much 
gums or dextrins should also be avoided; 
for, except in a few rare instances in which 
another substance is involved, these gums 
or dextrins are the substances that cause 
dysentery. The dextrin content of the dif¬ 
ferent honeys varies considerably, being 
greatly reduced during a rapid honey flow. 

On account of the dextrin content, New 
Orleans molasses and common glucose 
should not be given to bees. As a matter 
of fact, they will not take either. 

While it is very certain that no such 
symptoms of dysentery are found in warm 
weather, it is also certain that a strong 
colony in a hive with soft, warm, dry 
porous walls, will stand an amount of bad 
food that a weak one, or one exposed to 
drafts of cold air, will not. A power¬ 
ful colony, if left with their hive uncovered 
during a rain storm, will soon dry them¬ 
selves; and while they are doing this they 
remind one of a sturdy cart horse as he 
shakes the water off his hide and dries 
himself by his internal animal heat. While 
they have the health and numbers to repel 
moisture in this way, they are safe against 
almost anything. But to help them to keep 
this internal strength, they should have 
close and comfortable quarters, very much 
such as we would need for ourselves to 
enable us to pass a severe winter’s night in 
health and comfort. (See Wintering Out¬ 
doors.) The hives often used are so large 
and bam-like, in respect to the winters 
brood-nest, that comfort is almost out of 
the question, for it does little if any good 
to pile straw, corn-fodder, etc., over the 
outside of the hives while the cluster within 
has no sort of protection at all. If they 
were in a hollow tree, the diameter of 
which was so small that they could fill it 
completely, they would be in a much better 
place, especially if the sides were lined 
with soft dry rotten wood. 

THE AGENCY OF THE APHIDES IN PRODUCING 
DYSENTERY. 

The poorest winter food is, without 
doubt, the honey gathered from the aphides 
(see Honeydew); or, at least, most com¬ 
plaints have been made of this honey. As 


bees seldom touch this, except during 
drouths or unfavorable seasons, it, no 
doubt, has been the cause of some of the 
mischief. If all the early honey is extract¬ 
ed from the brood-combs, and the bees left 
with nothing but this bad honey, gathered 
in the summer, the matter is much worse; 
and many cases have been reported of colo¬ 
nies dying where the extractor has been 
used, while those untouched had been free 
from the disease. The obvious remedy is 
to refrain from extracting too closely from 
the brood-apartment. Let the bees fill their 
brood-chamber with a good quality of hon¬ 
ey, just before the yield ceases, extracting, 
toward the close of the harvest, only from 
the combs in the upper story, unless it is 
decided to feed them up for winter on 
sugar syrup or candy. There have been 
one or two favorable reports of wintering 
on the aphidian honey, from which it may 
be concluded that it is not always deleteri¬ 
ous. 

PREVENTION of dysentery. 

There are two important factors in 
the prevention of dysentery—protection 
against extremes of cold during winter, 
and good food. Under the head of Win¬ 
tering Outdoors, Wintering in Cellars, 
Spring Dwindling, and Spring Manage¬ 
ment, full particulars are given on how. to 
house bees properly. 

Good food may be in the form of good 
honey or sugar-syrup stores well ripened. 
Any of the good table honeys make suitable 
food; and there are many of the fall hon¬ 
eys that do very well. Aster honey, unless 
well ripened and sealed in the combs, some¬ 
times brings on dysentery. Some winters 
it is worse than others (see Asters). Hon¬ 
eydew usually should not be used. It is 
generally dangerous (see Honeydew). 

cure for dysentery outdoors. 

If the affected colonies are outdoors, 
about the only real remedy is settled warm 
weather. Even one good warm day will 
often serve to alleviate the trouble, as it 
gives the bees a chance to void their excre¬ 
ment out in the open air, away from the 
hives and the combs. Otheiwise the con¬ 
tinued confinement during an extended cold 
spell sometimes compels the bees to retain 
their feces or excreta so long that they are 


292 


DZIERZON 


finally forced to void it over the combs and 
over the hives. In such cases, where one 
has good clean combs of sealed honey he 
may take out the soiled combs and replace 
with the clean ones. At the same time the 
brood-nest should be contracted to a space 
the bees can fill. This work should never 
be done on a cool day—only when it is 
warm and balmy. But the practical bee¬ 
keeper of today does not fuss with colonies 
affected with dysentery; for he knows that, 
as soon as warm weather comes, the trouble 
will disappear of itself, in all colonies not 
too far gone and too weak to recover. 

Combs taken out of the hive in cold 
weather, and stained with dysentery, may 
be given to strong colonies in late spring 
or summer to clean up. Indeed, there is no 
danger in hiving swarms in hives where 
colonies have died with dysentery during 
the previous winter. They will quickly 
clean up and use the stores that are left. 

DYSENTERY IN BEE-CELLARS. 

After a long and cold winter, if the : 
temperature in the cellar goes much below 
40 degrees Eahr., or if the stores are of 
poor quality, there is a liability of some 
colonies being affected with dysentery. The 
best remedy is prevention. The cellar should 
be dry, and the temperature should be be¬ 
tween 45 and 50° F. It should never go be¬ 
low 40' for a longer period than three or 
four days. If the temperature of the cel¬ 
lar can not be kept up, a small stove with 
a connection to a chimney should be used 
to bring it up to the requisite point. 

Some authorities think that dampness 
has nothing to do with causing dysentery 
in the cellar; but dampness in combination 
with a temperature below 40 degrees for 
several weeks is a very common cause of 
dysentery in ^cellar repositories. 

But what should be done if the bees do 
get dysentery, Suppose the food is bad, 
and the cellar one where it is not practica¬ 
ble to use artificial heat, at an outyard for 
example. If there are days during mid¬ 
winter when the bees can fly (and some 
localities do afford such weather for one 
day and possibly two), take the diseased 
colonies out on one such day and let them 
have a flight, then at night put them back 
in the cellar. A cleansing flight will do a 
world of good. Some authorities disagree 


here; but our own experience has shown 
conclusively, over and over again, that it 
does pay. If the bees are suffering from 
an over-accumulation of poisonous fecal 
matter, why will there not be almost in¬ 
stantaneous relief as soon as it can be 
voided? If the food is bad, give the bees 
better next year. Some recommend taking 
away all fall stores and feeding sugar 
syrup. For further consideration of this 
subject, see Wintering in Cellars. 

DZIERZON.* —The life of Dr. Dzierzon 
was a simple, uneventful one, similar to 
that of many clergymen in Germany. He 
was born on Jan. 16, 1811, at Lowkowitz, 
near Kreuzburg, Upper Silesia. He at¬ 
tended the school of Lowkowitz till his 
tenth year, and was afterward transferred 
to the University of Breslau, where he at¬ 
tained such excellence in his studies that, 
after having finished his course, he had been 
first in every class in his college, and left 
the University in the autumn of 1830 with 
a certificate as having passed No. 1. 

From early childhood young Dzierzon 
had a great partiality for bees. His father 
kept a few colonies in log hives, mostly 
placed in an upright position; these were 
at that time the kind in general use in 
Silesia. He always found the greatest 
pleasure in the contemplation of the inde¬ 
fatigable industry of bees, and while study¬ 
ing at the University he was 1 in the habit 
of taking his walks near to an apiary, or 
where a colony of bees occupied a hollow 
tree, so that he might enjoy the sight of 
the industrious insects and listen to their 
joyful humming. 

His fondness for bees made him choose a 
calling in which it would be possible for 
him to follow the bent of his inclination. 

Dzierzon was ordained on March 16, 

1834, and having acted as chaplain in the 
Schalkowitz District of Oppeln till July, 

1835, he received a clerical appointment 
at Karlsmarkt. This brought him a very 
small income; but, as in succeeding years 
it suited him entirely, it never occurred to 
him to seek a more richly endowed living. 
The garden of his parsonage was a toler¬ 
ably large one, and his first care was to 
arrange a place for bees. He soon stocked 
it with some colonies from his father’s 

* From the British Bee Journal, Dec. 20, 1906. 



DZIERZON 


293 


apiary in the old-fashioned hives men¬ 
tioned above. His bees did very well in 
them. He, however, was not content with 
these primitive hives, but proceeded to 
make various changes in them, so that he 
might have a more perfect control over 
his bees. These changes gradually led to 
the invention of movable combs, which en¬ 
abled him to take out a full brood-comb, 
pr honeycomb, and insert it in another hive. 
He introduced bars, to which the bees 
built the combs, and, as these wefe 
usually attached to the sides of the 
hives (there being no side bars), 
Dzierzon conceived the idea of open¬ 
ing the hive at the back so as to en¬ 
able him to cut the attachments. At 
the commencement Dzierzon used 
single hives called “Lagers” and. 
“Standers,” but afterward construct¬ 
ed hives to hold two, three, six, or 
eight colonies, in order to economize 
material and space. Owing to the 
advantages thus gained the number 
of his colonies increased in a few 
years to 400, and he was constantly 
making new hives and planting out- 
apiaries in the neighboring villages. 

He had twelve of them, but his api¬ 
ary at Karlsmarkt was chiefly used 
for observations and experiments, 
and, after his introduction of the 
Italian race,* for breeding these bees 
and keeping them pure. This apiary 
was visited by numerous people de¬ 
sirous of increasing their knowledge 
in beekeeping, especially by school¬ 
masters, many of whom came by de¬ 
sire and at the expense of the Gov¬ 
ernment. He was at all times ready 
to communicate the results of his ex¬ 
perience to his visitors; he also made 
known his views in the Frauendorf Journal, 
which enjoyed a large circulation at that 
time.f These articles were afterward col¬ 


* Captain Baldenstein, when stationed in Italy, 
was the first to notice the exceeding industry of the 
Italian bee. When he retired from the army he 
settled in Switzerland, and procured a colony from 
Italy in September, 1843. His observations im¬ 
pelled Dzierzon to make an effort to procure the 
Italian bee; and by the aid of the Austrian Agri¬ 
cultural Society he succeeded in -obtaining, late in 
February, 1853, a colony from Mira, near Venice. 
Dzierzon bestowed much pains in maintaining the 
purity of his Italian bees, and thirty years after 
the first introduction he exhibited at Neustadt, near 
Vienna, a perfectly pure descendant from his orig¬ 
inal stock. 


lect-ed and published in the form of a pam¬ 
phlet entitled “Pfarrer Dzierzon’s Improv¬ 
ed Method of Beekeeping.” This pamphlet 
was very incomplete, and Dr. Dzierzon was 
induced to publish his views in a more 
complete form, which work, after passing 
thru several editions, was published under 
the title of “Rational Beekeeping,” the 
latest and most complete edition of which 
appeared in the year 1878. In 1880 this 


edition was translated into English by H. 
Dieck and S. Studderd, and edited by 
C. N. Abbott, who then introduced it to 
British beekeepers. The last book he wrote, 
“Der Zwillingstock,” was published in 
1890. From 1854 to 1856 he published 


t Several of the governments of Europe took 
great interest in spreading among their people a 
knowedge of Dzierzon’s system of beekeeping. Prus¬ 
sia furnished monthly a number of persons from 
different parts of the kingdom with the means of 
acquiring a knowledge of this system; while the 
Bavarian government prescribed instruction in 
Dzierzon’s theory and practice of bee culture as a 
part of the regular course of studies in its teachers’ 
seminaries. 



jr, 













294 


DZIERZON 


“The Bee Master of Silesia/’ but the 
greater part of his observations and ex¬ 
periences appeared in the Bienenzeitung. 
In this publication appeared his views on 
parthenogensis, and for eight years, from 
1845 to 1853, he had to fight hard to defend 
his theory, which met with the most strenu¬ 
ous opposition, and it was not until he in¬ 
troduced Italian bees in 1853 that he was 
clearly able to demonstrate the correctness 
of his statements. Baron von Berlepseh at 
first vigorously opposed it, but was at 
length convinced of his mistake, acknowl¬ 
edged his error, and openly declared he 
would come into Dzierzon’s camp “with 
bag and baggage.” Dzierzon’s theory, ac¬ 
cording to which drones originate from un¬ 
fertilized eggs, and all impregnated eggs 
produce females, gradually found adher¬ 
ents and recognition among men of science; 
and its correctness was proved by the mic¬ 
roscopical and physiological researches of 
Professors Dr. von Siebold and Leuckart. 

In recent years M. Dickel made a violent 
attack on this theory, and stated that all 
eggs laid by the queen were fecundated 
and that the bees themselves determined 
the sex of the eggs by means of a secre¬ 
tion from special glands. Dickel and 
Dzierzon met at the annual congress of 
beekeepers in Salzburg in 1898, where they 
vigorously defended their theories in the 
presence of a large gathering of beekeep¬ 
ers. Dzierzon’s arguments were so force¬ 
ful that they constantly elicited applause. 
He has had his partisans and detractors; 
some, like M. Perez, have discussed the the¬ 
ory most courteously; a few others have 
done so with extreme rudeness, especially 
to a man of his age. It is gratifying to 
find that Dzierzon lived long enough to 
see his theory triumphantly vindicated be¬ 
fore he passed away from among us. 

From all parts of the continent, and from 
many of the reigning sovereigns, Dzierzon 
has received distinctions and honors. One 
of the first which he received was that 
signed by Archduke John in his capacity 
as president of the Agricultural Society of 
Graz. The honorary title of “Doctor” was 
conferred on him by the University of 
Munich. At the Beekeepers’ Congress at 
Darmstadt, the then reigning Grand Duke 
of Hesse invested him with the order of 
Ludwig, and from the Emperor of Austria 


he received the Order of Francis Joseph. 
The Emperor of Russia conferred upon him 
the Order of St. Anne, and the King of 
Sweden the Order of Wasa. The photo¬ 
graph we reproduce from the Bienen-vater 
shows the venerable old man decorated with 
these orders. He has also been made an 
honorary member of a great many societies, 
and his name is known in every portion of 
the globe. 

To Dr. Dzierzon we are indebted for the 
various artificial substitutes for pollen. 
With his eye ever open to discover any 
means that would be of assistance to his 
bees, he observed them bringing from a 
neighboring mill rye-meal, before they 
were able to secure a natural supply for 
the food of the larvae; and ever since bee¬ 
keepers have been in the habit of supply¬ 
ing the bees with artificial pollen when nat¬ 
ural pollen is lacking in the spring. 

Dr. Dzierzon, like many other beekeep¬ 
ers, has had sad experiences of the virul¬ 
ence of foul brood. In 1848 this plague 
broke out in his apiary, destroying several 
hundred stocks, and leaving only ten un¬ 
touched. 

So vigorous was his fight against the 
disease that three years later, in 1851, he 
was able with pride to point to the 400 
colonies of healthy bees which he had 
worked up from the ten survivors of the 
disaster. 

His apiary passed thru several troubles. 
At one time 70 hives were stolen, then 24 
were lost in a flood, and 60 were destroyed 
by fire. 

In consequence of various ecclesiastical 
troubles which occurred at Karlsmarkt, he 
decided to leave the place where he had 
lived 49 years. He removed to Lowkowitz, 
the place of his birth, in 1884, and took up 
his abode with his nephew, the youngest 
son of his brother, whose wife accompanied 
him to the last in his visits to conventions 
of beekeepers. At Lowkowitz he lived a 
happy, peaceful, contented life, his time 
being wholly taken up with his bees. He 
died on Oct. 26, 1906. 

To beekeepers his loss is great, and his 
name will always stand out prominently in 
the history of beekeeping in the nineteenth 
century. 

DZIERZON THEORY.— In 1845 the 
Rev. John Dzierzon enunciated what is now 


DZIERZON THEORY 


295 


known as the “Dzierzon Theory,” and thus 
in reality laid the foundation for much of 
our scientific and practical knowledge of 
bees. While he was not original in the 
discovery of parthenogenesis, he threw a 
great deal of light on the subject. (See 
Parthenogenesis, elsewhere, and sketch 
of his life just preceding.) That the reader 
may know just what the theory was, the 
several propositions as given by Dzierzon 
are as follows: 

I. A colony of bees, in its normal condi¬ 
tion, consists of three characteristically dif¬ 
ferent kinds of individuals—the queen, the 
workers, and (at certain periods) the drones. 

II. In the normal condition of a colony, 
the queen is the only perfect female present 
in the hive, and lays all the eggs found 
therein. These eggs are male and female. 
From the former proceed the drones; from 
the latter, if laid in narrow cells, proceed 
the workers, or undeveloped females; and 
from them also, if laid in wider acorn- 
sliaped and vertically suspended so-called 
royal cells, lavishly supplied with a peculiar 
pabulum or jelly, proceed the queens. 

III. The queen possesses the ability to 
lay male or female eggs at pleasure, as the 
particular cells she is at any time supplying 
may require. 

1Y. In order to become qualified to lay 
both male and female eggs, the queen must 
be fecundated by a drone or male bee. 

V. The fecundation of the queen is always 
effected outside of the hive, in the open air, 
and while on the wing. Consequently, in 
order to become fully fertile, that is, capa¬ 
ble of laying both male and female eggs, 
the queen must leave her hive at least once. 

VI. In the act of copulation the genitals 
of the drone enter the vulva of the queen, 
are there retained, and the drone simulta¬ 
neously perishes. 

VII. The fecundation of the queen, once 
accomplished, is efficacious during her life, 
or so long as she remains healthy and vigor¬ 
ous; and, when once become fertile, she 
never afterward leaves her hive except 
when accompanying a swarm. 

VIII. The ovaries of the queen are not 
impregnated in copulation; but a small ves¬ 
icle or sac which is situated near the termi¬ 
nation of the oviduct, and' communicating 
therewith, becomes charged with the semen 
of the drone. 

IX. All eggs germinated in the ovary of 
the queen develop as males, unless impreg¬ 
nated by the male sperm while passing the 
mouth of the seminal sac or spermatheca, 
when descending the oviduct. If they be 
thus impregnated in their downward pass¬ 
age (which impregnation the queen can ef¬ 
fect or omit at pleasure), they develop as 
females. 

X. If a queen remain unfecundated, she 


ordinarily does not lay eggs. Still, excep¬ 
tional cases do sometimes occur; and the 
eggs then laid produce drones only. 

XI. If, in consequence of superannuation, 
the contents of the spermatheca of a fee- 
undated queen become exhausted; or, if 
from enervation or accident, she lose the 
power of using the muscles connected with 
that organ, so as to be unable to impregnate 
the passing egg, she will thenceforward lay 
drone eggs only, if she lay at all. 

XII. As some unfecundated queens occa¬ 
sionally lay drone eggs, so also in queenless 
colonies, no longer having the requisite 
means of rearing a queen, common workers 
are sometimes found that lay eggs from 
which drones only proceed. These workers 
are likewise unfecundated, and the eggs are 
uniformly laid by some individual bee, re¬ 
garded and treated more or less by her com¬ 
panions as their queen. 

XIII. So long as a fertile queen is present 
in the hive, the bees do not tolerate a fertile 
worker. Nor do they tolerate one while 
cherishing the hope of being able to rear a 
queen. In rare instances, however, excep¬ 
tional cases occur. Fertile workers are 
sometimes found in the hive immediately 
after the death or removal of the queen, 
and even in the presence of a young queen, 
so long as she has not herself become fer¬ 
tile. 

When this was put out originally in the 
Bienenzeitung, it called forth most strenu¬ 
ous opposition. Even the Baron von Ber- 
lepscli opposed it; but later on, when Ital¬ 
ian bees were introduced, and the theory 
could be demonstrated, Berlepsch became 
its most staunch supporter. Indeed, he 
published a series of articles defending it; 
but there has been more or less opposition 
to it ever since. In 1895 M. Dickel made 
a violent attack on the theory, stating that 
all eggs laid by the queens were fecundated, 
and that the bees themselves determined 
the sex of the eggs by means of a secretion 
from the glands. For a number of years 
the European journals were filled with dis¬ 
cussion, some supporting Dickel and some 
Dzierzon. Finally, in 1898 the Dickel the¬ 
ory was shown to be untenable. 

Those who desire to see the original argu¬ 
ments in support of the theory will be 
interested in reading the booklet entitled 
“The Dzierzon Theory,” by the Baron von 
Berlepsch, published by The A. I. Root Co. 
In the mean time the reader is referred to 
Parthenogenesis, where more information 
is given on the subject. Some recent work 
by Nachtsheim seems to make Dzierzon’s 
position still stronger. 


296 


DZIERZON THEORY 


RECENT EVIDENCE IN PROOF OF DZIERZON 
THEORY. 

Any reliable evidence either for or 
against Dzierzon’s theory, that the drones 
of the honeybee are produced from unfer¬ 
tilized eggs, is at the present time of more 
than usual interest to beekeepers. In one 
of the issues of the American Natural¬ 
ist, T. H. Morgan describes some experi¬ 
ments made by Newell at Houston, Tex., 
in mating Italian and Carniolan bees. 

When yellow virgin Italian queens were 
mated with grayish Carniolan drones, both 
the workers and queens which came from 
fertilized eggs were yellow, from which it 
was inferred that yellow is dominant over 
gray. The drones also were yellow like the 
Italian mother. Now this, too, might have 
been caused by the dominance of the mater¬ 
nal color (yellow) ; or, on the other hand, 
it might have been caused by the fact that 
in accordance with Dzierzon’s theory these 
drones inherited from the mother only,— 
that is, that the eggs that produced them 
were not fertilized by the drones. The ex¬ 
periment, therefore, as Morgan points out, 
is not decisive. 

The reciprocal experiment was, however, 
decisive. When gray Carniolan queens 
were crossed with yellow Italian drones, the 
workers and queens were yellow as before, 
due to the dominant yellow of the father. 
But the drones were gray like the gray 
Carniolan mother and the pure stock of 
Carniolan drones. That is, they inherited 
from the mother alone. Otherwise, they 
would have been yellow. This proves that 
they came from unfertilized eggs. Prof. 
Morgan characterizes these crosses as fur¬ 
nishing the long-sought evidence demon¬ 
strating that the drones inherit only the 


characters of their mother in accordance 
with Dzierzon’s theory. 

According to Fabre’s observations par¬ 
thenogenesis also occurs among the solitary 
bees in the genus Halictus. The males of 
this genus do not appear until fall. After 
mating with the females they fly about 
among the flowers for a week or so and 
then all perish, none surviving the winter. 
The fecundated females hibernate in their 
old nests, or in the crevices in stone walls, 
or other retreats. With the return of warm 
weather they reappear, dig new burrows, 
and provision their cells with little masses 
of pollen and honey, on each of which they 
lay an egg. From these eggs come only 
females, and at this season of the year 
there are no males of this genus in exist¬ 
ence with which they can mate. This first 
generation of females soon build new 
groups of cells, the daughters of a single 
mother extending the old nest, and all using 
the old entrance-tunnel in common. The 
eggs of these unimpregnated females give 
birth to both males and females; thus in 
the second generation both sexes are pro¬ 
duced by parthenogenesis. After mating 
the males die, and the females survive the 
winter and the cycle is repeated as before. 

Fabre sums up as follows: “The Halicti 
have two generations a year; one in the 
spring, issuing from the mothers who have 
lived thru the winter after being fecundated 
in the autumn; the other in the summer, 
the fruit of parthenogenesis; that is to say, 
of reproduction by the powers of the 
mother alone. Of the union of the two 
sexes females alone are born. Partheno¬ 
genesis gives birth at the same time to 
females and males.” 


E 


EGGS. —See Brood and Brood-rearing. 

ELEMENTARY BEEKEEPING.— See 

A B C or Beekeeping. 

EMBRYOLOGY OF BEES.— See De¬ 
velopment of Bees. 

ENEMIES OF BEES.— Kingbirds and 
bee martins, and a few other insectivorous 
birds prey on bees. The author once saw 
a single kingbird capture six or eight bees 
in as many trips, on the wing. It would 
alight on the peak of the barn near the 
apiary, and then make a dive thru the air, 
grab one bee on the wing, return to its 
perch to dispose of its morsel, and then 
catch another. 

There have been a number of conflicting 
reports as to whether kingbirds do or do 
not swallow their victims. Some have as¬ 
serted that they do, and afterward expelled 
the ball of bees. At one experiment station 
a number of kingbirds were shot, and the 
conclusion, after examining their crops, was 
that they did not swallow bees. From obser¬ 
vations that have been made since, it ap¬ 
pears that the kingbird does not generally 
swallow worker bees. It grabs the bees, flies 
away, and after it alights on some perch 
with its victim in its beak, bites away until 
it absorbs the honey or juices, when it drops 
the carcass, and flies away for another, 
which it treats in the same way. Observers 
have reported seeing these carcasses of bees 
below the birds’ favorite perches. 

There are other birds that do swallow 
bees. Cases are on record where they throw 
up the dead carcasses of the bees after they 
have absorbed the honey. 

The loss of a few bees which the birds 
might kill amounts to nothing in a yard 
run for honey; but in large queen-rearing 
yards, if the birds are allowed to go un¬ 
molested there is quite likely to be a loss 
of young queens. The birds select the 
largest and noisiest-flying bees, and these, 


of course, will be queens and drones. If 
such be the case, the owner of a queen¬ 
rearing yard would do well to use his shot¬ 
gun until everything in the way of bee¬ 
killing birds is destroyed. 

MICE. 

Mice do harm only when they get into 
the hives, and this part of the subject will 
be sufficiently noticed under the head of 
Entrances. Mice sometimes make sad 
havoc among surplus combs, when stored 
away with small patches of honey in them. 
The combs will be completely riddled dur¬ 
ing the winter time, if they are left where 
mice can get at them. On this account the 
honey-house should be mouse-proof; and 
for fear that a stray one may by accident 
get in, it is well to keep a trap ready, bait¬ 
ed with toasted cheese. If one does not 
have a tight room, he should make a tight 
box, large enough to hold all the surplus 
combs which have honey in them. See En¬ 
trances. 

parasites. 

There is a parasite known as the Braula 
coeca, or Italian bee louse, and it is seldom 
seen except on bees just imported from 
Italy. This does little or no damage; but 
there is a parasite that is very destructive 
to bees. See Diseases op Bees, subhead 
isle of wight disease. 

SKUNKS. 

Skunks are justly coming to be regarded 
as one of the most serious enemies of the 
beekeeper; and, owing to the legal protec¬ 
tion given them in most States, together 
with their ability to multiply very rapidly, 
they are constantly becoming more numer¬ 
ous. Not only do they eat great numbers 
of bees, but by scratching at the front of 
the hives they keep the bees in an excited 
condition which is noticeable for several 
hours after the nightly raid of the skunk 


296 


ENEMIES OF BEES 



is finished. Young skunks that leave their 
nests and start foraging for themselves 
during midsummer and autumn seem to do 
the greater part of the damage, causing 
the colonies to dwindle rapidly at a time 
when they should be building up for winter. 

Skunks may be poisoned by putting 
strychnine or Rough on Rats inside of 
small chunks of beef, leaving the beef at 
night on the entrance of the hive at which 
the skunks are working, remembering to 
remove it early the next morning. This 
could not be done safely where valuable 
cats or dogs would be likely to get it. 
Some beekeepers have reported good re¬ 
sults by stirring the poison into eggs. 
Others are protecting their yards by fenc¬ 
ing them in with four-foot poultry-netting, 
one foot of which is folded at a right angle 
so as to be flat on the ground on the out¬ 
side of the fence, the outer edge being held 
close to the ground by being weighted or 
staked down. The skunks apparently do 


not know enough to start digging back of 
that part of the netting lying on the 
ground. 

ANTS. 

Certain ants in the more southern States, 
particularly in Florida and Texas, will at¬ 
tack a colony of bees and utterly ruin it. 
For further particulars see Ants, subhead 
“Ants in the South.” 

SPIDERS. 

Spiders as well as toads seem to have 
a rare appreciation of a heavily laden bee 
as it returns to the hive; one should there¬ 
fore be careful that all spider webs be 
faithfully kept brushed away from the 
hives, and that they have no corners or 
crevices about them to harbor such insects. 
Be sure there is no place which the broom 
will not clear out at one sweep; for where 
one has a hundred hives he cannot well 
spend a great amount of time on each one. 

Many of these so-called enemies probably 







ENEMIES OF BEES 


299 


take up the destruction of bees only as a 
chance habit, and it is not always to 
be looked for nor expected. Common fowls 
sometimes get a habit of eating their own 
eggs; but it is so unusual an occurrence 
that it can hardly be regarded as a matter 
of any very serious importance. It may 
be well at times to look out for the enemies 
that prey on bees; but, as a general thing, 
they are quite capable of t fighting their own 
battles if they are given the proper care 
and suitable hives. 

It was L. L.- Langstroth, just before he 
died, who showed how spiders may be of 
value to the beekeeper. If, he said, they 
have access freely to the combs stored in 
stacked-up hives in the apiary, there never 
need be any fear that moth worm or moth 
miller would be able to do any damage, for 
the spiders will shortly destroy them. 

WASPS. 

Wasps and hornets sometimes capture 
and carry off honeybees; but, unless they 
should take part in the work in great num¬ 
bers, there need be no solicitude in regard 
to them. 

MOSQUITO HAWKS. 

Mosquito hawks, sometimes called “dev¬ 
il’s darning-needles,” and “bee hawks,” at 
certain seasons of the year, are very de¬ 
structive to bees in some of the southern 
States, particularly in Florida. They give 
more trouble along the Florida rivers, es¬ 
pecially along the marshy lands, where they 
breed very rapidly. In April and May 
they come in such countless numbers that 
the sky is black with them. As the habits 
of these insects are predatory, they will at¬ 
tack any insects, including mosquitoes and 
bees. When they are very numerous, the 
bees have learned the trick of staying in 
the hives, realizing that the mosquito hawks 
are their natural enemies. These insect 
hawks are so destructive at times that they 
weaken a whole apiary. 

One year, when the publishers of this 
work had some 300 to 400 colonies on the 
Apalachicola River, their apiarist there es¬ 
timated that the mosquito hawks did dam¬ 
age to the extent of a thousand dollars in 
four or five days. Arrangements had been 
made to move the bees north to escape this 
pest, but it was then too late. 


THIEVES. 

Thieves are •sometimes troublesome at 
outyards. The best way to end their depre¬ 
dations is to put up a sign or two offering 
fifty or a hundred dollars reward for the 
arrest and conviction of the guilty parties. 
The thief is immediately warned that a 
price is upon his head, and that he had 
better stop stealing. It is seldom that the 
reward money is ever called for, and fur¬ 
ther annoyance is stopped. 

THE WORST ENEMY. 

By all odds the most serious enemy to 
the bees and beekeeping is the careless or 
ignorant beekeeper himself who harbors 
disease in the hives, either because he does 
not care or because he does not know any 
better. Such a man places in jeopardy the 
interests of every other beekeeper for miles 
around. While bees do not ordinarily fly 
over two miles (see Flight of Bees), and 
one is usually safe if he is that far from a 
foul-brood apiary, yet in the course of 
a year or two the colonies in the diseased 
yard will die, when bees a mile and a half 
away can easily rob out the honey from 
these dead colonies, and carry the infection 
to their own yards. These in turn become 
diseased, forming new centers of infection 
reaching out a mile or perhaps two miles 
farther. This-, in fact, is the way bee dis¬ 
ease proceeds from yard to yard by rob¬ 
bing. To prevent this spread arises the 
need of foul-brood laws and bee inspectors. 
See Laws Relating to Foul Brood; also 
Inspectors. 

ENTRANCE DIAGNOSIS.— See Diag¬ 
nosing Colonies. 

ENTRANCE GUARDS.— See Drones.. 

ENTRANCES TO HIVES.—At the bot¬ 
tom of the hive is the usual and by 
far the best location for the entrance. 
Having the entrance below makes it 
much easier for the bees to retain the 
warmth of the cluster. Moreover the bees 
when flying during chilly weather have 
less difficulty in entering the hive. They 
can also, while in the hive, easily remove 
bits of refuse comb, dirt, or dead bees from 
the bottom-board. 

On account of the tendency of returning 
bees to chill in cold weather, there should 


300 


ENTRANCES TO HIVES 


be a large alighting-board if the hive is 
raised off the ground; or if on the ground, 
there should be an easy slanting grade or 



doorstep to the entrance. All grass and 
weeds should be kept down within at least 
a foot of the front of the hive. Bees that 
come in heavily laden are often knocked 
down by bumping into tall weeds or sprigs 



A colony with an entrance too small, where the 
bees have formed the loafing habit. 


of grass. While they ultimately take wing, 
making another attempt, and finally land 
in the hive, such obstructions, if hindering 
to the bees, cause a loss to their owner. See 
Apiary. 

KEEPING DOWN THE GRASS. 

It is impossible to estimate just how 
much the loss in honey is; but, if the actual 
figures could be secured, the producer 
would be surprised. When it is such an 
easy matter to cut away the weeds, or keep 
them away from the entrance with a little 
sprinkling of salt or with a wide board, it 
is “penny wise and pound foolish” to wear 
out the wings of our little servants trying 


to pass this obstruction, at the same time 
delaying them when every moment counts. 
Farmer beekeepers especially seem to have 
the idea that bees will work for nothing and 
board themselves, and in three cases out of 
five one will find the entrances of their 
hives, what few they may have, all tangled 
up with grass and weeds. On mornings 
when there is a heavy dew such obstruc¬ 
tion is very considerable. 

Very many use a scythe, lawnmoAver, or 
a common sickle, to cut down the grass. 
Others keep it down with a small handful 



of salt scattered around the front of the 
hive. Still others prefer to use a piece of 
board about a foot or more wide, and as 
long as the hive is wide. Rough unplaned 
lumber of the cheapest kind is better than 
clear planed stuff, as the bees can cling to 
it more easily. The boards should be 
cleated and laid directly on the ground, 
abutting up close to the bottom-board if it 
rests on or is close to the ground.' No grass 
or weeds can grow, of course, where these 
boards are laid; and general practice shows 
it is cheaper and better to use such boards 
than to be compelled to use salt or cut 
down the obstructions every few days in 
front of the hive. 

One of the drawings contains a sugges¬ 
tion which can be very easily applied to the 
cleated boards just described. Bend some 
iron wires, about No. 8, with hook at each 
end. Drive one of the hooks into the board 
as here illustrated, and secure in position 
by means of a common blind-staple near 
the other edge. If the wires ai’e cut right, 
this alighting-board can be easily hooked 
into the entrance and make a nice easy 
grade from the ground up to the hive. 
At any time these alighting-boards can be 
unhooked, the grass cut with a lawnmower, 
and the board replaced. 











ENTRANCES TO HIVES 


301 



SIZE OF SUMMER ENTRANCE. 

The proper size of entrance depends on 
the location, season of the year, size of 
colony, amount of protection, and whether 
the bees are wintered indoors or out. Dur¬ 
ing the height of the honey flow the aper¬ 
ture should be as large as the bottom-board 
or hive will permit—not less than % inch 
deep by the width of the hive. If too 
small there will be insufficient ventilation, 
causing loafing and clustering on the front 
of the hive, often resulting in swarming. 
See Swarming. 

Nuclei or weak colonies must have no 
larger entrances than they can easily de¬ 
fend. They should be as small as possible 
after the regular honey flow, for then it is 
that robbers are liable to rush in pellmell 
and overpower the guards of the little col¬ 
ony, depriving it of the scanty store it may 
have. (See Robbing.) A two-frame nucleus 
should not have an opening larger than 
will admit two or three bees at a time dur¬ 
ing the robbing season. When the honey 
flow is on, it may be larger; but it should 
be contracted as soon as the flow eases up. 

SIZE of winter entrance. 

When cool weather comes on the en¬ 
trances of all colonies should be contracted, 
both strong and weak, and kept so during 
the entire winter if bees are left outdoors. 
Formerly the practice was to allow the full 
size; but experience has shown that this is 
a serious mistake. There is no more rea¬ 
son why the bees should have their doors 
wide open in midwinter, letting chilling 
drafts blow in, than that their owners 
should leave their doors open. A ten-frame 
Langstroth hive should have an entrance 


about % inch deep by one to eight inches 
wide, the length of the entrance depending 
on the climate and the size of the colony. 
During very severe weather it might be 
still smaller. With a contracted entrance 
it may be necessary for the apiarist to hook 
the dead bees out with a wire two or 


J?JVr/?AJVC£T BZ OCU 




three times during the winter, and possibly 
once in the spring; for in no case must the 
opening be clogged up. 

Demuth and Phillips recommend the use 
of a small entrance in the form of a cir¬ 
cular hole from % to % inch diameter 




















































302 


ENTRANCES TO HIVES 


where the bees are packed in quadruple 
winter cases, such as are described under 
head of “Wintering” at the close of this 
work. A number of prominent apiarists 
all over the country have used very small 
entrances like this with excellent results 
during winter, but such small entrances are 
not practicable unless there is at least 6 
inches of packing on the sides of the win¬ 
ter case, then 6 inches on top and 4 inches 
on the bottom. With that amount of pack¬ 
ing the interior of the brood-nest is so 
warm that bees can easily pick up the dead 
and poke them out of the entrance. When 
hives are only single-walled and outdoors, 
so small an entrance would probably be 
too much of a good thing, as the dead 
bees would accumulate so fast that the en¬ 
trance would clog up. 

In California it is getting more and 
more the practice, even with large colonies, 
to contract the entrance down to % inch 
wide, or a space where not more than two 
or three bees can pass at a time, but as the 



Hives owned by John Nippert, at Imperial. Calif. 


bees can fly nearly every day during the 
winter, they can easily carry out any dead 
that may accumulate. The object of the 
close contraction of the entrance in Cali¬ 
fornia is to obviate robbing and to hold 
the heat in the hives. 

The use of very closely contracted en¬ 
trances during the winter, as advocated by 
California beekeepers, can be practiced to 
excellent advantage in other semi-tropical 
countries during that part of the year 
when the days are warm and the nights 
cold. 

It is customary to have some sort of cleat 
to reduce a wide entrance to a small slot. 
This, when inserted slot side down, reduces 
the opening to the proper size for outdoor- 


wintered bees. In cleaning out the dead 
bees the entrance-stop should be removed 
entirely, making the entrance the full size. 
Any dead bees that may have accumulated 
should be raked out and the stop put back. 
If it is discovered that the colony is weak, 
the slot should be reduced to one inch or 



OLD STYL. E ENTRANCE BLOCK g 



NEW' STYLE BLOCK .3/8 'WOLES 



COMBINATION BLOCK-Vs- HOLES AND SLOT 


less in width. At the same time the frames 
should be contracted to the number that the 
bees can reasonably occupy or cover. If 
they are compelled to keep a large room 
warm, they may die from cold. 

The illustrations show very simple cleats 
which can be made at any planing mill, or 
can be cut at home, using nothing but a 
common handsaw and a chisel. These 
cleats give various-sized entrances accord¬ 
ing to the way they are attached. When 
the cleats are removed entirely the full 
opening of the hive is provided. 

If the block containing' %-inch holes is 
used, at least two of the holes may be 
closed during very cold weather. 



or one consisting of a series of holes, is 
used, it is very important that there be 
no doorstep or ledge to catch snow and 
ice in packing-cases. 











































ENTRANCES TO HIVES 


303 


Under the heading Enemies of Bees 
reference was made to the depredations of 
mice during the winter. It often becomes 
necessary to screen the entrances of hives 
put in the cellar. W. D. Keyes of Wilkins- 
burg, Pa., uses a very simple device, con¬ 
sisting of two triangular blocks and a strip 
of coarse-mesh cloth, just coarse enough to 
let bees thru it and yet exclude the mice. 
It is very quickly applied; and, if there is 



Coarse wire mesh that will let bees thru hut ex¬ 
clude mice. 

one to each hive, it will make very little 
expense, especially considering that a 
mouse on even one frame of young brood 
may do enough mischief in a single colony 
to pay the expense of the excluder. They 
will seldom gnaw a %-inch slot in an 
entrance-contracting cleat. For colonies 
wintered outdoors such a contracted en¬ 
trance is all that is necessary for excluding 
mice. 

The accompanying illustrations show how 
the entrance is provided for in a modern 
dovetailed hive. The bottom is made up of 



an outside rim of framework, into which 
are inserted the floor-boards % inch thick. 
These slide into grooves so cut that on one 
side the bottom-board provides a %-inch 
space, and on the other side %. The 


usual practice is to use the deep side up, 
and an entrance-contracting cleat as shown. 

While some prefer to use the shallow 
side of the bottom-board up the year round, 
it is better to use the deep side, and then 



make the necessary contraction of entrance 
with the contracting cleat as shown. Dur¬ 
ing the warm part of the year, when bees 
need an abundance of ventilation (spoken 
of under Comb Honey, to Produce, and 
Swarming, Prevention of), the wide or 
deep entrance is used without the entrance 
cleat. As cooler weather comes on, or if 
the colony is not strong, the cleat is inserted 
in the entrance. 

a plurality of entrances. 

While it is true that a plurality of en¬ 
trances may be a detriment in a brood- 
chamber, this does not necessarily hold 
good during the honey season when the 
hive is tiered up two or three stories high. 
It then becomes difficult, and wasteful of 
bee energy that might be better employed, 
to ventilate the whole hive from one en¬ 
trance, however large it is, for the bees 
have to maintain a current of air rushing 
in, and another going out at the same aper¬ 
ture. If queen-excluders are used the case 
is made worse. It almost goes without say¬ 
ing, that, during the period in which the 
honey is evaporated while in the combs, 
there should be more than one entrance 
to the hive—at least two, and, during very 
hot weather, more, one to each story, with 
the cover or roof slightly raised at the back 
to furnish additional means for the bad air 
to escape at the top of the hive. 

It is said by those who have tried this 
method of air control that it is a great pre¬ 
ventive of swarming, and it looks reason¬ 
able. The brood-chamber is far less crowd¬ 
ed, since the field workers arrive and de¬ 
part from the upper entrance to a great 
extent, saving overcrowding of the brood- 
chamber, which surely leads to swarming. 
On the other hand, there is danger of the 



























304 


ENTRANCES TO HIVES 


honey-chambers being rendered too cool by 
so many entrances; but if this is the case, 
it is also too cool for honey-gathering, and 
the upper stories should be removed. If 
the colony is weak, upper entrances are 
unnecessary; and in that case, also, the 
honey-chambers should be removed, since 
such a colony can not gather a surplus in 
any event. 

Some of our well-known writers on bee 
culture heartily recommend upper en¬ 
trances—notably so Dr. C. C. Miller, C. P. 
Dadant, R. F. Holtermann, and, in early 
times, Adam Grimm, who, with the money 
he made with his bees, established a bank. 

Dr. C. C. Miller, in Gleanings in Bee 
Culture for June 1, 1907, writes: “Prof. 
Cook says, p. 312, that bees ventilate so 
effectively at the entrance that it is best 
to have only one opening to the hive, evi¬ 
dently meaning at all' times; and W. K. 
Morrison, page 686, asks if I subscribe to 
that doctrine. Emphatically, no. If run¬ 
ning for extracted honey I would generally 
have one more opening than the number of 
stories in use—the regular entrance and an 
opening at the top of each story. Each year 
for years I have had one or more piles thus 
ventilated, and none has ever swarmed. 
Many years ago I learned from Adam 
Grimm to have an opening for ventilation 
at the top of the brood-chamber at the back 
end when running for comb honey. I gave 
it up because it interfered with the finish¬ 
ing of the sections near such openings. But 
I have gone back to it again, believing that 
such disadvantage is overbalanced by the 
gain in ventilation. You can’t make me be¬ 
lieve that it is not easier for the bees to 
have one hole for the air to go out and an¬ 
other for it to come in than to make the air 
go both ways in the same hole.”* The 
practical beekeeper will soon discover for 
himself when and how to use a plurality of 
entrances, for much depends on the climate. 
Evidently it does not work so well with 

* It is a very interesting experiment to light a 
match and hold it in front of the entrance while 
the evaporation of nectar is going on in the hive. 
On one side the flame will he sucked into the en¬ 
trance and on the other side the flame will be 
blown away from it. So strong is the current that 
the match will be sucked in, in one case and blown 
out in the other. It shows that bees, like a series 
of little electric fans, are sucking fresh air in one 
side and forcing the air laden with moisture from 
evaporation on the other side. The direction of the 
air current can also he determined by th@ U§e of a 
little smoke. 


comb-honey production as it does with ex¬ 
tracted ; yet even this may be satisfactorily 
arranged. It looks now as if plural en¬ 
trances were a long step toward swarm 
prevention by causing the field workers to 
leave the brood and confine their energies 
to storing honey in the upper chambers. 
See Swarming. 

ENTRANCES FOR INDOOR WINTERING. 

Authorities differ as to the size of en¬ 
trance that should be used for indoor win¬ 
tering. Some argue that, the larger the 
openings, the better. A few go even so far 
as to urge that the bottom-boards be re¬ 
proved entirely, one hive piled upon two 
pthers, leaving an opening between the two 
lower hives of about one-third of the size of 

□ □ □ □ 

□□ □□ □□ 
the entire bottom of the hive. Others ad¬ 
vise a regular bottom-board, but an en¬ 
trance two inches deep by the full width 
pf the hive; while others recommend no 
larger entrance than the bees have during 
the summer. 

The size of the entrances of the hives 
in a bee-cellar is dependent on two factors 
—the size and temperature of the cellar 
itself and the size of the colony. Large 
colonies should have larger entrances than 
weak ones. If the temperature inside of 
the cluster at any time drops below 57 de¬ 
grees Fahr., the bees will generate heat ar¬ 
tificially, expand the cluster, and .possibly 
start brood-rearing. . The cluster should be 
kept at a temperature as near 60 degrees 
as possible. This will insure the greatest 
degree of quiescence or sleep. Op the other 
hand, if the cellar is too warm, the tem¬ 
perature of the cluster will rise to a point 
of activity that will start brood-rearing. 
If it is too cold, or if the entrance is too 
large, the internal temperature of the clus¬ 
ter may fall below 57 degrees, with the re¬ 
sult that muscular activity will be started, 
and in either case it means a too large con¬ 
sumption of stores, and possibly brood¬ 
rearing. As it would be impracticable to 
take the temperature reading of every col¬ 
ony of bees in the cellar in order to deter¬ 
mine the size of the entrances, it is possi¬ 
ble to arrive at it by putting a thermometer 
thru the entrance, allowing it to rest on 



EUCALYPTUS 


305 


the floor board. The temperature at this 
point should be approximately between 48 
and 52 degrees to insure 57 or more within 
the cluster. If it is below these points the 
entrance should be contracted. Jf the tem¬ 
perature on the floor board reaches 60 to 
65 degrees the entrance should be enlarged. 

From these considerations it will be seen 
that no definite size of entrance can be 
prescribed for all the colonies in the cellar, 
unless the colonies are of about equal 
strength. 

Colonies could be divided, perhaps, into 
two or three different groups as to strength. 
The temperature reading on the floor board 


the qualities of which are being tested and 
compared. To a much smaller extent they 
have been planted in Arizona and the Gulf 
region of Texas. Few eucalyptus trees will 
endure a temperature below 20 degrees, or 
above 120 degrees F. They grow very rap¬ 
idly and promise to become very valuable 
sources of timber and other commercial 
products, and are likewise very effective 
as avenue and landscape trees. A number 
of the species are popularly known as gum 
trees because a resinous gum flows from 
incisions in the bark; others are called 
iron-bark trees from their very hard bark, 
and still others from their fibrous bark are 



The eucalyptus is of vast importance in California for brood-rearing. 


should be taken of about a dozen of each 
group. The entrances of these colonies 
should then be regulated to a point between 
48 and 52 degrees. All other colonies of 
the same group should have entrances of 
the same opening. 

EUCALYPTUS. —A large genus of ever¬ 
green trees growing chiefly in the coast 
region of Australia and New Guinea. 
About 150 species have been described, of 
which not far from 100 have been intro¬ 
duced into California. At the Forestry 
Station at Santa Monica there have been 
planted nearly 70 species and varieties, 


termed stringy-bark trees. To this genus 
belongs the tallest tree in the world, E. 
amygdalina, which attains the height of 
480 feet. 

By far the most widely planted and 
probably the best adapted to the climatic 
conditions of California is the blue gum, 
or E. globulus, which is found in almost 
every town in the State from San Fran¬ 
cisco to San Diego, and inland as far as 
the edge of the Imperial Desert region. It 
is apparently as vigorous in California as 
in its native Australia. It is claimed to be 
the fastest growing tree in the world. 
Seedlings will average a growth of 50 feet 








306 


EUCALYPTUS 


in height in six years and 100 feet in ten 
years; and under favorable conditions a 
seedling may reach a height of 35 feet in 
eight months, and in three years a height 
of 70 feet. In Australia some trees grow 
375 feet tall. The wood is very heavy, 
hard, and strong, and is valued at the same 
price as oak. It is used for innumerable 
purposes from telegraph poles, railroad 
ties, and shipbuilding to cabinet work and 
wagon wheels, as well as for fuel; while 
the leaves yield large quantities of medici¬ 
nal oil. Windbreaks of two or three rows 
of blue gum afford excellent protection to 
orchards. The cost of setting out and cul¬ 
tivating a plantation for two years is about 
.$25 per acre, while the returns at the end 
of ten years will usually not exceed $160 
per acre. 

The bark of the blue gum is smooth and 
pale brown. The leaves are sword-shaped, 
6 to 12 inches long, tough, leathery, and 
bluish green in young trees, but dark green 
in older trees. The flowers are solitary (in 
most other species they are in small clus¬ 
ters), in the axils of the leaves and appear 
from December to June. The flower bud 
expands by the top of the calyx dropping 
off, when there is a “veritable starburst” 
of some 100 creamy-white stamens. A 
flower consists of the cup-shaped lower 
portion of the calyx, which is well adapted 
to hold the very abundant supply of nec¬ 
tar, and a ring of stamens, with the pistil 
in the center-—there are no petals. The 
seed cases are round, top-shaped, or in the 
blue gum angular, and a pound of seed 
will produce over 10,000 plants. E. globu¬ 
lus was introduced into California in 1856. 

Other species of eucalyptus, which are 
promising commercially, are the sugar gum 
(E. corynocalyx) , the red gum (E. rostra- 
ta ), and the gray gum ( E. tereticornis); 
but none of them are comparable to E. 
globulus in rapid growth, value of timber, 
and ability to flourish over a wide range 
of conditions in California. The sugar 
gum is much used in southern California 
as a street tree and for windbreaks. It 
strongly resists drouth, but succumbs easily 
to frosts. The red gum has been largely 
planted in the Sacramento and San Joa¬ 
quin Valleys, and also withstands well the 
intense heat of the Imperial Valley. The 
gray gum endures drouth and cold better 


than many species, and can, therefore, be 
planted over a wide range of the State. 
The timber of all three species is strong 
and valuable. 

All of the species yield nectar, but most 
of them are so rare outside of experimental 
grounds that their value as honey-produc¬ 
ers remains to be determined. The bloom¬ 
ing time of the various species varies so 
widely that there are, at least, from three' 
to seven species in flower during every 
month of the year, and a species may even 
bloom twice in the same year. The blue 
gum (E. globulus) is the only species'which 
is yet sufficiently abundant to be of much 
importance to apiarists. 

The honey is amber-colored and inferior 
in quality. It is valuable to beekeepers in 
California chiefly because it yields nectar 
the larger part of the winter. The quan¬ 
tity of honey gathered varies greatly in 
different years. Occasionally there is a 
fair surplus; but, as a rule, only sufficient 
honey is secured to stimulate brood-rearing 
and to support the colony, so that the re¬ 
serve stores, left in the hiv.e to prevent 
starvation in case the winter flow fails, are 
not consumed. A large number of bee¬ 
keepers in this .State move, their bees many 
miles to the eucalyptus trees in order that 
they may build up during the winter and 
be strong enough to gather a crop of honey 
from orange bloom. 

Several species are reputed to yield fine 
honeys with exquisite flavors. The sugar 
gum (E. corynocalyx) secretes nectar copi¬ 
ously, and two or three bees may often be 
seen around a single blossom seeking a load 
of nectar. The flowers, which are in pretty 
white clusters about two inches broad, ex¬ 
hale a most agreeable odor suggestive of a 
ripe cantaloupe. The mahogany gum (E. 
robusta), which thrives in swampy locali¬ 
ties, is also very valuable. White iron bark 
(E. leucoxylon) with a vanilla-like fra¬ 
grance, and the honey-scented gum (E. 
melliodora) are reported to be wonderful 
yielders of nectar and to be very eagerly 
visited by bees. They all bloom during the 
earlier half of the year when their value in 
stimulating brood-rearing is almost beyond 
estimate. 

But eucalyptus honey in America prob¬ 
ably belongs chiefly to the future. The 
commercial importance of eucalyptus cul- 


EXTRACTED HONEY 


307 


ture, which has now passed the experimen¬ 
tal stage, will lead to the planting of thou¬ 
sands of trees, which will offer a bee pas¬ 
ture of extraordinary richness. If the nec¬ 
tar production of these immense planta¬ 
tions equals expectation, the possibilities of 
bee culture in California can hardly be 
overestimated. It is, however, unfortunate 
that the blue gum, which financially is the 
most promising species, should yield a 
honey of inferior quality. For descrip¬ 
tions and illustrations of the more impor¬ 
tant species of eucalyptus and the methods 
of cultivation see Bulletins No. 196 and 
No. 225, Agriculture Experiment Station, 
Berkeley, Cal., and Circular 59 of Forest 
Service, United States Department of Ag¬ 
riculture. 

EXTRACTED HONEY. —Up to the year- 
1865 all liquid honey obtainable was 
pressed and strained from the combs— 
hence the term “strained” honey. Such a 
product is generally full of sediment owing 
to particles of wax, pollen, propolis, and 
dirt. The more modem product of liquid 
honey is extracted from the combs by cen¬ 
trifugal force. A reel holding two or more 
combs and revolving inside of a cylinder 
or can, throws the liquid honey from the 
cells, leaving the empty combs intact for 
the bees to fill up again. (See Extract¬ 
ing.) The honey so obtained is called “ex¬ 
tracted.” It is free from impurities—more¬ 
over, it is not impaired in flavor by bits of 
pollen and propolis. Practically all the 
liquid honey on the market today is sep¬ 
arated from the combs by the use of the 
extractor, and is, therefore, extracted hon¬ 
ey. Occasionally there is a honey—for ex¬ 
ample, the far-famed heather honey of 
Scotland—that is so thick that it cannot be 
readily separated from the comb by centri¬ 
fugal force, unless it is placed in a warm 
room for twenty-four hours before extract¬ 
ing. 

There are as many varieties and flavors 
of honeys as there are of apples and other 
fruits. Extracted honey may be divided 
into two general classes, one suitable foi 
table use and the other for manufacturing 
purposes. Among the first named are the 
light-colored honeys, such as the clover, 
basswood, alfalfa, sage, orange, tupelo, 
palmetto, and raspberry, all of which are 


of fine body and flavor, and of course suit¬ 
able for use on the table. While it is not 
invariably true, yet generally the light-col¬ 
ored honeys are mild and delicious. The 
darker honeys are nearly always stronger 
in flavor and must be marketed in a locality 
where the consumers are accustomed to the 
flavor, or they must be sold for baking pur¬ 
poses. Hundreds, yes, thousands of car¬ 
loads of dark honeys are used by the large 
baking concerns, for no artificial product* 
that has ever been produced quite takes 
the place of honey for keeping cakes soft 
and moist for months. Some cakes, like 
honey jumbles, contain a larger percentage 
of honey than others. Honey is also often 
used along with molasses and cheaper syr¬ 
ups in baking. See Honey as a Food. 

As is pointed out under Comb Honey 
there is some difference in flavor between 
comb honey and extracted, owing to the 
fact that the latter, especially if improper¬ 
ly handled, loses some of its aroma and 
because it usually has to be heated one or 
more times, as explained under Bottling. 
Overheating, even for a very short time, 
impairs the flavor of honey. Moreover, 
some producers, in their eagerness to obtain 
all the honey possible, extract it from the 
combs before it is fully “ripened.” Honey 
when it is first stored in the cells is thin 
and watery, and does not have the exquisite 
flavor that it has when evaporated and 
changed chemically by the bees and sealed 
over. Honey which has been allowed to 
stay in the hive some time after it is sealed 
acquires a body and a richness that honey 
only partially sealed does not have. Some 
producers, who use specially constructed 
evaporating tanks maintain that unripe 
honey may be evaporated by artificial 
means and made just as heavy in body as 
that evaporated by the bees. If an exten¬ 
sive equipment is used this is probably 
true, but the flavor is not as rich as tho 
the honey had been left on the hive, fully 
evaporated and capped over by the bees 
before being extracted. Most beekeepers 
who have tried to ripen honey artificially 
have not succeeded, and the thin honey 
which they attempt to sell not only lacks 
in flavor and body, but in many instances 

* Invert sugar, when it is cheaper than honey, 
is sometimes used as a substitute, hut it lacks flavor. 
See Invert Sugar. 



308 


EXTRACTED HONEY 


actually sours, irreparably damaging fu¬ 
ture sales and injuring the reputation of 
the producer. Unless honey is coming in 
so fast that there is not a reserve of combs 
to take care of it, it is penny wise and 
pound foolish to extract unripe honey. It 
is not possible to produce an extracted 
honey that will have all the delicate aroma 
that it possessed before being removed 
from the comb, and every extracted-honey 
producer, therefore, should err on the safe 
side by letting the bees do their part fully. 

In 1870 A. I. Root extracted over three 


do so, also leaving a thin watery part? 
which, if it does not sour, acquires in time a 
disagreeable brackish flavor. Unripe honey 
will often show the peculiar quality of 
pushing the bungs out of barrels, corks 
out of bottles, and it may actually burst 
cans, to the disgust of every one who has 
anything to do with it. 

Now honey, even that which is fully 
capped over, often has a peculiar odor and 
taste. Sometimes, where there is a great 
amount of goldenrod a disagreeable smell 
is noticeable in the apiary while the gold- 



Unripe honey. Fermentation and consequent expansion caused the honey to leak out around the screw-caps 


tons of honey from an apiary of less than 
fifty colonies. During the fore part of the 
season it had been allowed to become cap¬ 
ped over; but during the basswood bloom, 
when the bees were fairly crazy in their 
eagerness to bring in the nectar, some of it 
was extracted that was little better than 
sweetened water. This granulated when the 
weather became cold, and nearly all of it 
had to be sold at a loss. Almost all honey 
will granulate; but an unripe honey will 


enrod honey is ripening. In a few weeks, 
however, all this passes away and the honey 
shows nothing of the former disagreeable 
odor or flavor. In certain localities where 
onion seeds are raised for market, the 
honey, when first gathered, has so strong 
a flavor of onions that it cannot be used. 
Later on, however, much of the disagree¬ 
able quality disappears. 

Even basswood honey, when first gath¬ 
ered, ig sq strong, and has such a pro- 









EXTRACTED HONEY 


309 


nounced “twang” that it is often unpleas¬ 
ant. After standing, especially if left in 
the hives, it greatly improves. 

One season the extracting could not be 
attended to when the honey was capped 
over, and so the filled supers were raised 
up and supers of empty combs placed un¬ 
der them next to the brood-chamber. This 
occupied little time, and the bees were not 
hindered in their work. This was con¬ 
tinued until the latter part of the summer, 
before any honey was extracted. While 
honey that has stood in the hives is some¬ 
what thicker and harder to extract, it has 
a richness of flavor that can be obtained in 
no other way. Of course, in localities 
where there are honey flows from two or 
more sources it is necessary to extract after 
each flow, if one desires to keep the flavors 
separate. 

HOW TO KEEP EXTRACTED HONEY. 

It is usually best to sell the crop at once 
when the market is good', but sometimes it 
is advisable to hold, awaiting a further 
higher price. It is impossible to recommend 
any invariable rule, for conditions are dif¬ 
ferent in different seasons. It is pretty 
safe to assume, however, that honey brings 
a better price before the holidays than 
after. 

Comb honey cannot be kept indefinitely, 
because there is danger that it may granu¬ 
late (see Comb Honey), but, if extracted' 
honey is properly cared for, it may be kept 
for years without deteriorating. All comb 
honey should be kept in a room as near 
summer temperature as possible. The 
thermometer should not go below 70 de¬ 
grees F., and no harm is done if it goes as 
high as ordinary summer temperature per¬ 
mits, even 90 degrees in the shade. Ex¬ 
tracted honey keeps perfectly when stored 
in tin cans or in large tanks, even when 
the temperature is down to freezing or 
lower. At the low temperature it will 
granulate. For the purpose of shipping 
it is much better to have it in a granulated 
condition. Tanks holding more than 500 
pounds are ordinarily made of galvanized 
iron. Some objection has been made to 
this metal because of the zinc contained 
in the spelter; but in the large-sized tanks 
no injury to the honey has ever been no¬ 
ticed. However, it would be q mistake to 


leave a very thin layer of honey for a long 
time in the bottom of a large galvanized 
tank, as the honey might take on enough 
of the zinc to be poisonous. In California 
and other western States where great 
quantities of extracted honey are pro¬ 
duced, it is customary to store honey in 
large galvanized tanks, some of them prac¬ 
tically good-sized cisterns above the 
ground. In hot climates the honey will re¬ 
main liquid for some time and can be kept 
clear until cool weather comes on. If the 
honey has a tendency to granulate soon 
after extracting, it is not advisable to store 
it for any length of time in large tanks, 
but it should be drawn off into smaller cans 
of convenient size to handle after it granu¬ 
lates. In such cans it is not difficult to 
liquefy it, if desired. (See Bottling Hon¬ 
ey and Granulated Honey.) It is an ex¬ 
pensive matter to dig granulated honey 
out of a large tank. Some have attempt¬ 
ed to supply heat by means of a steam-^ 
jacketed tank, or by means of coils of 
steam pipes; but in most instances this, 
too, is expensive, and it is better to get 
honey into smaller cans as soon as possi¬ 
ble. 

In some localities barrels are extensively 
used for storing. They require careful 
watching, however, on account of the dan¬ 
ger of leaking. The hoops need to be 
driven down occasionally to compensate 
for the slight shrinkage of the wood, of 
which there is danger, especially in a hot 
climate. The barrel should be thoroly 
waxed on the inside as described under 
Barrels. The bung should be left out, 
and the honey stored in a dry room. When 
ready to ship, the bung should be driven 
in, a piece of tin tacked over it, and the 
hoops tightened. 

IS EXTRACTED HONEY ALWAYS PUREf 

Years ago adulterated extracted honey 
was marketed in considerable quantities; 
but in late years, owing to the enactment 
and enforcement of pure-food laws the 
adulterated product has been practically 
eliminated from the market. One may be 
nearly certain, therefore, that any liquid 
honey that he buys will be the pure prod¬ 
uct of bees. Some may be of poor quality, 
it is true; but that does not signify that 
it is adulterated. See Adulteration of 


310 


EXTRACTED HONEY 




rtf 

i 


A comb of honey with cappings shaved off by a sharp knife. 


Uncapped combs being lowered into a honey-extractor. 













Extracted hoxey 


311 



When the combs are whirled rapidly, the centrifugal force throws the honey out of the cells against the 
side of the can. 



The comb after being taken from the extractor is as good as new and is ready to be filled again by the bees. 









312 


EXTRACTED HONEY 


Honey ; also Labels, for a further discus¬ 
sion of this question. 

PACKAGES FOR SHIPPING AND SELLING 
EXTRACTED HONEY. 

For the shipment of honey, tin contain¬ 
ers are much more satisfactory than wood¬ 
en. When tin is used there is never any 
loss by honey soaking into the package, 
while in ease of barrels or kegs the loss is 
sometimes 2 or even 5 per cent, and this is 
considerable. Such loss is greatly reduced 
by waxing; but that in turn includes much 
additional labor. In the West, the dryness 
of the climate causes wooden packages, 
such as barrels and kegs, to shrink to such 
an extent that they are entirety useless. If 
tin containers are tight in the first place 
they will remain tight, and no degree of 
dryness will affect them. While they are 
somewhat more expensive, yet this disad¬ 
vantage is more than offset by the greater 
convenience and safety in handling. 

Yet, whatever package is used, care 
should be taken to insure safe shipment. 
Every year in this country an enormous 
amount of honey is lost by the honey-ship¬ 
per’s carelessness in failing to provide 
proper shipping equipment when putting 
his crop aboard cars. Railroads are sup¬ 
posed to stand all loss in transit; and, 
therefore, in order to realize the necessary 
profit, excessive loss in transit compels 
them to raise the rates, and thus the ship¬ 
per is ultimately obliged to pay from his 
own pocketbook for his failure to provide 
strong shipping-cases. 

A round can as a container for honey or 
other liquid has long been condemned as a 
failure by the railroad companies. This is 
because of the fact that there is no way of 
keeping a round container upright and in 
its place on the car floor, and, once tipped 
over, it rolls about with every jolt of the 
car and gets battered or even knocked to 
pieces. As for the wooden jacket (a 
wooden veneer about % inch thick) it is 
about as good as nothing. The accompany¬ 
ing illustration gliows the battered and 
leaky condition in which jacketed cans 
sometimes arrive at their destination. 

When such packages are used, not only 
is the honey itself liable to be lost in tran¬ 
sit, but often the honey runs down upon 
other merchandise in the freight car, caus¬ 


ing considerable damage. It is on account 
of these repeated instances of loss and dam¬ 
age caused by leaking honey, that some 
shippers have recently been advocating 
steel drums, holding 15 gallons or possibly 
30 gallons. These are especially advised 
for export shipments to foreign countries 
where the packages receive very rough 
treatment, as on shipboard. The only pos¬ 
sible objection to shipping honey in this 
way is, that the drums are rather heavy 
and can not be lifted without a hoist. 
Moreover should the 'honey granulate in 
them, it would require a long heating pro¬ 
cess to reliquefy it. When steel drums are 
used, they must be either tin-lined or gal¬ 
vanized. 

By far the most popular package for 



A honey can after being shipped loose in a box. Most 
of the honey had leaked out. 

shipping extracted honey in bulk is the 
five-gallon sixty-pound square can. In 
later years it has come to be almost uni¬ 
versal. There are usually two cans to the 
wooden case, as shown. Note the strong 
% inch partition between the two cans. 
This is essential for safe shipment. With¬ 
out this partition the case is too frail to 
stand such a weight of honey together 
with the rough handling it is sure to re¬ 
ceive in shipment. 







EXTRACTED HONEY 


313 



A very convenient device to use when 
pouring honey from the five-gallon cans is 
the screw-cap honey-gate, as shown. This 
simple gate may be made by any one. Take 


a piece of heavy tin, 2^ x 3, and make a 
square bend x /± inch from each long edge. 
A heavy piece of sole leather, 2x3 inches, 
of a size to fit into this, should be riveted 


A truck-load of round wooden-jacketed cans just as 
they were received after shipment. 

firmly at the four corners. Solder to it a 
screw-cap the right size to fit the cans used, 
and with a tinner's punch cut a hole thru 
the cap, tin, and leather. A tin slide, to be 
pushed in between the leather and the 
folded tin, completes the device, which, 
when screwed on the can, is ready for use. 

To meet the demand for smaller tin 
packages the manufacturers of square cans 
have introduced smaller-sized cans holding 
one, one-half, and one-fourth gallon re¬ 
spectively. The gallon cans are usually 
sold in boxes of ten each. 

HOW TO TEST TIN CANS FOR LEAKS. 

Ordinarily by looking into the can while 
it is held toward the light, one may deter¬ 
mine whether or not the can has leaks. 
Even a tiny hole will let in a bright ray of 


light which will be readily seen if the can 
is turned slightly toward one side or the 
other. 

If solder becomes loosened at some point, 
however, this test might not locate the de¬ 
fect. Therefore some beekeepers prefer to 
screw the caps tightly on the cans and then 
immerse the cans in hot water. The inside 
air expanding will cause small bubbles to 
escape from all leaks. Another plan some¬ 
times employed is to have a cap specially 
prepared for attaching the tube of an auto 
pump, and then forcing air into the can. 
If there is a leak, one will hear the sound 
of escaping air. 

HOW TO CLEAN SECOND-HAND CANS. 

Opinions vary as to the advisability of. 
using second-hand cans. Frequently gaso¬ 
line or kerosene cans may be bought for 
about half the price of new ones. Unless 
.one is very careful in cleaning, however, 


Standard two-can shipping case with strong par¬ 
tition in middle between the cans. Each 5-gal. 
can holds 60 lbs. of honey. 

honey placed in them is likely to be 
ruined. The general consensus of opinion 
is that bright new cans are the cheapest 
for fine light honey. Honey that is dark 
or ill flavored may be shipped in second¬ 
hand cans if they are carefully inspected 
and rigidly cleaned. If a can has held oil 
of any kind, it may be cleaned by putting 













314 


EXTRACTED HONEY 



Friction-top cans and pails. 


a handful of unslacked lime into it with 
three or four quarts of boiling water. After 
the lime is slacked, it should be shaken well 
and afterward rinsed out twice with cold 
water. 

Rusty cans must never be used for honey. 
The rust not only discolors the honey, but 
it indicates weak spots in the tin, which 
may cause leaks almost any time. 

Some beekeepers insist that even new 
cans should be rinsed out with boiling wa¬ 
ter before the honey is put in them, to re¬ 
move the dust or any other foreign mat¬ 
ter. Others claim that it is so difficult to 
dry the cans after they are thus cleaned 
that it does not pay. If the cans are not 
carefully dried, the moisture left is almost 
sure to cause rusting. We have rarely 
found new cans that require rinsing. 

FRICTION-TOP PAILS. 

Among the smaller tin packages for 
holding a gallon or less the friction-top 
cans and pails are very popular. The 
opening at the top is very large, and this 
adds greatly to the convenience in filling. 
The caps, when they are properly pressed 


into position, are tight and will not work 
loose. 

GlyASS PACKAGES FOR EXTRACTED HONEY. 

The appearance of extracted honey is 
beautiful. For this reason the lighter 
grades should be retailed in glass instead 


Airline jars. 

of tin. (See Bottling Honey.) A tin 
package must depend upon its label for 
its attractiveness. Honey in clear white 
glass speaks for itself. The label does 
not need to be gaudy; in fact, it should 
serve only to call attention to the honey. 





Taper-panel jar 



Federal jar 


Round jar 


Tip-top jar 



Tumbler 




























































































EXTRACTED HONEY 


315 


There is a great variety of different types 
of jars from the smallest tumbler to the 
large two-quart Mason jars. Square bot¬ 
tles with large mouths using corks were 
very popular a few years ago and are still 
used quite largely. These are obtainable 
with a picture of a straw skep pressed in 
the glass on the front. 

Mason fruit-jars and jelly tumblers are 
popular because they can be bought any¬ 
where, and no one objects to buying them 
with honey, since they are always useful. 
Whenever possible select crystal-white 
glass rather than that of a greenish tint, 
for green does not show the honey to the 
best advantage. 

Paper milk-bottles have been used for 
honey to some extent for local trade; but, 
while these are very satisfactory for granu¬ 
lated honey, they do not answer for long 
shipments of liquid honey that is not gran¬ 
ulated. For this reason they are not very 
popular. 

Extracted honey is one of the purest and 
best foods. It should not be classed with 
.cheap syrups, and therefore it deserves the 
best and most attractive package. 

EXTRACTING.— To produce extracted 
honey one must have a big force of bees, 
as in the case of comb honey. The pro¬ 
ductiveness of an apiary can not be meas¬ 
ured by the number of colonies it con¬ 
tains, but by the number of bees in the 
individual colonies. To achieve the best 
results is to see that each colony is in good 
working order by the time the flow opens, 
and to do this it is necessary to examine 
each separately in order to ascertain its 
condition. Special attention must be 
given to each queen; and every one that is 
in any way defective should be replaced 
with another that is young and vigorous. 
It will never do to retain a queen whose 
prolificness is doubtful, for the colony of 
such a queen will yield very little surplus, 
or, in all probability, none at all. It is 
far better to replace such a queen, even if 
another has to be bought. The next impor¬ 
tant thing to be careful about is the 
strength of each colony. If the honey flow 
begins a month or six weeks ahead, and 
the weak colonies have young prolific 
queens, an effort may be made to build 
them up to full strength in time for it; 


but if the flow is near at hand, it is better 
to unite the weaklings. 

In some localities, the main honey flow 
is preceded by a light flow from some other 
source, while in others there is a dearth 
until the opening of the harvest. Where 
the former is the case the bees will make 
good progress in brood-rearing, and the 
colonies consequently will build up nicely; 
but where there is but one flow, some colo¬ 
nies may be in the poorest kind of condi¬ 
tion when it commences. 

If the colonies were prepared properly 
in the fall, and left with sufficient stores, 
they may need no further attention until 
the honey flow; but if they lack stores or 
necessary room for the queen to lay, the 
matter should not be neglected; for in or¬ 
der to get a good crop it is imperative that 
at the beginning of the honey flow the hives 
be overflowing with bees. In the case of 
those colonies that need attention, the num¬ 
ber of bees actually present at the open¬ 
ing of the flow will depend entirely upon 
the manipulations begun some six or 
eight weeks previously. 

During these weeks the colonies should 
be kept always supplied with plenty of 
stores. At all times there should be at 
least from ten to twelve pounds of honey in 
the hive—-more if possible; for during 
spring breeding great quantities of stores 
are needed, full colonies sometimes need¬ 
ing three or more pounds each week. It is 
necessary to have stores in excess of their 
actual needs, in order that brood-rearing 
may continue at the proper rate. There¬ 
fore close watch should be kept in order 
that the stores may not run low and thus 
curtail brood-rearing. 

If some colonies are short of honey, it is 
generally possible to find others in the 
apiary which can easily spare a few 
combs; and if no disease is present in the 
apiary, these stores should be equalized; or 
lacking these stores it may be necessary to 
feed syrup or candy. See Feeding in 
Spring and Building up Colonies. 

However, the general opinion of the 
majority of large producers is that it is 
better to avoid spring feeding if possible. 
If in need of stores they should be fed; 
but the better way, as mentioned before, is 
to have strong colonies of young vigorous 
bees with an abundance of good stores in 


316 


EXTRACTING 


the fall to last until the main flow begins 
in the spring. 

At this point the reader should read 
carefully the article on Building up Colo¬ 
nies. If the colonies are strong enough at 
the right time the crop will not be a fail¬ 
ure if there is any honey in the fields. 

WHAT KIND OF HIVES TO USE FOR PRODUC¬ 
ING EXTRACTED HONEY. 

Eor most localities the best results will 
be secured with ten-frame hives of Lang- 
stroth dimensions. There are, perhaps, 
some who would prefer the ten-frame 
Jumbo hive with an extracting-super of 
Langstroth depth; and there are a few 
who would consider a twelve or thirteen 
frame hive, Langstroth depth, most suit¬ 
able. But the objection to these very large 
hives is that they are very heavy to handle; 
and where the individual units are smaller 
it is easier on the beekeeper. 

Either the eight or ten frame Langstroth 
hive is standard. Either is light enough 
so that any one can pick it up, transfer it 
to a wheelbarrow or cart, on which it is 
then carried to the extracting-house. If 
the time ever comes when the beekeeper 
wishes to sell out he will get a better price 
for something that is standard than if he 
has some freak or odd equipment that the 
prospective purchaser is not used to and 
would not like. 

Another thing in favor of the Lang¬ 
stroth dimensions is the fact that they are 
just right for the brood-nest or for the 
extractor. Where one uses hives of extra 
depth like the Jumbo he is compelled to 
have a super of • shallower dimensions, as 
it is not practicable to extract from the 
large deep frame. By adopting the Lang¬ 
stroth depth thruout, one not only has a 
standard equipment, but his supers and 
frames are interchangeable, either for 
breeding purposes or for extracting. This 
one fact alone should decide the extracted- 
honey producer in favor of the Langstroth 
dimensions, even if there were no other 
considerations. Moreover, when brood-nest 
and super are one and the same the cost 
is less. 

If one is well advanced in years, or a 
person happens to be a woman, an eight- 
frame is a little easier to handle. But the 
ten-frame is much more of a standard, and 


the authors strongly advise adopting an 
equipment that is not only uniform but 
universal in this country. 

There are some few extracted-honey 
producers who prefer the ten-frame Lang 1 - 
stroth brood-nest and a shallow extracting- 
super having frames 5% inches deep. This 
equipment is standard, and has the further 
merit that the supers are much lighter 
than the full-depth Langstroth brood-nest. 
Shallow frames are very easy to uncap, 
and require a little less wiring. On the 
other hand, it should be clearly understood 
that nearly two frames must be handled to 
take the crop in place of one. This makes 
extra manipulation in uncapping, in tak¬ 
ing the frames out of the supers, and put¬ 
ting them in the extractor. 

HOW FAR TO SPACE THE FRAMES FOR PRO¬ 
DUCING EXTRACTED HONEY. 

Most of the Hoffman frames in use are 
made on a spacing of 1% inches from cen¬ 
ter to center. But there are many bee¬ 
keepers who space even these combs in 
their extracting-supers 1% inches, or about 
eight combs to a ten-frame Langstroth 
super. Many prefer nine combs to the 
super or a spacing of almost 1%. One 
would think that a self-spacing frame 
would have to be spaced in the hive so 
that the projections of the end-bars would 
come in contact. As a matter of fact, they 
can be spaced as far apart as the old-style 
unspaced frames, the bees bulging the 
combs in proportion to the spacing. The 
fat combs are a little easier to uncap be¬ 
cause there will be no low spots. Further¬ 
more, it is perfectly evident that one can 
uncap eight combs in less time than he can 
do the work on ten spaced the regulation 
distance. 

It is for these reasons that the wide 
spacing, eight combs to the ten-frame 
Langstroth super, is almost universal 
among extracted-honey men. If it is de¬ 
sired to use these combs in the brood-cham¬ 
ber again, the uncapping-knife cuts them 
down to their normal depth. Large num¬ 
bers of extracted-honey men believe that 
it is good practice, and that it pays, to cut 
off thick slices during uncapping. The 
combs are then as smooth and level as a 
board either for brood-rearing or for ex¬ 
tracting in a year or so of such treat- 


EXTRACTING 


317 



ment. A hot knife especially will slide 
thru readily, and the surplus wax always 
brings a good price. Wide spacing, there¬ 
fore, makes it possible to produce both' 
extracted honey and wax. 

At this point the beginner should be 
cautioned against spacing frames contain¬ 
ing full sheets of foundation 1% or 1% 
inches from center to center. Unless they 
are spaced the regulation distance of 1% 
while the foundation is being drawn out, 
intermediate pieces of comb will be built 
in between, making a bad mess of the 
whole. After the foundation is once 
drawn out the combs can be spaced wide 
as before mentioned. 

PUTTING ON SUPERS AT OPENING OF FLOW. 

Many make the fatal mistake of waiting 
until the last minute before purchasing 
their supplies. It is folly to go to the ex¬ 
pense and trouble of establishing an api¬ 
ary, and then, when the time arrives to 
reap the reward of the labor, to lose it all 
simply because the goods have not come. 
Long before the harvest opens, the supers 
should be put together and painted, the 
frames nailed up, supplied with full sheets 
of foundation, etc. If the deep frames of 
Langstroth dimensions are used, they 
should be well wired to prevent comb 
breakage in the extractor; but with the 
shallow frames the wires, while not so nec¬ 
essary, are essential. 

It will be assumed that the colonies are 
in good condition for the honey flow, and 
the supplies all in readiness. The next 
thing is to put a super on each of the colo¬ 
nies not already supplied with a second 
story, and even on those if they seem 
crowded for room. Yet the supers should 


not be put on before the bees are ready for 
them, as nothing is gained, and it is harder 
for the bees to keep up the necessary heat, 
especially in cold climates. On the other 
hand, the putting-on of supers must not 
be delayed too long, for thus time would 
be wasted, and the bees on account of the 
crowded condition would probably start 
preparations for swarming. This should 
be avoided, since much swarming is bound 
to cut down the honey crop. 

Many beekeepers are so situated that 
they can not visit their yards just when 
the supers should be put on the hives. It 
does no harm to put them on a week or 
ten days ahead of time, altho, of course, it 
would be better not to give room too soon. 
Where the yard is located at home, one 
would not have to give room until just 
about as the honey flow starts. This may 
be determined by the way the bees are 
flying in at the entrance (see Diagnos¬ 
ing Colonies) and by the appearance of 
the combs. If on opening up the hive little 
spurs of new wax are being built along the 
upper edges of the combs, the supers 
should be put on. The beginner, however, 
should be cautioned that it is better to give 
the bees extra room early rather than too 
late. In the latter event the bees might be 
started to building swarm-cells. By giving 
supers a few days ahead of time he will be 
more apt to avoid having the bees make 
preparations for swarming. 

If the season has been early, and the 
bees have been able to build up rapidly, it 
may be advisable to put on extra supers 
a couple of weeks ahead of time in order 
to give room. After the honey flow starts 
it may be necessary to put on one more- 
super and place a queen-excluder between 




















318 


EXTRACTING 


the upper and lower stories, putting the 
queen below. See Demaree Plan under 
the head of Swarming. 

There are some who claim that it is not 
necessary to use queen-excluding honey- 
boards between brood-chambers and su¬ 
pers; but the author advises that, whether 
the brood-chamber is one story or two 
stories, it be separated from the supers 
above by a queen-excluder, for otherwise 
the queen is likely to go up into the ex- 
tracting-combs, and, instead of nice white 
honeycomb, there will be a mixture of 
brood in all stages, pollen, drone, and pos¬ 
sibly queen-cells. By special management 
the queen may be kept out of the supers 
after the flow begins, even tho no excluders 
are used; but ninety-nine out of one hun¬ 
dred who attempt this will fail. It is not 
necessary to state that honey extracted from 
combs containing unsealed brood is not as 
nice for table use. Furthermore, the queen, 
if allowed in the supers, will be in a most 



Fig. 4. Seven-wire and wood queen-excluding 
honey-board. 


dangerous position, and every time the ex- 
tracting-combs are handled will stand a 
chance of being killed. It is also a very dif¬ 
ficult matter to find a queen if no excluder 
is used, for there would be so many more 
combs to look over. This would also be true 
in reference to the finding of queen-cells at 
swarming time. 

One of the greatest objections to the 
non-use of the queen-excluders is that it 
is impossible to remove bees from a super 
by means of a bee-escape, if the super 
contains brood. It is plain to see, that, if 
there is any brood in the supers, the bees 
will not desert it and go down below. On 
one occasion, when in the height of ex¬ 
tracting, a queen and her attendants were 


placidly located on a large comb of honey, 
apparently taking in the situation. The 
colony had had no queen-excluder over the 
brood-chamber and the queen was in the 
super when the escape was put on. It was 
next to impossible to tell to what hive she 
belonged, and the whole proceeding meant 
extra work and worry that would have paid 
for many excluders. 

The objection that used to be made by 
some to the use of queen-excluders was that 
they obstructed the passage of the bees into 
the supers, but with the new wood-wire 
construction this is entirely obviated. 

As soon as the first super is filled and 
the process of sealing has begun, remove 
it, put an empty one in its place, and over 
it put the nearly completed one. The col¬ 
ony will then be occupying a hive of three 
stories, in case full-depth supers are used, 
or approximately two stories, if the shal¬ 
low supers are used. Put the empty super 
nearest the brood-nest, as the bees start to 
work in it more readily; and, as it is 
nearer, they have a shorter distance to 
travel. After the first extracting the emp¬ 
ty combs can be put back again and it will 
be found that the filling and sealing are 
done much more rapidly the second time, as 
the combs are already drawn out and the 
bees do not have to waste any time in comb¬ 
building. 

Mention has been made of the advisa¬ 
bility of spacing the combs further apart 
in the supers than in the brood-chambers, 
on account of the greater eas,e in uncap¬ 
ping the thick comb. Ordinarily, eight 
combs should be placed in a ten-comb 
super, the space between being regulated 
so that it is just the same. If this is not 
done, a part of the combs will be no 
thicker than ordinary brood-combs while 
others will be entirely too thick, or else 
the bees may possibly build natural combs 
in between the frames. Let no one get 
the idea that, in order to space frames fur¬ 
ther apart, non-spacing frames should be 
used, for the regular Hoffman frame is the 
best under all conditions. The point is 
that it is very important to have uniform 
equipment. It does not pay to have spe¬ 
cial frames for extracting, for in the fall 
and in the spring it is desirable to have 
such frames spaced the regulation distance 





























EXTRACTING 


319 


apart. Moreover, it is frequently an ad¬ 
vantage to use extracting combs in the 
brood-chamber. The self-spacing feature 
costs very little extra, does not interfere 



in any way with spacing the combs farther 
apart during the extracting season, and 
makes possible standard uniform equip¬ 
ment. In localities where propolis is very 
plentiful, the metal-spaced Hoffman frame 
is desirable, altho it requires a little more 
care in uncapping the metal-spaced frame 



Fig. 6. Hoffman frames, metal-spaced pattern. 


to avoid dulling the uncapping-knife. The 
regular Hoffman frame, then, should be 
usually used in the super, altho the metal¬ 
spaced type is always better in the brood- 
chamber where propolis is plentiful. 

THE CONTROL OF SWARMING. 

The extracted-honey producer does not 
have as much trouble preventing swarms 
as does the comb-honey man, since there 
is no objection to giving plenty of room 
as fast as the bees need it, and perhaps a 


little faster. In some localities bees swarm 
before and in others during the honey flow, 
and in a few localities they swarm after 
the flow is almost over; but in any case, 
swarming is a hindrance to the best results 
in honey, production. The bees should be 
working with concentrated energy in one 
hive. If divided into half a dozen diminu¬ 
tive swarms, they are generally of no use to 
themselves or to the beekeeper, so far as 
the production of honey is concerned. 

When artificial swarms are made to an¬ 
ticipate the issuing of natural swarms in 
producing extracted honey, it is not neces¬ 
sary to set the parent hive at one side, as 
in comb-honey production (see Comb 
Honey, to Produce) ; but the parent col¬ 
ony and the swarm may both be left in the 
same hive, the swarm being in the new 
brood-chamber and the parent hive (having 
all queen-cells destroyed) being placed 
above the supers. A queen-excluder used 
over the lower brood-chamber prevents the 
queen from going back to the combs of 
brood now above the supers. This plan is 
a variation of the Demaree plan in which 
the chamber containing the brood is placed 
directly above the queen-excluder, the su¬ 
pers being placed on top. See Demaree 
Plan under Swarming. 

Placing the brood above the supers in 
this way separates the old brood-chamber 
from the new one more completely, which 
probably reduces the chances of a swarm 
issuing if a young queen should emerge in 
the old brood-chamber. In fact, some bee¬ 
keepers who use this method do not find it 
necessary again to destroy the queen-cells 
that may be built in the old brood-chamber 
after it is put above the supers provided 
there are at least two full-depth extracting 
supers between the new brood-chamber at 
the bottom of the hive and the old brood- 
chamber now at the top of the hive. In 
addition to this, placing the supers directly 
above the new brood-chamber usually re¬ 
sults in the bees working in them better 
than when they are more remote. 

When artificial swarms are made in this 
way the new brood-chamber may be filled 
either with empty combs or frames con¬ 
taining full sheets of foundation, together 
with one empty comb. This plan for swarm- 
control is used by many successful pro¬ 
ducers of extracted honey, being especially 




























































320 


EXTRACTING 


adapted to conditions usually prevalent in 
the clover region. 

A condition similar to this can be 
brought about with but little labor in all 
colonies, whether they are preparing to 
swarm or not, by the following plan: If 
the bees are wintered in single stories, add 
a second story of empty combs, preferably 
dark combs in which brood has been reared 
previously, adding this second story early, 
before the colonies become crowded, per¬ 
mitting the queen to have a free range thru 
both stories. At the beginning of the honey 
flow add another extracting super as soon 
as needed. Under these conditions the 
queen usually abandons the lower brood- 
chamber, working chiefly in the second 
story. 

About a week after the beginning of the 
honey flow or after the queen has aban¬ 
doned the lower brood-chamber long 
enough so that the brood in this chamber 
has all been sealed, put the queen into the 
lower brood-chamber, confining her there 
by means of a queen-excluder; add an¬ 
other super of empty extracting combs, if 
needed; and, finally, put the brood-cham¬ 
ber, which was formerly the second story 
and which now contains most of the brood, 
on top of the supers. 

The bees are now compelled to establish 
their brood-nest anew in the lower brood- 
chamber, which at this time usually con¬ 
tains some sealed brood and much pollen. 
They are usually rather slow in preparing 
cells for the queen, and the new brood-nest 
is not expanded rapidly. 

While one might think at first that con¬ 
fining the queen to a single story after she 
has had a free range of the hive would in¬ 
crease the tendency to swarm, it will be 
seen that colonies treated in this way are 
in a condition similar to colonies that are 
hived on a set of empty or nearly empty 
combs. Apparently the re-establishment of 
the brood-nest in these combs, which have 
been abandoned for brood-rearing, is just 
as effective as tho these combs had been 
brought from the shop or honey-house in¬ 
stead of being a part of the hive at the 
time of the manipulation. If the honey 
flow is short, colonies treated in this way 
usually go thru the season without at¬ 
tempting to swarm, but they may do so if 
the honey flow is of long duration. 


David Running, Filion, Mich., gives a 
second story early, then later puts the 
queen below an excluder, as outlined above. 
About ten days later he shakes the bees of 
the lower brood-chamber, together with the 
queen, into a new brood-chamber filled 
with frames of foundation and one empty 
comb or a full set of empty combs, and 
puts the brood from which the bees have 
just been shaken on top of the supers, thus 
combining the two methods given above, to 
insure that no swarms shall issue during a 
prolonged honey flow. 

WHEN TO REMOVE HONEY FROM HIVES. 

It will be assumed again that the colo¬ 
nies were in good condition for the flow, 
that swarming was kept well under con¬ 
trol, and that the supering was done ju¬ 
diciously so that now the attention may be 
turned to extracting. It is well to look 
over all the upper stories and mark those 
which contain sealed honey. Beekeepers, 
especially beginners, often like to rush 
matters and extract honey that is unsealed. 
This is one of the worst moves possible. 

Honey should never be extracted until 
it is thick and well ripened. As soon as the 
bees consider it just right they begin cap¬ 
ping it over. During hot weather, there¬ 
fore, combs at least three-fourths capped 
would probably be completely sealed in a 
few hours if left on the hive, and may, 
therefore, be safely extracted. But if 
honey is extracted before the bees have 
ripened it, it will be thin and of unpleas¬ 
ant flavor, and, after being kept for a 
time, fermentation will doubtless result. If 
such honey is sold, it will in all probability 
cause the loss of reputation with the whole¬ 
sale honey-dealers, as well as with the local 
trade. 

It is not always necessary to wait until 
the end of the flow before extracting, as it 
is sometimes advantageous to extract, be¬ 
fore the end of the flow, all ripe honey— 
that is, all honey that is sealed, as at that 
time there is no robbing to contend with 
since the bees are busy, and the combs ex¬ 
tracted will be ready for putting on again 
and getting refilled. As long as the honey 
flow lasts, only that which is well sealed 
should be extracted, the partly sealed 
combs being left until after the flow, in or¬ 
der to get the honey in the cells ripened as 


EXTRACTING 


321 


much as possible. It may be mentioned 
here that some large extracted-honey pro¬ 
ducers prefer to leave all honey on the 
hives as long as possible, claiming that by 
so doing they get a much thicker and bet¬ 
ter grade. This is a very good plan for 
localities where there is no dark honey 
flow soon after the light flow. Where dark 
honey comes in soon after the light, or 
where there is a mixture of honey, it is 
better to extract the combs as soon as they 
are sealed in order to keep the different 
kinds of honey by themselves as far as 
possible. When the flow is over, and all 
the honey is removed, the combs should be 
carefully sorted, all the unripe honey ex¬ 
tracted by itself and used for feeding, or 
sold for manufacturing purposes. Such 
honey should never be used for the table. 

If the honey is extracted after it is 
sealed there will not be so large an amount 
taken from the hives at one time as if it 
had been extracted while still warm and 
uncapped, so that in the extractor it will 
be thrown out of the cells cleaner. On 
the other hand, if it is allowed to remain 
on the hives until the end of the flow, 
then removed, stacked up in the honey- 
house and extracted at a later date, it will 
be colder, and will consequently take more 
time to extract. 

Moreover, if the supers are stacked up 
on the hives until the end of the flow it 
requires more extracting-combs, and more 
supers to hold them, than if the combs are 
extracted about as soon as sealed. How¬ 
ever, it is the opinion of some of the larg¬ 
est producers that it actually pays to ex¬ 
tract, the honey all at one time after the 
honey flow, since at that time work is not 
so pressing, and more time can be given. 

The employment of this plan may result 
in a somewhat smaller crop the first year 
because of the necessity of the bees draw¬ 
ing out so much foundation; but it should 
be remembered that the same combs may 
be used year after year, probably for the 
remainder of one’s lifetime. 

HOW TO FREE THE COMBS FROM BEES. 

Since the invention of the ventilated 
escape-board and double bee-escape, it is 
not advisable for any one, whether be¬ 
ginner or expert, to free the combs of bees 
bv means of the smoke, shake, and brush 
11 


method, which is too slow and troublesome, 
and during a dearth it is quite certain to 
start robbing. However, since the great 
majority of extracted-honey producers 
used this method in the past, and many 
still use it, it will be discussed briefly. 

When brushing bees from extracting- 
combs a serviceable brush is necessary. A 



The bristle bee-brush. 

makeshift is never economical. Either the 
bristle or the Coggshall brush answers 
every purpose, and, what is of prime im¬ 
portance, they may be washed when they 
become sticky with honey. 

In case any disease is suspected the 
combs should never be brushed or shaken, 
for if robbers gain access to the smallest 
drop of diseased honey, the disease would 
be certain to spread. 



How to hold the Coggshall bee-brush. 


There is no question but that it is easier 
to get the bees from shallow combs than 
from those of full depth. Smoke may be 
used in either case, altho better results fol- 













322 


EXTRACTING 


low from its use on the shallow combs, 
since there is more of a chance for the 
.smoke to go down thru. Some follow the 
plan of giving a vigorous smoking, and 
raising the supers and blowing smoke thru 
between the combs to get out the last few 
bees. The combs then need but very little 
brushing to render them practically free. 

If any comb should chance to have many 
bees on it, it is held by the top-bar or end- 
bar as preferred, and given a sharp jarring 
shake so that the bees will be jarred off on 
the alighting-board in front of the hive. 
If they are shaken back into the super they 
collect on the other combs and have to be 
shaken again. After shaking, the few re¬ 
maining bees are brushed off. When 
brushing, the combs are held in the left 
hand by the end of the top-bar, both sides 
being brushed without turning the frame. 
As fast as the combs are brushed they are 
placed in an empty super near by; and 
finally, when the combs are all out, the 
super just emptied should be taken to the 
nest hive to use in the same way. There 
is more or less objection to the use of 
smoke, one being that the bees are likely to 
uncap the honey to some extent, altho this 
is not so important in extracted-honey pro¬ 


duction as in comb-honey production. The 
greatest objection to the use of smoke is 
that it is quite slow, and uncertain in re¬ 
sults, and, furthermore, the honey is some¬ 
times tainted a little by the smoke, espe¬ 
cially that which is sliced off with the cap¬ 
pings. On this account some prefer to use 
practically no smoke, depending almost en¬ 
tirely on brushes for getting the bees off, 
each comb being taken out by itself, both 
sides brushed quickly, and then set into the 
empty super waiting. A large feather is 
sometimes used; but feathers irritate the 
bees, and it is better in the long run to use 
a brush especially for the purpose. It is 
probable that a combination of both the 
smoke and the brushing is better than 
either one alone; but it must be remem¬ 
bered that all this work, if done during a 
time when no honey is coming in, must be 
carried on very rapidly, and the super and 
all the honey kept covered up every instant 
in order to be kept away from robber bees. 
When robbers once get to following the 
operator around the yard it becomes very 
troublesome indeed, and the best way is to 
work quickly and go from one place to an¬ 
other so rapidly that they do not get a 
chance to start. 



To shake hees from a comb, hold it as shown and give a sharp .ierk. Most of the bees will he 
dislodged at the second or third jerk. It does not pay to try to shake off every bee. The few remaining 
should he brushed off. 







EXTRACTING 


323 


When so many combs are being shaken 
and brushed, the trouser leg's should be 
tied around the ankles, or should be stuffed 
inside the stockings, since it is the nature 
of bees to crawl upward. The most con- 



A goood way to brush bees from a comb. Both 
sides may be brushed without changing the position 
of the comb very much. 


venient arrangement is a pair of bicycle 
pants-guards. Many beekeepers take the 
additional precaution of wearing fingerless 
gauntlet gloves in order to prevent the 
bees from crawling up the sleeves. 

THE USE OF BEE-ESCAPES. 

Of course by far the easiest and nicest 
way to free supers from bees is to use the 
Porter bee-escape, the use of which is ex¬ 
plained under Comb Honey. The escape- 
boards, if placed under the supers in the 



afternoon, will almost entirely free the 
combs of bees the following day. Son\p- 
times more time is required, but usually 
this is enough. The honey is then removed 
without knowledge of the bees; there is no 
danger of robbing, no stings, no loss of 
time, and no disturbance. There is not 
even any need of using a smoker. It the 
colony has two supers, and the upper one 


only is ready to come off, the escape should, 
of course, be put between the upper and 
lower super, so that the bees will not be 
prevented from working in the super not 
yet finished. 

In the production of comb honey the 
use of the bee-escape for removing bees 
from the super is almost universal, and is 
rapidly becoming so in the case of extract¬ 
ed honey also. Formerly there were two 
objections to the escape. It was found 
that in the 24 or 48 hours required for the 
bees to pass down into the brood-chamber, 
the honey became cold, and therefore much 
harder to extract. The second objection 
was that the bees did not leave the extract- 
ing-combs quite as readily as they did the 
comb-honey sections on account of the fact, 
probably, that there are always some un¬ 
capped cells, and the bees are slow in leav¬ 
ing thru the escape on this account. 



Hodgson ventilated bee-escape board. 

The first objection has been largely over¬ 
come by the ventilated or screened escape- 
board. As the name implies, the bee- 
escape, instead of being placed in the cen¬ 
ter of a solid board, is put in the center of 
a screen, bound with a wooden frame. The 
warmth of the bees below rises and keeps 
the honey warm—almost as warm as tho 
the bees were on it, so that it extracts eas¬ 
ily- 

The second objection has been overcome 
by the use of the double bee-escape. If the 
combs are entirely capped over, the super 
may be taken off in the morning if the 
escapes are put on the day before. 

The ventilated escape-board, which is the 
invention of Arthur Hodgson of Jarvis, 
Ontario, has brought the escape into gen- 











































324 


EXTRACTING 


eral use among the producers of extracted 
honey. 

Another method for freeing supers of 
bees (the carbolized-cloth method) is used 
by a few beekeepers. 

The beekeeper provides himself with five 
or six pieces of cotton cloth a little larger 
than the common super. These are soaked 
in a solution of one part of pure carbolic 
acid to nine parts of water. The surplus 
moisture is wrung out, and the damp cloth 
is laid directly on the super after the bees 
have been smoked somewhat. The hive- 
cover, or other board, is then put on top to 
prevent the cloth from drying out too rap¬ 
idly. When one hive is thus prepared the 
beekeeper goes to the next, and so on, until 
the cloths are all on. By that time the bees 
are practically out of the first super, and 
that cloth may be placed on another super, 
and so on. 

This method works best on shallow ex- 
tracting-supers, but is very effective on the 
deep supers. 

If the crude carbolic acid is used, the 
odor is stronger, and there is a little more 
danger of tainting the honey. Unsealed 
honey, especially, takes on this odor easily, 
and for this reason the liquid used should 
not be too strong. 

The advantage of the carbolized-cloth 
method over the others is that there is no 
danger of starting robbing, even if the 
honey flow is over, and the honey may be 
removed from the bees almost immediately 
while it still holds all the heat froip the 
bees. 

TAKING THE COMBS TO THE EXTRACTOR. 

If combs are taken from the hives to the 
extractor at a time when no honey is com¬ 
ing in, care should be taken to keep them 
covered so that no bees may gain access. 
A little carelessness in this respect will 
make all kinds of trouble. 

There are various methods in use for 
transporting the combs of honey from the 
hive to the extracting-room. In small api¬ 
aries the tin comb-buckets with a tight- 
fitting cover holding half a dozen combs 
are very satisfactory. 

Others use larger comb-carriers consist¬ 
ing of a full-s’zed super, with tin nailed on 
the bottom, a handle across the top, and a 


tight-fitting cover in two halves hinged 
together in the center. 

Probably the majority of producers use 
a wheelbarrow with a specially constructed 



comb-bucket. 


box or platform to hold several supers. 
Some apiaries are located where the ground 
is too rough for a wheelbarrow, but by a 
little work the rough places may be 
smoothed up enough to answer very well. 
Certain it 'is that it is easier to move sev¬ 
eral supers with a wheelbarrow than by 
any other plan. 



Mercer’s cart. 

Sometimes a cart having two large 
wheels can be handled easier on rough 
ground than a Avheelbarrow. L. E. Mercer 
of California uses such a cart, equipped 
with pneumatic-tired wheels and a long 
box to receive the combs. 

With either a wheelbarrow or a cart, it is 
advisable to use a specially constructed box 

























































































EXTRACTING 


325 


or platform, for by so doing almost double 
the ordinary load may be carried with but 
little additional exertion. 

R. F. Holtermann of Canada lays a 
wooden track at each extracting-yard from 
the building down thru the hives. 

A light four-wheeled truck is loaded up 
with eight or ten full supers and pushed 
along with little effort to the extracting- 
room where the supers are slipped thru an 
opening in the side of the building. 

EXTRACTING HOUSE. 

Any well-ventilated bee-tight building 
will answer for this purpose, altho it must 
be large enough to hold the necessary ma¬ 
chinery, the supers of combs ready to ex- 



Escape in position on honey-house window. 

tract, and in some instances the cans of 
honey that have been extracted, altho in 
most cases it is better to store the honey in 
some other place and not fill up the ex- 
tracting-room in this way. The windows 
should be large, so as to admit plenty of 
light and air, and it would be better if they 
could be so arranged as to be removed en¬ 
tirely, wire-cloth screens taking their place. 
On the outside of the upper corners of the 
windows, honey-house escapes, made on the 
same principle as the hive-escapes before 
mentioned, should be attached, so that any 
bees taken into the room on one of the 
combs will go at once to the windows and 
make their escape. The door, instead 
of being made of wire screens, should be 


solid wood, so that the bees will not be 
attracted to it and interfere with the oper¬ 
ator going in and out. The bees attracted 
to the building, then, will ordinarily be fly¬ 
ing around the open windows instead, leav¬ 
ing the door comparatively free from bees. 

One who does not own a bee-tight build¬ 
ing might do the extracting in any kind of 
open shed at night, but it is necessary to 
clean every thing up thoroly in the morn¬ 
ing or else the bees will take possession and 
make considerable trouble the next day. 

EXTRACTING FOR A TWENTY OR 
THIRTY COLONY APIARY. 

For the beekeeper with 20 to 30 colonies 
a simple and practical outfit may be pro¬ 
vided at small cost. A honey-house 8 by 12 
would be quite large enough for extracting. 
For the work of extracting he will need a 
small two-frame extractor, and for con¬ 
venience it should be made reversible so 
that the baskets may be swung around to 
the other side to extract the other side of 
the combs. Two-frame automatic extract¬ 
ors are not recommended, as there is little 
if any advantage gained by their use, since 
the two baskets for the combs can be easily 
reversed by hand. 

The extractor should be securely attach¬ 
ed to a solid box firmly bolted to the floor, 
the box being of the right height for draw¬ 



Two-frame reversible honey-extractor. 

ing off the honey. The best location is near 
the wall, where there is less vibration when 
in operation, for continued vibration is apt 
to pull the can or box loose, especially if 












326 


EXTRACTING 


care is not taken to place combs of equal 
weight in the two sides of the extractor. 
Eor convenience in working, the extractor 
should be placed in one of the corners fur¬ 
thest from the door. Near this extractor, 
close to a window, where there will be 
plenty of light, should be placed the un¬ 
capping receptacle. It is handy to have it 
on the same side of the room as the ex¬ 
tractor, so that the combs may be handy to 
the extractor as soon as uncapped. This 
uncapping-receptacle may be made of a 
barrel with both ends knocked out, and a 
coarse screen nailed over the bottom; across 
the top, about one-third of the distance 
from one side, a two-inch strip of lumber 
should be nailed. (Rather than nailing this 
strip to the barrel, some prefer to attach 
cleats to the under side of the strip, so that 
it may be movable.) At the middle of this 
strip a sharp-pointed nail projects upward, 
about an inch, to hold the frames while un¬ 
capping. The barrel itself should be sup¬ 
ported in a tub into which the honey from 
the cappings falls, the barrel being sup- 



Root automatic four-frame extractor. 


ported by means of four hooks made of 
heavy wire. A simpler way of supporting 
the barrel is to nail, to the staves, at the 
right point, a couple of cleats just long 
enough to go across and rest on the edges 
of the tub. The cleats have the advantage 
that they furnish handles with which to 
lift the barrel. 

A very much better uncapping-outfit is 
the Root machine that is supplied by prac¬ 


tically all dealers. It consists of a can 21 
inches in diameter and 30 inches deep. In¬ 
side there is a removable perforated-metal 
basket that extends down to about half the 



Root uncapping can. 


depth of the can, leaving storage for 20 
gallons of honey. It is an inch smaller in 
diameter than the outer can so that the flow 
of honey may ooze from the cappings as 
fast as they accumulate from the sides of 
the basket as well as from the bottom. This 
basket will hold a day’s uncapping; and as 
soon as it is filled an extra basket can be 
used, so that the work can go on uninter¬ 
ruptedly. The filled baskets can be placed 
in an ordinary tub to drain still further. 
When the cappings have stopped draining 
they can be melted up or transferred to a 
common barrel to be melted later. 

The straining-can may be placed wher¬ 
ever convenient, but should not be too far 
from the extractor, as this would involve 
extra labor when lifting pails of honey 
from the extractor-gate to the straining- 
can. In this can or barrel is suspended a 
large wet cheese-cloth bag attached to a 
barrel hoop supported by the top of the 
can. Too much honey should not be drawn 
from this can. There should always be 
enough honey left to cover the strainer; 
for if the honey gets low the cappings and 
bits of wax that would otherwise float on 
the surface of the liquid will collect on the 
strainer and soon clog it. 






















EXTRACTING 


327 



A practical extracting outfit for the beginner. The barrel with both heads knocked out and a coarse 
screen nailed to the bottom makes a ~very good uncapping-ean when supported over a tub. A leaky barrel 
is all the better. Instead of a screen a large number of holes may be bored in the bottom and sides; then 
when one barrel is full it may be replaced by another. A large cheese cloth bag with a barrel-hoop nailed to 
the mouth, and supported in a can, makes an efficient strainer that fills all requirements. The honey is not 
supposed to be drawn off until the straining-can is full. Bits of cappings and other impurities will thus 
float to the surface instead of gathering in the cloth and filling it up. Of course a good tight barrel will 
answer just as well as a metal can, provided it has a faucet or gate at the bottom. 


The knives used in slicing off the cap¬ 
pings must be especially made. Large¬ 
sized butcher-knives may be used; but, 
ordinarily, these do not give good results 
See use of Bingham knife, page 332. 

The supers of combs to be extracted 
should be placed within easy reach of the 
uncapping-receptacle. Then one at a time 



the combs are removed and held with the 
top-bar away from the manipulator, and 
the end-bar resting on the nailpoint of the 
cross-bar. Holding the upper end of the 
frame with the left hand, and tilting the 
upper end slightly to the right so that the 
cappings may fall freely, begin at the 
lower end of the comb and with an ordi¬ 


nary uneapping-knife (dipped in hot wa¬ 
ter if desired) cut the cappings from the 
entire right side of the comb, performing 
the operation with a kind of sawing mo¬ 
tion. If the comb contains any depres- 



Gravity method of clarifying. A large cheese¬ 
cloth bag is supported in the tank. No honey is 
drawn off into cans until the tank is full, and then 
no faster than it is poured in. All bits of cappings 
float to the surface of the bag, hence the cheese 
cloth does not clog up. A heavy wire hoop in the 
bottom of the bag overcomes any tendency of the 
cloth to float. The honey is drawn off into cans. 
























328 


EXTRACTING 


sions the heel of the knife should be used. 
Then reverse the comb, still keeping the 
top-bar away from you, and slice a thin 
layer also from the other side, using the 
cross-piece to scrape off any cappings that 
may adhere to the knife. 

The uncapped combs may next be placed 
one in each basket of the extractor, the 
top-bar being placed next to the hinge. It 
is quite important to use combs of about 
the same weight opposite each other in the 
extractor, for if not perfectly balanced the 
extractor will run unsteadily and become 
loosened from its support. In a two-frame 
extractor this is especially necessary. In 
the four-frame and larger sizes one need 
not be so particular. In case of old dark 
combs whose cell walls are strengthened by 
many layers of cocoons, there will be but 
little danger of the combs breaking. When 
new combs are extracted—those in which 
brood has never been raised—greater care 
will be necessary to prevent the combs 
from breaking out of the frames. Such 
combs should be extracted until about half 
of the honey is out of the cells of the first 
side. The combs should next be reversed 
and the opposite side entirely extracted, 
and then the remainder of the honey taken 
from the first side. 

The gate of the extractor should be kept 
closed until the honey comes almost up to 
the reel in the extractor; then, when the 
gate is opened the pail will fill quickly, and 
almost no time lost. Leaving the gate of 
the extractor open, so that the honey may 
run into the pail, as fast as it is extracted, 
is bad practice; for sooner or later one 
will let the pail run over on to the floor. 
After drawing the honey into the pail, 
from the faucet, it is then emptied into the 
straining tank, from which it is run into 
60-pound cans, or other receptacles in 
which it is to be stored. 

As fast as the combs are extracted they 
may be again placed in the supers and 
stacked up in the honey-house. Along to¬ 
ward night these may be piled five or six 
on each hive, over a queen-excluder, leav¬ 
ing the bees to clean out the honey still 
adhering. 

The best place for keeping honey is in a 
dry room of even temperature—about 70 
to 100 degrees Fahrenheit. 

Honey should be stored in tin cans, and 


never in large tanks and left to candy, as 
it would be exceedingly difficult to remove 
it for bottling. 

EXTRACTING APPARATUS AND 
METHODS OF LARGE 
PRODUCERS. 

The apparatus and methods of the large 
producers differ from those of the small 
producers to such an extent that- it seems 
well to enter into a detailed description of 
extracting on a larger scale. See Ex¬ 
tractors. 

POWER-DRIVEN HONEY-EXTRACTORS. 

A few years ago a power-driven extrac¬ 
tor was a curiosity, only one or two such 
outfits being in use. Large extractors driv¬ 
en by gasoline engines have now become 
very common. Where access can be had 
to electric current, electric motors are also 
used, and in some localities water motors. 
However, on account of the fact that ex¬ 
tracting plants are usually in isolated 
places the gasoline engine is by far the 
most common source of power. The en¬ 
gines have been perfected to such a point 
that they are very reliable and efficient. 
Twenty years ago it took an expert to 
start, a gasoline engine, and sometimes an¬ 
other one to keep it running. Refinements 
in design brought about by experience of 
designers of automobile engines have ren¬ 
dered the farm gasoline engine a really 
practicable and reliable source of power. 
There are a number of makes of very good 
engines that can be bought for a very low 
price; and since a H/a-horse-power engine 
driving the largest extractor would not con¬ 
sume more than two or three quarts of 
gasoline a day, it can be seen that such ma¬ 
chines are very economical. 

While a l^-horse-power engine is ample 
to drive an eight-frame extractor, there are 
times especially if the honey is cold, that 
a H/^-horse-power engine is taxed to the 
limit. For this reason, and also because 
it is easier to keep a little larger engine 
running steadily without attention, it is 
sometimes advisable to use a two or even a 
three horse-power. 

The method of transmitting the power 
of the engine to the extractor is shown in 
the accompanying illustrations. 

In view of the fact that it is not practic¬ 
able to stop and start the gasoline engine 


EXTRACTING 


329 



every time the combs are put in and taken 
out of the extractor, a friction-drive is em¬ 
ployed with means for engaging the power, 
so that the extractor can be stopped and 
started. In fact, any speed desired is ob¬ 
tained simply by the movement of a cam 
lever on the horizontal shaft of • the ex¬ 
tractor. The engine and the horizontal 
shaft of the extractor run all the time, the 
reel being started as the metal disc on the 
horizontal shaft is moved into contact with 
the paper pulley on the vertical shaft of 
the reel. 

When the small handle is in a horizon¬ 
tal position no pressure is exerted on the 
horizontal shaft, and the metal disc does 
not touch the paper-rimmed pulley on the 
reel. As this lever is moved upward into 
a vertical position the cam gradually ex¬ 
erts a lateral pressure on the spring, which 
forces the disc into engagement with the 
before-mentioned paper-rimmed pulley.. 
The reel starts smoothly without any jerk. 
In case of new fragile combs, when it is 
necessary to start very slowly at first so 
that the bulk of the honey will be thrown 
out before the reel catches full speed, the 
cam lever may be moved very slowly into 
its vertical position, or the adjustable col¬ 
lar, against which the spring pushes, may 
be set to the left—that is, toward the metal 


disc—so that the spring does not push 
against it so hard. The lever may then be 
thrown into its vertical position instantly, 
and yet the reel will start slowly and pick 
up speed gradually, not reaching full speed 
until the bulk of the honey is thrown out. 

Where the honey is very thick and the 
combs are new and not strengthened, there¬ 
fore, by layers of cocoon always found in 
the cells of combs used for brood-rearing, 
it is often necessary to start the extractor 
slowly and let it run a few revolutions un¬ 
til perhaps two-thfrds of the honey 5s 
thrown out of the first side of the comb; 
then reverse, and extract all of the honey 
from the other side of the comb, finally 
reversing back again to the first side 
and extracting the rest of the honey there. 
This plan does away with the danger of 
comb breakage. Under such conditions re¬ 
quiring great care it can be seen that if all 
the honey were extracted from the first side, 
which would necessitate running at full 


Ideal arrangement of extractor, pump, engine, tanks, etc. 





330 


EXTRACTING 


speed, the entire amount of honey on the 
other side would probably crack the comb. 
On the other hand, if the combs have been 
used for brood-rearing for a time before 
they are put into use for extracted honey, 
they are greatly strengthened by the fibrous 
cocoons. With such combs, and especially if 
the extracting is done in hot weather, when 


pact. For a central extracting plant the 
eight-frame Buckeye extractor is the 
one to select, the latter sizes requiring 
power for turning, such as a gasoline en¬ 
gine, for they are too heavy to turn by 
hand except in an emergency. The large 
extractors have a great advantage over 
the small ones in that the combs can be 



A closer view of the pump, showing the construction, method of belting, 
arrangement of pipe and hose connections and manner of tapping into 


kept in motion so much longer. For in¬ 
stance, in the large size eight combs can 
be kept going until eight more have been 
uncapped; and, of course, this longer 
time than is practicable, say, with a four- 
frame machine, means that the combs are 
extracted just that much cleaner. Any 
honey left in the cells is wasted. 


the honey is not likely to be thick and 
waxy, it is not necessary to observe so 
much caution. 

CHOOSING AN EXTRACTOR FOR THE LARGER 
PRODUCER. 

For hauling from one outyard to an¬ 
other the four-frame reversible extractor 
is just the thing, for it is small and com- 















EXTRACTING 


331 


HONEY-PUMPS. 

Along with the adoption of power 
honey-extractors came the demand for 
pumps that would elevate the honey into 
tanks, for it is not always possible to build 
a honey-house on a sidehill where the ex¬ 
tractor can be located on one floor and 
the honey run by gravity into the tanks 
on a floor underneath. The earliest ex¬ 
periments with honey-pumps revealed the 
fact that very few water-pumps, even the 
rotary pumps, are suitable for pumping 
honey, for honey is very different in con¬ 
sistency from other liquids usually pump¬ 
ed. However, pumps especially designed 
for honey are now obtainable, and they 
are perfectly satisfactory. Belted direct 
from the cross-shaft of the extractor they 


frame or other foreign material may be 
thrown from the pocket of the extractor 
into the extractor can and find its way to 
the pump. In case the pump were posi¬ 
tively driven something would be sure to 
break. With a belt drive, the belt merely 
slips off. Then the pulley may be turned 
backward a few revolutions until the for¬ 
eign material, whatever it is, is removed. 
Usually, if the pump is worked by hand, 
back and forth, the bit of wood may be 
broken up and work may proceed at once. 

THE LOCATION OP THE EQUIPMENT. 

When for any' reason one does not wish 
to use a honey-pump, cut a hole in the floor 
underneath the gate of the extractor, mak¬ 
ing a pit into which a large pail may be 



run all the time that the engine is running. 
Consequently, the extractor can be kept 
empty, the honey being elevated to the tank 
as fast as extracted. It is not practicable, 
ordinarily, to elevdte thick honey more 
than eight to ten feet. 

The use of the honey-pump permits 
placing the extractor right on the floor 
where it may be firmly anchored, and 
where it is far more convenient than if 
elevated on a platform, even tho the plat¬ 
form be low. 

Some have attempted to drive a honey- 
pump by means of a chain. We do not 
regard this as advisable, for occasionally a 
bit of wood such as a broken corner of a 


set to catch the honey. This allows the 
extractor to stand on the solid floor. When 
the machine is set down on the floor it is 
much easier to get the combs in and out, 
and a great deal of time is saved. Of 
course, if there is a basement to the ex- 
tracting-house or to some other building 
close by into which the honey can be run 
thru a pipe into a tank, so much the bet¬ 
ter. 

' As is pointed out under Buildings, for 
the larger producer there are great advan¬ 
tages in having the honey-house built on a 
sidehill where there are different floor lev¬ 
els. The simplest arrangement of all is to 
have the honey from the extractor run by 






























332 


EXTRACTING 


gravity into the straining or settling tank, 
which must be, of course, in a lower room. 
Where this is impossible the lioney-pump 
is a necessity for a complete equipment. 

UNCAPPING THE COMBS. 

In dry climates under certain conditions 
honey may.be ripe enough to extract when 
it is but half-capped over — that is, when 
only the upper half of the comb is cap¬ 
ped; but under ordinary circumstances it 
is much safer to wait until the combs are 
almost entirely sealed or capped, for the 
honey will be thicker and richer. See the 
discussion on this subject under Extract¬ 
ed Honey. 

There are various sizes and shapes of 
knives used for cutting the cappings from 
the combs. Some begin at the top of the 
comb and cut down; while others, the ma¬ 
jority, perhaps, begin at the bottom and 
cut upward. No definite rule can be laid 
down; for the way that might be the easi¬ 
est for one operator might be the hardest 
for the next. Each producer should uncap 
with the kind of knife and stroke that 
seems the most natural. Some use a com¬ 
mon butcher knife with a long blade. The 
very great majority of producers use a 
knife originally designed by T. F. Bing¬ 
ham. 

The shank connecting the bladt with the 
handle has a semi-circular projection on 
each side, folded at a right angle, to af¬ 
ford a good grip for the thumb and fore¬ 
finger. As the blade is on a different plane 
from the handle one can get a better hold 
and in a position to exert more leverage 



by grasping the shank itself with the 
thumb and forefinger, the rest of the fin¬ 
gers encircling the flat handle, as shown. 

A right-handed operator, to uncap, 
should hold the frame with top-bar away 
from him and one end-bar resting on a 
nail-point sticking up about an inch from 
the center of a cleat nailed across the top 
of the receptacle to hold the cappings. The 
combs should be held by the left hand on 


the upper end-bar and top-bar. When the 
knife first starts cutting the cappings on 
the lower end of the comb, the frame should 
be held about vertical. As the knife is 
pushed upward toward the upper end-bar, 
the frame should be leaned to the right so 



that the cappings as they are sliced from 
the comb may fall directly into the recepta¬ 
cle underneath as they drop from the 
knife. If the frame is held straight or 
leaning slightly to the left, a sheet of cap¬ 
ping may slide back upon the comb and be 
held there by capillary attraction of the 
honey, and it requires extra time and fuss¬ 
ing to scrape it off again. 

After one side of the comb is uncapped, 
it may be swung around on the nail-point 
to expose the other side. Many prefer to 
turn the frame end for end rather than to 
swing it around in order to keep the top- 
bar always to the outside, the idea being 
that, the end-bar being narrower, it i's not 
so much in the way of the knife. 

When uncapping ofie should not try to 
take off merely a very thin layer of cap¬ 
ping, for it does no harm to uncap deep, 
since the wax and honey cut off are by no 
means wasted. A good rule is to uncap 
down to a level even with the side of the 
top-bar. Combs which have been used for 
brood-rearing are a little harder to uncap 
the first time, owing to the layers of co¬ 
coons; but when these have once been 
shaved down even with the side of the top- 
bar they are very easy to uncap on subse¬ 
quent extractings. The cocoons toughen 
the comb so that it is not so easily crushed 
out of shape by the knife nor broken in 
the extractor. 

The point of the knife should be started 
on the nearest lowest corner of the comb 
and pushed toward the top-bar until the 
cappings are cut from the end of the comb. 
Then the knife should be started toward 
the other end-bar by a sawing motion. It 
is much easier to uncap bulged combs. 
Therefore, in a ten-frame super, for in¬ 
stance, it is not a good plan to put in the 
full ten combs. Eight combs equally spaced 
in an extracting super contain the same 



EXTRACTING 


333 


amount of honey, or even more, and the 
comb, being' bulged, can be much more 
quickly uncapped since there will be few 
depressions. 

A cold knife must be kept very sharp, 
and there is need of constant scraping or 
washing to keep the wax from gumming 
up the sharp edge, thus interfering with 
the work. A dull cold knife or one that is 
badly gummed up and very dirty does not 
make a clean cut, but tends to crush the 
comb. 




Because of the .necessity for frequent 
cleaning and sharpening, an increasing 
number of producers prefer to work with 
a hot knife, and especially in case of thick 
honey there is no question but that a hot 
knife will do quicker and faster work with 
less strain on the wrist. "When ordinary 
knives are used it is customary to have two 
of them, one to be left in hot water over a 
small stove, while the other is used to un¬ 
cap both sides of a comb. 

Where the honey is thick and cold 
sometimes a knife heated in hot water will 
be cooled off by the time it is half way 
thru the cappings of one side of the comb, 
so that it is little better than a cold knife. 
In fact, the wax has a tendency to gum up 
a warm blade even more rapidly than it 
does one that is entirely cold. The blade 
should be either hot or cold, therefore, and 
not lukewarm. 

Because of the necessity of frequent 
changes in and out of the hot water a 
knife heated by steam, popularly called 
the steam uncapping-knife, has become 
very popular in the last few years. 


A piece of non-rusting metal is soldered 
on top of the knife-blade, and steam is in¬ 
troduced thru a tube near the shank of the 
knife, circulates over the blade, and bloAvs 



Steam-heated uncapping-knife. 

out thru a small opening at the point. This 
knife keeps hot continuously, the wax 
melts off, and, consequently, there is no 
gumming up, nor delay necessitated by 
scraping and cleaning the edge of the 
blade. Tubing especially adapted for the 
purpose conveys the steam to the knife 
from a small boiler over a stove. Ordinary 
rubber tubing does not stand the action of 
the steam, while a specially constructed 
steam hose would be too stiff to be flex¬ 
ible. 

A regular copper boiler or other can 
may be used for a boiler, if one takes the 
precaution of making a safety valve as 
shown in the next illustration. Any tinner 
can make such an arrangement with a 



Steam honey-knife and boiler, showing construc¬ 
tion of the safety valve, made of super spring at 
filter hole. 


super spring and small tin cap, and it also 
furnishes a very convenient opening for 
filling the boiler. 

DISPOSING OF THE WET CAPPINGS. 

When the cappings fall from the uncap¬ 
ping-knife they are saturated, of course, 
with honey. There are two different meth¬ 
ods in use of separating the wax and the 
honey. The first embodies the principle of 
draining the cappings until practically all 
of the honey is separated; and the second, 
an entirely different principle, which con¬ 
templates melting the cappings as fast as 











334 


EXTRACTING 


they are sliced from the combs so that the 
melted was and the honey by reason of 
their different weights separate at once, 
the wax floating on top of the honey. The 
devices which operate on the draining prin¬ 
ciple are usually called uncapping-boxes 
or cans, while those which melt the cap¬ 
pings are called capping-melters. 

In any method of draining cappings it 
is very important to stir up the cappings 
frequently with a stick. This serves to 
break up the small particles of comb, 
which would otherwise hold the honey and 
prevent it from draining out freely. The 
efficiency of the draining method depends 
upon the thoroness with which the cap¬ 
pings are stirred and punched with a good 
heavy stick. 



German Press. 


An uncapping-can which is provided 
with a plunger and schew, by means of 
which great pressure can be applied to the 
semi-dry cappings, is the German press. 

A burlap sack is supposed to be hung in 
the can and held in place by the comb-rest, 


which has notches cut to fit the top of the 
can. When the bag is full the top is 
pinned together with nails, the comb-rest 
removed, and the cross-arm carrying the 
screw and plunger put in position. The 
plunger is run down slowly, the honey 
gradually being pressed out so the cap¬ 
pings are made nearly dry. The plunger 
and screw are removed; a circular cleated 
division-board put on top of the first bag 
of cappings; another empty sack put in, 
and the process repeated. At the end of 
the day the pressure may be applied to 
two or even three sacks of cappings and 
left on all night. In the morning the bags 
of practically dry cappings may be re¬ 
moved, and later on if desired the cans 
may be set over a stove, steam generated 
in the lower part, and the cappings melted 
into wax. 

Several apiarists use for an uncapping- 
box a long square tank made of galvanized 
metal. It is six feet long, two feet high, 
and two feet wide. 

The slatted framework at the bottom is 
made a little smaller than the can so that 
it may be easily removed for washing. 
There is only l 1 ^ inches space under the 
cleats, so the gate at the end of the tank is 
left open all the time. ■ In this way nearly 
all of the space inside the tank is available 
for the storage of mappings. 

A tank of this size will hold all the cap¬ 
pings for one whole extracting of the aver¬ 
age-sized yard. A short-handle fork is 
used for handling the cappings, and each 



Townsend uncapping-box. 
















EXTRACTING 


335 


day the accumulation from the day before 
is pitched toward one end of the tank, and 
in this way the honey from the new cap¬ 
pings does not have to drain thru the dry 
ones again. 

Still another plan, that has come into use 
recently, consists of a series of cleated 
trays. One tray is supported just high 
enough so that one end can rest on the top 
of a common wash-boiler to catch the hon¬ 
ey. The cappings fall from the knife di¬ 
rectly upon the tray, and are spread 
around occasionally. When the first tray 
holds all the cappings that can be put on 
without falling off, they are spread out 
somewhat and another tray put on top of 
it, and the process repeated. The weight 
of the two trays above presses the honey 
out of the cappings below. The longer the 
work continues, the greater the weight on 
the lower trays. Finally, the under trays 
may be removed, the dry cappings scraped 
off, and the trays used over again. 

Each tray has a solid tin bottom, two 
sides and one end of which are turned up 
to prevent the honey from dripping off. 
The open end, which should be the lowest, 
is placed over the wash-boiler. The cleats 
are evenly spaced and rigidly held by per¬ 
forated metal nailed on top. When one 
tray is full and the next tray put on top, 
it should be so placed tjuat the open end is 
perhaps a half-inch beyond the end of the 
tray beneath, so that the honey may drip 
directly into the boiler, and not on the end 
of the tray beneath. 

The total outfit of trays is not very ex¬ 
pensive, blit this plan, of course, does not 
lend itself very well to a portable outfit. 

CAPPING-MELTERS. 

There is no plan of draining cappings 
which secures all of the honey. A small 
percentage is always left, for the process 
of draining cannot be kept up indefinitely, 
owing to the tendency of the honey to 
granulate. The cappings after several days, 
tho they may look hard and dry, really 
contain considerable honey, the exact 
amount depending upon the efficiency of 
the plan used. Of course, when these cap¬ 
pings are transferred to a solar wax-ex¬ 
tractor the honey and wax are separated, 
but the honey is darkened and injured by 
the process, 


To separate the honey and wax immedi¬ 
ately so that everything can be cleaned up 
when the extracting is over, capping-melt- 
ers have gradually come into use. It can 
not be denied that it is a great convenience 
to get rid of the cappings as fast as the 
work progresses, for it is hard work to 
handle cappings that are heavy with hon¬ 
ey. When the day’s work is finished, noth¬ 
ing is left but a layer of melted wax, which, 
after it has cooled over night, needs only 
scraping to be ready for market, the honey 
meanwhile being in shape to strain and 
empty into the main tank with the rest. 
Honey that has been taken from the cap- 
ping-melter strains quickly because it is 
warm. 

If the capping-melter is crowded too 
fast, or if one having a too limited capac¬ 
ity is used, it may clog up so that a quan¬ 
tity of the honey will be confined and thus 
subjected to the heat for a considerable 
length of time.' Under such circumstances 
it is likely to become darkened and 
scorched slightly in flavor. With a prop¬ 
erly designed melter, however, or one that 
is large enough for the work on hand, there 
is scarcely any difference to be noted be¬ 
tween the honey that has gone thru it and 
that which has been extracted from the 
combs in the regular way. It is true that 
if honey has been allowed to cool under 
the wax, it takes on a waxy flavor, which, 
while not disagreeable, is yet pronounced 
enough to enable one to distinguish it from 
the rest of the honey. On this account a 
separating can should be used to separate 
the honey from the hot wax as soon as pos¬ 
sible. 

There are some localities where honey in 
cappings candies very quickly—sometimes 
in 24 or 48 hours, and under these condi¬ 
tions a capping-melter is almost a necessi¬ 
ty. When one desires to melt up granu¬ 
lated honey or granulated comb honey, a 
capping-melter is the very best arrange¬ 
ment to use, because there is practically no 
danger of scorching the honey, and yet the 
work may be done quickly. 

One of the simplest capping-melters is a 
hot-water jacketed can having a gate at 
the bottom for an outlet on the principle 
of a double boiler. The melter is not 
adapted for the largest apiaries as it is 
designed for a single-burner stove only. 


336 


EXTEACTING 


The Peterson capping-melter shown in 
the illustration, is a simple construction, 
the long shallow pan having a double bot¬ 
tom, the space between being filled with 
hot water. The water compartment is ex¬ 
tended beyond the edge of the table, as 
shown, so, if desired, knives may be placed 
in the water to heat. 



Peterson capping, melter. 


This melter is large enough to be heated 
by a two-burner stove, hence it has a much 
greater capacity than the round-can design 
described above. Furthermore, there is 
space at the end of the table for the un¬ 
capped combs to rest upon before they are 
placed in the extractor. The bpen end of 
the long trough is about an inch lower 
than the other end so that the honey and 
melted wax run down into the separating- 
can beneath. 

DISPOSING OF THE WAX AND HONEY THAT 
RUN FROM THE MELTER. 

When capping-melters first came into 
use the stream of hot wax and honey was 
run directly into a pail or can, and as soon 
as it was full another was put in its place. 
This plan is objectionable in that it re¬ 
quires too many cans of hot wax standing 
around in the way. Furthermore, the 
honey underneath takes on a taste of the 
wax to some extent, if it is allowed to re¬ 
main in contact with it until the wax cools. 
To overcome this difficulty a gate may be 
provided at the bottom of the can, so that 
the honey may be drawn off whenever the 
can becomes full. Care must be taken, of 
course, to shut the gate before any wax 
begins to run out. In this way the w T ax 
remains in the can until the next day, when 


it is emptied out in the form of a solid 
cake. 

A much better arrangement, however, is 
a separating-can made according to a prin¬ 
ciple first described by E. C. Aikin of 
Colorado. As shown in the illustration of 
the Peterson capping-melter an ordinary 
wash-boiler may be used with a tin parti¬ 
tion soldered near one end, coming 'to 
within one-half inch of the bottom of the 
can. Some honey should be left in the 
boiler before the work is started. When 
the new wax and honey run in, the wax 
floats on top of the honey in the larger 
compartment of the boiler, the honey alone 
escaping into the small compartment, since 
the levels in the two compartments will be 
nearly the same. When the boiler is full 
the honey will escape continuously from 
an outlet in the end of the boiler, while 
the wax will remain in the large compart¬ 
ment. 

In actual use this separating-can should 
be insulated by being placed inside a 
wooden box, having a cover fitted over the 
top with a funnel to receive the wax and 
honey. It would be all the better if some 
insulating material could be wrapped 
around the boiler before it is enclosed in 
the box. 

E. L. Seehrist of California uses a spe¬ 
cially made separator, as shown herewith. 
He provides a wax outlet, but if the sepa¬ 
rator is large enough this is not necessary. 





Seehrist’s honey and wax separator. 

A small stream of drizzling wax is a 
puisance. If a can as large as a wash- 
boiler is used, it will hold all the wax for 
the average day’s run even in an extensive 
yard, and, therefore, the wax part of the 
outfit requires no attention. When the work 
is over for the day, the cover of the box is 
















EXTRACTING 


337 


removed so that the wax will have a chance 
to harden, and the next morning it may be 
lifted out, the honey drained off, the un¬ 
der side of the cake scraped to get rid of 
the refuse, and the wax will be ready for 
market. 

STRAINING HONEY. 

A convenient arrangement for straining 
honey is to have a large piece of heavy 
wire screen attached to the top of the 
straining tank. This should be pressed 
down in the middle so that it is four or 
five inches lower than the top of the tank. 
The wet cheese cloth may be laid on this 
screen without the necessity of tying 
around the top of the tank. When one 
cloth is clogged so that the honey strains 
too slowly it may be drawn over to one 
side and left to drain while another cloth 
is placed in position without delay. 

S. T. Pettit of Aylmer, Ont., Can., de¬ 
vised a very convenient can strainer having 
a large surface of cloth supported by a 
coarse wire-screen basket as shown, page 
331 . 

The author has used such a strainer, but 
finds it more convenient to have, instead 
of the opening in the center of the bottom 
of the strainer, a gate soldered to one side 
near the bottom. If the strainer is used 
for filling cans the stream of honey may be 



Alexander honey-strainer. 

shut off by means of the gate when the 
can is full. Fresh cloths can be substi¬ 
tuted for those that are clogged at any 

time. _ 

To do away with cloth strainers E. W. 
Alexander used an ordinary ten-quart 
milk-pail, cutting out the sides and bot¬ 
toms. These were united by upright tin 
braces, as shown in the illustiations. 


The open spaces were tilled in with a 
fine mesh of brass wire cloth securely sol¬ 
dered in place. The honey is poured thru 
such a straining pail into the tank. It is 
necessary to have two or more pails so 
that one may be in use while the other is 
being cleaned. 

THE GRAVITY METHOD OP STRAINING AND 
CLARIFYING HONEY. 

Of late the gravity principle of strain¬ 
ing has received much attention on the 
part of honey-producers on account of its 
simplicity and freedom from vexatious de¬ 
lays necessitated by changing • filled-up 
cloths and washing straining surfaces. 
Briefly, the plan consists in the use of a 
relatively tall tank sufficiently large for 
holding a day’s extracting and containing 
nothing by way of equipment except a 
suitable gate at the bottom and a float 
to break the current of the honey when it 
is poured in at the top, thus preventing an 
active circulation of the new honey with 
the rest of the honey in the can. The plan 
is to draw no honey from the bottom until 
the tank is nearly full.. If the honey is 
not allowed to circulate carrying particles 
of cappings and bits of comb down to the 
bottom, the honey when drawn off at the 
gate is found to be very clear. The last of 
the honey can not be drawn off in this 
wajq for it will contain too much of the 
cappings. The last few inches, therefore, 
should be dipped out and strained or 
poured into the uncapping tank or box. 

In extremely hot weather when the hon¬ 
ey is comparatively thin, the gravity sys¬ 
tem alone leaves little to be desired; but, 
in cool weather, or 'whenever the honey is 
quite thick, it is found that, in order to be 
clarified sufficiently, the tank must stand 
for several days. This makes necessary a 
somewhat elaborate outfit of expensive 
cans in order that the work may not be 
hindered. For a small outfit one tank 
alone would be sufficient. 

The only additional equipment necessary 
beyond a regular storage tank is an addi¬ 
tional can without a bottom, a little higher 
than the regular tank preferably, and 
smaller in diameter, altho no exact ratio 
between the two diameters is necessary. 
Over the lower end of the smaller can 
cheese cloth is stretched and tied firmly. 






338 


EXTRACTING 



Coarse Strainer 

-Water jacketed 
Heating Tank with Oil 
Stove underneath 



Screened Window 
Covered Storage Tank. 


Can Filler. 


6olb Can 


The straining can is set inside the large 
tank, the cheese cloth resting on the bottom 
of the latter. Two or three inches of clear 
honey should be poured in at the start to 
prevent the cheese cloth from becoming 
clogged. As the new honey is poured in, it 
gradually percolates thru the cheese cloth 
into the main tank outside, the level in the 
two cans always remaining the same, or 
practically the same. As the work pro¬ 
gresses the inner can should be raised so 
that the cheese cloth will be several inches 
from the bottom of the tank. This should 
not be done, however, until the main tank 
is half full. It will be seen that all foreign- 
material that- will float will be kept away 
from the cheese cloth. When the work is 






over the inside tank may be raised so that 
all of the honey in it will strain out. How¬ 
ever, as long as the cheese cloth does its 
work the process is continuous, for the 
honey may be drawn out of the main tank 
as soon as it becomes full. From this time 
on it should be drawn off only fast enough 
to keep it from running over. The greater 
the depth of honey about the cheese cloth 
strainer the less the probability of the cloth 
becoming clogged. 

When the work is over and the main 
tank finally emptied the' cheese cloth will 
strain the last of the honey inside the 
straining tank without clogging apprecia- 



Floor Plan of Honey House. 

j ;screened Window 

















































































































































EXTRACTING 


339 



This picture should he studied in connection with the next cut. The honey is pumped from the extractor 
into the washtub above; passes into a double-bottom water pan beneath, the water being kept hot by means 
of a Standard Oil kerosene stove just beneath the pan. The honey is heated as it passes over this double 
bottom, strained as it runs thru the tank at the left, and finally runs into a large receiving-tank below. 


bly. One cloth will last much longer with¬ 
out clogging than if all the honey were 
poured thru it in the regular way, for by 
this plan the refuse floats to the top and 
the strainer really has comparatively little 
to do. 

Instead of a can with cheese cloth over 
the bottom, as mentioned above, a still 
better plan is to have a framework across 
the top of the large honey tank as shown 
on page 327, this square framework be¬ 
ing just the right size for holding the top 
of a cheese cloth bag tacked firmly to it. 
This bag should be weighted down with a 
heavy wire hoop at the bottom to keep it 
from floating. The advantage of this over 
the can with the cheese cloth at the bottom 
is that there is so much additional straining 
surface. 


HEATING THE HONEY TO FACILITATE 
STRAINING. 

In some localities the honey when ex¬ 
tracted. is so cold and thick that it is 
almost waxy, and straining or clarifying 
even on the principle above described be¬ 
comes something of a problem. Under such 
conditions it is necessar}' to do the extract¬ 
ing in very hot weather, or else in a room 
artificially heated. If the extracting is 
done late in the season when the weather 
has turned cool, it is sometimes necessary 
to keep the combs in the heated room 24 
hours or longer before the honey is thin 
enough to extract and strain quickly. 

By means of power extractors, even very 
thick honey may be extracted, but a power 
extractor does not help much on the strain¬ 
ing problem. 












340 


EXTRACTING 


Several large producers have used an 
extractor having a double wall, the space 
between filled with hot water or steam. As 
the honey runs down toward the outlet it is 
warmed to such an extent that it strains 
easily. If an engine of fairly good size is 
used (two to three horse-power), the hot 
water surrounding the cylinder may be 
piped to the extractor. In other words, the 
space between the two walls of the extrac¬ 
tor serves as a water tank, and the waste 
heat of the engine is made use of for 
warming the honey. 

Ordinarily, a simpler and better plan is 
to run the honey from the extractor thru a 
pipe, either by gravity or by means of a 
pump, which pipe in turn passes thru a 
larger pipe containing hot water heated 
either by the cylinder of the engine or by 
means of a stove. 

E. L. Sechrist, formerly of Fair Oaks, 
Cal., pumped his honey into a special 
tank, which is water-jacketed, heated by a 
stove underneath. The honey is thus heat¬ 
ed before it passes into the strainer. 

Some beekeepers have tried running the 
honey as it comes from the extractor thru a 
trough having a stove underneath to warm 
the surface of the trough and thus raise 
the temperature of the honey. This plan 
is a little dangerous,- for it is necessary to 
have considerable heat, since the honey 
runs thru the trough rapidly, and there is 
danger the honey along the edges may 
burn. A better way is to run the honey 
thru a pipe submerged in water heated by 
a stove. 

Adams & Myers, Ransomville, N. Y., 
use a three-burner kerosene stove under a 
Peterson capping-melter, as shown in the 
preceding cut. The honey is pumped from 
the extractor, and then run into a tub over 
the melter. It then flows into the melter 
and then after heating into the strainer at 
the left. This may be hot enough to make 
the honey run freely so that it will pass 
readily thru a strainer before it goes into 
the square cans. These people are not only 
large beekeepers but fruit-growers. They 
do a big business in selling fruit as well 
as honey in pails and 60-pound square 
cans. They desire to have the honey heat¬ 
ed hot enough, not only for straining but 
to prevent granulation. The plan shown 


works out very nicely,, and is compara¬ 
tively cheap to put in operation. 

Some beekeepers prefer to have a small 
hot-water boiler for heating water in a 
jacket surrounding the extractor as it 



Another view of the honey-processing room of Adams 
& Myers, showing the power plan and extractor. 


comes thru the pump, heating the cap¬ 
ping-melter, and finally delivering the 
honey hot, or at least warm, inside of the 
.60-pound square cans or 10-pound tins or 
pails. But the hot-water boiler of the 
kind described would not, unless it were in 
the same room, heat the combs so that 
they could be extracted clean, if they were 
cold. 

Kerosene hot-water heaters can be in¬ 
stalled at low cost, of sufficient capacity 
to heat the water around a double-jacket¬ 
ed honey-extractor. 

Adams & Myers do their extracting after 
the season is past. The combs are stored 
in supers in their honey-house. This they 
heat with a stove until the temperature is 
around 80 or 90 degrees. This tempera¬ 
ture is held until all the combs are warmed 
so that the honey will flow freely. The 
heat may continue two days before the 
warm air in the room will penetrate all 
the combs in the supers. 

automatic devices for ringing a bell 

WHEN A CAN IS FULL. 

In drawing honey into a 60-pound can 
from a tank, it is a great convenience to 










EXTRACTORS 


341 


have an automatic alarm that will give due 
notice when the can is nearly full. Several 
beekeepers have gone still further and 
worked out ingenious devices to shut the 
gate on the tank automatically when the 
can is full. These are quite complicated, 
however, and unless one is a natural-born 
mechanic they are likely to be more of a 
bother than help. A simple alarm, on the 
other hand, is of practical benefit. 

W. Z. Hutchinson used regular platform 
scales with the weight set at about 58 
pounds exclusive of the weight of the can. 
When the beam rises, the electrical circuit 
is completed and the bell rings. The oper¬ 
ator shuts the gate off at just the right 
time. 

' The bell is an ordinary doorbell, and 
the current is furnished by any dry bat¬ 
tery. The method of making the connec¬ 
tion is very simple. In brief, two wires 
run from the binding posts on the battery 
to those on the bell. One of them, how¬ 
ever, is broken, and one of the ends fas¬ 
tened to the scale beam at the pivot, and 
the other located just above the outside 
end of the beam. 




The Hutchinson automatic alarm. 


It can be seen that when the can is full 
the scale beam rises and comes in contact 
with the copper wire just above it, and 
the bell rings. All the connection must be 


kept tight, and occasionally the end of the 
scale beam must be brightened with a bit 
of sandpaper, also the wire where it makes 
contact on the scale beam. Any corrosion 
at these points would result in failure of 
the bell to ring. 

EXTRACTING-HOUSES.— See Build-, 

INGS. 

EXTRACTORS.- —In the olden times the 
only means to secure honey in liquid form 
was to crush the combs in some kind of 
press and strain the honey thru cheese 
cloth. Wliere there was some brood pres¬ 
ent in the combs the brood juices mingled 
with the honey; but at all events the prod¬ 
uct obtained was called “strained honey.” 
This terms rather conveys the impression 
that the honey itself was separated, not 
only from the comb but from the dirt, pol¬ 
len, dead bees, and brood. This was only 
too true in many cases. In most apiaries 
of the South where box-hive beekeeping 
is more or less prevalent, there is no honey 
in the liquid form except such as has been 
strained from the crushed combs. 

The modern extractor that takes the 
honey by means of centrifugal force not 
only saves the combs, that are worth from 
35 to 75 cents each, and can be used over 
and over, but furnishes a product in point 
of quality and sanitation that is far supe¬ 
rior to the old-fashioned strained honey of 
the olden days, and, of course without any 
macerated brood. 

FIRST EXTRACTORS. 

In the year 1865 Major D. Hruschka 
of Venice accidentally discovered the prin¬ 
ciple which led to his invention of the ex¬ 
tractor in that year. His little boy while 
playing was whirling a basket around his 
head by means of a short piece of rope. He 
happened to have a piece of honeycomb in 
the basket and the centrifugal force caused 
a few drops of honey to be thrown out into 
the air. His father grasped the principle, 
which led him to construct a rude machine 
that actually extracted the honey without 
crushing the combs. Shortly afterward he 
perfected the machine which was the first 
honey-extractor. 

Among the early extractors made in this 
country was one constructed bv .T. L. Pea¬ 
body. In this machine the whole can re- 









































































342 


EXTRACTORS 


volved, and the honey ran out thru a hole 
in the center of the bottom. The same force 
that threw the honey from the combs, how¬ 
ever, held it to the sides of the can, and 



none would run out until the machine was 
stopped. In 1869 A. I. Root constructed 
what he called the Novice honey-extractor. 
This was so great an improvement over all 
that had preceded that it found a ready 
sale at once. Only the inside framework 
for holding the combs revolved. The crank 
was geared so that one revolution made 
three revolutions of the combs. 

REVERSIBLE EXTRACTOR. 

When the honey from one side of the 
r omb was extracted in the Novice machine 
the comb had to be lifted out and turned 
around in order to throw the honey out of 



Two-frame Reversible Honey-extractor. 


the other side. About the time that A. I. 
Root was experimenting along this line 
Thomas William Cowan, editor of the Brit¬ 
ish Bee Journal, constructed what was then 
known and is still called the Cowan rever¬ 
sible extractor. Several “baskets” holding 
the combs and hung on binges like a door, 
could be swung from side to side, and 
either side of the comb could be next to the 
outside. The first side could be extracted, 
and then the pocket, or basket, swung 
around so that the honey could be thrown 
from the other side without taking out the 
comb and reversing it. 

THE ROOT MULTIPLE REVERSING 
EXTRACTOR. 

In using the Cowan extractor when one 
desires to reverse, it is necessary to stop 
the machine, and with the hand catch bold 
of the pockets and swing them around to 
the other position. The multiple reversing 
extractor, as its name indicates, reverses 
the pockets simultaneously when the brake 
is applied. The lever acts as a brake until 
the extractor has been reduced in speed to 
a certain point when the hub of the reel is 
held stationary by the brake, and the reel, 
which continues to turn, accomplishes the 
reversing of the pockets by means of the 
reversing levers located on the top of the 
reel. This action is always positive and 
reliable. The strain of reversing is borne 
entirely by the brake, thus relieving the 
driving mechanism of all stress. 

CENTRAL PIVOT REVERSING EXTRACTOR. 

All reversible honey-extractors on the 
market make use of one of two principles 
for changing the sides of the combs. The 
first one has been used for the last 20 years, 
and it has given very good satisfaction; 
but it has its limitations. The other one, 
perhaps, just as old, but newer in its ap¬ 
plication, is attracting a large amount of 
favorable comment. In the older type the 
baskets or pockets are hinged on the sides, 
after the principle of a common door. The 
reversing is accomplished by swinging the 
pockets on their hinges from one side clear 
over to the other. This principle necessi¬ 
tates the stopping of the machine, or near¬ 
ly stopping it, before the reversing can be 
accomplished. Even at slow speed the 
centrifugal force tends to throw the bas- 



















extractors 


343 


kets over to the reverse side with a bang 
unless care is used. With new or tender 
combs, or combs not wired, there is more or 
less breakage, especially when hired help 
does the work. 



This shows the principle of reversing of the old au¬ 
tomatic extractor. The pockets at the top and bot¬ 
tom are hinged on one side. The lever here shown 
connects each pocket with the reversing drum, which 
when temporarily slowed down, and then stopped, 
causes the lever to shift from one position to the 
other. An internal sector gear is connected with 
each pocket on one end of the lever, and a slot 
and pinion on the other end. The other cut shows 
the pockets in the act of reversing, when the pock¬ 
ets will be revolved clear around to the other posi¬ 
tion, subjecting the other side of the comb to the 
action of the centrifugal force. 

In modern practice it is the almost uni¬ 
versal custom to start throwing out most of 
the honey on one side at a comparatively 
slow speed to reduce the weight of the 
comb. It is then reversed, when the other 
side is extracted clean. The first side is 
then returned to its first position and ex¬ 
tracted again. This makes two reversings, 
and each time the machine must be slowed 
down, or stopped and started up again, 
all of which consumes valuable time right 
in the midst of the honey season when time 
is precious and help that is not afraid of 
bees is often hard to find. In hand-driven 
machines it also wastes energy. 

The other principle, altho it is as old as 
the first, but newer so far as the general 
use is concerned, is rapidly coming to the 
front. The baskets, instead of being 
hinged on the side and swinging like a door, 
are pivoted in the center. If the reader 
will imagine a shaft passing thru the center 
of the comb pockets or baskets and thru the 
center of the comb lengthwise, and if he 
can see in his mind’s eye this comb or bas¬ 


ket revolving on this shaft like a top, he 
will understand the principle. Of course 
it is impossible to have, a shaft go thru 
the comb; but it is possible to have the 
basket pivoted at the top and bottom; or, 
more exactly, it is impossible to have the 
basket revolve on a shaft running thru its 
center, because there can. be no shaft go¬ 
ing thru the center of the pocket without 
interfering with the insertion of the combs. 
Machines are now built embodying this 
idea, so that the combs can be reversed on 
a central axis. This makes it possible to 
reverse at full speed without stopping or 
slowing down the machine. It not only 
saves loss of time when time is precious, 
saves power, saves honey, but it also saves 
comb breakage. Machines built on this 
principle are slightly more expensive, but 
far more efficient, both in time and in the 
amount of honey secured from the combs. 

One of the latest machines involving the 
principle of the central-pivot reversing is 
shown on next page. As will be seen by 
the illustrations, the baskets are pivoted 
at the bottom, and at the top they are held 
in position by a small gear wheel meshing 
inside of the ring that surmounts the top 
of each basket. This small gear wheel is 
journaled in a large rim or ring attached to 
the center shaft of the extractor. The pin¬ 
ion serves the purpose of reversing the 




The pockets are in the act of reversing in the man¬ 
ner explained. The usual plan is to start the ex¬ 
tractor up and throw out most of the honey on one 
side of the comb at a relatively slow speed. A pres¬ 
sure on the brake lever retards and stops the re- 
versing-drum while the reel itself is run slightly 
faster. The result is, the levers here shown throw 
the pockets the other side to. When this side has 
been cleaned the brake lever is applied, the reel is 
stopped, and, while the pressure is being applied to 
the brake, the combs are reversed. 





344 


EXTRACTORS 


pockets, and at the same time holds the 
top of them against the centrifugal force 
that is enormous. A pressure on the re¬ 


speed. Tliis will remove three-fourths of 
the honey on that side. The combs are 
then reversed at slow speed, when the 




The Buckeye central-pivot reversing extractor is 
much more efficient in time and labor, and in the 
saving of the breakage of combs than the other 
machine during the period of reversing. The re¬ 
versing can be _ accomplished at low speed, full speed, 
or constantly, without stopping or slowing down 
the reel. As will be seen, each pock¬ 
et is surmounted at the top with a 
ring, inside of which are teeth that 
mesh with a small pinion, the pur¬ 
pose of which is twofold—to prevent 
the top of the pocket from flying 
out hy centrifugal force, and to assist 
in reversing. The ring and pinion 
at the top of the basket make it pos¬ 
sible to insert the combs and yet al¬ 
low it to reverse on a central pivot 
or on the imaginary axis that passes 
thru the center of the comb and the 
pockets lengthwise. Exactly in line 
with this axis is a pinion at, the bot¬ 
tom, mounted on a large ring or spi¬ 
der which is secured to a hollow 
shaft loosely journaled to the main 
shaft to which power is applied. 


versing lever causes all the 
baskets to reverse simultane¬ 
ously, even tho the reel of the 
extractor is running at full 
speed. The arrangement of 
the internal gear or pinion 
leaves the pockets clear, so 
that it is possible to insert the 
combs and to remove them as 


machine can be speeded up to 
its capacity; but before it 
reaches full speed most of the 
honey is extracted from both 
sides of the comb. A second re¬ 
versing cleans the first side. The combs 
lightened of their weight can be 
cleaned almost dry at a high speed. 
There is no slowing nor stopping two 
times in order to reverse, as in the 
older styles of machines. 

Where American foul brood is pres¬ 
ent in the locality the beekeeper may 
be compelled to melt up many of his 
old combs and rely largely on new 
ones built from foundation. It is 
these new first-year combs that are fa¬ 
vored in the new machine reversing on 
a central pivot. 

The wire baskets for holding the combs 
in this machine are removable—a feature 
that will be appreciated by those who like 
to clean or sterilize the extractor after ex¬ 


soon as they are extracted. 

With this machine it is pos¬ 
sible to reverse every comb 
four or five times at full 
speed; but it is better to take 
most of the honey from one 
side at a comparatively slow 


This is a top view looking down into the eight-frame Buckeye 
extractor, the pockets of which are reversed on a central pivot. 
It will be seen that it is perfectly easy to insert and remove the 
combs, and the tops of the pockets are firmly held in place, no 
matter how severe a strain may be placed on them. The act of 
reversing is accomplished by means of sprocket wheels that are 
made integral with the pinions meshing with the internal gear 
or rims at the top of each pocket. Each of these sprockets is 
actuated by a chain driven from a sprocket mounted on a hol¬ 
low shaft loosely journaled on the main shaft from which power 

is received. 







EXTRACTORS 


345 



A pressure on the reversing-lever as shown by the upright 
handle slows down the reversing-drum very slightly. This 
action causes every one of the sprockets and the comb pockets to 
revolve half way, even tho the reel may he running at full speed. 
In this picture the comb-pockets are seen in the act of reversing. 
In the space of a second all of the eight combs will be reversed, 
even tho the extracting-reel is revolving at full speed. The 
usual plan of procedure is to extract most of the honey from 
one side of the comb at a relatively slow speed, reverse with¬ 
out stopping or slowing down the extractor, clean all the honey 
out from the second side (still at slow speed) when the reversing- 
lever is pulled, thus causing the first side to come hack to its 
first position while the honey is cleaned out at full speed. One 
more reversing at full speed cleans the second side. There is 
no loss of time in reversing, which can be done as often as de¬ 
sired, at full or slow speed. The reversal on a central axis is 
much easier on the combs, causes almost no breakage, and at 
the same time the work is done much more thoroly than in the 
older styles of extractors. 


tracting combs having a look 
suspicious of foul brood. 

The machine is built strong to 
stand the heavy strains that 
come from high speed. The dif¬ 
ficulty of supporting the tops of 
the pockets of the central-pivot 
extractor here shown from the 
enormous strain of centrifugal 
force and yet leave it possible to 
insert the combs, has been solved 
by the use of the internal gears 
which also accomplish the re¬ 
versing. 

The time is coming when bee¬ 
keepers will wake up to the fact 
that they are not extracting their 
combs clean enough. To do this 
as it should be done, the combs 
should be thoroly wired, and 
the extractor should be built to 
stand a higher speed than has 
even been thought necessary. 

The machine here shown was 
constructed with this end in 
view. 

It is a mistake to think that 
all the honey from very wet 
combs, because the extractor 
could not do a cleaner job, will 
be saved by permitting the bees 
to clean them up. The dryer the 
combs, the more honey and the 
less the waste when the combs are cleaned 
by the bees. It is here that power ex¬ 
tractor?, have an immense advantage over 
those driven by hand. 

To determine exactly how much honey is 
left in the cells after extracting, the au¬ 
thors in 1921 made a number of tests with 
combs that for 2% minutes had been in 
an eight-frame Buckeye extractor, speeded 
up to 350 revolutions per minute. Eight 
combs were carefully weighed before and 
after uncapping and extracting, then after 
these weights were secured the combs were 
cut out of the frames, melted up, and the 
honey, thus separated flom the wax, was 
weighed and compared with the original 
amount of honey extracted from those 
eight combs. After several tests the amount 
of honey left in the cells was found to vary 
from 3 to 3%% of the original amount 
in the combs. These combs when taken 
from the extractor looked perfectly dry— 


that is, the exact angular shape of the base 
of each cell could be seen clearly. Where 
there is enough honey left in the cell so 
that the angles of the base all run to¬ 
gether it is safe to assume that the per¬ 
centage of honey left is very high, per¬ 
haps between 10 and 20%. It is this large 
proportion of honey left because of in¬ 
efficient extracting that causes gorging on 
the part of the bees. 

Mention should be made of the fact that 
at a high speed of 350 revolutions per 
minute it is quite necessary to pull on the 
brake lever momentarily to slow down the 
reel slightly before each reversing, not be¬ 
cause the extractor itself will not stand the 
strain, but because the combs at that high 
rate of speed are imbedded somewhat in 
the screen of the pocket and being reversed 
so suddenly are apt to be somewhat muti¬ 
lated. The slowing down takes very little 
extra time, and it is a paying proposition 




346 


EXTRACTORS 



DETAIL OF FRICTION-DRIVE POWER EXTRACTING GEAR-BAR. 

Control lever in horizontal position, which means that the reel is at rest. Raising this lever to ver¬ 
tical position engages friction disc with paper-rimmed pulley, causing the reel to revolve. To reverse the 
baskets, release lever by moving into horizontal position, and pull the brake lever which tightens brake band 
causing reversing hub to move slower than reel. This difference in speed of hub and reel reverses the bas¬ 
kets thru the action of the reversing arms. 


if the combs are new. Of course, if the 
combs are old such a precaution is not 
necessary, even for a speed of 350 revolu¬ 
tions per minute. 

Record was made of the honey extracted 
from two yards. The total amount ex¬ 
tracted was 15,426 1 /2 pounds; amount of 
honey separated from the wax below the 
capping' melter, 2,852 pounds; wax from 
the cappings, 316 pounds. 


FRICTION DRIVE. 

The friction drive has been in use sev¬ 
eral years, and has been found the most 
satisfactory form of drive for a honey ex¬ 
tractor. It is not adapted, however, for a 
hand extractor, as the ratio of drive is 
about 1 to 1 — that is, equal. The paper- 
rimmed pulley on the vertical shaft may 
he raised or lowered, thus changing the 
ratio of the speed; and while this is of 
- great advantage in 
case the engine speed 
is not exactly right, 
or the size of the pul¬ 
ley is too large or too 
small, nevertheless it 
is not possible to 
“gear up” enough to 
•drive the extractor by 
hand with a crank. In 
other words, it would 
he impossible to turn 
the crank fast enough 
to extract the honey 
sufficiently. For this 
reason some of the 
smaller producers who 
desire a large extrac¬ 
tor, but who do not 



The cam lever in a vertical position. The disc is thus crowded over 
against the paper wheel on the vertical shaft so that the reel turns. 
















EYE, COMPOUND 


347 


wish a gasoline engine, prefer the older 
beveled-gear drive, with the ratio of 2 to 1 
—that is, one revolution of the crank shaft 
means two revolution of the reel carrying 
the comb. 

Many beekeepers having less than 100 
colonies use power outfits, but when there 
are more than 200 colonies to be extracted 
from, a gasoline engine and eight-frame ex¬ 
tractor will almost pay for themselves in 
one season. 

They do much quicker and more thoro 
work. It is impossible to extract all the 
honey by hand; and the result is, the 
combs go back to the hives very wet. Some 
of this honey will be saved by the beqs, 
but a large part of it is consumed and 
thereby as good as wasted. 

An important advantage of the larger 
extractors is their greater stability. With 
the two or even four frame size, it is nec¬ 
essary to put combs of equal weight oppo¬ 
site each other. Even then bracing must be 
done or else the can will tear itself loose 
from the floor. In case of the larger sizes, 
the difference in the weight of the combs 
does not throw the cans out of balance ap¬ 
preciably, hence no bracing or equalizing 
is necessary. 

EYE, COMPOUND. —An examination 
of the large compound eyes of a bee will 
show that the outside is made of hexa¬ 
gonal areas, thousands in number. Each 
of these hexagons is the outside of one of 
the elements of which the compound eye is 
composed; and, since they are all con¬ 
structed alike, a description of one will 
serve for all. Each of these elements is 
called an ommatidium. If, then, we take 
a section thru one of the compound eyes 
parallel with the top of the head of the 
bee, we shall get some of them cut length¬ 
wise, thereby showing best the structure, 
altho it is also necessary to cut other sec¬ 
tions at right angles to this plane in order 
to get the shape of some of the parts. The 
figures which accompany this show the om¬ 
matidium cut lengthwise. Another figure 
shows an ommatidium from the pupa state. 

The outside portion, already mentioned, 
is the lens layer l, and is composed of chit- 
in, as is all the rest of the outside covering 
of the bee. The section shows this cut 
open, so that only two sides of the hexagon 
are shown. 



c.c. 


o.-p.c. 


A.reU. 


I 


Fig. 1. 


bm. 



Fig. 1. — Ommatidium of adult 
eye of bee: 1, lens; c. c., crystal¬ 
line cone; o. p. c., outer pig¬ 
ment cells; c. p. c., corneal pig¬ 
ment cells, which, in the early 
stages, secrete the lens; r. h. b., 
rhabdome; ret, retinula; ret. 
n., nuclei of retinula cells; b. 
m., basement membrane. 

Fig. 2. —Ommatidium of pupa ; 
lettering as in Fig. 1; p. g. m., 
pigment forming in retinula. 

In Fig. 1 the pigment is not 
shown in the center portion of 
the retinula cells. 








































348 


FARMER BEEKEEPERS 


The next lower structure is the crystal¬ 
line cone c, c, which is composed of four 
cells, of which only two show in the long 
section. In the pupa stage the boundaries 
are much clearer, and the nuclei larger 
than they are in the adult eye. This cone 
is clear, and, like the lens above it, gathers 
in the rays of light so that they can act on 
the nerves below just as the lens in the 
human eye gathers together rays of light 
so they can affect the nerves behind it. 

Directly in line with the cone is a long 
rodlike structure which runs clear to the 
bottom of the ommatidium, called the 
“rhabdome,” rhb. This probably contains 
the ends of the nerves, which are sensitive 
to light. 

Around the rhabdome are eight retina 
cells ret, which have poured out a secretion 
while in the pupa state to form the rhab¬ 
dome. 

Around the cone and retina cells there 
are pigment cells o. p. c. and c. p. c., that 
keep the light from passing from one om¬ 


matidium to the other, and thus making a 
confused image, just as the inside of a 
camera is painted black to avoid reflec¬ 
tions. In the human eye we also find pig¬ 
ment, which is also located just behind the 
nerve-endings, and answers the same pur¬ 
pose. There are two kinds of these pig¬ 
ment cells. The ones at the base of the 
cone, o. p. c., are two in number, and do 
not extend below the base of the cone. The 
other pigment cells, c. p. c., extend from 
the lens to the base of the ommatidium, 
and are generally twelve in number. The 
pigment in these cells is located principal¬ 
ly at the outer portion of the eye; and the 
retina cells also contain a pigment, thus 
making a complete sheath of pigment 
around the nerve and nerve-endings in the 
middle. 

The nerve lines in the eye extend down 
along the eight retina cells, and at the bot¬ 
tom come together, and the united nerve 
extends toward the brain. See cut. 


F 


FAIRS, EXHIBITS AT.— See Honey 
Exhibits. 

FARMER BEEKEEPERS.— Sometimes 
the professional class of honey-producers 
have a feeling of antipathy, if not disgust, 
toward the farmer who keeps a few bees, 
especially if he is in the immediate neigh¬ 
borhood. In some cases, at least, there is 
some justification for that feeling. Some 
farmers have too many irons in the fire. 
They do a little of everything to make a 
little money, but they do nothing particu¬ 
larly well. 

A farmer of this class usually has hard 
luck. His buildings are in a tumble-down 
condition, machinery out in the weather, 
his fences down, his stock ill fed, and, on 
top of it all, he is in debt. When he keeps 
bees he allows them to take care of them¬ 


selves, his swarms get away from him, 
hives are robbed out, and, if weakened by 
disease, foul brood is scattered far and 
wide. He does not take any agricultural 
paper, much less a bee journal, and sells 
his honey at any old price. 

He never gets any honey unless the sea¬ 
son is extraordinary. It is no wonder that 
the real progressive beekeeper finds such a 
farmer a menace to his business. 

Fortunately, the majority of our farmers 
are well-read, comfortably well off, and if 
they keep bees they secure fair returns 
from them. There is nothing that will yield 
for him larger returns for the money in¬ 
vested than bees. His wife and children 
may just as well get a little money on the 
side by keeping bees as by keeping chick¬ 
ens; and the chances are two to one that 


FEEDING AND FEEDERS 


349 


they will make more money, and at the 
same time keep the home supplied with 
the most delicious sweet that the world has 
ever known. Such a class of farmers are 
adding dignity and strength to their call¬ 
ing; and when they keep bees they get a 
better seeding from their clover fields; 
more and better fruit from their orchards 
(see Fruit Blossoms and Pollination) ; 
plenty of honey for the family, and a little 
extra clean cash. 

It is not an uncommon thing for a few 
hives on the farm to bring in a net return 
of five and even ten dollars per colony. 
For the money invested there is nothing 
like it. 

Of course it is only fair to say that some 
years on the farm the bees will not do 
much; but it is a poor farmer beekeeper 
who cannot make the bees pay their own 
way during poor seasons, and even make 
handsome returns when the season is good. 
The farmer who has an orchard and raises 
alsike, sweet clover, or alfalfa, will be able 
to keep his few colonies more than busy. 

Every up-to-date farmer, especially if 
he raises clover seed or fruity should keep 
bees. See Fruit Blossoms; Backlot 
Beekeeping; Bees and Fruit-growing; 
Bees and Poultry; A B C op Beekeep¬ 
ing. 

FEEDING AND FEEDERS.— Feeding 
is practiced for two purposes—to prevent 
starvation, and to stimulate brood-rearing 
at times of the year when no honey is com¬ 
ing in from natural sources. These will 
be referred to later under separate heads. 
Whenever possible, feeding should be 
avoided; for at best it is a messy job, ex¬ 
pensive, and, in the case of the beginner, 
liable to cause robbing. In a good local¬ 
ity it may be possible to avoid feeding al¬ 
together. Especially would this be true in 
those places where there is plenty of buck¬ 
wheat or fall flowers. To buy sugar by 
the barrel every fall is very expensive, 
and the beekeeper should lay his plans to 
avoid it as-far as possible. In many cases 
fall feeding is made necessary by extract¬ 
ing too closely, in some cases even from 
the brood-nest. This is bad practice and 
decidedly poor economy. Natural stores 
go farther, pound for pound, than sugar 
syrup. But there are times when it is nec¬ 


essary to give the bees food either to keep 
up and stimulate brood-rearing or to pre¬ 
vent actual starvation. 

When the honey already in the hives at 
autumn is of good quality, and nicely 
sealed, it would be folly to extract it, put 
it on the market, buy sugar, make syrup, 
and feed it to the bees. There would be 
very little gained by it, even if the honey 
sold at a higher price, and the sugar syrup 
were cheaper. Where the natural stores 
are dark, of poor quality, or bad honey- 
dew, it might be advisable to extract and 
put in their place sugar syrup. Yet of 
late years it is coming more and more to 
be the practice to let the bees have every¬ 
thing of their own gathering, provided it 
is nicely ripened and sealed in the comb, 
no matter what the source; and it is very 
seldom that that any one will lose bees in 
outdoor wintering by reason of poor food. 

Where one does not have combs of nice 
stores sealed, it will be necessary to feed 
sugar syrup. The cheapest and best food 
for this purpose is ordinary white granu¬ 
lated sugar. Some of the brown sugars 
may be used; but experience has shown 
that they are not so good, and not so cheap 
in the end, altho selling at a lower price. 
Moreover, they contain gums that are not 
a good feed for the bees. 

Sugar syrup when capped over makes an 
excellent food for winter. It does not cause 
dysentery, and is cheap; but it is not the 
equal of good honey for breeding, as it is 
lacking in some of the necessary food ele¬ 
ments in honey. (See Honey as a Food.) 
On the other hand, sugar syrup is, per¬ 
haps, a little better as a winter food dur¬ 
ing the coldest part of the winter in the 
North. It is less stimulating—that is, less 
inclined to start up premature breeding in 
winter or very early spring. 

It is always poor practice to extract 
good honey out of the brood-nest. While 
at times the natural stores might bring 
twice as much as the same weight of sugar 
syrup, the labor of extracting and the wear 
and tear of the colony itself in feeding and 
evaporating the syrup down are so great 
that no economy is effected. Ordinary 
sugar stores should be supplied only to 
make up the deficiency, if any. 

In midwinter, if the bees are short of 
food, they should be given a comb of sealed 


350 


FEEDING AND FEEDERS 


honey laid on top of the frames, or candy 
made of granulated sugar. See Candy 
for Bees. 

The difference in cost between a first 
quality of extracted honey in the comb 
and sugar syrup when sealed in the comb 
is so little that, if there are combs of good 
natural stores, rather than extract them it 
would be better to set them aside, and then 
in the fall give these combs to such colonies 
as have an insufficient supply. But in any 
case it would be wise not to use all such 
combs, because, in the spring, it is some¬ 
times very handy to have them ready, in 
case of an unexpected shortage, so that 
they can be placed right down at the side 
of the brood-nest of a colony. If combs 
of sealed stores are not to be had, it is ad¬ 
visable to give cakes of candy, as described 
under Candy for Bees. 

HOW TO MAKE THE SYRUP. 

Something will depend on whether the 
bees are to be fed for the purpose of in¬ 
ducing brood-rearing or to give a supply 
for winter. For stimulating, a syrup made 
of one part of sugar to two of water by 
bulk is about right. If the water is hot 
the sugar will dissolve more readily. For a 
winter food given early in the fall the pro¬ 
portion should be about two parts of sugar 
to one of water. For late feeding, just be¬ 
fore cold weather comes on, the ratio 
should be about two and half to one. 
When made as thick as this the syrup is 
liable to go back to sugar to some extent, 
and sometimes it is necessary to put in 
about a teaspoonful of tartaric acid to 
every 20 pounds of sugar. Others find it 
better to use honey. The proportion of 
honey should be about one-third by bulk 
of the amount of water used. If honey 
is used care should be taken to see that it 
comes from hives where there has never 
been any foul brood. 

A syrup made by mixing two parts of 
water to one of sugar, or equal parts of 
both, does not necessarily require heat. 
The water may be poured into a receptacle 
cold, and sugar stirred in until the requi¬ 
site quantity is reached.' The stirring will 
have to be continued until the sugar is dis¬ 
solved. If there is any quantity to be 
mixed in that Avay, an ordinary honey-ex¬ 
tractor serves as a very excellent agitator. 


The machine is filled nearly half-full of 
water, when the sugar is poured in little by 
little while the reel is being turned. It 
will have to be revolved until the sugar is 
all dissolved. After a vigorous turning of 
the crank, even after the sugar is thoroly 
mixed, there will be a number of small air- 
bubbles. These will all disappear if the 
‘syrup is allowed to stand for a while. 
When the proportion of the sugar is two 
to one or two and a half to one, it is advis¬ 
able to use hot or boiling'water. 

Syrup can be mixed in a common wash- 
boiler where heat is employed. In that case 
the boiler is put on the stove and filled with 
the requisite quantity of water. After it 
has come to a boil, the sugar is slowly 
stirred in, a little at a time. While on the 
stove the mixture must be kept thoroly 
stirred to prevent the undissolved sugar 
from settling on the bottom and burning. 
Care should be taken, because burnt sugar 
or syrup is liable to be fatal to the bees. 

In many cases syrup has to be prepared 
at the outyard. Or perhaps the good wife 
objects to having her stove mussed up. 
While an oil or gasoline stove will heat the 
water, either one is very slow. Some use 
and recommend a good-sized common gal¬ 
vanized washtub, such as can be obtained 
at any hardware store at a comparatively 
low price. This is placed outdoors on four 
or five stones of suitable size. The right 
proportion of water is poured into the tub. 
A fire is then built under, and when the 
water comes to a boil the granulated sugar 
is slowly stirred in. After it is all dis¬ 
solved, the fire should be scraped out from 
under the tub to prevent overheating or 
burning. This work should be done on a 
cool or rainy day when the bees are not 
flying; otherwise robbing may be started. 

FEEDERS. 

There have been hundreds of feeders in¬ 
vented and put on the market. Some of 
them are very complicated, and the more 
so the less useful. If one desires to keep 
down his investment he may use common 
tin pans. These can be placed in the upper 
story of the hive and filled with syrup. On 
top of the syrup should be laid a strip of 
cheese cloth that has been dampened in wa¬ 
ter. The bees will crawl up on the cloth 
and get the syrup without danger of 


FEEDING AND FEEDERS 


351 


drowning. One objection to pans is that, 
after the feed is all taken, the cloth is 
likely to be stuck down by the dried crys¬ 
tals. Boiling water, however, will very soon 
clean them. 



Simplicity feeder 


A feeder that has been used very largely 
is the Simplicity trough feeder. It is an 
excellent feeder, cheap in price, and occu¬ 
pies very little room on top of the brood- 
frames; or it may be used in front of the 
entrance at night when the weather is 
warm. It should not, of course, be placed 
there during the day on account of the 
danger of robbing. 

Another feeder that has been used very 
largely consists of a common wooden but¬ 
ter-dish, or pie-plate, such as one gets at 
the grocery when he buys butter. A hun¬ 
dred of these can be nested together so as 
to take but very little room, and the price 
is insignificant. It is not necessary to use 
cheese cloth with the butter-dish. Set it 
on the top of the frames, and fill it with 
syrup. 

FEEDERS ON THE ATMOSPHERIC PRINCIPLE. 

The principle of giving chickens water 
on the atmospheric principle has been ap¬ 
plied to feeders for bees. A common 
Mason jar, for example, filled with syrup, 
and covered with a common saucer, when 
inverted will make a very good feeder for 
bees. But in order to provide for a proper 
flow, three or four toothpicks should be 
put between the jar and the saucer. At 
this time the saucer will be right side up, 
and the jar upside down. As fast as the 
bees take out the syrup air will enter the 
jar, and syrup will flow into a saucer. 

The device is rather crude and unhandy. 
A better atmospheric feeder may be made 
out of a Mason jar and cap in this way. 
Break or remove the porcelain in the top 
of the cap, and then punch two or three 
holes about the size of a common pin. Fill 
the jar full of syrup, screw on the cap, 
and invert. In that position it must be 
held by some contrivance where it will be 
secure from robbers and where the bees 


can go under and take the syrup thru the 
above-mentioned perforations. 

Manufacturers make a special Mason 
jar-cap with perforations; and with this 
cap they supply a block of wood bored to 
receive a Mason jar when inverted. This 
will hold the jar % of an inch above the 
bottom of the hole in the block. Thru the 
bottom is a mortise or slot that communi¬ 
cates with the entrance of the hive when 
the feeder is attached to the hive. • This is 
accomplished by inserting the projection 
into the entrance. 



Boardman entrance feeder. 

This does not require the opening of the 
hive, and, what is of some importance, per¬ 
mits the apiarist to see at a glance by look¬ 
ing down a row of hives what feeders are 
empty or nearly so. One can take a wheel¬ 
barrow load of filled cans, lift the empty 
ones out of the blocks, and substitute filled 
ones. It is the work of but a few minutes 
to supply every colony in the apiary with 
a filled can of syrup. This is especially 
convenient during a dearth of honey when 
it is desired to keep up brood-rearing for 
increase. For further particulars regard¬ 
ing this feeder see Feeding to Stimulate 
farther on. 



Pepper-box feeder. 


The pepper-box feeder is another form 
of atmospheric feeder that has been adver¬ 
tised quite extensively. While this can be 
inserted into an entrance block like the 
Boardman, it is not so easy to determine 
when it is empty. Ordinarily it is used in 
















352 


FEEDING AND FEEDERS 


an upper story or super above tlie brood- 
chamber. 

THE ALEXANDER FEEDER. 

This is a very popular feeder, and some 
prefer it to anything else. It is on the 
principle of the Simplicity trough feeder 
and is a little longer than the width of the 
hive. The bottom-board is shoved forward 
the width of the feeder, and in the space 
left vacant is placed the feeder. The pro¬ 
jecting end is used for filling, after which 
it is closed by a wooden block. . 



While this feeder is very handy, it does 
not, like the Boardman, regulate the sup¬ 
ply of feed. The bees will empty it in an 
hour or two, and then be inclined to rob, 
because the large amount given stirs them 
up to the point of excitement. One serious 
objection to the Alexander feeder is that it 
is sometimes difficult, owing to the uneven¬ 
ness of ground, to adjust the feeder to the 
back end of the hive. See Feeding to 
Stimulate further on. 

FRICTION-TOP FEEDER. 


Perhaps about as handy a feeder as any 
is the friction-top feeder, which has been 
coming into favor during recent years. 



The 5 and 10 pound friction-top pails that are 
used so largely make the simplest and best kind of 
feeders for supplying winter stores. Punch the lid 
full of very fine holes, fill with syrup, about two 
parts of sugar to one of water (warm if weather is 
cool), and crowd the lid down tightly. 


This feeder is a five or ten pound friction- 
top pail having a lid punctured with about 
130 holes made with a threepenny nail.' 

The feeders are filled with a syrup, 2 or 
2i/ 2 parts of sugar to one of water, the 
density depending upon the lateness of the 



Invert the pail over the hole in the escape-board 
directly above the cluster in the brood-chamber. 
There is plenty of space to permit the bees to work 
over the whole surface of the lid. 

season. In cold weather the syrup should 
be quite thick and warm. Over the colony 
to be fed, an empty super is placed, and 
one of these pails of syrup inverted imme¬ 
diately over the cluster and covered with 
an old sack to prevent the heat of the clus- 



Or, dispense with the escape-board altogether and 
put the pail directly on the top-bark of the brood- 
frames. Cover all around with an old sack. The 
syrup cannot run out any faster than the bees take 

it. 

ter from escaping above. Some strong 
colonies will take the contents of a ten- 
pound pail in a day. If not taken as rap¬ 
idly as it should be, the residue of the cold 
feed should be removed and replaced by 
warm syrup. 








FEEDING AND FEEDERS 


353 


THE DOOLITTLE DIVISION-BOARD FEEDER. 

For cool-weather feeding, or fall or win¬ 
ter feeding, the friction-top feeder and the 
Doolittle are superior to those previously 
mentioned. 

The Doolittle has the same outside di¬ 
mensions as an ordinary brood-frame, but 
is two inches wide. It will hold about 6 
pounds of syrup, and usually about four 
feederfuls will supply a colony with 



enough stores for winter, provided the 
syrup is made two and one-half to one as 
already described. It is the author’s prac¬ 
tice to use the Doolittle feeder during cool 
weather or in the fall, and fill it with warm 
syrup. It may be used as a dummy or a 
division-board. 

THE MILLER FEEDER. 

When one desires to feed 20 to 25 lbs. of 
syrup at a time, all in one feed, the Miller 
feeder is the best of anything. It is a little 
less in dimensions than the inside of an 
ordinary super to a hive, and is always 
used is connection with a super or upper 
brood-chamber. For late feeding, where 



Miller feeder. 


one desires to do the work all up at one 
time, he can feed with this feeder 25 lbs. 
of thick syrup. If the weather is cool and 
the syrup hot when poured in, the bees 
will take it down in a single night. The 
feeder can then be transferred to some 
other hive. 

The peculiar merit of this feeder is the 

12 


fact that the entrance to it is "directly over 
the center of the brood-nest. Bees can rise 
up thru the space E shown in the sectional 
drawing, follow the direction of the ar¬ 
rows, and reach the syrup. The syrup in 



the compartments B B will rise to a cor¬ 
responding level in the two outside pass¬ 
ages under A. 

FEEDING WITHOUT A FEEDER TO PREVENT 
STARVATION. 

If one has been so careless as to allow 
his colonies to reach the point of starva¬ 
tion, and has no feeders on hand, he may 
feed thick syrup or honey known to be free 
from disease by placing a brick under th^ 
front of the hive in order to give the hive a 
backward tilt, and then pouring the feed 
over the tops of the frames at the back of 
the hive. Care should be taken not to cause 
robbing by giving a colony so much feed 
that it will run out at the entrance or out 
between the hive and bottom-board in case 
the bottom-board is not tight. 

FEEDING TO STIMULATE BROOD- 
REARING. 

As previously intimated, feeding to 
stimulate brood-rearing is a very different 
proposition from feeding to supply the 
bees with the necessary winter stores. In 
the case of the former, it is desired to get 
a large force of bees (not stores) for the 
approaching harvest or the approaching 
winter, the method of procedure being the 
same in either case. To stimulate brood¬ 
rearing, approximately half a pint of 
syrup daily should be fed; but if that 
amount be given in an ordinary open feed¬ 
er, such as the Simplicity, Doolittle, or 
Alexander, the bees will take it all up in 
about as hour’s time. The result, if the 
syrup is given in the morning or during 
even the middle hours of the day, is to 
excite the colony unduly. Bees will rush 
out into the open air to ascertain where the 
sudden supply of food may be obtained. 
If a whole apiary is fed in this way, there 
is a general uproar of excitement, often 
followed by robbing of some of the weaker 




































354 


FEEDING AND FEEDERS 


colonies and 'nuclei, for the bees in the 
field will pry into everything. An entrance 
unguarded is immediately attacked; and 
unless there is sufficient force to repel the 
onslaught, robbing will get so far under 
way that it may cause the robbing-out of 
the attacked colony. But this is not all. 
When the supply of syrup in the feeders 
fails, bees are apt to be cross, sometimes 
attacking passers-by or stock in the fields. 
This is particularly so if robbing gets un¬ 
der way. For these reasons it is usually 
advisable to feed toward night. 

Happily it is possible to avoid all this 
trouble by using a feeder that will make 
a quart or a pint of syrup last during the 
entire 24 hours of the day. In the case of 
a nucleus, the amount can be so regulated 
as to last 36 or 48 hours. 

When the supply of food comes in very 
slowly, about as it would come in from a 
very moderate honey flow, enough to give 
the bees and queen encouragement to keep 
up brood-rearing, they will rear more 
brood than if the supply is intermittent. 
All excitement—that is, uproar in the air 
—as well as robbing is avoided. It is im¬ 
possible to fix the Simplicity, Alexander, 
and Doolittle feeders so that they will not 
give out the syrup too fast; but it is pos¬ 
sible to regulate the friction-top, pepper¬ 
box, and Boardman entrance feeders. This 
is accomplished by using lids having but 
three or four holes or perforations. 

For stimulating, this slow feeding is a 
great convenience, because one can give his 
bees a supply of food to keep up the nor¬ 
mal functions of the colony for two or 
three days. For very slow feeding one 
hole is better than more. A strong colony 
will require more openings than a weak 
one; and in all cases syrup for stimulating 
should be in the proportion of about 66 
per cent water and 33 per cent sugar, 
thoroly stirred until the sugar is dissolved. 

Perhaps the reader does not own any 
friction-top, pepper-box, or Boardman 
feeders, and yet would like to practice slow 
feeding as herein directed. All he needs to 
do is to procure a quantity of self-sealing 
tin cans that can be readily obtained at 
the ordinary grocery. Thru the top punch 
a hole just large enough to admit a com¬ 
mon pin. If this hole does not prove large 
enough to let out sufficient food, two holes 


may be used, or even three, depending 
upon the size of the colony. This can 
should then be filled with syrup, and the 
top pushed firmly in place. 

Experiments have shown that this 
scheme of slow feeding will raise more 
brood for the sugar used than where the 
same amount is given intermittently in 
open feeders like the Simplicity, Alexan¬ 
der, and the Doolittle. The author prefers 
the Boardman entrance-feeders because it 
is possible to see at a glance thru the glass 
when the syrup has been used up. If the 
supply has been taken, it is very easy to 
put a filled can in the place of the empty 
without disturbing the hive or the bees. 

FEEDING FOB WINTER. 

If colonies are to be wintered on sugar . 
syrup mainly, the general practice is to 
feed some time in September, in the north¬ 
ern tier of States. Still, in many locali¬ 
ties in central United States, there is warm 
weather in October sufficient to start brood¬ 
rearing, and much of the stores fed in Sep¬ 
tember may be consumed so that what is 
left is not sufficient to last until the new 
honey flow. For this reason it is often un¬ 
safe to feed in September and give no fur¬ 
ther attention to the bees. There are other 
cases whefi, for one reason or another, feed¬ 
ing may be delayed until cold weather be¬ 
gins. If one is running a number of out- 
yards it is impossible, without hiring a 
large force of men, to feed all these yards 
at once, and by the time the last yard is 
reached it may be rather late. 

But before we begin the actual work of 
feeding we make a preliminary canvass of 
the whole apiary. This we do by “hefting” 
each hive; that is, we lift up either the 
front or back of the hive. A little practice 
will enable one to determine approximately 
the amount of stores in each hive, provided 
there is not too large a force of bees. In 
that event, we must allow for a correspond¬ 
ing increase. As we go over each hive we 
mark on the cover with a piece of chalk the 
number of pounds that will be required. If 
the colony is a strong one, we allow for a 
total of 25 or 30 lbs. if it is to be wintered 
outdoors; or if indoors, about two-thirds 
that. We aim to have each colony strong 
enough so that it will require an average 


FEEDING AND FEEDERS 


355 


of about 30 lbs. each for outdoor winter¬ 
ing. After all the hives are marked we 
proceed to the actual Avork of feeding. 

For this late fall feeding there are no 
better feeders than the Miller, or the ten- 
pound friction-top pail previously de¬ 
scribed. The Miller feeder will hold at 
least 25 lbs. of feed at a time, and the 
friction-top feeder holds ten* pounds, so 
that if one wishes to give a colony a large 
feed at one time, two or more feeders must 
be given the colony. Both of these feed¬ 
ers can be quickly put on or taken off: with¬ 
out much disturbance to the brood-nest. 
On the other hand, if the colonies are not 
quite as strong as they should be, so that 
some contraction is necessary, the Doolittle 
division-board feeder, holding about 6 
lbs. of thick feed at a time, may serve a 
better purpose. During the season, any 
combs that are too old, or which, for some 
reason or other, are not perfect, whether 
due to drone-cells or irregularities, can be 
gradually pushed to the outside of the 
brood-frames; then in the fall, when it is 
time to put in the feeder, provided the 
division-board feeders are used, these de¬ 
fective combs can be very easily taken out 
to be melted up later, and with no loss of 
brood. Furthermore, if the colonies need 
feeding, these outside combs will not con¬ 
tain much honey. On a cool day an out- 
yard can be looked over very quickly, and 
the old combs that are on the outside of the 
brood-nest removed with very little trou¬ 
ble. If a follower is used, the removal of 
one comb and the follower makes room 
for the feeder; but, if the combs com¬ 
pletely fill the hives, two combs piust be 
removed. 

The best time of day for putting feed 
into the feeder is toward the close of the 
afternoon. It is not advisable to do the 
work in the morning or early in the day, 
for the reason that the bees become ex¬ 
cited, and robbing might be started, espe¬ 
cially if it were warm enough for the bees 
to fly. Right here is a point in favor of 
the chilly-weather feeding, for there is no 
such danger of robbing, of course, when 
the bees cannot fly on account of the cool 
temperature. 

It is the usual practice to prepare the 
feed at home and carry it to the yards hot, 
in the regular five-gallon honey-cans, as 


these are about the largest-sized cans that 
can be handled conveniently by one per- 
son. If two were doing the feeding a 
larger can might be used. 

While the syrup is still hot it is poured 
into the cans and loaded upon the auto 
truck and carried to the outyards. It is 
then fed while hot. 

FEEDING IN FREEZING WEATHER. 

Altho colonies have been wintered well 
when fed after cold or freezing weather, 
much the safer plan is to have it all done 
n-ot later than October, for the northern 
States, that they may have the syrup rip¬ 
ened and entirely sealed. If the weather is 
not too cold, one can feed with the friction- 
top or Miller feeder as previously inti¬ 
mated. If one has been so careless as to 
have bees that are in need of stores at the 
beginning of winter, frames of sealed 
honey should be given if they can be ob¬ 
tained; and if not, candy is given. See 
Candy. 

If hot syrup is covered with cushions or 
something equivalent, it may be fed at any 
time, altho it does not seem to be as satis¬ 
factory under all circumstances as combs 
of sealed stores. 

When feeding in cool or cold weather, 
one is very apt to chill the cluster, or leave 
openings that will permit the warmth of 
the cluster to pass off. When colonies 
first commence raising brood in the spring 
they need to be packed closely and snugly. 
Making a hole in the quilt or cushions 
above the cluster, and placing the feeder 
over this so as to close it completely, does 
very well, but is not, after all, as safe as 
giving the feed from below. For feeding 
in early spring, where the colony is weak, 
candy or combs of sealed stores should be 
given. 

FEEDING IN THE SPRING , OR 

FEEDING ENOUGH IN THE FALL 
TO LAST TILL THE NEXT 
HONEY FLOW. 

Some years ago it was the'general prac¬ 
tice to feed in the spring to stimulate 
brOod-rearing, such feeding taking place 
as soon as settled warm weather came on. 
The purpose of this was to get a large 
force of young bees for the coming har¬ 
vest; but in later years the tendency on 


356 


FEEDING BACK 


the part of our best beekeepers has been 
toward feeding enough in the fall to last 
not only all winter but during the spring 
and until the honey flow. Experience seems 
to show that spring feeding very often does 
more harm than good by over-stimulation. 
Brood is expanded beyond the capacity of 
the bees to cover and keep warm. Robbing 
is often induced. Beginners especially are 
apt to overdo it; and even a veteran will 
sometimes get his colonies so strong before 
an extra supply of nectar comes in, that 
swarming will be brought on prematurely. 

This question of feeding heavily in the 
fall to last until the honey flow the follow¬ 
ing year, or feeding moderately in the fall 
and stimulating the following spring, de¬ 
pends somewhat on the locality, and very 
largely on the man himself. Many bee¬ 
keepers of experience, especially in some 
localities, can doubtless practice spring 
feeding to advantage; but, as a rule, begin¬ 
ners will do better to give all their colonies 
enough in the fall. 

FEEDING AT NIGHT OR DURING A RAIN' WHEN 
ROBBERS ARE BAD. 

During a dearth of honey, when rob¬ 
bers are bad, especially in hot climates, 
colonies can be fed during a light rain, 
or at night if it is a case of emergency. 
When the rain is over, or as soon as day¬ 
light comes, the feed will, in all probabil¬ 
ity, be taken up, and all excitement in the' 
hive be over. When feeding at night, a 
lantern can be used; but it should be placed 
some little distance from the hive where 
feed is being given. A small pocket flash- 
lamp can be used advantageously to place 
the feeders and to pour the syrup, after 
which, to prevent attracting bees, the light 
should be cut off. 

In warm or tropical climates it is never 
advisable to feed during the day if there is 
a dearth of honey, as it is liable to stir up 
the whole apiary, resulting in serious rob¬ 
bing and the destruction of some of the 
weaker colonies. 

As a matter of fact, feeding at all times 
should be avoided, if possible. It should 
be considered only as a necessary evil, as 
a rule. Natural stores are much superior 
to sugar syrup, except during cold weather 
when there is no brood-rearing. 


FEEDING BACK. —This subject is one 
interesting a large number of beekeepers 
in the comb-honey class, the main object, 
perhaps, being to prevent unfinished sec¬ 
tions. 

Many who attempt to feed back, fail on 
account of the many difficulties encoun¬ 
tered. J. E. Hand of Birmingham, Ohio, 
has made a thoro study of this subject, and 
he finds that, while the work can be profit¬ 
ably done, much attention must be given to 
the details, since there are many things to 
take into consideration. 

It is more practicable, he says, to use a 
feeder in which the honey can be given 
below the brood-chamber instead of on top, 
as this is the more natural wav for the 
bees, and they take it more read'ly. The 
Quinby feeder has a tin tray, 2 inches deep, 
enclosed by a wooden frame of the same 
depth, which is the same width as the hive, 
but 2Y2 inches longer. The tin tray is ex¬ 
actly the same length as the hive, and when 
in use is pushed to the back end of the 
frame surrounding it, leaving a space of 
2 y 2 inches in front for the bees to pass out 
and into the hive. The other end of the tin 
tray projects 2 1 /2 inches beyond the hive at 
the back to allow space for filling it. A 
framework of slats lengthwise of the feed¬ 
er sits in the tray for the bees to travel 
over while working in the feeder so that 
they may not be drowned. The feeder 
rests squarely on the bottom-board, and 
the hive covers the feeder except the 2^/2 
inches at the back end, which space is cov¬ 
ered by a little board. The bees cannot 
get into the place where the feed is poured 
in, and the honey (about six quarts) flows 
evenly under all parts of the hive, where 
it can be quickly taken up by the bees. 

Many fail in their attempt at feeding 
back because they select the wrong time of 
the year. It is best to begin right after the 
main honey flow has ceased before the 
work in the supers.is over, and use fresh 
honey the day it is extracted. At this time 
the bees naturally go right on as tho the 
flow had not stopped. It is best to give 
about six quarts of thinned-down honey to 
each colony every other day. The interval 
between the feeding allows the bees time to 
remove the honey from the brood-cells, 
where it is first placed, to the supers. No 
definite rule can be given for thinning 


FEEDING OUTDOORS 


357 


down the honey, since the density varies so 
much. For average honey enough water 
must be added so that the syrup will be 75 
per cent honey and 25 per cent water. 
Very thick honey needs more water, while 
thin honey needs less. 

It is necessary to have the broofl-chamber 
well occupied by brood, for bees never do 
well in supers over brood-chambers con¬ 
taining much capped honey. The first 
requisite, then, is a good queen, which will 
be able to hold her own against any amount 
of feeding. The brood-chamber must be 
contracted, furthermore, so that the queen 
will be able to keep every comb filled with 
brood. In this connection the sectional 
hive is very convenient for the reason that 
one section may be removed, thus contract¬ 
ing the brood section and still allowing 
brood in the shallow frames to be under 
the entire super. It is quite important, 
however, to have the combs in the brood- 
chamber as new as possible, for the bees 
are quite apt to carry up bits of comb to 
be used in capping cells in the supers, and 
old dark comb will discolor the super¬ 
cappings to quite an extent. 

The thinned-down honey should be put 
into the feeder just before sundown, so 
that there may be no uproar' that may 
cause robbing. It is not desirable to have 
more than two supers of sections on the 
fed colonies at a time. As soon as the 
combs in the super next the brood-chamber 
are nearly capped, this super should be 
raised up and the upper one placed under 
it next to the brood-chamber. As soon as 
the top super is finished and capped solid 
to the wood, it may be removed and a fresh 
super placed next to the brood-chamber. 
Of course it is not essential that combs be 
built out and capped solid to the wood. 
The combs all capped over, except cells 
next to the wood, would grade No. 1. 

CAUTION : FED-BACK COMB HONEY LIABLE TO 

granulate. 

Under Comb Honey, to Produce, sub¬ 
head, “Bait Sections,” reference is made 
to the fact that bait sections or fed-back 
comb honey is more liable to granulate than 
ordinary comb honey. Dealers have com¬ 
plained that the former granulates very 
rapidly on their hands; and when they 
know it they will not accept it unless for 


immediate sale. It should be sold in one’s 
own locality, and sold as early as possible. 
While not all of it will granulate, the his¬ 
tory of such honey is decidedly unfavor¬ 
able. 

FEEDING OUTDOORS.— After what 
has been said elsewhere in this work re¬ 
garding the danger of exposing sweets in 
the open air during the robbing season, it 
may seem the height of folly to recommend 
what appears to be the same thing that 
has been condemned; but, as will be 
shown, this outside feeding may be prac¬ 
ticed without the bad results that follow 
from the exposure of sweets under other 
conditions. It is well known that, when 
bees are busy in the field in a natural 
honey flow, hives can be opened without 
any robbing. Now, then, if the bees can 
be kept busy by making them go after 
food, set outdoors, that is of the consist¬ 
ency of raw nectar, much the same result 
will be artificially accomplished. 

But proceeding farther the question may 
be asked, “Why feed outdoors at all if the 
proper stimulation can be given by plac¬ 
ing the food inside the hives that need it, 
rather than supplying all colonies alike, 
irrespective of whether they need stores or 
not?” 

While it is ordinarily better to feed each' 
individual colony according to its needs, 
there are times when one can feed a whole 
apiary by placing a weak syrup in an out¬ 
door feeder. At any time when robbers in¬ 
terfere with the manipulations of the colo¬ 
nies, sweetened water outdoors diverts the 
meddlers by making a sort of artificial 
honey flow. When the bees can gather any¬ 
thing from the fields they are not disposed 
to rob. In the same way if the bees can be 
kept busy artificially, much the same re¬ 
sults can be accomplished. This can be 
done with an outdoor feeder and sweetened 
water, as explained farther on. If one 
engages in queen-rearing, or desires to ex¬ 
tract when bees will ordinarily rob, an 
outdoor feeder can be started so that the 
necessary work can be performed easily 
and secure from pilfering bees. Again, it 
will sometimes happen that the whole api¬ 
ary is on the verge of starvation, and out¬ 
side feeding can be used to tide the bees 
over until the expected honey flow starts, 


358 


FEEDING OUTDOORS 


or until feeders can be installed on the 
hives and colonies fed in the regular way. 

Outdoor feeding can also be employed to 
advantage to “call the bees off” when rob¬ 
bing the neighbors’ preserves during the 
canning season. The same calling-off proc¬ 
ess can be used when the bees are robbing 
candy-stands or stands where lemonade or 
cut melons are on display for sale. 

Within a quarter of a mile of our home 
yard there is a fairground, and sometimes 
we find it necessary, if bees are inclined to 
rob, to start outdoor feeding the day before 
the fair opens, and keep it up during the 
fair. If there is a severe dearth at the 
time, bees are inclined to meddle with the 
candy-stands and soda-fountains. While 
the amount they actually steal is insignifi¬ 
cant, their presence “drives away trade.” 

disadvantages of outdoor feeding. 

Having said this much in favor of out¬ 
door feeding of a whole apiary, it should 
be clearly and emphatically stated at the 
outset that it is an expensive way of feed¬ 
ing bees. When a colony can take the 
syrup from an ordinary feeder, either at 
the entrance or on top of the hive, and 
place it in the combs, the wear and tear on 
the bees is nothing as compared with that 
. which takes place when the bees are com¬ 
pelled to leave the hives, fly to the feeder, 
scuffle with each other, and then rush back 
in pell-mell haste to their hives to unload. 

One year, when robbing was very bad, 
and when we desired to keep on with our 
queen-rearing operations, we fed for sev¬ 
eral weeks in outdoor feeders. It was very 
noticeable that the field bees had their 
wings badly worn, and at the end of the 
queen-rearing operations the fielders were 
conspicuous by their absence, and only 
young bees were left. While outdoor feed¬ 
ing stimulates brood-rearing, it does so at a 
large cost. Besides the wear and tear on 
the wings themselves, there is the labor of 
reducing a nine-to-one sugar syrup or 
sweetened water (nine parts of water to 
one of sugar) to a well-ripened sugar 
syrup of two and one-half parts of sugar 
to one of water. When feeding in the hive, 
the syrup should be never weaker than one 
part of sugar to one of water; and it is 
often two parts or even 2 1 / 4 parts of sugar 
to one of water. It will be readily seen 


that outdoor feeding of bees involves an 
enormous drain on the colony. 

There are also other serious drawbacks 
to outdoor feeding. It feeds all the bees 
in the vicinity, the neighbors’ included, 
and might perhaps be instrumental in the 
spread of foul brood. It also causes a 
disproportionate amount of syrup to be 
given to the colonies. The strong ones will 
have a great deal more than their share, 
and the weak ones considerably less. By 
feeding within the hive, one can regulate 
the supply for each colony or nucleus. 

HOW TO FEED OUTDOORS. 

While an expert can set out unfinished 
sections for bees to clean, as spoken of 
under the head of Comb Honey, to Pro¬ 
duce, subhead, “Unfinished Sections,” the 
practice on the part of the beginner should 
be discouraged. But he can feed outdoors 
without stirring up an uproar by feeding 
a very thin syrup, about nine parts of 
water to one of sugar. As already ex¬ 
plained, this is virtually sweetened water. 
At the beginning a little stronger syrup 
will have to be made in order to start the 
bees. Then it can be weakened down to 
nine-to-one basis. 

We prefer the regular trough feeder for 
the purpose—either the Alexander or the 
Simplicity. Twenty-five or fifty of them 
will be required, all set out in a row on a 
couple of 2 x 4 scantlings properly leveled 
up. When these feeders are not available, 
two or three common washtubs can be used, 
but the surface of the sweetened water 
should be covered over with sticks or corn¬ 
cobs to prevent the bees from drowning; 
and there should not be much more than 
an inch of liquid in the tubs, or at least not 
more than will be required to supply the 
bees all day or as long as it is desired to 
keep them busy. If the sweetened water is 
left out over night during warm weather, it 
is liable to sour, so that a supply greater 
than the bees can take up for the day 
should never be given. 

To prevent the bees from crowding, it is 
desirable to use a large surface; hence it is 
recommended to use two or three tubs with 
an inch of sweetened water in each rather 
than one tub with three inches of liquid. 
When the surface is comparatively small, 
the bees crowd each other in a way that is 


FIRE BLIGHT 


359 


injurious to their wings; and by spreading 
the feed no bee will be compelled to crowd 
against its neighbor. 

FENCE. —See Comb Honey. 

FERTILE “WORKERS.— See Laying 
Workers. 

FERTILIZATION OF FLOWERS BY 

BEES. — See Pollination. 

FIGWORT (Scrophularia marilandica ). 
-—Also called heal-all, square-stalk, and 
carpenter’s square. A strong-smelling herb, 
3 to 6 feet tall, with square stems, opposite 
leaves, and small greenish-purple flowers, 
growing in woodlands and hedges from 
Massachusetts to Kansas and Louisiana. 
The abundant nectar is secreted in two 
large drops by the base of the ovary. In 
1879 a small field of figwort at Medina, 
0., made a remarkable showing. Honey¬ 
bees visited the flowers from morning until 
night during the entire period of bloom¬ 
ing. On the average a flower was visited 
once a minute. After the nectar was re¬ 
moved other drops would exude in about 
two minutes. At one time this plant ex¬ 
cited a considerable furore among beekeep¬ 
ers, as it was thought that for artificial 
pasturage it would exceed anything then 
known. The honey obtained would not 
warrant, however, the large expense of its 
cultivation. The flowers are also very fre¬ 
quently visited by wasps. Several other 
species of figwort occur in this country. 
S. nodosa is a European species. 

FIRE BLIGHT. —About a score of years 
ago bees were accused of being a serious 
factor in the spread of fire blight. Altho 
this charge was based on wholly insufficient 
observation and experiment, it was gener¬ 
ally accepted, doubtless, as Merrill ob¬ 
serves, because bees are so abundant in 
orchards at blooming time. By tending to 
check the growth of bee culture this belief 
has been injurious to both beekeepers and 
fruit-growers. But during the last half- 
dozen years evidence has rapidly accumu¬ 
lated, which shows that blight is spread by 
other agencies and fully exonerates the 
honeybee. 

THE NATURE OF FIRE BLIGHT. 

Eire blight is a bacterial disease, which 
attacks the twigs and ends of the branches 


of apple and pear trees and blights the 
leaves and flowers. If not checked it may 
extend to the entire branch, or may finally 
even kill the tree. Usually the infections 
die out in a few weeks; but, here and there, 
at the point where the dead limb joins the 
living wood, a few survive the winter. In 
the spring they resume their activity and 
exude a gummy substance filled with 
germs. They are called “hold-over can¬ 
kers.” From these cankers the germs are 
widely disseminated thru the orchard, and 
a new outbreak of blight follows. The 
question at once arises, what agencies act 
as carriers of the germs. It is certain that 
the honeybee is not one of them, for it re¬ 
stricts its visits entirely to the bloom of the 
trees. There is not a single instance on 
record of a bee visiting the exuding can¬ 
kers. Nor is it claimed that it does. Dur¬ 
ing three years’ close observation at bloom¬ 
ing time W. A. Ruth did not observe a sin¬ 
gle ease of an insect visiting the exuding 
cankers. It has been suggested that ants, 
which roam everywhere, may carry the 
blight bacteria to plant-lice feeding on the 
leaves; but this supposition does not ap¬ 
pear to be based on direct observation. It is 
probable that the wind, not insects, as will 
be shown later, is the chief agent in their 
distribution. 

WHEN OUTBREAKS OCCUR. 

There may be repeated outbreaks of fire 
blight in April,'May, June, July, and Aug¬ 
ust; but the chief months for blight are 
May, June, and July. Thus this disease is 
by no means confined to the blooming time 
of the apple and pear. Clearly the ap¬ 
pearance of fire blight, when there is no 
bloom on the trees, can not be attributed 
to the honeybee, for it can prove an -alibi; 
it is busy elsewhere. Yet these outbreaks 
are as severe as, or more so than, those 
which occur in blooming time. 

LEAF HOPPERS IMPORTANT CARRIERS. 

In a paper on the control of fire blight 
by A. C. Burrill, published in Phytopath¬ 
ology, December, 1915, there was described 
a series of experiments, which shows that 
aphids, or plant lice, and leaf hoppers car¬ 
ried the infection from blighted leaves to 
perfectly healthy shoots of the wild crab 
apple. After five years’ experience Bur- 


360 


FIRE BLIGHT 


rill believes that in the orchards and nur¬ 
series of Wisconsin leaf hoppers ( Empo - 
asca mali ) are the most important carriers 
of blight during July and August. 

PLANT filFE CHIEF DISTRIBUTORS. 

In Kansas, according to J. H. Merrill, 
(Bee Inspector’s Report, Iowa, 1916, page 
33) plant lice, which are the most common 
and widespread sucking insects in Kansas 
orchards, have been found to be the chief 
distributors of blight bacteria. Aphids, 
which had been permitted to crawl thru 
pure cultures of fire blight, were then 
placed on terminal twigs and enclosed in 
cheese cloth to exclude all other insects. 
These twigs blighted and were the only 
ones that did. Furthermore, it has been 
observed that in seasons during which 
plant lice are most abundant, fire blight is 
also most prevalent. In 1913 in Kansas 
orchards they were very common and so 
was fire blight; but in orchards in which 
they were controlled there was little blight. 
In 1914 there were few aphids and little 
blight, and this reciprocal relation was 
again noticeable in 1915 and 1916. Merrill 
says that the amount of blight can be de¬ 
creased by controlling the aphids. SteAvart 
also observed that in apple nurseries fire- 
blight epidemics follow rapidly in the wmke 
of aphid epidemics. 

SUCKING INSECTS IMPORTANT DISTRIBUTORS. 

In New York orchards fin July, accord¬ 
ing to SteAvart, the tarnished plant bug and 
several other sucking insects are important 
distributors of blight. Finally D. H. Jones 
has added to the list a beetle of the genus 
Scolytus, and on further observation many 
other insect carriers will doubtless be dis¬ 
covered. There is no lack of puncturing 
and biting insects in immense numbers, 
which, it is certain, are active in spreading- 
fire blight. 

BEES NEVER PUNCTURE LEAVES. 

It Avill be noticed that all the insects 
mentioned in the two preceding paragraphs 
have mouth-parts, Avhieh can puncture or 
bite thru the epidermis of the leaf. In this 
way the germs are placed in the tender tis¬ 
sues, multiply rapidly and produce infec¬ 
tion. “Insects,” says Merrill, “with suck¬ 
ing mouth-parts are admirably suited to 


this purpose.” Stewart and Leonard state 
that except for blossom blight the bacteria 
can not gain an entrance in the host tissue 
and produce infection except thru a wound 
or the punctures made by insects. Honey¬ 
bees never puncture the leaves; indeed, 
under normal conditions they never visit 
them; nor do they puncture the floAvers of 
the apple or pear, for the nectar is easily 
accessible on a flat disc. If, however, 
blight is chiefly distributed by the wind, 
the pricking in of the germs, altho a great 
advantage, is not an actual necessity. 

AN ALIBI FOR BEES. 

It is clear that all infection of the leaves 
and twigs must be due to other agencies 
than the honeybee, since the latter confines 
its visit strictly to the floAvers. Further¬ 
more, since bees visit the trees only during 
blooming time, it is only during about two 
weeks out of 14 or 15 that it can be ac¬ 
cused of being a carrier of blossom blight. 
Let us now inquire if honeybees are re¬ 
sponsible for the spread of blossom blight. 
As they do not visit the foliage they can 
not be the agency, which, in the first place, 
brings the blight to the bloom. In Kansas 
orchards, Merrill states, this is done by 
plant lice, which in large numbers enter 
the apple buds and suck their juices before 
they open, at the same time inoculating 
them with blight bacteria. Thus the flow¬ 
ers blight in the bud before bees begin 
their visits. Once the bloom is blighted 
it is no longer attractive to honeybees; for, 
if we remove, the petals of a healthy pear 
blossom, bees will at once cease to visit it, 
altho they will continue to visit other flow¬ 
ers near by. Twenty-three pear blossoms 
received 24 visits from honeybees in half 
an hour; the Avriter then removed all the 
petals and in the half hour folloAving there 
Avas not a single visit, altho the denuded 
blossoms contained nectar and the bees of¬ 
ten visited other flowers near them. Thus 
bees might fly indefinitely between the un- 
contaminated blossoms without disseminat¬ 
ing the blight. But it must be remembered 
that the bloom is visited by many insects 
besides bees, especially by flies and beetles 
which do not exhibit flower fidelity. As 
they alight on the leaves both in search of 
food and by chance, and Avill freely visit 
the blighted blossoms, they can not fail to 


FIRE BLIGHT 


361 


spread the blight among the flowers. Inci¬ 
dentally it may be remarked that not all 
blighted pear blossoms are the result of 
fire blight. In the Hudson Valley, accord¬ 
ing to Dr. E. Porter Felt,' the injury is 
caused by pear thrips. These little insects* 
which are about 1-20 of an inch long, ap¬ 
pear on the trees as the buds start and seek 
shelter in the expanding flower buds, blast¬ 
ing the bloom, which presents a brown 
seared appearance. 

SUMMARY OF ABOVE OBSERVATIONS. 

A brief summary of the above state¬ 
ments is as follows: 

1. Fire blight appears both before and 
after pear and apple trees bloom, and in 
nursery plantations which have never 
bloomed. With such outbreaks the honey¬ 
bee has no connection. 2. It has been 
shown experimentally that fire blight is 
spread by hosts of sucking and biting in¬ 
sects, such as plant lice, leaf hoppers, the 
tarnished plant bug, and probably many 
flies and beetles which puncture or feed 
on leaves and flowers. 3. Since honeybees 
restrict their visits to flowers they do not 
carry blight from the foliage to the bloom. 
This is done in many instances by plant 
lice, which creep in and infest the buds 
before they expand; and also doubtless by 
many flies and beetles which fly freely back 
and forth between the leaves and the 
bloom. Honeybees will not visit blighted 
inconspicuous bloom, but flies will often do 
so. While honeybees may occasionally car¬ 
ry the germs, they are of so little impor¬ 
tance compared with other distributors that 
their absence from orchards would proba¬ 
bly not affect the prevalence of blight. 

PEAR BLIGHT WIND BORNE. 

At this point the defense of the honeybee 
against the accusation of carrying fire 
blight rested up to Nov. 1, 1918. On this 
date there appeared in Science a paper by 
F. L. Stevens, W. A. Ruth, and C. S. 
Spooner of the University of Illinois, en¬ 
titled “Pear Blight Wind Borne,” which 
advanced new and revolutionary evidence 
in favor of bees. A brief abstract of this 
paper, given largely in the words of the 
authors, is as follows: Twelve-mesh wire- 
screen cylinders, 15 cm. in diameter and 
30 cm. long were constructed to enclose 


parts of single branches. Some of the cyl- • 
inders were slipped into closely fitting 
sleeves of fine bolting cloth. The ends of 
both kinds of cylinders were covered with 
canvas extending past the wire far enough 
to permit secure tying. The exposed wire 
of the first type of cylinder was painted 
with a mixture of tanglefoot and benzine. 
No insects were found in any of the cyl¬ 
inders except one which was accidentally 
permitted to dry, and in which two insects 
were found, but the shoot did not blight. 
The purpose of the following experiments 
was to discover whether infection was as 
common in the cylinders as in the open. 
Ten cylinders enclosed flowering wood. 
Flowers in two of the cages blighted. 
Forty cylinders, 20 of the bolting cloth and 
20 of the tanglefoot type, enclosed termi¬ 
nal growth. Thirty per cent blighted, which 
was practically the same proportion as 
prevailed among the unenclosed terminal 
shoots, as was shown by a count of a 
thousand terminal shoots on these and ad¬ 
jacent trees of the same variety and age. 
Since insects did not obtain access to the 
shoots the blight bacteria must have been 
carried by the wind; and “insects were not 
even of primary importance as carriers.” 
This conclusion was further supported by 
two facts: (1) there was a lack of insects 
in the orchard in sufficient numbers to ac¬ 
count for the large amount of twig blight 
—aphids and leaf hoppers were entirely 
absent during the period of infection; (2) 
insects were entirely absent from the exud¬ 
ing cankers, where they might receive their 
initial contamination. During three years 
of close observation during blooming time 
not a single insect was seen to visit the 
cankers. 

FIREWEED. —See Willow-herb. 

FIXED FRAMES. —See Frames, Self¬ 
spacing. 

FLIGHT OF BEES.— The distance bees 
go in quest of stores varies very greatly 
according to conditions. Usually on level 
country, more or less wooded, they do not 
go over one and one-half miles. If, how¬ 
ever, there is a dearth of pasturage within 
that distance, and plenty of it along some 
river bank three to five miles away, they 
may or may not go that far. When bees 


362 


FLIGHT OF BEES 


go out after stores they evidently try to 
find their nectar as near the hive as possi¬ 
ble. They will not g'O over half a mile if 
they can get a sufficient supply within that 
distance; but in most cases that range 
does not supply enough pasturage, and it 
is evident they keep increasing their flight 
until they go as far as one and one-half 
miles. If they are unable to secure enough, 
and if there is forage on beyond, they 
often go farther. 

Bees will sometimes fly over a body of 
water or a valley from an elevation three 
or even five miles, particularly if there are 
fields in sight that are somewhat showy. 
Whether they have a long-range vision or 
not has not been proven; but the fact that 
they will find white patches of buckwheat 
five miles away across a valley is somewhat 
significant. In a like manner they will go 
across a valley four or five miles to orange 
bloom in California. Whether they are 
guided by sight or smell in either case is 
difficult to prove; but it is quite probable 
that a breeze will carry the odors of a 
buckwheat field or of an orange grove in 
full bloom to bees five miles away. While 
we might not be able to detect odors at 
such a distance, the scent organs of the bee 
are much more acute than ours; and they 
might and probably would get a knowledge 
of its presence in a given locality. 

As a general rule, as stated at the outset, 
bees do not fly much over one and one-half 
miles. Where they have to go greater dis¬ 
tances their wings sometimes show wear, es¬ 
pecially if they have to pass thru shrub¬ 
bery. 

We once had one yard located in an aster 
district. The supply of nectar gave out in 
the near-by fields; but we traced some of 
the bees of that yard to asters five miles 
away. That fall there was a very rapid 
decimation of bees. Colonies that were 
strong just before the asters came into 
bloom dwindled down to three and two 
frame nuclei. The surviving bees had their 
wings badly frayed. The presumption is 
that in dodging thru and over shrubbery in 
their long flights they tore their wings more 
or less, with the result that large numbers 
of them never got back home. 

When bees are going to and from the 
field, they fly as low as possible to avoid the 
wind. Instead of flying over shrubbery 


they will dodge thru it for forage on the 
other side. At other times they will fly 
over it. We have observed, however, at 
one of our yards, that bees would go no 
farther than a «piece of woods half a mile 
away. The probabilities are that, on rising 
to the height of the trees, they encountered 
a current of wind in the opposite direction. 
It is a well-known fact that bees can not 
fly against a strong wind. 

THE RANGE OF FLIGHT AND ITS RELATION TO 
OUTYARDS. 

In the location of outyards one should 
take into consideration the general lay of 
the land and the character of possible bee- 
forage. In ordinary white clover regions 
where there are patches of woods, build¬ 
ings, or much shrubbery, bees do not fly 
much over one and one-half miles; but 
when clover ceases to yield, and basswood 
can be found two or three miles away, 
those same bees will fly farther; and when 
conditions are right, they will fly from 
three to five miles, and even seven miles 
across a body of water. But locations that 
furnish such long ranges are very rare. 

The flight of bees will determine some¬ 
what the size of the beeyard. If they do 
not go farther than one and one-half miles, 
probably not more than 50 colonies can be 
kept in the location, and possibly 30 would 
be better. 

In some parts of the country as many as 
500 colonies can be kept in one place. The 
late E. W. Alexander kept 500 colonies at 
Delanson, N. Y., on a hill overlooking a 
valley. He traced his bees five miles from 
home many times, and secured large crops 
of honey. J. F. McIntyre, at his cele¬ 
brated Sespe apiary near Ventura, Calif., 
kept over 500 colonies. (See Apiary.) 
In both of these cases it is evident that the 
bees would have to fly at least five miles in 
order to get the proper yield per colony. 
When an apiary of 50 colonies secures a 
good yield, the presumption is that the 
bees do not fly very far; and it sometimes 
happens that 30 colonies will do better than 
50. In that case they should be located 
about three miles apart, making a radius 
of flight of one and one-half miles. 

FOOD VALUE OF HONEY.— See 

Honey as a Food. 


FOUL BROOD 


363 


FOUL BROOD. —The term foul brood 
covers two brood diseases—one known as 
American, or the old-fasbioned diseased 
brood, caused by Bacillus larvae, and one 
the European, a disease of comparatively 
recent introduction, caused by Bacillus plu- 
ton. There is some evidence to show that 
European foul brood was present in this 
country as early as 1890; but it was not 
until 1899 that the author discovered that 
there are two distinct foul brood diseases 
here. (See Gleanings in Bee Culture, 
page 858, for 1899.) Shortly after, others, 
including the foul-brood inspectors of New 
York (where the European foul brood was 
first found), also recognized the difference. 

AMERICAN FOUL BROOD. 

The American foul brood, often called 
“ropy” foul brood, because the dead mat¬ 
ter assumes a gluey, sticky, tenacious char¬ 
acter, was well known in Europe, and has 
been referred to by Dzierzon and other 
writers. But Moses Quinby of St. Johns- 
ville, N. Y., was the first one to recognize 
it in the United States and prescribe for 
its cure. The Quinby cure is the basis of 
the only successful mode of treatment 
known and recognized today. 

As a general rule, the beekeeper will 
not discover it in its incipient stages. He 
is not expecting it, and, if it comes, does 
not see it. His first intimation of its pres¬ 
ence will be occasional cells of sealed brood 
showing sunken, greasy cappings and cells 
with irregular perforations. American foul 
brood is confined mainly to brood that has 
died after the cells have been sealed; but 
25 or 30 per cent of unsealed cells will 
show dead brood, and the dead larvae in 
both sealed and unsealed will vary in color 
from a yellowish brown to a dark brown, 
and finally to a brownish black. The larva 
that has just died holds its shape. As the 
disease advances it begins to shrink, and 
the dead matter becomes so rotten and 
putrid that the skin breaks, and on the 
lower side of the cell is seen a melted-down 
mass of matter that is very ropy—that is 
to say, sticky and tenacious. As this dries 
down it forms a hard scale that sticks 
tightly to the cell wall. These scales are 
not readily seen by looking straight into 
the cells; hut if the top of the comb is 
tilted toward the observer and held so the 


light will shine into the cells, the scales can 
be seen on the lower cell wall. In American 
foul brood the scales lie in uniform posi¬ 
tion (Figs, e, i, p, s, page 368), while in 
European foul brood their position is some¬ 
what irregular. The scale of European foul 
brood does not adhere so tightly and may 
be removed. The worst specimens of Amer¬ 
ican foul brood are usually found in the 
cells that have been sealed, altho the melted 
broken-down form of larvae will be found 
in some unsealed cells. 

The initial stages of American foul brood 
are usually confined to the sealed cells. 
After the disease has advanced so that 75 
per cent of all the sealed brood in a comb 
is affected, there will be found quite a 
sprinkling of stray cells of young larvae 
that have never been capped over that are 
dead. But usually the grub will be almost 
fully grown before it dies in the unsealed 
cell, tending to show that American foul 
brood does not usually kill the larva until 
after it is sealed in the cell, or just before 
that sealing. 

European foul brood in its first stages is 
usually confined to the unsealed cells. The 
dead larva will have a light-yellow color 
instead of a brownish-dirty one verging 
on to very nearly black. The American 
may be found at any time of the year 
when brood-rearing can take place; hut 
the European usually shows up at its 
worst early in the season, and before the 
main honey flow. 

One may find occasional dead larvae just 
before sealing that do not indicate disease 
of any sort. A few such scattered over the 
combs may he due to starvation — that is, 
improper feeding. This occurs occasion¬ 
ally when there is too much brood for the 
number of nurse bees to the hive. One 
will occasionally find dead brood, due to 
chilling or overheating. When the brood 
area expands too fast in the spring, an oc¬ 
casional cold night will cause the cluster 
to contract, leaving some of the brood un¬ 
covered. This chills and dies, and is car¬ 
ried out and deposited at the entrance. The 
larvae will be white or slightly grayish, but 
not brown or yellow as in either of the 
foul broods. All such dead brood should 
be carefully distinguished from brood af¬ 
fected with either European or American 
foul brood. If, after a week or two, no 


364 


FOUL BROOD 



Combs showing the irregular, mottled, scattered cells with their perforated and sunken cappings of American 

foul brood. 


more dead larva; appear, one may assume 
there is no disease. 

On the other hand, if one finds larvae 
that are dead and an increasing number 
of them as the days go by, especially if 
they are brown or yellow, he may suspect 
trouble. If the dead larvae seem to melt 
down, lying on the lower side of the cell, 
and if, further, they turn yellow or brown, 
and take on a tenacious, gluey consistency, 
it is an indication of American foul brood. 
If a common toothpick, thrust into the dead 
matter, and given a little twist, and drawn 
out, leaves a fine thread two or three inches 
long, it is an indication of American foul 
brood. If nearly all the dead larvae, espe¬ 
cially those in sealed cells, show this ropy 
or stringy appearance the indication of 
American is very much stronger. In this 


connection it should be stated that Euro¬ 
pean foul brood in some stages will rope; 
but the thread is coarser, somewhat lumpy, 
and is more of a salve-like consistency. 
Only occasional cells will show a tendency 
to rope, and even then after considei’able 
poking. The occasional ropy cells prove 
nothing. 

The roping test, alone, must not be con¬ 
sidered as conclusive that the disease is 
American. If, after a few days, some of 
the dead matter dries down into a hard 
scale so that it can not be removed with¬ 
out destroying the cell to which it is at¬ 
tached, one may conclude that he has real 
American foul brood. While the scale of 
European will dry down, it seldom or never 
adheres tightly to the cell wall. Once 
more: 























FOUL BROOD 


365 


If, on careful examination, one finds 
here and there a few dead pupae—that is, 
young bees almost fully developed—lying 
on their backs with their tongues project¬ 
ing upward, sometimes full length and 
sometimes half way, he may be reasonably 
sure that he has the American before him. 
Sometimes these upwardly projecting 
tongues seem to be glued to the upper wall 
of the cell. Sometimes they project upward 
only half way; but wherever these project¬ 
ing tongues are found it is a pretty sure in¬ 
dication of American foul brood. So far 
as the author knows, these projecting 
tongues are never found in the European. 

The name “foul brood” suggests a foul 
odor. In the ease of American the smell 
is very much like that of a cabinetmaker’s 
gluepot. With European there is a sour 
or musty smell in the first stages. In the 
later stages of European the odor is very 
bad, reminding one of dead fish or old 
carrion that has been allowed to stand for 
a considerable length of time. The odor 
of American foul brood is not nauseating, 
but nevertheless it is quite characteristic. 
Neither is the odor of European foul 
brood nauseating in its early stages. Some¬ 
times it is very hard to detect any odor. In 
the later stages of European the odor is 
“just awful.” It seems to be a combina¬ 
tion of the odor from dead animals or fish, 
with the suggestion of ammonia and of 
decay. 

One who is expert can very often locate 
the disease by these odors; but it should be 
remembered that the odor alone is by no 
means conclusive; but in connection with 
the other symptoms it is very helpful in 
enabling one to decide what form of brood 
disease he has. 

On one occasion the author located a 
colony having foul brood by an occasional 
whiff he could catch at the entrance; but 
it was nearly a week after that when he 
found one cell containing dead matter. Ap¬ 
parently, the colony had nearly cured it¬ 
self. But there still remained a character¬ 
istic odor which could not be eliminated. 
Experience shows that a colony which seems 
to cure itself does not stay cured. The 
stock may be vigorous enough to keep the 
disease down, to some extent; but an occa¬ 
sional cell will manifest itself for several 
years, and in the mean time be a constant 


source of infection to all the rest of the 
apiary. There might be some colonies that 
would not be able to resist, hence the 
danger. 

THE ODOR OF DEAD BEES LIKE THAT OF 
AMERICAN FOUL BROOD. 

Sometimes one can detect a gluepot odor 
at the entrance of one of the hives. He 
may be alarmed and conclude that, be¬ 
cause he has perceived the unmistakable 
smell, the disease is surely present in his 
apiary. This fear will be dissipated if he 
understands that the same foul-brood odor, 
or at least one very much like it, may have 
come from a lot of putrid dead bees after 
a severe winter. These dead bees may be 
found in the hive or at the entrance. 
Again, overheated brood or chilled brood, 
if neglected until it fairly rots, will give 
off a similar odor. 

PINHOLE PERFORATIONS. 

There is a kind of pinhole perforation 
that does not signify anything wrong — 
indeed, quite the contrary. As bees seal 
up their brood, there is a stage when there 
will be a small round hole in the center of 
the cap. Sometimes these holes are not 
closed up, and then there is what is called 
bareheaded brood. But the perforations in 
bareheaded brood are very different from 
the perforations in cells containing foul 
brood, either American or European. The 
bad cells will have sunken cappings. The 
perforations are ragged, triangular, and 
the edges appear to be somewhat greasy, 
while in the perforations in bareheaded 
brood the cappings are slightly convex, 
and the hole is circular. 

HOW AMERICAN FOUL BROOD IS CARRIED TO 
NEIGHBORING HIVES. 

When a colony is badly affected the dis¬ 
ease has progressed to such a stage that 
the probabilities are that other colonies in 
the same locality are affected, especially 
those having entrances pointing in the 
same direction Or similarly located. At this 
point the beekeeper should be warned that 
colonies next to the one badly affected are 
very apt to show the disease. This is ex¬ 
plained on the ground that young bees, and 
even the adult ones become more or less 
confused at their entrances, and so get into 


366 


FOUL BROOD 


the wrong hive. As they do not ordinarily 
show any of the manifestations of ordin¬ 
ary robbers, they are admitted. If they 
carry honey from an infected colony, as 
many of them do, they will transmit the 
disease as soon as they give pap made out 
of such honey to young brood; and that ex¬ 
plains why there will be only a single cell 
or a group of cells, perhaps, one square 
inch that will have foul brood, while all the 
rest of the brood in the hive is perfectly 
normal. If one can be sure that the 
comb containing the diseased cell or cells 
is the only one affected, the removal of that 
comb may effect a permanent cure. As will 
be stated further on, all such colonies 
should be carefully watched to see that the 
disease does not develop later on. 

THE TREATMENT AND CURE OF 
AMERICAN FOUL BROOD. 

At the outset the Quinby method was 
spoken of as being the basis of the most suc¬ 
cessful treatment for American foul brood. 
This plan involved the melting-up of the 
old combs (shaking bees into clean hives) 
and compelling the bees to start anew. As 
this treatment was described before foun¬ 
dation was known, of course no mention 
of it was made. Practically the only im¬ 
provement over the Quinby treatment is 
giving the bees starters or full sheets of 
foundation instead of empty frames with 
mere wooden guides. In more recent times 
the late D. A. Jones of Beeton, Ont., gave 
out what he called the “starvation” plan. 
It involved the same principles as the 
Quinby treatment, with this difference, 
that he shut the combless bees, after shak¬ 
ing, in a large wire-cloth box or a box with 
wire-cloth cover, and set it in a cool place 
until the bees had consumed all the honey 
in their honey-sacs. His idea was to elim¬ 
inate all possible sources of infection be¬ 
fore the bees were put on frames of foun¬ 
dation and fed. The treatment worked ad¬ 
mirably; but it was found in later years 
that it was not necessary to starve the bees 
—that they would use up any infected 
honey that they might have in their sacs 
in drawing out foundation, provided the 
hive had no combs. Later, William Mc- 
Evoy of Canada, who had then recently 
been appointed foul-brood inspector for 
Ontario, had been very successful in shak¬ 


ing the bees into their own hives, and giv¬ 
ing them frames of foundation starters. 
They were allowed to build combs on these 
for four days. Llis idea seemed to be to 
let the bees use up the infected honey in 
building the combs and storing it in the 
built comb. These combs supposed to con¬ 
tain infection were then removed, and 
the colony was given full sheets of founda¬ 
tion. But experience has shown in thou¬ 
sands of cases that it is not necessary to 
remove the first set of combs built on foun¬ 
dation starters, and that such removing in¬ 
volves a large amount of waste; and that, 
when the second set of foundation is given, 
the bees are in a demoralized condition, 
and quite inclined to swarm out. 

Years ago, when an apiary of the pub¬ 
lishers had foul brood, they shook 80 colo¬ 
nies and gave them only one set of frames 
with full sheets of foundation in clean 
hives. The treatment was a success in 
every case. Altho the author has pre¬ 
scribed this same treatment in hundreds if 
not thousand of cases, he has never had 
one report saying that the disease had 
returned. The bees, as a matter of fact, 
will either consume or use up all the in¬ 
fected honey in drawing out the first set 
of foundation; and it is very important 
to give the bees either a clean hive or dis¬ 
infect the old one. When he shook into 
the old hive the disease came back in some 
cases. This disinfecting may be best accom¬ 
plished by scorching the inside of the hive 
with an ordinary blow torch, such as is used 
by telephone men and painters to remove 
paint from a house; or it may be accom¬ 
plished by smearing the inside of the hive 
with kerosene, touching a lighted match to 
it, and letting it burn until the inside of 
the hive is charred to a light brown. The fire 
may be easily quenched by using a little 
water and putting on the cover immedi¬ 
ately. The steam, generated whetn the 
cover is clapped down, immediately puts 
out the fire. But there may be an objec¬ 
tion to kerosene leaving an offensive odor 
in the hive. Another plan is to use a 
handful of common dry straw, setting it 
on fire, and then with a stick poke the burn¬ 
ing straw around the hive so that every 
portion of it will be slightly scorched. The 
straw should be dumped out and a little 
water dashed in the hive. 


FOUL BROOD 


367 


The shaking treatment, to be carried out 
as it should be, requires some precaution to 
prevent absconding. The Bureau of Ento¬ 
mology has recommended a mode of pro¬ 
cedure which the author most tlioroly in¬ 
dorses. As government experts have made 
foul brood a more careful study than any 
other men in the United States, the reader 
should follow faithfully the treatment rec¬ 
ommended in Farmers’ Bulletin 1084, 
“Control of American Foiilbrood,” by Dr. 
E. F. Phillips, in Charge of Apiculture, 
Bureau of Entomology. For convenience 
of the reader we give it here. 

SHAKING TREATMENT. 

The shaking treatment consists essential¬ 
ly in the removal of all infected material 
from the colony, and in compelling the col¬ 
ony to take a fresh start by building new 
combs and gathering fresh stores. This is 
done by shaking the bees from the old combs 
into a clean hive on clean frames. 

Time of Treatment .—-The shaking treat¬ 
ment should be given during a flow of hon¬ 
ey, so that other bees in the apiary will not 
be inclined to rob. If this is not possible the 
operation may be performed under a tent 
made of mosquito netting. The best time 
is during the middle of a clear day when a 
large number of bees are in the field. It is 
sometimes recommended that shaking be 
done in the evening, but this is impossible 
if many colonies are to be treated. The col¬ 
ony can be handled more quickly when the 
field force is out of the hive. 

Preparation .—All implements that will be 
needed, such as queen and drone trap, hive 
tool, and lighted smoker, should be in readi¬ 
ness before the operation is begun. A com¬ 
plete clean hive with frames is provided, as 
well as a tightly closed hive body in which 
to put the contaminated combs after shak¬ 
ing. An extra hive cover or some similar 
apparatus should be provided to serve as a 
runway for the bees as they enter the new 
hive. The new frames should contain strips 
of comb foundation from one-fourth to one 
inch wide. Full sheets are not desirable, 
and if combs built on full sheets of founda¬ 
tion are desired they may be built later. 


Operation .—The old hive containing the 
diseased colony (A, cut below) is lifted to 
one side out of the flight of returning field 
bees, and the clean hive (B) set exactly in 
its place. The cover (G) is now taken off 
and a few frames (E) removed from the 
center of the hive. If unspaced frames are 
used, those remaining in the hive should be. 
pushed tightly to either side of the hive, 
thus making a barrier beyond which the 
bees can not crawl as they move to the top 
of the hive after shaking. This largely pre¬ 
vents them from getting on the outside of 
the hive. If self-spacing frames are used, a 
couple of thin boards laid on the top-bars 
on either side will accomplish the same re¬ 
sult. The runway (D) is put in place in 
front of the entrance. The old hive is now 
opened for the first time. The frames are 
removed one at a time, lowered part way 
into the new hive, and with a quick down¬ 
ward shake the bees are dislodged. The 
frames are then put into the extra hive 
body (C) and immediately covered to pre¬ 
vent robbing. After all the frames are 
shaken the bees remaining on the sides of 
the old hive (A) are shaken out. 

If honey is coming in freely, so that thin 
honey is shaken out of the combs, cover the 
runway (D) with newspapers and shake the 
bees in front of the new hive (B), leaving 
all frames in place and the cover on. After 
the operation the soiled newspapers should 
be destroyed. In shaking in front of the 
entrance the first one or two frames should 
be so shaken that the bees are thrown 
against the entrance, where they can locate 
the hive quickly. They then fan their wings 
and the others follow them into the hive. 
If this is not done the bees may wander 
about and get under the hive or in some 
other undesirable place. 

After the bees are mostly in the new hive 
a queen and drone trap (F) or a strip of 
perforated zinc is placed over the entrance 
to prevent the colony from deserting the 
hive. The queen can not pass thru the 
openings in the perforated zinc and the 
workers will not leave without her. By the 
time that new combs are built and new 
brood is ready to be fed, any contaminated 
honey carried by the bees into their new 
hive will have been consumed and the dis- 



Apparatus for shaking treatment: A, Hive containing diseased colony (formerly in position of B) ; 
B, clean hive; G, empty hive to receive comhs after shaking; D, hive cover used as runway; E, frames re- 
moved from B to give room for shaking; F, queen and drone trap; (?, cover for clean hive, B. 



































368 


FOUL BROOD 



ease will rarely reappear. If it should, a 
repetition of the treatment will be neces¬ 
sary. 

baring the Healthy Brood .—The old combs 
are now quickly removed. If several colo¬ 
nies are being treated at one time it may 


old combs. After the contaminated frames 
are taken to the honey-house the combs 
should be kept carefully covered, so that no 
bees can reach them until the wax can be 
rendered. This should not be delayed very 
long or the combs may be ruined by wax- 

moths. The slumgum 
or refuse remaining 
after the wax is re¬ 
moved should be 
burned. Contaminat¬ 
ed combs should not 
be put into a solar 
wax- extractor for 
fear of spreading the 
disease. The wax 
from contaminated 
combs may safely be 
used for the manu¬ 
facture of comb 
foundation. 


American foul brood: a, b, /, normal sealed cells; c, j, sunken cappings, showing perforations; g, 
sunken cappings not perforated; h. 1, m, n, q, r, larvae affected by disease; e. i, p, s, scales formed from 
dried-down larvae; d, o, pupae affected by disease. Three times natural size. (Original.) 


pay to stack several hive bodies contain¬ 
ing contaminated combs over a weak dis¬ 
eased colony to allow most of the healthy 
brood to emerge, thereby strengthening the 
weak colony. [Unless there is a heavy flow 
of honey at the time, the entrance to this 
colony should be contracted, for robbers 
would be apt to spread the disease/—Ed.] 
After 10 or 12 days this colony is treated 
in turn and all the combs rendered into wax. 
If only one or two colonies in a large apiary 
are bAng treated it will not pay to do this. 

Melting the Extracting Combs .—Since the 
extracting combs have not contained any of 
the diseased larvae, many beekeepers ask 
whether it is necessary that these be melted 
up, or whether it is safe to use 
them over other colonies. In 
some cases such combs may be 
used, as in colonies where there 
is only a little of the diseased 
material or where no honey has 
been coming to the hive since 
the disease was contracted. The 
saving of such combs, however, 
is extremely dangerous, and 
such a policy is not to be ad¬ 
vised. The beekeeper who takes 
all the precautions which it is 
possible to take is the one who 
most quickly and cheaply eradicates Ameri¬ 
can foul brood from his apiary. 

Saving the Wax .—Any but a very small 
apiary should have included in its equip¬ 
ment a wax-press for removing wax from 


Cleaning the Hive . — The hive which has 
contained the diseased colony should be 
thoroly cleaned of all wax and honey, and 
it is desirable that it be carefully disinfect¬ 
ed by burning out the inside with a com¬ 
mon gasoline blue-flame torch. If this piece 
of apparatus is not available several hive 
bodies may be piled together on a hive bot¬ 
tom and some gasoline or kerosene poured 
on the sides and on some straw or excelsior 
at the bottom. This is then ignited; and 
after burning for a few seconds a close- 
fitting hive cover is placed on top of the 
pile to extinguish the flames. The inside of 
the hive bodies should be charred to a light 
brown. The careful cleaning and disinfec¬ 


tion of frames always cost considerably 
more in labor than new frames would cost, 
but these .may also be carefully cleaned and 
used again. Frames m,ay be cleaned by 
boiling in water for about half an hour, but 



The ropiness of American foul brood. (Original.) 











FOUL BROOD 


369 



American foul-brood comb, showing irregular patches of sunken cappings and scales. The position of 
the comb indicates the best way to view the scales. (Original.) 



this frequently causes them to warp badly. 
The disinfection of hives and frames with 
chemicals is not recommended, as the or¬ 
dinary strengths used are valueless for the 
purpose. 

Disposal of the Honey .—If there is a con¬ 
siderable quantity of honey in the contam¬ 
inated combs, it may be extracted. This 
honey is not safe to feed to bees without 
boiling, but it is absolutely safe for human 
consumption. If there is a comparatively 
small quantity it may be 
consumed in the beekeep¬ 
er ’s family, care being 
taken that none of it is 
plaeed so that the bees 
can ever get it. 

To place such honey on 
the market is contrary to 
law in some States. There 
is always danger that an 
emptied receptacle will 
be thrown out where bees 
can have access to it, 


thus causing a new outbreak of disease. 
It can be safely used for feeding to bees, 
provided it is diluted with at least an 
equal volume of water to prevent burn¬ 
ing, and boiled in a closed vessel for not 
less than one-half hour, counting from the 
time that the diluted honey first boils vig¬ 
orously. The honey will not be sterilized if 
it is heated in a vessel set inside of another 
containing boiling water. Boiled honey can 
not be sold as honey. It is good only as a 


European foul brood: a, j, k, normal sealed cells; b, c, d, e, g, i, l, m, p, q, larvae affected by disease; 
normal larvae at age attacked by disease; /, h, n, o, dried-down larvae or scales. Three times natural size. 
(Original ) 



























370 


FOUL BROOD 


food for bees, and even then should never 
be used for winter stores, as it will prob¬ 
ably cause dysentery. 

The Second Shake. —Some beekeepers pre¬ 
fer to shake the bees first on to frames con¬ 
taining strips of foundation as above de¬ 
scribed, and in four days to shake the col¬ 
ony a second time on to full sheets of foun¬ 
dation, destroying all comb built after the 
first treatment. This insures better combs 
than the use of strips of foundation, but is 
a severe drain on the strength of the col¬ 
ony. Since it is desirable to have combs 
built on full sheets, the best policy is to 
replace any irregular combs with full sheets 
of foundation or good combs later in the 
season. 

The Cost of Shaking. —If the treatment 
just described is given at the beginning of 
a good honey flow, it is practically equiva¬ 
lent to artificial swarming, and results in 
an actual increase in the surplus honey, es¬ 
pecially in the case of comb-honey produc¬ 
tion. The wax rendered from the combs 
will sell for enough to pay for the founda¬ 
tion used if full sheets of foundation are 
employed. Since a colony so treated ac¬ 
tually appears to work with greater vigor 
than a colony not so manipulated, the cost 
of treatment is small. If treatment must 
be given at some other time, so that the 
colony must be fed, the cost is materially 
increased. In feeding, it is best to use sugar 
syrup, or honey that is known to have come 
from healthy colonies. 

Treatment With Full Sheets of Foundation. 
—In order not to have any combs in the 
apiary built on strips of foundation, some 
beekeepers prefer to shake the bees into a 
hive containing full sheets of foundation. 
In the place of one of these frames there is 
put in the hive an old piece of comb—one 
that has been broken or which for some rea¬ 
son will not further be useful. Into this 
comb the bees soon place the honey which 
they have carried over in their honey-stom¬ 
achs, and the second morning after treat¬ 
ment the hive is carefully opened, with as 
little confusion as possible, and this old 
comb is removed. As little smoke as possi¬ 
ble should be used in this operation and the 
comb should be taken out quickly in order 
that the bees may not again take up the 
honey before it is removed. In the place 
of the old comb there is inserted a new 
frame containing a full sheet of foundation 
and the treatment is complete. It will be 
fatal to success if the old comb is not re¬ 
moved, for then the disease will almost cer¬ 
tainly reappear. 

Treatment With Bee-Escape.— As a substi¬ 
tute for the shaking treatment just de¬ 
scribed, the bees may be removed from their 
old combs by means of a bee-escape. The 
old hive is moved to one side and in its 
place is set a clean hive with clean frames 
and foundation. The queen is at once trans¬ 
ferred to the new hive and' the field bees 


fly there on their return from the field. The 
infected hive is now placed on top of or 
close beside the clean hive and a bee-escape 
placed over the entrance, so that the young¬ 
er bees and those which later emerge from 
the cells can leave the contaminated hive 
but can not return and therefore will join 
the colony in the new hive. If desired, the 
infected hive may be placed above the clean 
hive and a tin tube about 1 inch in diameter 
placed from the old entrance so that the 
lower end is just above the open entrance of 
the new hive. The bees follow down this 
tube and on their return enter the new 
hive. When all of the healthy brood has 
emerged from the infected combs the old 
hive should be removed. This treatment 
induces less excitement in the apiary and is 
preferred by many experienced beekeepers. 
Care should be taken that the old hive is 
absolutely tight to prevent robbing. The 
old hive and its contents of honey and wax 
are treated as indicated under the shaking 
treatment. 

FALL TREATMENT. 

If it is necessary to treat a colony so 
late in the fall that it would be impossible 
for the bees to prepare 'for winter, the treat¬ 
ment may be modified by shaking the bees 
on to combs entirely full of honey so that 
there is no place for any brood to be 
reared. This will usually be satisfactory 
only after brood-rearing has entirely ceased. 
Unless a colony is quite strong, it does not 
pay to treat in the fall, but it should be 
destroyed or united to another colony. In 
case a diseased colony dies outdoors in the 
winter there is danger that other bees may 
have opportunity to rob the hive before the 
beekeepers can close the entrance. In case 
bees are wintered in the cellar it is more 
advisable to risk wintering before treat¬ 
ment, for if the colony does die the hive 
will not be robbed. 

DRUGS. 

Many European writers have in the past 
advocated the use of various drugs for 
feeding, in sugar syrup, to diseased colo¬ 
nies, or the fumigation of contaminated 
combs. In the case of American foul brood, 
of which the cause is known, it has been 
found that the drugs recommended are not 
of the slightest value. 

EUROPEAN FOUL BROOD 
DIFFERENTIA TED. 

As has been already explained, this is a 
disease that has some symptoms that are 
similar to those of American foul brood; 
but it has other symptoms that are quite 
different. In its general appearance, espe¬ 
cially in its advanced stages, a comb hav¬ 
ing the disease will look somewhat like 


FOUL BROOD 


371 


that of American foul brood; but a more 
careful examination will show a decided 
difference. 

1. Larvae affected with European foul 
brood in its first stages are not usually 
ropy, but when they do rope the thread is 
coarser and does not string out as far. 
American will often rope from four to six 
inches in a fine thread near the end. The 
dead matter of European has more of a 
jellylike consistency; and, if it clings to a 
toothpick, the roping is coarse, lumpy, and 
salve-like, and will not extend more than 
an inch or rwo at most and then break 
like a rotten rubber band. 

2. European in its first stages comes on 
mainly in the early part of the season, and 
it is confined largely to the unsealed brood. 
The dead larvae first turn gray, then light 
yellow. Sometimes a yellow spot shows in 
the center of the grub before it turns yel¬ 
low all over. It does not finally assume a 
shapeless melted-down mass as is found 
in the American disease. It retains its 
shape without a break in the skin, finally 
shriveling up into a dry scale which the 
bees easily remove. The dried scales of 
American foul brood, on the contrary, stick 
to the side of the cell like so much glue; 
and it is very easy to detect combs previ¬ 
ously affected with this disease, altho it 
may be a year or so afterward, because 
the lower sides of the cell look as tho 
they had been daubed over with some sort 
of dark-brown gluey substance with a rem¬ 
nant of larval skin. 

3. The ordinary gluepot or foul-brood 
odor is almost entirely lacking in combs af¬ 
fected with European foul brood. There is, 
in place of it, a sour, musty, or rotten-egg 
smell that is not as easily recognized as the 
odor of the other brood disease. In the 
later stages, it takes a spoiled-meat or car¬ 
rion odor with a suggestion of ammonia, in 
which stage the sour smell seems to be lost 
or obscured by the more pronounced odor 
of decay. The color of European foul 
brood in its earlier stages is a yellow or 
gray or combinations of these two colors. 
Later the yellow and gray change to quite 
a dark brown. 

4. European foul brood seems to spread 
much more rapidly than American. If an 
apiary is affected at all, more colonies will 


be involved; but in the American disease, 
honey seems to be the main source of infec¬ 
tion. In the European type, while honey 
may be a source, it certainly does not seem 
to be the only means of transmission. 

5. Black and hybrid bees are much more 
subject to the ravages of European foul 
brood. If the disease is not too far ad¬ 
vanced and the colonies are strong, the 
mere introduction of a vigorous strain of 
young Italian queens may cure the whole 
apiary. There are some localities in New 
York and Virginia where Italian apiaries 
are surrounded by apiaries of black and 
hybrid bees; and yet the remarkable fact 
is that these Italian yards are almost en¬ 
tirely free from disease, while the yards of 
black or hybrid bees around them are af¬ 
fected with it in spite of treatment by 
shaking. 

6. There also seems to be a general agree¬ 
ment among authorities that weak colonies 
are the ones that are first attacked by Eu¬ 
ropean. It is important, where this dis¬ 
ease gets into a yard, that all the weak 
colonies be doubled up; for it is only the 
strong and extra strong that are able to 
combat it, even when they are given every 
assistance possible on the part of the 
owner. 

7. Again, it has been noticed that, as 
soon as a good honey flow is on, European 
foul brood begins to disappear; and some¬ 
times as soon as there is a dearth of honey 
it breaks out again, particularly when 
brood-rearing is well under way in the 
spring, for that is the time of the year 
when it usually makes itself manifest. 

8. In the case of American foul brood it 
has been proven that combs or honey from 
a diseased colony are sources of infection. 
While all the honey could be extracted out 
of the combs, it has been demonstrated 
over and over again that it is impossible 
for a colony of bees to remove the germs 
by any process, for the simple reason that 
the dead matter sticks like glue to the sides 
and bottoms of the cells. On the other 
hand, the combs of European foul brood, 
because the dried larvae do not stick, can 
be readily cleaned up by a vigorous colony 
of Italians and used over again. Before 
they have been cleaned np they may trans- 


372 


FOUL BROOD 


mit the disease.* Hybrids and blacks, for 
some reason, do not effect this clean-up; 
and hence it is necessary either to melt up 
the combs, or, better, Italianize. 

To recapitulate, combs of American foul 
brood must be melted up or burned. Combs 
of European foul brood need not be de¬ 
stroyed, and can be used again, when given 
the proper environment. In the last stages 
of European where the combs are rotten 
the combs should be melted up or burned. 

9. American foul brood seems to be no 
respecter of persons, or, more exactly, no 
respecter of strains or races. European 
foul brood, in the first stages on the other 
hand, yields rapidly to a resistant strain 
of Italians without the destruction of 
combs. But not all Italians are equally 
resistant. Some strains, especially the yel¬ 
low, inbred until their vitality has been 
weakened, are no better than the ordinary 
blacks and hybrids. 

It seems to be apparent that bees which 
are good workers, and stand wintering 
well, are usually found to be very resistant 
to European foul brood, altho the rule does 
not universally hold true. When Italians, 
therefore, are spoken of as “resistant,” it 
should be remembered that there are Ital¬ 
ians and Italians — some better than others. 

10. While the shaking or brushing on to 
frames of foundation in clean hives is al¬ 
most sure to cure American foul brood, it 
is only partially effective with European. 
It often does more harm than good because 
it weakens the colony. In many cases, 
European foul brood will reappear after 
shaking. It is, therefore, apparent that, 
if shaking is employed, additional curative 
measures must be applied — doubling up 
and requeening. 


* I think the disease will not he transmitted by a 
diseased larva even tho still undried, if it is so far 
decayed that the nurse bees will not eat it. By the 
way,' this theory, original with me, has never been 
advanced by any one else, and, as it has never been 
objected to by any one, it is safe to say that it is 
the best theory yet advanced to explain how the 
disease is conveyed, and at the same time to ex¬ 
plain how and why the dequeening or caging cures. 
Here’s the theory in brief: When a diseased larva 
dies, the nurses suck its juices, feed them to the 
young larvse, and thus the disease is transmitted; 
but after the diseased larvae become so far decayed 
as to be offensive, the nurses will no longer suck 
their juices, hut leave them to become dried, or re¬ 
move them without sucking them. So a break in 
brood-rearing that leaves no longer any eatable dis¬ 
eased larvae stops the continuance of the disease.— 
C. C. Miller. 


CONFUSING SYMPTOMS OF AMERI¬ 
CAN AND EUROPEAN FOUL 
BROOD EXPLAINED. 

For some time tbe beekeepers of Cali¬ 
fornia, as well as other parts of tbe United 
States, have been greatly confused by a 
disease that appeared to be American foul 
brood, and yet yielded to European foul- 
brood treatment. This even led some bee¬ 
keepers to believe the two diseases identi¬ 
cal. 

Being greatly interested in these new 
symptoms, the author, while in California 
in 1919, succeeded in getting Dr. Phillips 
to send his bacteriologist, Mr. Sturtevant, 
to investigate the matter. After spend¬ 
ing some time there he came to the follow¬ 
ing tentative conclusions. 

In American foul brood he almost never 
found more than one organism, Bacillus 
larvae, the cause of the disease—a fact that 
accounts for the usual uniformity of symp¬ 
toms of this disease. The germ is charac¬ 
teristic in appearance. Under conditions 
unfavorable to its active growth it forms a 
small egg-shaped resultant body or 
“spore,” which resists drying and high 
temperatures. Under favorable conditions 
the germ kills the larva in a peculiar man¬ 
ner, leaving the trachea and chitinous parts 
intact and making a gluey substance of the 
soft parts. This causes the characteristic 
sliminess or ropiness, and, later on, adher¬ 
ence of the scale to the cell wall. Thd 
gluepot, or, as Mr. Sturtevant says, the 
fish-glue odor, is also quite characteristic. 
However, it is now found that there may 
be stages where the larvse may not have 
been dead long enough to have developed 
the characteristic ropiness and adherence 
to the cell Avail. At this stage the partly 
dried-down mass may not have even the 
characteristic odor, nor adhere to the cell 
wall, thus leading to the belief that the dis¬ 
ease may be European foul brood. 

The dead larva of European in the un¬ 
sealed cells can usually be distinguished 
from the dead laiwa of American in un¬ 
sealed cells, by the position which it takes. 
The former may be coiled in the bottom of 
the cell, or it may be extended, lying more 
or less irregularly, somewhat diagonally in 
the cell. A careful examination will show 
this difference. 



FOUL BROOD 


373 


Again, in the case of American there 
may be found pupae, (almost fully devel¬ 
oped bees) lying on their backs, with their 
tongues extended out and pointing up¬ 
ward. Sometimes the end of the tongue 
will be stuck to the upper side of the cell. 
Sometimes it will project upward only 
about half way. These dead pupae with 
projecting tongues are never found in 
European foul brood; and their presence 
in any comb showing the general symp¬ 
toms of American, is a strong indication 
of American. When one finds almost every 
cell of the dead matter will rope, here and 
there dead pupae with their tongues pro¬ 
jecting upward, and especially if he finds 
scales that adhere tightly, he may con¬ 
clude that he has American. 

The germ causing European foul brood, 
Bacillus pint on, does not form these re¬ 
sistant spores. The germ also seems to be 
less active in the way it decomposes the 
dead larvae. According to Sturtevant, in 
European foul brood along with the or¬ 
ganism that kills the healthy larvae may 
often be found several germs which are 
secondary invaders, having no relation to 
the cause of the disease, but simply causing 
the larvae to decompose. There is one or¬ 
ganism in particular, Bacillus alvei, orig¬ 
inally supposed to be the cause of the dis¬ 
ease, which is often associated with Euro¬ 
pean foul brood in large numbers. It ap¬ 
pears that, the more of these organisms 
.there are present after Bacillus pluton kills 
the larvae, the more the appearance will 
change. Instead of the typical moist melting 
stage of the disease there are found, due to 
the action of the Bacillus alvei, more and 
more larvae that have not died until after 
they have become capped. In this stage it is 
often difficult to distinguish European from 
American foul brood, as the dead larvae may, 
before they dry down, show a tendency to 
sliminess, to rope somewhat, and develop 
the coffee-brown color. However, the way 
they rope is different from the character¬ 
istic fine thread of the American. It is 
coarsei’, at times lumpy, and too moist to 
stretch far; also, as it becomes a little 
, more dried it will stretch like an old rubber 
band; and in breaking, instead of snapping 
back it will remain stretched out. At this 
time the mass has a very disagreeable 
spoiled-meat odor. If, however, the case is 


watched for a few days longer, allowing 
the dead material to dry down, it will be 
found that these masses which generally 
lie very irregularly in the cells may be eas¬ 
ily removed entire, while in the case of 
American foul brood it is practically im¬ 
possible to remove an entire scale. Fur- 
thex-more, instead of being brittle, like the 
American scale, these irregular masses will 
bend like a piece of old rubber. 

Owing to the fact that European foul 
brood has been so neglected in California, 
due to the custom of treating for American, 
Bacillus alvei, the secondary decomposing 
organism, has increased to such numbers 
that it has changed some of the symptoms 
of the disease, in its last stages particular¬ 
ly. Therefore it is not safe to jump to 
conclusions too hastily in the ease of the 
brood diseases, since there are stages at 
which it is very difficult to differentiate 
without the aid of a microscope. If it is 
impossible to get a microscopic diagnosis, 
Mr. Sturtevant recommends that the best 
plan is to treat the case vigorously as if it 
were European foul brood by dequeening 
the colony, and in ten days requeen with 
good Italian stock and then watch devel¬ 
opments. This kind of treatment with 
good Italian stock, and making the colo¬ 
nies strong, is good beekeeping, disease‘or 
no disease, and the only way to secure a 
crop. If it is European foul brood it will 
clean up. If it is American foul brood it 
will not clean up, and soon the definite 
characteristic appearances will develop. 

This treatment as prescribed will elimi¬ 
nate the melting-up of combs in European 
foul brood, and is the safest course to pur¬ 
sue where European is known to be preva¬ 
lent. 

To recapitulate, it is apparent that thei'e 
are only two sei’ious brood diseases, the 
same as we have heretofore known. In 
the American foxxl brood no new develop¬ 
ment has aiisen. The Eur-opean, however, 
takes a later stage much resembling Ameri¬ 
can. At first all the symptoms that here¬ 
tofore have been given for European ap¬ 
pear. Later on, if nothing is done to effect 
a cure a secondary invader, Bacillus alvei', 
comes in and modifies the symptoms to 
such an extent that European takes on the 
form similar to American, bixt yields to 
the treatment of European. The Bacillus 


374 


FOUL BROOD 


alvei apparently slows up the action of 
the Bacillus pluton, which is the real cause 
of European, so that the dead matter ap¬ 
pears mainly in the sealed cells, while the 
unsealed larvae look a little like the dead 
larvae of American. i , 1 

THE SEQUENCE OF BROOD DISEASES. 

In those areas in which both American 
foul brood and European foul brood are 
often found in the same apiaries, some 
beekeepers actually believe that one of 
these diseases turns into the other. So 
strong is this belief in some places that it 
is often discussed in beekeepers’ meetings; 
and the idea has even crept into some of 
the bee journals, this unfortunately adding 
to the confusion already existing in the 
minds of many beekeepers who have to 
contend with both diseases. 

It should not be necessary to call atten¬ 
tion here to the fact that the cause of each 
of the two most destructive brood diseases 
is positively known, the cause of American 
foul brood being a specific germ Bacillus 
larvae, and the cause of European foul 
brood being an entirely different germ, 
Bacillus pluton. Tbe work of Dr. White 
in the investigation of the cause of these 
brood diseases has been verified by Sturte- 
vant as well as other investigators; slo 
there can be no reason for doubt as to its 
being correct. For Bacillus pluton to 
change into Baccillus larvae is just about 
as impossible as for wheat to change to 
corn, or tomatoes to change to apples. 

Why should such a belief become preva¬ 
lent among beekeepers? What could they 
have observed that could possibly lead 
them to such a conclusion? The explana¬ 
tion .is foimd in the difference in the be¬ 
havior of the two diseases. 

European foul brood is usually at its 
worst in the spring, often disappearing 
later in the season, so that sometimes its 
presence cannot be detected in the apiary 
even by a careful examination of the 
combs; while American foul brood persists 
thruout the season, usually growing worse 
as the season advances. European foul 
brood usually spreads with surprising ra¬ 
pidity thruout the apiary during the 
spring; while American foul brood, if not 
checked by the beekeeper, spreads slowly 
but surely thruuout the season, especially 


during the robbing season. European foul 
brood is more destructive to weaker colo¬ 
nies, since strong colonies, especially if 
Italians, are better able to resist it; while 
American foul brood destroys the strong 
as well as the weak, often being found first 
in the strongest colonies. 

When both diseases are present the bee¬ 
keeper sees chiefly European foul brood 
during the spring and chiefly American foul 
brood during the fall, altho both diseases 
may be present thruout the season. Tluy 
variation in the symptoms of European foul 
brood, by which it sometimes closely resem¬ 
bles American foul brood in appearance at 
first glance, may lead the beekeeper to think 
that he has only European foul brood in 
the spring, and the disappearance of the 
characteristic symptoms of European foul 
brood later in the season leads him to be¬ 
lieve that he has only American foul brood 
left. If he send a sample to the Bureau of 
Entomology at Washington for examina¬ 
tion in the spring when his trouble is over¬ 
whelmingly European foul brood he is al¬ 
most sure to select a sample of this disease ; 
and, if he sends another sample in the fall 
when European foul brood is difficult to 
find, he is almost sure to send a sample of 
American foul brood. 

When both diseases are present a bad 
case of spring dwindling, following poor 
wintering, may be diagnosed as “disap¬ 
pearing disease.” The colonies thus weak¬ 
ened become easy prey for European foul 
brood. Even with this handicap the colo¬ 
nies may build up during the honey flow 
and clean up the European foul brood to 
a large extent, so that later in the season 
the beekeeper sees only American foul 
brood. Noting this sequence of evils the 
beekeeper may be led to the erroneous and 
absurd belief that one disease turns into 
another. 

TREATMENT AND CURE OF EUROPEAN FOUL 
BROOD. 

Before proceeding to the actual cure of 
a colony after the disease has been con¬ 
tracted, it should be stated that good bee¬ 
keeping, according to tbe Government offi¬ 
cials, makes it very difficult for European 
foul brood to get a start. This is only an¬ 
other way of saying that prevention is bet¬ 
ter than cure. Good beekeeping means 


FOUL BROOD 


375 


strong colonies of good bees. Not only 
that, but they should be strong in the 
spring. In order to have such colonies it 
means good wintering; and good winter¬ 
ing, in the northern States at least, implies 
an abundance of natural stores and protec¬ 
tion. This protection, if the bees are win¬ 
tered outdoors, may be in the form of 
double-walled hives, or winter cases de¬ 
scribed under the head of “Wintering Out¬ 
doors” at the close of this work. In con¬ 
nection with this protection there should 
also be a good windbreak. Protection may 
also mean putting the bees in a good cel¬ 
lar, the essentials of which are described 
under “Wintering in Cellars.” 

In the milder climates, to have strong 
colonies in the spring requires a larger 
amount of stores to the colony; because 
when the bees can fly two or three times a 
week, many old bees are lost in the fields, 
never returning. The others that do return 
with nectar and pollen start breeding, and 
this calls for a large reserve of stores—at 
least double the amount required in the 
colder States. The author is convinced that 
a moderate amount of packing could be 
given to advantage in addition. 

In the treatments now about to be given 
for the cure of European foul brood, after 
it once finds lodgment, it will be seen that 
the fundamentals are strong colonies; de- 
queening to allow the bees to clean up the 
infected material, and requeening with a 
resistant strain. Before we proceed to the 
exact details of treatment, the history of 
how the best methods were discovered is 
important. 

In 1899 and the early 1900’s, when Euro¬ 
pean foul brood was known in New York as 
a foul brood that was different from the 
old-fashioned kind, the shaking method was 
applied exclusively. It was soon discov¬ 
ered that the disease was continually com¬ 
ing back. Later it was learned that shak¬ 
ing was effective in most Italian colonies. 
Then it was discovered that some Italians 
were more resistant than others. Finally 
the inspectors advised that shaking and 
Italianizing should be applied. If colonies 
were not strong it was recommended to 
double up until they were. Then a few 
beekeepers began to notice that the mere 
introduction of a resistant strain of Ital¬ 
ians would effect a cure. 


In 1904 E. W. Alexander of Delanson, 
N. Y., referred to in several places in this 
work, reported to the author that one of his 
neighbors had blundered upon a cure which 
he thought was effective. At that time he 
was not prepared to state whether it would 
bring about a cure or not; but after he had 
experimented with it on some 500 colonies 
he gave out what has since been called the 
Alexander treatment, which is now the basis 
of all the modern methods of control for 
the European foul brood. In brief the Al¬ 
exander treatment is as follows: 

Every diseased colony in the apiary not 
very strong is doubled up or united with 
other weak colonies until all are made 
strong. In some cases building up or 
strengthening of the weak can be effected 
by taking frames of emerging brood from 
the stronger and giving them to the weaker. 
The next procedure is to remove the queen 
from every infected colony, and in nine 
days destroy every mature queen-cell, or 
any virgin if emerged. In the meantime a 
quantity of cells are to be reared from the 
best Italian breeder in the yard. These 
cells, when ripe, are given to the colonies 
made queenless 20 days before. During 
this interim of queenlessness the bees clean 
out the combs, polish up the cells, and when 
the new queen starts laying, which will be 
on the 27th day, approximately, the new 
brood will be healthy from that time on. 
It is not necessary to remove any combs 
from the hives nor apply any kind of dis¬ 
infection. The old queens that were re¬ 
moved in the first place are to be destroyed. 

In a series of articles which Mr. Alexan¬ 
der wrote defending his treatment—for he 
encountered all sorts of opposition from 
those who failed—he laid strong emphasis 
on the importance of making all colonies 
extra strong, using a vigorous resistant 
strain of Italians and keeping the colony 
queenless for at least 20 days, at the end 
of which time a ripe queen-cell or a virgin 
just emerged was to be given. 

S. D. House of Camillus, N. Y., told the 
author that a vigorous strain of Italians 
would almost alone clean out European 
foul brood after the colony had been queen¬ 
less for a period. He showed colony after 
colony that had been rotten with the dis¬ 
ease, and which at the time of our visit 
were entirely free of it. He stated that 


376 


FOUL BROOD 


European foul brood was rampant all 
around him in the black and hybrid colo¬ 
nies. In spite of the fact that it was with¬ 
in reach of his bees he had no fear of it. 
He wrote a series of articles for Gleanings 
in Bee Culture in 1911, and among them 
was one, on page 330, giving his method of 
treatment that is similar to Alexander’s. 
This attracted considerable attention at the 
time. The editor of Gleanings was severe¬ 
ly criticised by some of the State inspectors 
for giving publicity to such heresy; but 
old Father Time has demonstrated that Al¬ 
exander and Mr. House were nearly right. 

In later years European foul brood 
broke out in the apiary of Dr. C. C. Miller 
of Marengo, Ill., an authority referred to 
many times in this work. The author ad¬ 
vised him to follow the Alexander or, bet¬ 
ter, the House treatment, which he did, with 
marked success. By accident he discov¬ 
ered that it was not necessary to have the 
colonies queenless more than ten day^; 
that a vigorous strain of bees would do a 
good clean-up job in the period named. 
After experimenting with the disease for 
two or three years he finally announced the 
following modified Alexander-House-Miller 
treatment, which is much the same as that 
used by S. D. House. Dr. Miller says: 

First, no matter whether the case be se¬ 
vere or mild, make the colony strong. In a 
severe case, kill the queen; and as soon as 
the colony recognizes its queenlessness, say 
within 24 hours, give a ripe queen-cell, or 
immediately at the time of killing the 
queen, give a virgin not more than a day 
old or a cell in a protector. That’s all; the 
bees will do the rest. In a mild case, make 
the colony strong, and cage the queen in a 
hive for a week or ten days—only that. But 
don’t expect the disease to be at once and 
forever stamped out. Last year I had the 
disease in a mild form in about one colony 
in four; this year in about one in twenty. 

It will be noticed that Dr. Miller, like 
Mr. Alexander, emphasized the importance 
of making all colonies strong, in the treat¬ 
ment of either a severe case or a mild one. 
Later on, after considerable discussion, he 
added this: 

A correspondent asks, ‘‘What do you do 
to save the combs?” Nothing. Just use 
them the same as if there had been no dis¬ 
ease. Vigorous bees with a vigorous queen 
will clean them out. Spores may be left, 
and here and there the disease may break 
out again; but in the long run the loss will 


be less than if the combs were destroyed, 
and possibly the returns of the disease will 
be no more frequent than if all combs are 
destroyed. In my own apiary I think there 
were no more fresh outbreaks where the 
old combs were left than where the bees 
were thrown upon foundation. 

A large number have followed Mr. House 
and Dr. Miller and have been very success¬ 
ful. This does not mean that every trace 
of the disease will be wiped out after treat¬ 
ment, but it does mean that the disease will 
be brought so nearly under control that a 
case only here and there will show up, and 
even then in a very mild form. It is possi¬ 
bly true that some queens of a resistant 
strain are not quite so resistant as others. 
In that case dequeening for ten days and 
requeening again will complete the cure. 

In this connection it should be noted 
that the presence or absence of an early 
honey flow makes considerable difference 
in the response of this disease to treatment. 
Mr. House and Dr. Miller were able to re¬ 
duce the period of queenlessness because 
their locations furnish an early honey flow 
from white clover, which in itself causes 
the bees to clean out the dead larvae more 
vigorously, while Alexander’s experiments 
were conducted in the buckwheat region 
where the honey flow does not begin until 
August, but little if any honey being gath¬ 
ered from white clover in June. This 
longer period before the honey flow in the 
buckwheat region or in any region where 
the honey flow comes late gives European 
foul brood a better chance and increases 
the difficulties in treatment. 

SACBROOD. 

For many years there has been recog¬ 
nized a form of dead brood under the name 
of pickled brood that is neither European 
nor American foul brood. It comes and 
goes at certain seasons, but is never as 
destructive as either one of these dis¬ 
eases. Sometimes it has the appearance of 
foul brood so far as color is concerned; 
but it is never ropy like the American 
type; and, while similar to the European, 
it seldom gains very much headway in a 
colony. 

It is mildly infectious, and the infected 
larvae turn yellow and then brown. Some¬ 
times the color is gray. The dead speci¬ 
mens may be in unsealed cells, but are gen- 


FOUL BROOD 


377 



Heavy sacbrood infection, showing a number of different stages of decay of larvae. Eggs, young larvae 
in different stages of development, and diseased larvae in same area. Natural size. — From Bulletin 431, 
Department of Agriculture, Washington, D. C. 


erally in the sealed ones. The- dead larvae, 
says Dr. White in Circular No. 169, Bu¬ 
reau of Entomology, are “almost always 
extended lengthwise in the cells, and lying 
with the dorsal side against the lower wall. 

The form of the larvae dead of 
this disease changes much less than it does 
in foul brood. The body wall is not easily 
broken, as a rule, and on this account often 
the entire larvae can be removed from the 
cell intact.” . . . “When removed 

they have the appearance of a small closed 
sac. This suggests the name of sacbrood.” 

CAUSE OF SACBROOD. 

So far no microbe or fungus has been 
discovered as the cause of the disease. 
Whatever it is, it is so very small that it 
will pass thru a Berkfield filter. Sick and 
dead larvas of sacbrood have been macer¬ 
ated and diluted with sterile water. The 
product was then passed thru a Berkfield 
filter; but it was found that the filtrate 
would again give the disease to other colo¬ 
nies. It is evident that the disease is infec¬ 
tious. Dr. White concludes that “sacbrood 
is an infectious disease of the brood of 
bees caused by an infecting agent that is 


so small or of such a nature that it will 
pass thru the pores of a Berkfield filter.” 

This led us to the conclusion that the 
foul-brood inspectors of the country might 
be compelled to quarantine an apiary where 
sacbrood might be found; but Dr. E. F. 
Phillips, in charge of apiculture in the 
bureau, does not think that this would be 
necessary. The disease at its worst is not 
very destructive; and when it does make 
its appearance it affects so few larvas in a 
colony that it need cause no great alarm. 
W’hile he might at times advise treating or 
isolating colonies, he does not believe it 
would be necessary to quarantine an apiary 
where it was found. 

STARVED OR NEGLECTED BROOD. 

There is another form of dead brood that 
very greatly resembles sacbrood; and that 
is, starved or neglected brood. Early in 
the spring, when natural pollen is scarce, 
and brood-rearing is well under way, some 
of the brood will die for the lack of the 
nitrogenous element of their food as' ob¬ 
tained from pollen. It is starved, not from 
a lack of honey, but from a lack of proper 
bread-and-milk diet made up of pollen and 



378 


FRAMES 


honey. Considerable of this dead brood 
will be found in the early spring. The 
bees readily pick it out of the cells; and 
as soon as natural pollen comes in, the 
trouble will disappear. 

DEAD BROOD FROM DRONE-LAYING QUEENS OR 
LAYING WORKERS. 

Under Brood, reference is made to the 
fact that drone brood or laying-worker 
brood will often be found dead, and a 
stinking mass. The cells will be perforated, 
and the odor will be very much like that 
from American foul brood in an advanced 
stage. The fact that it does not rope 
rather suggests to the inexperienced that it 
may be European foul brood; and many 
times ABC scholars write us, describing 
this trouble, and asking whether it is foul 
brood. 

The remedy is, of course, to remove the 
drone-laying queen or break up the laying- 
worker colony. 

One may rest easy if he finds all worker 
brood healthy, and nothing but drone or 
laying-worker brood dead. 

EXPERT DIAGNOSIS. 

Even tho the symptoms of the two brood 
diseases have been given very minutely, the 
reader, if he has never seen either one, 
may not be able to distinguish which one 
he may have. Possibly he has nothing 
worse than sacbrood or chilled or starved 
brood. While it was the custom of the 
author to examine all suspected samples 
sent in, and determine what they were, it 
is much better to send them to the Apicul- 
tural Investigator, Bureau of Entomology, 
Washington, D. C. The samples will then 
be examined by experts equipped with mi¬ 
croscopes, after which a report will be 
sent back immediately, giving the exact 
nature of the diseases with full directions 
how to proceed. 

There are some cases that are so confus¬ 
ing that even the inspectors themselves can 
not determine whether the case is Ameri¬ 
can or European. Nothing but examina¬ 
tion by competent bacteriologists can de¬ 
termine what it is. It has several times 
happened that the foul-brood inspectors 
have treated America for European, and 
vice versa, with the result that nothing was 
accomplished, and valuable time was lost. 


It is highly important that the apiarist in 
any event send a sample to the Bureau in 
order to avoid expensive mistakes. 

FOUNDATION. —See Comb Founda¬ 
tion. 

FRAMES. —These are devices for hold¬ 
ing combs while in the hive and are some¬ 
times called racks. They make possible 
modern manipulation by which every comb 
can be inspected, removed, transposed—in 
fact, the whole internal economy of the 
hive can be determined. The straw skep 
and the box hive of olden days had no 
frames, nor does the same hive in use to¬ 
day in parts of Europe and southeastern 
United States. See Box Hives. 

As shown under Hives, Evolution of, 
there were many crude ways of making 
combs movable—some better than others. 
Perhaps the crudest of all was to cut them 
out and put them back again. Later on, 
combs were built from single bars. This 
necessitated cutting the combs from the 
sides of the hive to effect a removal. To 
these bars were later attached other bars, 
making up a complete frame. But such 
frames were almost immovable. While they 
could be taken out of the hive it required a 
great amount of patience and time, to say 
nothing about bee-killing. 

It remained for the Rev. L. L. Lang- 
stroth, of this country, then a Presbyter¬ 
ian minister, to discover a principle that 
would make every comb or frame remov¬ 
able. To construct a frame that will inclose 
a comb required no great act of invention; 
but to make a frame so it could be readily 
removed from its fellows, without smash¬ 
ing or irritating bees, required the work 
of a genius, and that genius was Lang- 
stroth. 

Under the head of A B G op Beekeep¬ 
ing, Hives, Evolution of, and Bee-space, 
it is explained that he discovered the prin¬ 
ciple of a bee-space—a space that bees re¬ 
spect, and never fill with comb or bee glue. 
(See Bee-space.) Taking advantage of 
this principle, Langstroth saw that, in or¬ 
der to make his frame movable, he must 
provide a bee-space all around. The next 
problem that .he met was how to support 
and hold each frame so that there would 
be not only a bee-space all around between 
it and the top, bottom, and end of the hive, 


FRAMES 


379 


but also a bee-space between each and all 
of the frames. It is just as important to 
have every frame separable from its neigh¬ 
bor as separable from the hive. This he 
accomplished very nicely by making the 
top-bar of his frame long enough to have 
a projection at each end. These projec¬ 
tions as a means of support were made to 
rest in rabbets in the upper edge of the 
ends of the hive. (See Hives and ABC 
of Beekeeping) Langstroth, therefore 
went ahead of his predecessors in two im¬ 
portant points—in providing a bee-space 
and in giving a means of support so that 
the frames would not be glued fast to each 
other nor to the hive. His predecessors, 
as will be seen by a perusal of Hives, Evo¬ 
lution of, made their frames close-fitting, 
like drawers in a bureau, and each frame 
came in contact with its neighbor. (See the 
Huber hive under Hives, Evolution of.) 
These early devices, perhaps, would have 
been all right had it not been for three 
things—the ever present bee glue sticking 
everything fast with which it came in con¬ 
tact, the crushing of the bees whenever 
parts of the frames came together, and the 
shrinking and swelling of the parts mak¬ 
ing the frame anything but movable. A 
few crushed bees, many of them squeal¬ 
ing with pain, will infuriate a whole col¬ 
ony; and it is no wonder that our fore¬ 
fathers resorted to the use of brimstone 
and refused to accept the so-called mov¬ 
able frames that were invented before 
Langstroth. The so-called movable combs 
of Dzierzon made it necessary to cut every 
comb loose. This process necessarily 
caused a great deal of dripping honey. 
During a dearth of nectar this would cause 
robbing. "(See Robbing.) When, there¬ 
fore, Langstroth by his great invention of 
a really movable frame demonstrated that 
he could make every comb movable—that 
he could take the hive all apart without 
killing a bee and without receiving a sting 
—he revolutionized for all times the meth¬ 
ods for handling bees. While bees always 
will sting, and do sting, yet it is now pos¬ 
sible, under favorable conditions and with 
proper use of smoke, to open and examine 
a Langstroth hive without receiving a sting. 
See Manipulation of Colonies; also see 
Stings. 

The various crude attempts to make 


combs movable are set forth under the head 
of Hives, Evolution of. The methods of 
adjusting modern Langstroth frames in 
modern Langstroth hives are described un¬ 
der Hives and A B C of Beekeeping. 

Langstroth desired to bring out a frame 
that would be really movable, and in doing 
so went to the limit. His frames had no 
point of contact with each other. They 
were simply hung or suspended in the hive- 
rabbet. They often hung out of true, and? 
worse still, were often badly spaced; but 
in spite of all this, many beekeepers prefer 
the principle today. There are others who 
consider it an advantage to have projec¬ 
tions on the frames, such projections being 
a half bee-space beyond the comb. These 
self-spacers will always hang true and the 
proper distance apart. (See Spacing 
Frames.) The advantages of these self- 
spacing frames are shown in the article on 
Frames, Self-spacing. 

SIZE AND SHAPE OF FRAMES. 

There has been endless discussion as to 
the best size of frames. Some prefer one 
that is square—approximately a foot wide 
and a foot deep. Others consider 12 inches 
too great a depth, and prefer to have the 
extra comb area extend laterally. A great 
majority of modern beekeepers prefer to¬ 
day a frame longer than deep, such as we 
find in the Langstroth dimensions. As the 
dimensions of the frame determine the size 
and shape of the hive itself, a further con¬ 
sideration of the subject will be found un¬ 
der Hives. 

THICK-TOP FRAMES. 

In the early 90’s the thick-top frame 
was introduced to the public; but some 
years prior to that time J. B. Hall, then 
of Woodstock, Ontario, Can., had been 
using frames with top-bars 1 inch wide 
by % inch thick. Soon after he began 
using them he discovered that the tops of 
these frames were free from burr-combs. 
Likewise there were no brace-combs be¬ 
tween the frames. He made his top-bars 
thick, he said, not because of the burr or 
brace comb nuisance, but because he de¬ 
sired to prevent their sagging. It was not 
long after that Dr. C. C. Miller called the 
attention of the beekeeping world to Hall’s 
discovery, and in a very few years the 


380 


FRAMES 


thick-top frame came to be almost univer¬ 
sal. After, the top-bars were made strong¬ 
er and heavier, the end-bars as Avell as the 
bottom-bars were made thicker and wider. 
The natural result of all this was a strong¬ 
er and more serviceable frame. 

Before proceeding further it will be in 
order to define precisely what is meant by 
burr-combs and brace-combs. The former 
refers to those pieces of comb that were 
built in the olden days lengthwise and 
crosswise of the top-bars between the hive 
and the super or between the two sets of 
frames when the queen occupies both 
stories. Brace-combs refer to the strips of 
comb built between the top-bars. Burr- 
combs were much more troublesome. While 
the thickness and width of the top-bar are 
both important in the elimination of these 
troublesome combs, the width has more to 
do with their eradication than the thick¬ 
ness. A top-bar V/g wide and % thick, 
provided the top-bar does not sag, will al¬ 
most eliminate burr-combs but not quite. 
If the top-bar sags, as will happen in the 
case of any top-bar less than % thick and 
as long as the Langstroth, it increases the 
bee-space to a point where bees will build 
burr-combs. To prevent sagging, the top- 
bar should not be less than % inch. As 
the 7 /g or, more properly, the 13/16 top- 
bar can be made just as cheaply, it has 
been thought to be more practicable to use 
the combination of a thick and wide top- 
bar 1 1/16 wide by 13/16 thick. 

In this connection it should be stated 
that the thin top-bar will not eliminate 
brace-combs; but one 13/16 thick will do 
so most effectually. 

Before the advent of thick and wide 
bars it was necessary to use a broad-bladed 
putty knife, or a common hoe or trowel to 
scrape the burr-combs from the frames 
every year, and sometimes two or three 
times a year. During the height of a 
honey flow, whenever a super or upper 
story was rempved it was necessary to 
break these attachments between the upper 
and lower stories—not an easy job, by the 
way. Each time there would be a lot of 
bleeding or dripping honey all over the 
bees, combs, and clothing, to say nothing 
of stings and of the hands being smeared 
with honey. Practically all modern bee¬ 
hive factories are now furnishing almost 


exclusively to their trade thick and wide 
top-bar frames. 

After the thick top was introduced it 
was impracticable to use vertical wiring 
that had been used with the old % by % 
thin top-bars. Horizontal wiring was then 
introduced. (See Comb Foundation, sub¬ 
head wiring frames.) At the time thick 
top-bars were introduced in the early 90’s, 
comb honey was produced much more gen¬ 
erally than within the last four or five 
years. It was a great advantage to get 
away from the burr and brace combs so 
troublesome between the brood-nest proper 
and the super containing sections. It is 
not at all strange that the beekeeper, when 
he bought new equipment, would purchase 
that which would relieve him from this 
nuisance. In later years the tendency of 
the beekeeping world has been toward the 
production of extracted honey. This was 
particularly accentuated during the period 
of the World War, 1914-1918. 

Along about that time came a general 
call for a frame that would have more 
brood to the comb. (See Comb Founda¬ 
tion, subhead wiring frames.) As a good 
queen can more than fill an eight or ten 
frame Langstroth hiv ( e, it has become nec¬ 
essary to raise brood in the two stories. At 
the end of the heavy breeding period the 
brood-nest is reduced to one hive. It has 
been discovered that the queen will go into 
the second story more readily where thin 
narrow top-bars are used and brace-combs 
are built in between. Notwithstanding this 
is true, the beekeeping fraternity prefers 
to avoid the nuisance of burr-combs, and 
therefore continues to use thick-top frames. 
If any change at all is made it will be along 
the line of the reduction of the thickness, 
leaving the width 1 1/16 as now. This is 
a matter, however, for the future to deter¬ 
mine. 

Wh ether a frame should be made rever¬ 
sible is discussed under the head of Re¬ 
versing. Whether a frame should have 
the end-bars come in contact the entire 
length or only part way, or whether they 
should stand rather than hang, is discussed 
in the next subject. 

FRAMES, SELF-SPACING.— By these 
are meant frames held at certain regular 
distances apart by some sort of spacing 


FRAMES, SELF-SPACING 


381 


device, forming either a part of the frame 
itself or a part of the hive. Under Spac¬ 
ing op Frames, elsewhere, and under Ex¬ 
tracting. the distances that frames should 
be apart are discussed. Some prefer l 1 /^ 
inches from center to center; but the ma¬ 
jority prefer 1% inches. Self-spacing 
frames are those that, when put into the 
hive, are spaced automatically, either 1% 
or iy 2 inches from center to center. Loose 
or unspaced frames differ from them, in 
that they have no spacing device connected 
with them, and are, therefore, when placed 
in the hive, spaced by eye—or, as some 


the parts of the frames that come in con¬ 
tact, he will not kill any bees. The fact 
that some of the most extensive beekeepers 
of the world are using self-spacing frames, 
and the further fact that the number of 
self-spaeing-frame users is constantly in¬ 
creasing, shows that this supposed bee-kill¬ 
ing is more fancied than real. When frames 
are handled but two or three times a year, 
as is now the practice of some of the best 
beekeepers, all these objections lose their 
force to a large extent. 

There are many styles of self-spacing 
frames. Those most commonly used in this 



How the Quinby frame hooks on to the bottom .—From Cheshire 


have termed it, “by guesswork.” Such 
spacing results in more or less uneven 
combs; and beginners, as a rule, make very 
poor work of it. The advocates of self- 
spacing frames claim that they get even, 
perfect combs, comparatively few burr- 
combs, and that, without any guesswork, 
the combs are spaced accurately and 
equally distant from one another. Self¬ 
spacing frames are always ready for mov¬ 
ing, either to an outyard, to and from the 
cellar, or for ordinary carrying around the 
apiary. Unspaced frames, on the con¬ 
trary, while they are never spaced exactly, 
often cannot be hauled to an out-apiary, 
over rough roads, without having sticks be¬ 
tween them, or something to hold them in 
place. 

It is contended by some also, that self¬ 
spacing frames can be handled more rap¬ 
idly. (See Frames and Manipulation of 
Colonies.) On the other hand, the advo¬ 
cates of the unspaced frame urge, as an 
objection, that the self-spacers kdlj the 
bees. This depends. The careless operator 
may kill a good many bees. If he uses a 
little common sense, a little patience, ap¬ 
plying a whiff or two of smoke between 


country will be described first, and then 
some of the others that are now used or 
have formerly been used in Europe. Among 
the first-mentioned are the closed-end Quin¬ 
by, the Danzenbaker, the Heddon, the Hoff¬ 
man, the thick-top staple-spaced, metal¬ 
spaced Hoffman, and the nail-spaced. 

The closed-end Quinby is, as its name 
indicates, one whose end-bars are wide their 
entire length. The top and bottom bars 
are one inch wide. These closed uprights, 
or ends, when they come in direct contact, 
cause the combs which they contain to be 
spaced accurately from center to center. 
The cut at A shows one such frame. Sev¬ 
eral of the closed-end frames are made to 
stand, and have very often been called 
“standing frames.” Mr. Quinby, in order 
to keep such frames from toppling over, 
invented the strap-iron hook on one coirner, 
as shown re-engraved from Cheshire; h is 
the hook that engages the strap iron ip in 
the bottom-board ) gr is a groove to admit 
the hook, and at the same time render it 
possible to catch under the strap iron, as 
shown in cut. 

The combined end-bars make the end of 
the hive, and these hooks are therefore on 































382 


FRAMES, SELF-SPACING 


the outside of the hive proper, and hence 
do not kill bees, nor are they filled with 
propolis as they would be if made on the 
inside of the hive. A and B are respect¬ 
ively the frame and the follower, altho 
they are drawn somewhat out of propor¬ 
tion. 

The ordinary closed-end frames come to¬ 
gether laterally. The Quinby frames may 
be placed laterally up against each other; 
but the usual practice is to insert them 
from the end of the hive, sliding the end- 
bars past each other. The movement being 
endwise, if it is properly performed, all 
bees that may be on the edge of either of 
the frames will be brushed aside. 

The Quinby frame is a considerable 
departure from the Langstroth principle, 
because the Quinby hive and frame have 
no bee-space back of the end-bars. None is 
needed, for the reason that the combined 
end-bars make the end of the hive; but the 
frame does have a bee-space above the top- 
bars and under the bottom-bars. Without 
the top and bottom bee-space Captain J. 
E. Hetherington could never have Bandied 
3000 colonies as he did in the 60’s, 70’s, and 
80’s on the Quinby frame for years in the 



QUINBY CLOSED-END FRAME. 

This shows how the brood-nest can be split up or 
dissected for examination. 


Mohawk Valley, New York. P. H. Elwood 
was, at the time this was written (1917), 
using a large number of colonies on the 
same frame in Herkimer County, New 
York, and using them successfully. 

With a panel on each side, a cover and 
a bottom-board, the Quinby-Hetherington 


hive is complete, the ends of the frames 
forming the ends of the hive; altho, for 
additional protection in the spring the 
users have an outside case to set down over 



The Quinby frames when placed together and a 
panel on each side are held together by a string 
wound once around and tied. 


the whole. This makes a very cheap hive 
that has many desirable features in it. 
For fuller details in regard to this frame 
and its manner of construction, the reader 
is referred to “Quinby’s New Beekeep¬ 
ing.” 

THE DANZENBAKER CLOSED END-FRAMES. 

Many people prefer what is known as a 
“hanging frame,” which has decided ad¬ 
vantages over the standing frame. The 
Danzenbaker is a closed-end hanging 



Danzenbaker closed-end frames. 


frame. The end-bars are pivoted at the 
center, the pins resting on hanger cleats 
secured to the ends of the hives. These 
















FRAMES, SELF-SPACING 


383 


pins make a very small line of contact, 
whereas the ordinary standing closed-end 
frame resting on tins secured to the bot¬ 
tom edge at the ends of the hive will crush 
a good many bees. The pins have the fur¬ 
ther advantage that, if there is any reduc¬ 
tion in the depth of the hive due to shrink¬ 
age, the bee-space above and below the 
frames will be affected only half as much 
as if the frame were standing. These 
frames have practically gone out of use. 

IMPROVED HOFFMAN FRAMES. 

This is a modification of the original 
frame used by Julius Hoffman, then of 
Canajoharie, N. Y. The top-bars as well 
as end-bars had projecting edges at the 
ends; but as he used a special hive with¬ 
out a bee-space at the top, that construc¬ 



tion was perfectly practicable. When the 
Hoffman-frame principle was applied to 
the regular Langstroth hive, with a bee- 
space on top, it was found that closed top- 
bars at the ends were impracticable because 
the bees went on top of the frames and 
glued the tops together and to the rabbets. 
In the Hoffman hives the bees were shut 
out from the tops, and, of course, could 
not stick the parts together. The modern 
Hoffman frames are, therefore, made hav¬ 
ing only the end-bars wide at the top. This 
greatly facilitates rapid handling, and pre¬ 
serves at the same time the essential feature 
of the original Hoffman by which it was 
possible to handle numbers of frames in 
lots of two, three, and four at a time, or 


space them all at one operation against the 
hive side. While the act may kill some 
bees, yet this can be avoided by blowing 
smoke down between the end-bars, and 
shoving the frames all together. In this 
respect the modified Hoffman has the great 
advantage over the original frame. This 
will be shown more clearly under Frames 
and Manipulation of Colonies. 

Another feature of this frame is the end¬ 
spacing staple that abuts against the tin 
rabbet shown at 6, in the cut. The ends of 
the top-bars are cut off so as to leave a 
bee-space around them. With the o'ld-style 
frames the bees would sometimes glue the 
ends of the top-bars to the rabbet. This 
objectionable feature has been overcome in 
the style shown. 

When the top-bar is long enough to 
reach and almost come in contact with the 
ends of the rabbets, the bees would chink 
in bee glue between the ends of the top- 
bars and the rabbets. After the ends of 
all the frames have been thus glued, it is 
somewhat difficult to remove any one comb, 
because the fastening of each frame must 
be loosened before the comb sought can be 
lifted out; but when the top-bar is short¬ 
ened, as at 6 in the illustration, and the 
staple is used, there is none of this kind of 
gluing, the only fastening being that be¬ 
tween the upright edges of the end-bars 
themselves; and this fastening, for the ma¬ 
jority of localities, so far from being a 
disadvantage, is useful in that it holds the 
frames together while the hives are being 
moved, and yet does not hold them so as to 
prevent easy handling. 

The Hoffman is the most extensively 
used self-spacing frame in all the United 
States, and there is even a possibility that 
it is used more generally than any other 
frame whether spaced or unspaced. Most 
of the hive manufacturers supply it as a 
part of the regular equipment of their 
standard hives. 

For details concerning its use, see 
Frames and Manipulation of Colonies. 

METAL-SPAOED HOFFMAN FRAMES. 

All that has been said in favor of the 
regular Hoffman will apply with equal 
force to the metal-spaced frame here 
shown. In some localities where propolis 
is very abundant, sticky, or hard, the 



















































384 


FRAMES, SELF-SPACING 


wooden projections of the regular Hoff¬ 
man sometimes split off when the frames 
are pried apart. For localities where this 
condition prevails the metal-spaced is rec¬ 
ommended. It can be used interchangeably 



with the regular Hoffman. The spacers on 
this frame are stamped out of metal and 
must necessarily be accurate. The form of 
its construction in the shape of the letter U 
bending over the top-bar projection pre¬ 
vents the latter from breaking thru care¬ 
less handling. 

STAPLE-SPACED FRAMES. 

There are a few others who prefer frames 
with staples for side-spacers as here shown. 



Others use nails in place of staples; but 
the latter with their rounding edges allow 
the frames to slide past each other more 
readily. 

OTHER SELF-SPACING DEVICES. 

Various spacing devices have been sug¬ 
gested at different times. A few of these 
are presented here, the reader being left to 
judge of their relative merits. It will not 
be necessary to describe them in detail, as 
the engravings make plain their manner of 
construction and use. 



Hive-rabbet spacers. 
























































































































FRAMES, SELF-SPACING 


385 



i 























































































































































































386 


FRUIT BLOSSOMS 


It will be noted that there are two kinds 
of spacing devices. One is made a part of 
the frame and the other a part of the rab¬ 
bet. It would seem at first glance that the 
latter would be a very happy solution of 
the problem of automatic spacing, as it 
would leave the frames without projections 
in the way for uncapping; but the fact is, 
rabbet or hive spaces have never been very 
popular, and therefore are very little used. 
The principal objection to them is that one 
cannot move the frames en masse or in 
groups, thus saving time in handling the 
brood-nest. The advantage of group-han¬ 
dling is made more apparent under Frames 
and Manipulation of Colonies. 

The very fact that no extensive bee¬ 
keeper is using these self-spacing devices 
as a part of the hive, and the further fact 
that all others who try them in a small way 
sooner or later abandon them, should dis¬ 
courage would-be inventors from wasting 
any time on them. 

SELF-SPACING FRAMES—-ADVANTAGES. 

Self-spacing frames make possible 
straight, beautiful, and regular combs; are 
practically free from burr-combs; can be 
hauled without any special preparation 
over the roughest roads, turned upside 
down, and rolled over without disturbing 
the combs. They permit, to a very great 
extent, the handling of hives instead of 
frames. Under Frames and Manipula¬ 
tion of Colonies is shown how frames can 
be handled in pairs and trios—in fact, half 
a hive at a time. They can also be in¬ 
verted, thus causing the combs to be built 
out solidly to the bottom-bar; and, when 
once completed, they can be restored to 
their upright normal condition. They can 
be handled as rapidly as the loose frame. 
Indeed, the inventor, Julius Hoffman of 
Canajoharie, N. Y., owner of some 600 
colonies on Hoffman frames, said he could 
work nearly double the number of colo¬ 
nies with his frame that he could on any 
frame not spaced or close-fitting, and he 
had used both styles. 

SELF-SPACING FRAMES FOR SMALL 
BEEKEEPERS. 

Whatever may bq said regarding the 
adaptability of Hoffman frames for the ex¬ 


pert, it is evident that, in almost every 
instance, they are better for the beginner, 
average farmer beekeeper, or any one who 
does not propose to make a specialty of 
the bee business, but desires to keep only a 
few colonies to supply himself and neigh¬ 
bors with honey. Such persons are apt to 
be a little careless, and, with ordinary loose 
unspaced frames, make bad spacing. It is 
seldom indeed that one can look into the 
hives of this class of beekeepers and find 
their loose frames properly spaced. In 
some instances the combs are so close to¬ 
gether that opposite surfaces are gnawed 
down to give the bees _ sufficient space to 
pass between; and in others they are so far 
apart that small patches of comb are built 
between. This is because it is an invaria¬ 
ble rule laid down in beehive economy, 
not to leave more than proper bee-spaces. 

FRAMES, TO MANIPULATE. — See 

Frames and Manipulation of Colonies. 

FRUCTOSE.— See Honey. 

FRUIT BLOSSOMS. —A very large 
amount of nectar is annually gathered by 
bees from fruit bloom, apples, pears, 
plums, cherries, and peaches; but it is sel¬ 
dom that more than a small surplus is ob¬ 
tained. Apple-bloom honey is of great 
value in stimulating brood-rearing and in 
tiding over a period of scarcity. There is 
a proverb in New York State that “As 
goes apple bloom, so goes the season.” Half 
a century ago Moses Quinby of St. Johns- 
ville, N. Y., wrote: “In good weather a 
gain of 20 pounds is sometimes added to 
the hive during the period of apple blos¬ 
soms.” In 1877, at Borodino, N. Y., a sur- 
plus of 166% pounds of mostly comb 
honey per colony, spring count, was ob¬ 
tained, probably the largest average of ap¬ 
ple-bloom honey ever recorded. But the 
weather is seldom continuously fair at this 
season; often it is rainy, cloudy, windy, 
cool, or there is even a frost, when instead 
of a gain there is a decrease in the stores 
in the hives. If there were a larger num¬ 
ber of bees, a much greater quantity of 
apple-bloom honey would be gathered. As 
a rule the bees do not succeed in getting 
more than a living one year in five. Apple- 
bloom honey is light in color, a little strong 
at first, but acquires a pleasant aromatic 


FRUIT BLOSSOMS 


387 



Apple blossoms. 


flavor with age. It granulates about as 
quickly as basswood. 

A surplus of pear honey is obtained in 
California if the weather is warm. At 
times the flowers of the pear secrete nectar 
so freely that it falls in drops to the 
ground. A surplus is also obtained in Cali¬ 
fornia from plums, peaches, and probably 
from cultivated cherries. In Florida wild 
black cherry (Prunus serotina) yields a 
surplus of dark-red, bitter honey rvith the 
flavor of the cherry pit. 

SPRAYING DURING BLOOM DESTRUCTIVE TO 
BEES AND BROOD. 

The spraying of fruit trees for the con¬ 
trol of injurious insects and fungi is so 


profitable that the practice has become al¬ 
most universal among commercial fruit¬ 
growers and farmers. The quantity of 
fruit obtained is larger and the quality is 
better. But unless the fruit-grower is ac¬ 
quainted with the habits of the injurious 
insects affecting his crops the results of 
spraying are likely to be very unsatisfac¬ 
tory. Spraying during bloom not only in¬ 
jures the flowers, but destroys in large 
numbers the bees, which are indispensable 
for their pollination. Large orchardists, 
with a spraying equipment too small to 
care for the acreage, often begin operations 
before their frees are out of bloom. An¬ 
other class of offenders are those who make 
a business of spraying; and, seeking to 




388 


FRUIT BLOSSOMS 


extend their work over as long a time as 
possible, spray continuously thruout bloom¬ 
ing time. A third class consists of those 
who are ignorant of the harm done by this 
practice. 

When the trees are sprayed while in 
bloom, many bees are killed, much brood 
dies, and often valuable queens are lost. 
Beekeepers in all parts of the country 
have reported that as the result of the use 
of poisonous spray entire colonies have 
been destroyed and others greatly weak¬ 
ened. In 1912 about half the bees in Pecos 
Valley, N. M., were killed in this way. A 
small apple orchard on the Ohio Experi¬ 
ment Station Farm was sprayed with Bor¬ 
deaux mixture, to which had been added 
Paris green at the rate of 4 ounces to 50 
gallons of the mixture. Three colonies of 
bees were located near by. A few days 
later one colony suddenly became extinct 
and a second greatly reduced in numbers, 
dead bees being abundant in both hives. 
Chemical analysis showed the presence of 
arsenic in the dead bees. 

Experiments conducted at the Cornell 
and the Geneva Experiment Stations 
showed that the spraying of trees in full 
bloom decidedly injured the blossoms. The 
poison retarded or checked the develop¬ 
ment of the pollen and was harmful to the 
stigma. Pollen placed in a thin syrup, 
about the consistency of nectar, to which 
was added a quantity of ordinary spraying 
liquid, failed to grow. The fruit-grower 
can not afford to injure the delicate repro¬ 
ductive organs of the flowers. Moreover, 
spraying when the trees are in bloom, says 
the Vermont Experiment Station, is en¬ 
tirely useless; it is a, waste of both time 
and spraying material. 

sprat poisoning. 

Fruits vary in their necessity for cross¬ 
pollination from complete self-sterility to 
self-fertility. Some of the best-known 
commercial varieties of apples, pears, cher¬ 
ries, etc., are entirely dependent on pollen 
from other flowers. Even in case of self¬ 
fertility it has been demonstrated conclu¬ 
sively that more perfect fruit results from 
cross-pollination than from self-pollina¬ 
tion. Bees, either the many native wild 
species or the hive-bee, are the most impor¬ 
tant agency for carrying pollen from flow¬ 


er to flower. From the point of view of 
fruit-growing, therefore, every thing pos¬ 
sible should be done to have plenty of hon¬ 
eybees, as they are the only insects under 
the control of man. 

Progressive fruit-growers appreciate the 
importance of bees in setting a crop of 
fruit, and commonly rent colonies of bees 
for the blossoming period, paying $5.00 
per colony and allowing one colony to each 
acre or two of orchard. The increasing 
custom of growing a honey-producing 
cover crop would make the combination of 
orcharding and beekeeping particularly 
desirable, were it not that some fruit¬ 
growers overdo their spraying so as to al¬ 
low spray poison to drip from the trees. 
This poison, falling to the blossoms of the 
cover crop, is taken up by the bees and has 
resulted in the destruction of so many bees 
as to cause commercial beekeepers to move 
away to safer zones. 

In return for their good services many 
bees meet a pitiful death at the hands of 
those they help. For two or three days 
after the spraying of an orchard near-by 
bees frequently die in large numbers. The 
field force first is depleted, either failing to 
return, or sometimes bringing into the hive 
sufficient poison to cause destruction to 
brood and nurses. Many colonies of bees 
have been completely exterminated. Others 
were so harmed that they failed to build 
up even during the honey flow, and later 
succumbed to disease or were winter-killed. 
Instead of producing honey these colonies 
must be fed that the remnant may survive. 

SOURCE OF THE POISON. 

Bees secure poisonous fruit sprays as a 
result of the following improper horticul¬ 
tural practices: 

a. From the drip upon honey-produc¬ 
ing cover crops grown under the trees. 
This is a fault of excessive application. 

b. From spray reaching fruit bloom. 
This is a fault of spraying too early, be¬ 
fore the blossoms have dropped. 

c. From spray mixing with honeydew, 
the excretion of plant lice. This is a fault 
of neglecting to keep plant lice under con¬ 
trol. 

d. Another source is from foliage be¬ 
fore the spray has dried, especially in the 
semiarid regions of the West, where water 


FRUIT BLOSSOMS 


389 


is difficult to obtain, since the rainfall is 
light and the rivers and ponds dry up in 
summer. 

SYMPTOMS OF SPRAY POISONING. 

Tlio arsenic is a slow-acting poison, those 
bees that secured a full toxic dose may 
fail to return to the apiary. Countless 
dead bees have been noticed between the 
orchards and the apiary. Especially about 
their watering places do the bees congre¬ 
gate, visiting moist ground, a brook or a 
ditch, as tho in an endeavor to quench an 
unnatural thirst. Many come back to their 
homes laden with pollen and poisoned hon¬ 
ey, but drop fagged out, instinctively re¬ 
maining outside to die. 

Those that receive poison close by may 
deposit their load in the combs before be¬ 
coming affected, and bring death to the 
nurses and the brood. Few of the poisoned 
bees die within the hive and are carried 
out. Such is the remarkable instinct among 
bees, where the family comes before the in¬ 
dividual, that, when the bees reach the 
stage of poisoning characterized by a 
diarrhoea, they crawl forth even thru the 
night to void the poison outside of their 
home. 

On the following morning the field 
workers sally briskly forth, but because the 
poison in their system has paralyzed the 
wings their attempt at flight results in fail¬ 
ure. Down they drop from the alighting- 
board—usually never to rise again. At first 
excited and nervous they scurry about, 
climbing up weeds and grass, clustering on 
the outside of the hive, which because of the 
diarrhoea afflicting them they spot profuse¬ 
ly. With wings quivering they jump along, 
trying to fly a few inches at a time, gradu¬ 
ally getting farther and farther away from 
the hive. In a few minutes a stupor over¬ 
comes them; they have less and less con¬ 
trol over their movement; they are barely 
able to crawl; they fall over on their sides; 
some spin on their backs; they clutch con¬ 
vulsively with their legs; their tongues be¬ 
come extended full length. As the paraly¬ 
sis becomes complete they quiet down, ac¬ 
cumulating in depressions of the ground 20 
or 30 feet from the apiary by handfuls or 
even by literal quarts. Their mission in 
life is over, altho unfulfilled. 

As the sun warms up, some of these af¬ 


flicted in less degree revive sufficiently to 
fly or crawl away from the vicinity of the 
hives. Such bees probably never com¬ 
pletely recover. It is doubtful if they ever 
return, for we have noticed that other in¬ 
sects once stricken with arsenic become un¬ 
able to digest food, and tho they may lin¬ 
ger on for days and even weeks finally die 
of starvation, if not of poisoning. 

The poisoned honey brought into the 
hives kills the nurses and young bees. 
Drones and queens are also affected; one 
observer reporting, however, that in some 
colonies everything was killed but the 
queens, so that he had a dozen lone queens 
surviving. The brood in all stages is de¬ 
stroyed. Sometimes only unhatched eggs 
remain after the plague has swept thru, 
the helpless new brood appearing but to 
perish unattended. In case of incomplete 
destruction of the colony, poisoned honey 
is stored away to be drawn on later, when 
symptoms of arsenic poisoning reappear. 
Such after-effects are common when bees 
are removed from the orchard region. Thus 
it is also that bees may show symptoms of 
poisoning early in the spring before the 
spray season opens. 

FINANCIAL LOSS TO BEEKEEPERS FROM SPRAY 
POISONING OF BEES. 

Questionnaires sent in recent years 
to beekeepers in the fruit-growing dis¬ 
tricts of Washington reveal the widespread 
and serious nature of spray poisoning. 
By tens of thousands colonies of bees 
are being so depleted as to become non¬ 
productive, and by thousands colonies of 
bees are being completely wiped out. The 
money loss for a single season has been 
computed to be more than $50,000. 

Aside from financial considerations 
there enters the question of fair play and 
moral and legal rights. Why should one 
group of people be permitted to put poison 
in the path of so industrious a benefactor 
of humanity as the honeybee? When it is 
further realized that bees are all-important 
to fruit-growing the question becomes 
even more pertinent, for it becomes sui¬ 
cidal to best orchard interests to drive 
away the honeybee and to destroy year 
after year the native insect pollenizers. 

To avoid actual extermination beekeep¬ 
ers are forsaking the orchard districts. It 


590 


FRUIT BLOSSOMS 


is their silent protest but best retaliation 
to their neighbors who manifest so little 
regard for the rights of others. Bees are 
gradually becoming a rarity in those dis¬ 
tricts where they are most needed. 

CORRECTION OF THE TROUBLE INVOLVES NO 
ACTUAL HARDSHIPS. 

If bees are to be won back and propa¬ 
gated in the fruit-producing districts the 
following conditions must be met: 

a. The calyx spray must not be begun 
until fully 80 per cent of the blossoms have 
dropped. This is consistent with best 
spraying practice. At that time the nectar 
flow has ceased. 

b. Cover spraying should not be over¬ 
done. A tree will take up a definite 
amount of spray without dripping, to any 
great extent, provided a fine mist spray is 
used, and the orchardist must use this kind 
of a spray with plenty of pressure so as to 
do a good job. 

c. Cover crops should be used that will 
not be in bloom at the time of spraying. 
The annual sweet clovers can be planted so 
as to come into bloom after the spraying- 
season is passed. Where insect and fungus 
pests necessitate continued spraying thru- 
out the entire summer it might be advisable 
to use the sod culture system and secure the 
nitrogen from some nitrogenous fertilizer 
instead of obtaining it from legumes. This 
system of orchard management has been 
adopted in some leading fruit sections. 

d. Aphids must be kept in check on such 
varieties of fruit as receive summer ap¬ 
plications of arsenicals. This would pre¬ 
vent the occurrence of contaminated hon- 
eydew. These can be controlled by spray¬ 
ing with nicotine sulphate or black-leaf 
forty. Aphids are killed only by a contact 
spray, and the orchardist must direct the 
spray so as to hit them. 

It is possible, but not very probable, 
that some chemical may yet be discovered, 
which will render poisonous sprays, when 
added to them, repellent to bees; and thus 
enable the fruit-grower to raise cover crops 
and spray his trees regardless of bis little 
friends. Lime-sulphur, nicotine, lime, and 
creosote have each been suggested for 
this purpose, but information is too meager 
to give out a general recommendation as 
yet. In some preliminary experiments. 


which have been made, it has been ob¬ 
served that bees act in unexpected ways to 
substances nauseating to ourselves. Lime- 
sulphur, carbon disulphide, and naphtl a- 
lene were perceptibly avoided by bees; while 
ill-smelling butyric and pyroligneous acids 
were unnoticed. It may be that calcium 
arsenate will be less destructive than 
lead arsenate; it may be that dry dusting 
will be better than liquid spraying. 

CORRECTIVE LEGISLATION WILL AFFORD THE 
QUICKEST BENEFITS TO ALL. 

While it is inconceivable that any fruit¬ 
grower conversant with the facts would 
wilfully place poison in the path of his 
neighbor’s honeybees, yet all appreci¬ 
ate how slow is the directing of reforms 
thru appeals for sympathy. In the mean¬ 
time the beekeeper must live by the lives 
of his bees. His part is not to beg for 
humane consideration of his troubles; he 
cannot wait on educational propaganda; he 
cannot take chances on losing his all; and 
so he moves away until the fruit-men come 
to realize that they need the bees more 
than the beemen need the orchard flowers. 

Some States in the interest of beekeep¬ 
ing have enacted laws prohibiting the 
spraying of trees in blossom. This alone 
would not meet the situation in the North¬ 
west, because the custom there of growing 
a cover crop is responsible for most of the 
trouble. 

For the ultimate good of fruit-growing, 
as well as of beekeeping, every State 
should enact a law forbidding the placing 
of poison inadvertently of deliberately, 
where bees or other insect pollinators will 
unavoidably secure it. Such a law would ap¬ 
ply only to the careless orchardist, who 
would either have to cut his alfalfa before 
spraying or else hereafter use care in 
spraying not to overdo the application. 

SPRAYING FOR THE CODLING MOTH. 

The insect which is most important for 
the orchardist to control is the apple worm 
or codling moth, a pest which may reduce 
the crop of sound fruit by one-fourth to 
three-fourths. The moths emerge from their 
cocoons during the months of May and June. 
The minute whitish eggs are laid partly on 
the leaves and partly on the fruit, and hatch 
about three weeks after the trees have 


FRUIT BLOSSOMS 


391 


blossomed. The young worm crawls to the 
blossom end and enters the apple, burrow¬ 
ing into the interior. After feeding for 
about four weeks the worm deserts the 
apple, and spins its cocoon under the 
rough bark or in a sheltered place. The 
last of July or early in August the second 
brood of moths appear. These moths in 
turn deposit eggs, which in due time hatch, 
and the worms enter the apples thru the 
side. There are thus two broods of worms. 
The second brood of worms do not trans¬ 
form to moths until the following spring 
after the trees have bloomed. 

There are three well-defined periods 
when the trees should be sprayed. Spray 
for the first time ten days after the drop¬ 
ping of the white petals, while the green 
calyx lobes still remain open and the new¬ 
ly set fruit stands erect. Direct the spray 
so that it will fall into the calyx cup and 
lodge there; for, as it is at this point that 
the worm enters the fruit, it will eat the 
poison and die. The first treatment is 
more efficient than all subsequent treat¬ 
ments. Spray for the second time about 
three weeks after blooming time, when the 
eggs of the codling moth are beginning to 
hatch. Spray for the third time during the 
last of July or early in August, when the 
second brood is hatching and preparing to 
enter the fruit. If in the first and sec¬ 
ond sprayings Bordeaux mixture is used 
as a carrier of the poison, these treatments 
will prevent apple scab. 

HOW BEES ARE KILLED WHEN THE SPRAY 
FALLS OH COVER CROPS IN ORCHARDS. 

While many commercial orchardists em¬ 
ploy clean cultivation, — i. e., the ground 
under the trees is frequently harrowed and 
no vegetation is permitted to grow—other 
fruit-growers sow cover crops. In many 
localities these crops are of great benefit in 
protecting the roots of the trees from sun, 
wind, and drouth, and in furnishing both 
humus and fertilizer. A variety of legumi¬ 
nous plants are grown for this purpose, as 
alfalfa, red clover, crimson clover, vetch, 
and yellow annual sweet clover. 

In western Colorado red clover has been 
extensively used as a cover crop. The 
poisonous spray applied to the trees falls 
on both the leaves and flowers of the 
plover. In the arid climate of this region 


water is difficult to obtain, and the bees 
eagerly gather the poisoned water found 
on the cover crops and are destroyed in 
immense numbers. In 1914 and 1915 whole 
apiaries perished, particularly in the vicin¬ 
ity of Montrose; while other colonies were 
so weakened that they yielded no financial 
return. 

The spraying of cover crops presents a 
new and serious problem, the only remedy 
for which seems to be the cutting of the 
cover crop before it blooms or ploughing 
it under, or the use of some crop that will 
not come into bloom when the trees are 
sprayed. 

LAWS AGAINST SPRAYING FRUIT BLOOM. 

A number of States have passed laws 
against spraying fruit bloom, but they 
have not proved entirely effective. Where 
the penalty is low, from $15 to $50, it is 
often ignored, owners of commercial spray¬ 
ing outfits preferring to pay the fine rather 
than to stop work. Beekeepers, moreover, 
hesitate to incur the trouble of enforcing 
the law. In general, education will be 
found more effective than legislation. Self- 
interest will prevent a well-informed fruit- 
grojver from spraying the bloom. Let him 
once fully understand that the production 
of fruit depends upon the pollination of 
the flowers by bees, as explained in the lat¬ 
ter part of this article, and he will be as 
eager for their protection as the beekeeper 
himself. But there will always be a few 
orchardists who will persistently remain 
ignorant and who will resent any restraint 
on their operations, insisting that the bees 
are not injured or are not needed. A few 
unprincipled owners of spraying outfits 
and ignorant employers may become a 
menace to an entire community. An edu¬ 
cational campaign will not suffice in such 
cases, and the beekeeper should be pro¬ 
tected by a law imposing heavy penalties 
for spraying the bloom of fruit trees, while 
provision should be made for its enforce¬ 
ment by a state official. 

POLLINATION OF FRUIT BLOOM.* 

In former years beekeepers and fruit- 

* In order to understand better the structure of 
the flower it is suggested that the reader turn first 
to the subject of Pollination of Flowers. It 
will also serve to illustrate the different methods of 
pollination referred to in this article. 



392 


FRUIT BLOSSOMS 


growers came in conflict; the latter as¬ 
serted that bees injured the bloom, punc¬ 
tured the fruit, and interfered with the 
packing, and consequently in some cases 
they asked the beekeepers to remove their 
bees on the plea that they were a nuisance. 
The fruit-growers little realized that they 
were driving away the agency necessary 
for the proper pollination of fruit bloom. 
Happily at the present time the two fac¬ 
tions understand that their industries are 
mutually dependent. Fruit-growers, indeed, 
derive very much more benefit from bees 
than the beekeepers themselves, as they 
have been repeatedly taught by costly ex¬ 
perience. Some years ago a beekeeper in 
Massachusetts was obliged to remove bees 
from a certain locality on the complaint of 
the fruit-growers that they were a nuis¬ 
ance; but after a year or two had passed 
they were very glad to have the bees back 
again, because so little fruit set on the 
trees in proportion to the bloom. The bee¬ 
keeper was recalled; and, as was to be ex¬ 
pected, not only more’ but finer fruit was 
produced. 

The practical application of the discov¬ 
ery of the agency of insects in the pollina¬ 
tion of flowers in the cultivation of frftits 
and vegetables has been of inestimable 
value to agriculturists. It can be shown 
easily that there are many different kinds 
of plants which, in the absence of insects, 
would remain partially or wholly unpro¬ 
ductive. In the work of pollination the 
services of the bees, or Antliophila (flower- 
lovers), are the most important; while 
among the bees the honeybees, because of 
their highly specialized pollen-gathering 
apparatus, great numbers, and industry, 
far surpass all other species. Fruit or¬ 
chards cannot be planted profitably on a 
very extensive scale without maintaining 
in connection with them numerous colonies 
of honeybees; and it is estimated by Dr. 
Phillips, of the Bureau of Entomology, 
that beekeeping adds indirectly more to 
the resources of the country annually by 
flower pollination than by the sale of honey 
and wax. Several enthusiastic horticultur¬ 
ists have even declared that for all prac¬ 
tical purposes in pollination the honeybee 
is alone sufficient; but this assertion must 
be somewhat modified; for, in the country 
as a whole, domestic or hive bees are aided 


by wild bees, wasps, flies, butterflies, and 
to a less extent by beetles. At the time of 
its discovery honeybees did not exist on 
the Western Continent, and for many thou¬ 
sands of years its varied wild flora had been 
dependent for pollination on the native in¬ 
sects, especially the wild bees. Neither 
were honeybees found in Australia, New 
Zealand, or other Pacific islands when they 
were first visited by Europeans. The in¬ 
digenous insects had in all probability 
more or less successfully pollinated the 
natural floras of these regions in the ab¬ 
sence of the honeybee. In extensive areas 
of the unsettled wilderness there are still 
many flowers which rely chiefly on the wild 
insects, and everywhere they are helpful 
allies of the fruit-grower. 

But while in every country the indige¬ 
nous insects play an important part in the 
pollination of the wild flora, it is neverthe¬ 
less true that modern fruit culture requires 
the special agency of the honeybee. In sec¬ 
tions where immense orchards cover many 
square miles of territory and fruit is grown 
by the ton and carload, the wild insects are 
wholly inadequate to pollinate the great 
expanse of bloom, and many apiaries must 
be established to obtain the best results. 
The only pollinating insects under the con¬ 
trol of man are honeybees, and these must 
be introduced in large numbers in order to 
make fruit-growing commercially profit¬ 
able. Fruit-growing has a marvelous fu¬ 
ture before it, and must ever be associated 
with bee culture. ' 

THE NUMBER OP CULTIVATED PLANTS. 

Only about 44 species of cultivated 
plants were known to the ancient world. 
In his “Origin of Cultivated Plants,” De 
Candolle enumerated 247 species cultivated 
for their roots, leaves, flowers, or fruit, of 
which the Old World furnished 199, Amer¬ 
ica 45, and 13 were of uncertain origin. 
While De Candolle described the majority 
of plants most valuable to the human race, 
Sturtevant has enumerated in manuscript, 
according to Hedrick, 1113 domesticated 
species, which are cultivated today; and a 
total of 4447 which are partially edible. 
Not all cultivated plants are pollinated by 
insects; a part are pollinated by the wind 
and a part are self-fertilized. In order to 
avoid confusing these different groups it is 


FRUIT BLOSSOMS 


393 





Apple trees in bloom in A. I. Root’s orchard. 


desirable to describe briefly the common 
wind-pollinated and exclusively self-pol¬ 
linated species. 

CULTIVATED PLANTS POLLINATED BY THE 
WIND. 

The wind is a much older .agency in pol¬ 
lination than insects. (See Pollination 
or Flowers.) The edible nuts of North 
America, as the walnut, hickory, acorn, 
beech, hazel, butternut, and pecan are al¬ 
most invariably pollinated by the wind; 
but the chestnut in the temperate zone and 
many tropical species producing nuts are 
insect-pollinated. Altho the bloom of the 
chestnut is nectarless, it is often visited 
by honeybees and other insects for pollen, 
which is very abundant. The pollen is ad¬ 
hesive, not dry and loose as in wind-pol¬ 
linated trees. The common nut trees pol¬ 
linated by the wind not only have the sta¬ 
mens and pistils in different flowers but in 
different flower-clusters, so that the pis¬ 
tillate flowers are necessarily sterile unless 
cross-pollinated. The pecan, hickory, and 


chestnut are the only nuts domesticated in 
this country; but since nuts afford a whole¬ 
some and nutritious food nut culture is 
rapidly extending, and it is predicted that 
in the South in time the pecan groves will 
rival the cotton fields in extent. The flow¬ 
ers of the wind-pollinated nut trees are 
nectarless. 

The grasses, or Graminene, which are 
all wind-pollinated, include the common 
cereals, corn, wheat, barley, rye, rice, and 
oats; also sorghum, sugar cane, and millet. 
The flowers are usually perfect, but self- 
pollination is prevented by the anthers and 
stigmas maturing at different times. But 
sometimes the stamens and pistils are in 
separate flower-clusters, as in Indian corn. 
Buckwheat is usually classed with the cer¬ 
eals; but it is not a grass, and the seed is, 
therefore, not a true grain. The flowers 
are pollinated by insects, not by the wind. 
They possess the power of self-fertiliza¬ 
tion, but when covered with netting they 
are early in the season almost wholly self- 
sterile and produce hardly any seed. But 





394 


FRUIT BLOSSOMS 


seed is produced in abundance if the flow¬ 
ers are cross-pollinated. In the fall the 
bloom becomes highly self-fertile. Nectar 
is secreted freely, and nine-tenths of the 
visits of insects, it is estimated, are made 
by honeybees, upon which the seed crop is 
largely dependent. 

The hop vine, the white and black mul¬ 
berry, the date palm, and many othetr 
palms are also anemophilous or wind-pol¬ 
linated. According to Swingle about one- 
half of the trees of the date palm in 
nature are staminate, or “male,” and one- 
half pistillate, or “female,” so that cross- 
pollination is a necessity. Under cultiva¬ 
tion a single staminate tree will serve to 
pollinate artificially 50 or more pistillate 
trees. In each of the fruiting clusters a 
small branch of pollen flowers is tied. 

THE POLLINATION OF THE LEGUMES. 

In the pulse family, or Leguminosae, the 
seeds are produced in pods called legumes. 
The flowers for the most part are adapted 
to pollination by bees. The nectar is se¬ 
creted at the bottom of a slender tube, 
formed by the union of the stamens, which 
varies greatly in length in different species. 
This great family includes many plants 
which are valuable to the beekeeper for 
honey, and to the farmer for forage or 
their edible seeds, as the clovers, alfalfa, 
sweet clover, vetch, sainfoin, peas, cowpeas, 
pole and bush beans, and the Lima bean. 
The honeybee is the chief agent in the pol¬ 
lination of a very large number of legumin¬ 
ous species, but there are a few which are 
pollinated wholly by bumblebees, or are 
self-pollinated. No other family of plants is 
of so much interest to the beekeeper as the 
pulse family. 

When insects are excluded from the 
bloom of white clover by netting, it is large¬ 
ly sterile. Honeybees, which visit the flow¬ 
ers in immense numbers and gather tons of 
nectar, are the most important pollinators. 
The floral tube is only about half as long 
as the tongue of the honeybee. Alsike 
clover is equally dependent on honeybees 
for pollination, and as it yields nectar most 
abundantly is very attractive to them. It 
is well established that in the absence of 
honeybees, it is impossible to obtain a good 
crop of seed. The chief areas for the pro¬ 
duction of alsike-clover seed are western 


New York, northwestern Ohio, Indiana, 
southern Michigan, Wisconsin, Idaho, Ore¬ 
gon, and Canada. Smaller quantities are 
harvested in Iowa, Minnesota, and Illinois. 
In all of these sections there are thousands 
of colonies of bees. 

Spontaneous self-pollination occurs only 
to a small extent in sweet clover (Melilotus 
alba). When the flowers are cross-pollin¬ 
ated with pollen taken from another plant 
a higher percentage of pods is obtained 
than in any other way. A plant of sweet 
-clover was enclosed in a cage of cheese 
cloth and all insects excluded. Of the 904 
racemes of flowers produced, 594 produced 
no pods, while 150 produced but one each. 
The average number of pods per raceme 
was .63, or six-tenths of a pod. An iso¬ 
lated plant, which insects were permitted 
to visit freely, produced 239 racemes with 
an average of 41.6 pods per raceme. The 
great advantage of cross-pollination is evi¬ 
dent. The flowers of sweet clover are vis¬ 
ited by many insects, as the nectar can be 
easily gathered. “But the honeybee is the 
most efficient pollinator, and it is believed 
that in many sections it is responsible for 
the pollination of more than half of the 
flowers.” The smaller bees are important, 
but are not numerous enough to pollinate 
large fields of sweet clover. As the result 
of the heavy and reliable flow of nectar, 
honeybees visit the flowers constantly, and 
probably a large part of the honey of¬ 
fered for sale in the large markets comes 
from sweet clover. The financial value of 
the services of the honeybee in pollinating 
white clover, alsike clover, and sweet clover 
is evidently not easily overestimated and 
should be more generally known. 

Alfalfa flowers are often self-pollinated 
especially in the western States, and a fair 
crop of seed may be produced in the ab¬ 
sence of all insects. Cross-pollination is 
an advantage over self-pollination, and in 
a series of experiments while 30 per cent 
of the self-pollinated flowers set pods, 46 
per cent of the cross-pollinated flowers pro¬ 
duced pods. Cross-pollination is nearly al¬ 
ways effected by bees. Leaf-cutting bees 
pollinate 90 per cent of the flowers visited, 
bumblebees 30 per cent, and honeybees 
only about 1 per cent. Out of 500 visits 
by honeybees to alfalfa flowers Westgate 
observed only one flower tripped. Sladen 


FRUIT BLOSSOMS 


395 


did not observe any flowers tripped by hon¬ 
eybees. While honeybees trip only a small 
percentage of the flowers visited, where 
large apiaries are located near alfalfa 
fields, the great number of bees probably 
pollinate thousands of flowers. Western 
farmers claim that, where there are an 
abundance of honeybees, the crop of seed 
is nearly doubled, and the seed is larger 
and better developed. Over 90 per cent of 
the alfalfa in the United States is west of 
the Missouri River, and thruout the larger 
part of this region the bloom yields nectar 
and supports colonies of bees by the hun¬ 
dred thousand. East of the Missouri River 
the bloom is, as a rule, nectarless and is 
only very rarely visited by bees. In sain¬ 
foin automatic self-pollination is excluded, 
and the flowers in the absence of insects 
remain sterile. The most frequent guests 
are honeybees, which ai’e estimated to pay 
nine-tenths of the visits. 

Red clover was formerly largely pollin¬ 
ated by bumblebees, but in most seasons 
and in most localities honeybees do the 
work. When there is sufficient rain to per¬ 
mit a heavy growth of the flowers the nec¬ 
tar is so deeply concealed that it can not 
always be reached by the honeybee. 
Sometimes not a single honeybee can be 
found on a field of red clover, while bumble¬ 
bees are common. But, according to West- 
gate of the Department of Agriculture, 
Washington, D. C., under normal conditions 
Italian bees are not only seen on red clover 
in large numbers, but they do good work in 
pollinating blossoms, altho perhaps not so 
well as bumblebees with their longer 
tongues. Italians have slightly longer 
tongues than black bees. As the seasons 
are more apt to be dry than wet, honeybees 
will be more apt to be found on red clover 
than not. In the vicinity of Medina, where 
red clover is grown largely, honeybees are 
very common visitors on red clover. 

The experience of farmers in both Aus¬ 
tralia and New Zealand in growing red 
clover shows conclusively the dependence 
of this species on bumblebees for pollina¬ 
tion. At the time of their discovery neither 
honeybees nor bumblebees were found in 
these islands. In New Zealand at Mata- 
mata large bee farms of Italian bees were 
established, which were near thousands of 
acres of red clover. They very seldom vis¬ 


ited the bloom, and very little seed was 
produced; from a commercial standpoint 
the crop was valueless. Bumblebees were 
then imported from Europe, and, as soon 
as they became abundant, the red clover 
bloom became very fertile and large crops 
of seed were obtained. 

But in very dry seasons the tubes of red 
clover are shorter, and honeybees then 
gather the nectar by thousands, pollinat¬ 
ing the bloom at the same time. It is also 
claimed that the floral tubes of the second 
crop of red clover are shorter than those 
of the first crop, and this is no doubt fre¬ 
quently true, as the second crop is less lux¬ 
uriant than the first. 

The garden and field pea (Visum sati¬ 
vum ) is self-pollinated. Out of 10,000 
cases examined by Mendel there were only 
one or two flowers pollinated by insects. 
Neither honeybees nor bumblebees have 
sufficient” strength to depress the keel. Re¬ 
peated observations of the bloom have 
failed to discover a single insect visit. In 
the course of four summers Mueller saw 
only three bees upon the flowers, none of 
which were honeybees. The cultivated pea, 
altho thousands of acres are grown annu¬ 
ally, is of no value either for pollen or 
nectar. This is also true of pole and bush 
beans, excepting the Lima bean. Only large 
bumblebees are strong enough to work the 
flower mechanism. After long and con¬ 
stant watching only a few bumblebees have 
been observed to seek the bloom. The bean 
is able to fertilize itself very perfectly and 
produces great crops of seed. While in 
California there are vast areas of bean 
fields (Phaseolus vulgaris ) which are of no 
benefit to the beekeeper, the Lima bean 
(P. lunatus ) is an excellent honey plant 
yielding large crops of honey. 

THE HONEYBEE AND FRUIT CULTURE, 

Altho many nut trees, the cereals, the 
date trees, and cocoanut trees are pollin¬ 
ated by the wind, the fig trees by wasps, 
and several widely cultivated forage and 
leguminous plants are self-pollinated, or 
pollinated by bumblebees and leaf-cutting 
bees, it is still true that the honeybee is a 
most important visitor to the majority of 
cultivated plants. It is an essential factor 
in fruit culture, and in the pollination of 
fruit bloom its significance becomes para- 


FRUIT BLOSSOMS 



Cucumber blossom with a bee on it; caught in the 
act. 

of the domestic bee to the human race? Nu¬ 
merous species and countless varieties of 
fruits are already under culture, and Avith- 
in the next century many new forms will 
be domesticated and improved, or intro¬ 
duced from foreign lands. 


Method of bagging a cluster of flower buds to de¬ 
termine whether the variety is self-fertile or self- 
sterile.— (After Lewis and Vincent.) 


mount to that of all other insects. When 
the value of the fruit crop is considered 
both from a hygienic and economic point 
of view, Avho can overestimate the services 


ant in the Avestern continent. Hedrick 
calls North America a natural garden. 
“More than 200 species of tree, bush, vine, 
and small fruits were commonly used by 
the aborigines for food, not counting nuts, 
those occasionally used, and numerous rari¬ 
ties. There are now under cultivation 11 
American species of plums with 588 varie¬ 
ties; 15 species of grapes with 1194 va¬ 
rieties; 6 species of blackberries with 86 
varieties; 5 species of dewberries Avith 23 
varieties; 2 species of cranberries with 60 
varieties; and 2 species of gooseberries 
with 35 varieties, or a total of 45 species 
of American fruits with 2014 varieties.” 


This number is destined to be greatly in¬ 
creased in time by the domestication of 
other wild fruits. Coville has recently 
shown that blueberries can be cultivated; 
and it may be expected that improved va¬ 
rieties Avill be obtained of blueberries, 
huckleberries, juneberries, elderbetrries, 
wineberries, ground cherries, thorn apples, 
buffalo berries, highbush cranberries, 
cloud berries, native mulberries, pawpaws, 
and persimmons. A beginning in the cul¬ 
ture of the fig, the avocado, and the date 
has been made in California; while the 
mango, a delicious fruit, of which there 
are more than 500 varieties, has been in¬ 
troduced into Florida. Hybridizing can 
multiply new forms indefinitely and yield 


Interior of cucumber greenhouse; hive with entrance 
inside. 

A great variety of fruits were intro¬ 
duced into this country after its discovery, 
but wild fruits have always been abund¬ 









FRUIT BLOSSOMS 


397 



One-lialf of the great glass building at Ashtabula, Ohio, Cucumbers are replacing the lettuce and 
there are thousands of the golden yellow blossoms yielding to the bees their pollen and nectar. Many of the 
blossoms are visited by two or three bees in five minutes. The results show that the cucumbers are not only 
more perfect in shape but that the crop is much larger. 


such anomalies as the loganberry and the 
blackberry dewberry. In the vast and 
splendid future of fruit culture the im¬ 
portance of the honeybee will now be 
shown by an examination of the pollina¬ 
tion of the more important fruits. 

POLLINATION OP CUCURBITACEOUS FRUITS. 

The flowers of the squash, cucumber, 
melon, and pumpkin are monoecious; that 
is, the stamens and pistils are in different 
flowers on the same plant. Self-fertiliza¬ 
tion is thus impossible, and in the absence 
of insects the vines cannot (unless they are 
artificially pollinated) produce fruit. The 
staminate flowers open a few days before 
the pistillate, are larger, and-are often on 
longer stalks. The nectar is secreted within 
a fleshy cup formed by the fusion of the 
base of the calyx with that of the corolla. 
In the squash (Cucurbita maxima) and 
pumpkin ( C. Pepo ) this cup is large, and, 
except for three narrow slits, is covered in 
the staminate flowers by the column of sta¬ 
mens. The flowers are pollinated chiefly 
by honeybees and bumblebees, which visit 


them in great numbers and can reach the 
nectar with their long tongues. On a clear 
warm day in August the writer has seen a 
staminate flower of the squash visited in 
ten minutes by eight honeybees and four 
wmrker bumblebees (Bornbus terricola). 
Another flower in ten minutes received six 
visits from honeybees and six from bumble¬ 
bees. One of the long-tongued wild bees 
(Xenoglossa pruinosa ) is said to visit only 
the flowers of the pumpkin. In the vicinity 
of pickle factories there are usually from 
five to six hundred acres of cucumbers un¬ 
der cultivation, yielding 75,000 or more 
bushels of fruit. The immense number of 
blossoms require many colonies of honey¬ 
bees for their proper pollination. 

Honeybees are also largely used for pol¬ 
linating cucumbers grown in greenhouses 
for early market. In Massachusetts some 
2000 colonies are required annually to pol¬ 
linate the cucumbers raised under glass, 
one large grower using 80 hives. For the 
c-rop of cucumbers, squashes, melons, 
pumpkins, watermelons, and kindred fi-uits 
we are thus wholly indebted to bees. 








398 


FRUIT BLOSSOMS 


POLLINATION OF THE TOMATO. 

The flowers of the tomato are nectarless, 
but are visited by bees gathering pollen. 
Cross-pollination is favored by the stigmas 
maturing two or three days before the an¬ 
thers. The different varieties, as Champion, 
Ponderosa, and Peach can be easily cross¬ 
ed, but are largely self-sterile. At the Ohio 
Experiment Station, Green set out in Au¬ 
gust 200 plants of Dwarf Champion in a 
greenhouse, and by winter they had made 
a fine, thrifty growth and were fruiting 
nicely. A good crop of tomatoes was ex¬ 
pected; but when January came and the 
fruit began to ripen, the bulk of it was 
about the size of hickorynuts and without 
any seeds. Fink also states that plants 
from which insects were excluded yielded 
few and small fruits. 

In the commercial greenhouses of Ore¬ 
gon, according to the observation of Bo- 
quet, as high as 6 or 10 per cent of the 
blossoms of the tomato are unfruitful. 
The cause of this unfruitfulness is the ab¬ 
sence of insects and the relative position of 
the reproductive organs in the development 
of the flower. Hand pollination reduced 
the number of unfruitful blossoms from 
66 to 20 per cent. In one commercial 
greenhouse a block of tomato plants regu¬ 
larly pollinated produced 80 per cent of 
fruitful blossoms. Nine pounds of fruit 
per plant was secured, while unpollinated 
plants yielded only three pounds. Hand- 
pollinated flowers produced fruit as much 
as 21 days earlier than self-pollinated 
flowers. In some cases artificial pollina¬ 
tion thru the increased yield paid the en¬ 
tire cost of producing the crop. Eighty 
thousand tomato blossoms were under ob¬ 
servation. Where tomatoes are grown in 
the field the visits of honeybees in large 
numbers for the purpose of gathering pol¬ 
len would probably increase the crop to an 
extent sufficient to pay most of the cost 
of production. 

THE POLLINATION OF BERRY PLANTS. 

Grape. —It is well established that many 
kinds of grapes are self-sterile; and, since 
in this country an immense area is devoted 
to the culture of this fruit, ignorance of 
the manner of pollination of the different 
species and varieties must result in great 
Joss. Some 40 species of grapes have been 


described, of which about 20 occur in North 
America. They are widely distributed thru- 
out the north temperate zone, but are espe¬ 
cially abundant in the region of the Cauca¬ 
sus and in the eastern United States. There 
are now under cultivation some 16 species, 
1194 varieties, of which 790, or three- 
fourths, are hybrids. Foreign grapes do 
pot succeed well in this country when 
planted outdoors, but grow satisfactorily 
in hothouses. Grape-growing on a com¬ 
mercial scale in America takes its begin¬ 
ning in 1849, when Nicholas Longworth of 
Cincinnati, after 30 years of experiment 
with foreign grapes, turned his attention 
to our nature species and planted extensive¬ 
ly the Catawba, a variety of the common 
wild Vitis labrusca. 

The flowers of the vine are small and 
green and occur in dense thyrsoid clusters. 
The calyx is minute, and the five petals 
cohere to form a little hood, which falls 
away entire when the flower opens. The 
five stamens produce only a small quantity 
of pollen; alternating with the stamens are 
five nectar glands. The flowers are very 
sweet-scented with an odor suggestive of 
mignonette, which can be perceived for a 
long distance. A part of the plants pro¬ 
duce perfect or hermaphrodite* flowers 
and a part staminate flowers with a rudi¬ 
mentary ovary. 

Many varieties of American grapes are 
self-sterile. Of 169 cultivated varieties in¬ 
vestigated by Beach at Geneva, N. Y., 37 
were wholly self-sterile, and in the absence 
of cross-pollination produced no berries; 
28 were so nearly self-sterile that the clus¬ 
ters were unmarketable, and thus from a 
commercial point of view of no more value 
than the previous group; 104 varieties pro¬ 
duced marketable clusters when self-fertil¬ 
ized, but of this number 66 had the clusters 
loose, and only 38 yielded compact perfect 
clusters. Among the varieties wholly ster¬ 
ile were Aminia, Black Eagle, Essex, Onei¬ 
da, Eaton, Salem, and Wilder; nearly 
sterile varieties were Brighton, Canada, 
Geneva, Vergennes, and Woodruff; wholly 
or nearly self-fertile varieties were Delan- 
son, Moore’s Early, Niagara, Worden, 
Agawam, Catawba, Champion, Clinton. 
Concord, Isabella, and Victoria. The self- 

* See pollination of Flowers for a definition 
of these terms, 



FRUIT BLOSSOMS 


399 


fertility of a cluster was tested by enclos¬ 
ing it in a Manilla paper bag before any 
of the flowers had opened, thus excluding 
pollen from all outside sources. (Beach, 
S. A., “Self-fertility of the Grape,” Bull. 
No. 157; “Fertilizing Self-sterile Grapes,” 
Bull. 169, et cetera, N. Y. Agr. Exp. Sta.) 

Nearly all the self-sterile varieties are 
hybrids; when pollinated by other self-ster- 


usually regularly self-pollinated, and are, 
therefore, largely independent of insects. 
While occasional pollination by the wind 
may occur, the flowers are adapted to in¬ 
sect pollination. The strong fragrance 
compensates for their inconspicuousness. 
In central Europe the five fleshy nectaries 
secrete no nectar, but in warmer climates 
it is said to be abundant. The quantity of 



A ,7W . 


1. Brighton grape self-fertilized; 2. Brighton grape cross-fertilized.— (After Beach.) 


ile varieties they yield no fruit, but when 
pollinated by self-fertile varieties they pro¬ 
duce marketable clusters. In a vineyard of 
self-sterile varieties, therefore, there must 
be a sufficient number of strongly self-fer- 
tile vines to pollinate them properly. Care 
must be taken to select varieties which 
bloom simultaneously. Self-sterility is due 
to lack of potency of the pollen, the self- 
sterile varieties aways having shorter sta¬ 
mens than the self-sterile forms. 

The grape remains in bloom from six to 
ten days according to the temperature of 
the air. Both anthers and stigmas mature 
at the same time, and the pollen retains its 
vitality for at least two weeks. Species 
with the §taraens longer than the pistils are 


pollen is small, but it is gathered by hon¬ 
eybees, bumblebees, and wild bees. Beetles 
are sometimes very destructive to the in¬ 
florescence. But where the varieties are 
self-sterile, as is the case with the musca- 
tine grapes (varieties of Vitis rotundi- 
folia) which have been extensively planted 
in the southern States, bees do not visit the 
flowers as frequently as would seem to be 
desirable. Efforts should be made to ob¬ 
tain vines which secrete nectar freely, and 
also a bee-yard should be located in or near 
the vineyard. 

Strawberry. —-A strawberry-grower of 
great experience says that more trouble, 
failures, and dissatisfaction arise among 
fruit-growers—particularly among small 




400 


FRUIT BLOSSOMS 



Brighton grape pollinated by 1, Salem; 2, Creveling; 3, Lindley; 4, pollen of another vine of same 
variety; 5, self-pollinated; 6, by Nectar; 7, Jefferson; 8, Niagara; 9, Worden; 10, Vergennes; 11, Ro¬ 
chester.— (After Beach.) 

growers—from ignorance regarding the ropean strawberry, the hautbois, or higb- 

sex of strawberries than from any other wood strawberry of Germany. Plants with 

cause. In this genus there is a marked ten- staminate flowers are comparatively rare, 

dency for the stamens and pistils to occur while the other two forms are common, 

in different flowers. A part of the plants The strawberry grows wild thruout a 
produce staminate flowers, a part pistillate, large part of Europe, Asia, North Amer- 

and a part perfect or hermaphrodite flow- ica, and Chile, S. A. Little improvement 

ers, as is especially well shown by the Eu- was made in the fruit until after the be- 




FRUIT BLOSSOMS 


401 


ginning of the nineteenth century, when 
by crossing and selection hundreds of new 
varieties were obtained and the berries 
greatly improved in size and flavor. In 
eastern North America there are only two 
well-defined wild species, Fragaria virgini- 
cina, the common field strawberry, and the 
wood strawberry, F. vesca. On the western 
coast of both North and South America F. 
chiliensis is common. All the American spe¬ 
cies intercross easily. 

Owing to their greater productiveness 
preference in field culture is often given to 
the pistillate varieties, which are marked 
“P” in the catalogs of nurserymen. Pistil¬ 
late varieties which have been extensively 
planted in the past are Crescent, Manches¬ 
ter, and Bubach; while the Sharpless is 
perhaps the best known of the older per¬ 
fect varieties. Where pistillate plants are 
used in order to provide for their pollina¬ 
tion, every fourth row must be planted 
with perfect or hermaphrodite plants; 
otherwise the pistillate plants will be bar¬ 
ren. It is not at all rare, according to 
Fuller, to find perfect plants which are 
largely sterile to their own pollen, altho 
the pollen is perfectly potent to fertilize 
other varieties. A variety may have both 
stamens and pistils, and yet, owing to self- 
sterility, 90 per cent of the plants be bar¬ 
ren. It is of the greatest importance, 
therefore, to ascertain by growing indi¬ 
vidual plants under glass whether perfect 
flowers are self-sterile or not, or, where 
this is not known, to plant more than one 
variety. The best-flavored strawberry ever 
produced by Fuller was discarded because, 
altho hardy, freely blooming, and perfect, 
it was largely sterile both to its own pollen 
and that of other varieties. 

The pistillate plants are entirely depend¬ 
ent on insects for pollination; no insects, 
no berries, except in instances where a few 
stamens may be present. The nectar is se¬ 
creted by a fleshy ring at the base of the 
receptacle between the stamens and pistils. 
It is not abundant, and there is no record 
of a surplus of strawberry honey. The 
stigmas mature before the anthers. The 
flowers are visited by honeybees and many 
wild bees, which gather both pollen and 
nectar. It is evident that all the flowers 
are benefited by cross-pollination and that 


an abundance of bees is most desirable in 
strawberry-growing. 

Raspberry and Blackberry.— The rasp¬ 
berries and blackberries, which belong to 
the genus Bubus, are widely distributed 
thruout the north temperate zone of both 
hemispheres. The nectar is secreted by a 
narrow ring at the base of the receptacle. 
In the raspberry it is very abundant, and a 
large surplus of white honey with a delicate 
comb and exquisite flavor is obtained annu¬ 
ally. (See Raspberry.) The petals, which 
drop off on the second day, stand erect 
when the flower opens and hold the sta- 
men§ closely against the convex mass of 
pistils, ensuring self-fertilization in the 
absence of insects. When insects visit the 
flowers, especially bees, they regularly ef¬ 
fect cross-pollination by rubbing the pol¬ 
len adhering to their bodies on the numer¬ 
ous stigmas. Since the flowers are visited 
by innumerable honeybees besides a great 
company of wild bees, cross-pollination 
largely prevails. A large amount of fine- 
flavored light honey is gathered from wild 
raspberry in northern Michigan. 

The flowers of the blackberry are larger 
than those of the raspberry, and the petals 
spread out, affording a convenient landing- 
place for insects. The stamens bend away 
from the center; and, as the outer anthers 
dehisce first, the flowers are usually cross- 
pollinated before the inner anthers, whicli 
may effect self-pollination, have opened. 
In the raspberry and blackberry the an¬ 
thers and stigmas mature at about the same 
time. The flowers of the blackberry are 
visited by many honeybees, wild bees, flies, 
and beetles. On a small piece of cultivated 
blackberries growing near the apiary of the 
writer, the insect-visitors were collected 
during a succession of days, and the wild 
bees were found greatly to outnumber the 
honeybees. The latter manifested a pref¬ 
erence for collecting the pollen rather than 
the scanty supply of nectar. In the east¬ 
ern States, and even in Michigan, where it 
covers large areas from which the forest 
has recently been cleared, the blackberry is 
a poor honey plant; but in the southeastern 
States a wild blackberry yields a dark, 
smoky-colored honey of poor flavor. 

Currant and Gooseberry. —The cur¬ 
rants and gooseberries, which belong to the 


402 


FRUIT BLOSSOMS 


genus Ribes, all secrete nectar and are 
largely dependent on insects for pollina¬ 
tion. The Journal of the Board of Agri¬ 
culture, England, says that when insects 
were excluded from gooseberries, red and 
white currants, practically no fruit was 
formed. When artificially pollinated with 
pollen from the same flower or variety 
they all proved self-fertile, and set fruit 
perfectly; but the pollen is so adhesive 
that it is not readily transferred from the 
anthers to the stigma except by the visits 
of insects. 

In the European gooseberry ( Ribes gros- 
sularia) the anthers open before the stigma 
is fully grown and capable of pollination. 
Moreover, the flowers hang downward, 
and, as the anthers stand at the same level 
as the stigma, the pollen cannot, as a rule, 
fall on it, and thus in the absence of in¬ 
sects no fruit is produced. The flowers 
are adapted to bees, and honeybees, bum¬ 
blebees, and wild bees are very frequent 
visitors. A bee while sucking nectar 
touches the stigma with one side of its head 
and the anthers with the other side, so that 
in a succession of visits it cannot fail to 
effect cross-pollination. The European 
gooseberries do not succeed well in this 
country; and our native northern goose¬ 
berry ( Ribes oxyacanthoides) has been ex¬ 
tensively planted in the northern States 
under the name of Houghton. It is easily 
cultivated and enormously productive. At 
the Connecticut Experiment Station 72 
species of insects have been listed as visit¬ 
ors. 

The flowers of the red currant ( Ribes 
rubrum ) are also usually cross-pollinated 
by insects; but, as the anthers and stigma 
mature simultaneously and the flowers 
often stand sidewise, self-pollination may 
occur by the pollen falling on the stigma. 
Honeybees, wild bees, and flies are very 
common visitors. In the black currant 
(Ribes nigrum) the pistil is a little longer 
than the stamens, and self-pollination may 
occur regularly in the absence of insects 
by the pollen falling on the stigma. In an 
Alpine species of currant ( Ribes alpinum) 
the stamens and pistils are in different 
flowers so that no fruit sets in the absence 
of insects. » 

Cranberry. —The cranberries are adapt¬ 
ed to pollination by bees, The anthers close¬ 


ly surround the single style, and are pro¬ 
longed upward into long tubes, which open 
by pores in the ends, from which pollen 
falls on the head of a bee seeking nectar. 
The stigma projects beyond these tubes, 
and thus receives pollen collected by the 
approaching insect from other flowers. In¬ 
dividual flowers remain in bloom for more 
than two weeks. On a large cranberry bog 
the flowers are as numberless as the sands 
of the sea, and the indefatigable industry 
of bees is alone equal to the work of pol¬ 
linating them. 

The United Cape Cod Cranberry Com¬ 
pany, which has some 700 acres of cran¬ 
berries under cultivation, has discovered 
that the wild bees are not sufficiently nu¬ 
merous to do this work satisfactorily; and 
that the yield per acre can be greatly in¬ 
creased by placing colonies of bees near 
the bogs. “One test,” says E. R. Root, 
“was significant. The cranberry bog at 
Halifax contains 126 acres. On one side 
of this there were three or four colonies of 
honeybees last year. It is evident that this 
number was inadequate to cover the entire 
field, and it is noteworthy that the yield of 
cranberries per acre Avas in direct propor¬ 
tion to the proximity of such acreage to 
the bees. The yield Avas heaviest close to 
the hives, and became thinner and thinner 
as the distance' from the hfves increased. 
The showing was so remarkable in this and 
other bogs that it is proposed to increase 
materially the investment in bees another 
year. A small area of cranberry bog was 
screened to exclude the bees. The screened 
portion had very little fruit, Avhile that 
free to the visitation of bees had a large 
yield. In consequence many cranberry- 
growers are planning to go into the bee 
business for the purpose of obtaining a 
greater crop of cranberries. In our travels 
over the United States we never saw a 
situation that demonstrated more clearly 
the value of bees as pollinators than did 
this piece of cranberry bog.” 

Blueberry and Huckleberry. — The 
most valuable of American wild fruits are 
the blueberry and huckleberry from which 
there are annually gathered several million 
dollars’ worth of fruit. There are in this 
country more than 150 species belonging to 
these two genera growing in a great variety 
of situations, as dry rocky pastures, 


FRUIT BLOSSOMS 


403 


swamps, and woodlands. The inverted um- 
shaped flowers, with .concealed nectar, are 
adapted to pollination by bees, among 
which the honeybee is common; but in re¬ 
mote and obscure localities the wild bees 
are often the chief visitors. 

It Avas long supposed that blueberries 
could not be domesticated; but Coville has 
recently shown that they will grow in an 
acid soil, and thrive best in one composed 
of peat and sand. In southeastern New 
Jersey there are thousands of acres of 
peaty well-watered pine barrens now un¬ 
used for agriculture, but which are well 
adapted to growing blueberries. When the 




A. Self-pollinated blueberries. B. Cross-pollin¬ 
ated blueberries. These two twigs (reduced one- 
half) bore the same number of flowers, and were 
pollinated at the same time by hand. But A was 
pollinated with pollen from other floWers on the 
same bush, and B with pollen from another bush. 
The self-pollinated flowers produced no ripe fruit, 
nil the berries that set remaining small and green 
and later dropping off; while the cross-pollinated 
flowers produced a full cluster of large berries. 
A plantation made wholly of cuttings from a single 
bush would produce little or no fruit. (From 
Coville.) 

bushes are grown in rich garden soil they 
are small and dwarfed. Microscopic ex¬ 
amination shows that there is on the roots 
a minute fungus, without the assistance of 
which the plants appear unable to nourish 
themselves properly. This fungus requires 
an acid soil. 

Blueberry bushes are propagated from 
cuttings rooted by a special method, as 
they do not come true to seed. C are must 
be taken to select only plants which pro¬ 
duce berries with a good flavor, as some 


wild blueberries are sour or even bitter. A 
blueberry plantation will come into bear¬ 
ing in about four years, and, once well es¬ 
tablished, will last a lifetime. Blueberries 
have already been produced of the size and 
color of Concord grapes. 

When blueberry flowers were self-polli¬ 
nated, only a few berries and seeds were 
produced, altho the self-pollinations were 
made very carefully by hand. , On some 
bushes not a berry matured. Berries that 
resulted from self-pollination were smaller 
and later in ripening than cross-pollinated 
berries from the same bush. Neither will 
plants raised from cuttings taken from a 
single bush pollinate each other success¬ 
fully, but the pollen acts the same as tho 
taken from different flowers on one bush. 
Coville says: “From these experiments it 
became clear that if a blueberry-grower 
should set out a whole field with plants 
from cuttings of a single choice bush his 
plantation would be practically fruitless. 

The best procedure is to make 
up the plantation with alternating rows of 
plants pi’opagated from two choice varie¬ 
ties. Each will then set fruit in abundance 
thru pollination by the other.” In such a 
plantation bees will not be merely benefi¬ 
cial but indispensable. 

THE POLLINATION OF FRUIT TREES. 

THE PLUM. 

The cultivated plums may be divided into 
three groups according to their origin: The 
European, the Japanese, and the American. 
Familiar varieties of European plums 
(Prunus domestica and P. insititia ) are the 
Yellow Egg, Bradshaw, Lombard, German 
Prune, Damson, and Green Gage; of the 
Japanese plum (P. triflora), Burbank, 
Abundance, and Red June; and of Ameri¬ 
can plums, the wild plum (P. americana ), 
the Canada plum (P. nigra), and the Wild- 
goose plum (P. hortulana ). All the species, 
according to Waugh, hybridize, the Japan¬ 
ese plums crossing easily with the Ameri¬ 
can, but the European and American va¬ 
rieties cross with difficulty. It is believed 
that hybrids of great value will eventually 
be obtained. The plum has also been crossed 
with the peach, cherry, and apricot. 

The pollination of plum trees is a matter 
of great economic importance. “When the 
native plum trees first began to be culti- 







404 


FRTJIT BLOSSOMS 


vated in this country,” says Waugh, “their 
general self-sterility was a drawback, 
which in many cases proved fatal to their 
success.” Waugh’s observations extended 
over five years and included many varieties, 
especially of native species. All the varie¬ 
ties of American plums proved self-sterile, 
with the exception of the Robinson, and this 
variety is not wholly reliable when self- 
pollinated. The Japanese plums were also 
found to be generally self-sterile. Of the 
European plums a part seem to be self- 
sterile and a part self-fertile, but no satis¬ 
factory experiments are on record. All of 
the hybrids are self-sterile. The experi¬ 
ments made, says Waugh, show beyond 
question that the majority of plums do not 
bear well, and most of them set no fruit at 
all unless two or three varieties are mixed 
in the same orchard. The reason for this 
is that the blossoms of most varieties do 
not pollinate themselves. In general the 
varieties in each group pollinate each other 
better than they do varieties belonging to 
another group. (Waugh, F. A., “Plums and 
Plum Culture;” also Bulletins 53, 67, 89, 
etc., Vermont Experiment Station.) 

Self-sterility in plums may be due to 
several causes. The stigmas may mature 
two, three, or even five days before the 
anthers. A part of the pistils may be de¬ 
fective, but usually there are enough per¬ 
fect pistils to ensure a full crop. The pol¬ 
len may be impotent. The stamens are 
shorter or at least do not exceed the pistils 
in length so that pollen cannot fall on the 
Stigmas unless the flowers stand sidewise. 
The plums bloom profusely, and the limbs 
of the Japanese varieties are often com¬ 
pletely wreathed with flowers. In small or¬ 
chards the air is filled with insects hover¬ 
ing about the trees. In a little over an 
hour the writer collected 100 specimens of 
wild bees, mostly species of Andrena and 
Halictus, and these were only a small part 
of the number present. Honeybees are also 
frequent visitors, both sucking nectar and 
collecting pollen. Wild bees man cannot 
control, but he can raise honeybees, and 
horticulturists recommend that he place 
them in large numbers in the orchards. 

THE POLLINATION OP THE PRUNE. 

Prunes are varieties of plums containing 
so little moisture that they can be dried in 


the sun or in evaporators. Large quanti¬ 
ties of prunes are produced in France, 
Spain, Germany, and Serbia. In America 
prunes are raised chiefly in California, 
and, to a less extent, in Oregon. The Santa 
Clara Valley in California is largely plant¬ 
ed with prunes, principally the French va¬ 
riety, with smaller interplantings here and 
there of the Sugar and Imperial varieties. 
No other dried fruit is sold in that State 
in such large quantities. During the height 
of the blooming season in the Santa Clara 
Valley a great scarcity of insects, especial¬ 
ly bees, has been observed. In some locali¬ 
ties one might work for days among the 
blossoms without seeing a bee. 

To test the value of honeybees as polli¬ 
nators of prune trees a series of experi¬ 
ments has been made by the Berkeley 
Agricultural Experiment Station in an or¬ 
chard of 180 acres on the Sorosis Ranch in 
Santa Clara County. The orchard con¬ 
tains chiefly French (Agen) prunes, 18 to 
25 years old; but there are four rows of 
Imperial prunes. In the entire orchard in 
1916 there were only six colonies of bees, 
and only 3.6 per cent of the blossoms of 
the French variety set fruit; but in 1917, 
with 115 colonies 13.2 per cent of the 
flowers set fruit. The Imperial variety 
yielded equally well (7.2 per cent) during 
both years, and showed no response to the 
increased number of hives. Other orchard- 
ists obtained equally favorable results. At 
Saratoga 50 hives of bees were placed near 
the edge of a 50-acre prune orchard, and 
the branches were literally broken down 
under the burden of the crop. A cherry 
orchard near by also yielded a large crop. 
In another orchard in Santa' Clara there 
were 50 hives, and the trees were loaded to 
their full capacity. At Yuba City 113 
hives were placed in a mixed orchard, and 
all varieties of trees yielded exceptionally 
heavy crops, which were attributed by the 
owner to the agency of bees. Branches of 
trees covered with netting produced no 
fruit. 

At the Sorosis Ranch a tree of the 
French prune was enclosed alone in a tent 
of mosquito netting, and all insects ex¬ 
cluded. Altho covered with blossoms, less 
than one-half of one per cent (0.43) of 
them set fruit. Under similar conditions 
only 0.34 per cent of the blossoms of a 


FRUIT BLOSSOMS 


405 


tree of the Imperial variety set fruit. The 
almost total failure of these trees to ma¬ 
ture fruit shows that bees are a necessity 
for distributing the pollen, and that with¬ 
out them the orchards would be largely un¬ 
productive and unprofitable. 

But when a single tree of the French 
prune was enclosed in a tent with a hive of 
bees, 19.4 per cent of the blossoms set fruit, 
which was some 6 per cent higher than the 
average of the orchard, and shows that the 
bees very tlioroly performed the work of 
pollination. This variety is evidently self- 
fertile provided there are insects present to 
distribute the pollen properly. When a 
single Imperial prune tree was enclosed in 
a tent of netting together with a colony of 
bees, 3.02 per cent of the blossoms set 
fruit. As this variety is largely self-ster- 
ile, it was a surprising feature of the ex¬ 
periment that enough flowers were stimu¬ 
lated by the numerous visits of the bees to 
produce a satisfactory commercial crop. 
Possibly, it is partially self-fertile occa¬ 
sionally. This has been observed to be true 
in the case of the apple. According to the 
Oregon Experiment Station: “Some varie¬ 
ties of the apple have been found to be 
self-sterile three years out of five, and self- 
fertile the other two.” When a French 
and an Imperial prune tree were inclosed 
in the same tent together with a colony of 
bees, cross-fertilization was observed to be 
beneficial. In the orchard the results of 
three years showed that French trees close 
to the Imperials yielded better than those 
farther away. It would appear from 
these experiments that prune trees are al¬ 
most wholly dependent upon bees for pol¬ 
lination.—Hendrickson, A. H., “The Com¬ 
mon Honeybee as an Agent in Prune Polli¬ 
nation’/ Univ. Cal. Pub., Nos. 274 and 279. 

POLLINATION OF THE ALMOND. 

The almond (Prunus Amygdalus ) can be 
grown only in limited areas in California, 
as it is injured by frost. While there are 
orchards of 100 acres or more, the average 
orchard consists of about 30 acres. At 
Dunham eight colonies of bees were placed 
in a five-acre orchard. As a result, 9,500 
pounds of almonds were harvested, or near¬ 
ly a ton per acre, while the other orcharas 
in the district averaged only about 300 
pounds per acre, and some even less. The 


oi’chardists of that locality were so strong¬ 
ly convinced of the importance of bees that 
200 or more colonies could have been placed 
in groves at once. 

THE POLLINATION OF THE CHERRY. 

The cherries belong to the same genus 
(Prunus) as the plums, and the structure 
of the flower is similar. Cultivated cher¬ 
ries are popularly divided into two groups, 
the sour cherries and the sweet cherries. 
The sweet, heart, mazzard, bird, and Big- 
arreau are varieties of Prunus Avium, a 
species found wild in Asia; while the sour, 
pie, and morello cherries are varieties of P. 
Cerasus, also an Asiatic species. The two 
groups hybridize. 

The sweet cherry (Prunus Avium) is in 
bloom five or six days. The stigma and the 
anthers mature simultaneously; but, as the 
flowers are usually pendulous and the sta¬ 
mens diverge from the pistil, self-pollina¬ 
tion rarely occurs. Common visitors are 
honeybees and wild bees, and their value in 
pollination is well illustrated by the follow¬ 
ing experience. The crop of a sweet-cherry 
orchard in 1912 was 13 tons. To secure 
cross-pollination, the owner in 1913 cut 
branches from seedling cherry trees at 
blooming time and placed them in buckets 
of water thruout his orchard. In addition, 
several colonies of bees were placed in the 
orchard. With no better season and with 
the trees only one year older, the crop was 
39 tons. 

Among the orchard trees of Oregon the 
cherry ranks fourth in importance, being 
surpassed only by the apple, prune, and 
pear in the order named. A poor cherry 
crop affects the income of many persons. 
The rapid increase in the area planted with 
cherries has been followed by complaints 
that in spite of the heavy bloom there was 
not sufficient fruit to be profitable. In 
some instances the new orchards have never 
paid expenses, while old orchards have be¬ 
come less productive. Altho sorely per¬ 
plexed by these conditions the cherry-grow¬ 
ers, unfamiliar with the mutual relations of 
flowers and insects, have been slow to be¬ 
lieve that lack of proper cross-pollination 
is the chief cause of the failure of their 
trees to set fruit. But the cherry orchards 
of a decade ago were of small size and 
mixed varieties; while recently orchards of 


406 


FRUIT BLOSSOMS 



10 to 100 acres have been planted consist¬ 
ing' wholly of one or more of the standard 
varieties. It has been commonly recognized 
that rain fog, temperature, the condition 
of the soil, and the age of the trees are 
influential factors; but few in the absence 
of definite information have considered the 
possibility of self-sterility. 

In order to determine the cause and rem¬ 
edy these failures Gardner in 1911-13 in¬ 
vestigated the pollination of the sweet cher¬ 
ries. Thousands of flowers were pollinated 
with their own pollen and insects excluded 
by bagging. All of the 16 varieties tested 


Tartarian, and Waterhouse. (Gardner, Y. 
R., “The Pollination of the Sweet Cherry.” 
Oregon Experiment Station, Bulletin 116, 
1913.) 

“The importance of honeybees as agents 
in cross-pollination,” says Gardner, “can¬ 
not be over-emphasized.” This is clearly 
shown also by the experience of cherry- 
growers in California. For several years 
the cherry crop of Vaca Valley, Solano 
County, Cal., had not been good, altho it 
had formerly been quite sure. It was rec¬ 
ollected that formerly, when the cherry 
crops were good, wild bees were very plenti- 


2. Average cluster of Bing crossed by Williamette. 
(After Gardner.) 

ful in the valley, ■ and since most of the 
bees had disappeared it was thought that 
perhaps the lack of fruit might be due to 
imperfect pollination. To test the matter 
the Messrs. Bassford, therefore, placed sev¬ 
eral hives of bees in their orchard in 1890. 
The result was striking, for the Bassford 
orchard bore a good crop of cherries; while 
other growers in the valley who had no bees 
found their crops entire or partial failures. 
In 1891 there were some 65 hives in the 
Bassford orchard, and H. A. Bassford 
wrote to the Entomologist: “Our crop was 
good this season, and we attribute it to the 
bees. Since we have been keeping bees our 


1. Bing sweet cherry crossed by Napoleon yields 
no fruit.— (After Gardner.) 

proved self-sterile. The self-sterility was 
in no case due to the inability of the pollen 
to germinate, for in the case of each of the 
varieties tested the pollen was potent in 
producing fruit with some other variety. 
Ninety per cent of the commercial plant¬ 
ings consist of the varieties Napoleon, Lam¬ 
bert, and Bing, all three of which are inter- 
sterile; that is, each of these varieties is 
sterile to the pollen of the other two varie¬ 
ties as well as to its own pollen. Napoleon, 
where planted in solid blocks, yielded little 
fruit altho interplanted with Lambert and 
Bing. But each of these three varieties is ef¬ 
fectively pollinated by Black Republican, 





FRUIT BLOSSOMS 


407 


cherry crop has been much larger than for¬ 
merly, while those orchards nearest us, five 
miles from here, where no bees are kept, 
have produced but light crops.” 

The flowers of the sour cherry (P. Cera- 
sus) closely resemble those of the sweet 
cherry, but the petals are flatter and the 
stigma matures before the anthers. Self- 
pollination is thus at first impossible. The 
position of the stamens and the opening of 
the anthers outwardly also tend to prevent 
automatic self-pollination. Not a single 
fruit set when insects were excluded from 
cherries, says the Journal of the Board of 
Agriculture, England. Neither did any fruit 
mature when the flowers were pollinated 
with their own pollen, but all the flowers 
pollinated from another variety set fruit. 
So necessary are the honeybees for cherry 
orchards that the growers have imported in 
one case a carload of bees from the South. 

A very interesting case came under the 
observation of the author of this book. He 
was asked to put bees in a cherry orchard 
about ten miles from his home town. 
There were ten acres of trees, and, 
therefore, there were ten colonies put in the 
orchard. The season was very cold and 
backward at the time the trees came into 
bloom. There was only an hour or two that 
the sun shone and it was warm enough 
for the bees to fly. At the close of the sea¬ 
son, only those trees near the hives of bees 
yielded cherries in abundance, while those 
remote from the bees had very few or no 
cherries at all. It was very noticeable 
that the yield of cherries on the trees 
was almost in direct ratio to the dis¬ 
tance of the trees from the bees. 

THE POLLINATION OF THE PEACH. 

The peach also belongs to the genus 
Prunus (P. Persica). The rose-red flowers 
appear in early spring before the leaves. 
Nectar is secreted within a cup-shaped re¬ 
ceptacle and attracts both honeybees and 
wild bees. One cold rainy spring a colony 
of honeybees was placed in the center of a 
small block of peach trees so that the bees 
could easily visit the flowers. The result 
was that this orchard set all the peaches 
the trees could carry thru the following dry 
season; while other peach orchards, which 
bloomed equally well, but were without 
bees, failed to set a crop (20th An. Rep. 


Mass. Fruit-growers’ Assoc., 1914, p. 52). 
According to Fletcher, however, 2939 Gold 
Drop peach blossoms showed no benefit to 
this variety when cross-pollinated with pol¬ 
len from three other varieties. 

THE POLLINATION OF THE PEAR. 

The pollination of pear trees has been 
studied by Waite, who was the first in 
America to show that many varieties of 
orchard trees are self-sterile. In his earlier 
experiments clusters of buds were enclosed 
in bags of papers or cheese cloth which were 
not removed until the blooming period was 
over; but in his later experiments the bags 
were opened and the anthers carefully re¬ 
moved and the flowers hand-pollinated. 
There were employed in these experiments 
144 trees belonging to 38 varieties. More 
than one-half of these varieties when self- 
pollinated proved to be wholly or nearly 
self-sterile and produced little or no fruit. 
Among the wholly or nearly self-sterile 
varieties were Anjou, Bartlett, Clapp’s 
Favorite, Howell, Lawrence, and Winter 
Nelis; self-fertile varieties were Angoul- 
eme, Bose, Buffum, and Flemish Beauty. 

A brief summary of Waite’s conclusions 
is as follows: 

Pollen from another tree of the same 
variety is no more effective than pollen 
from the same tree. 

The pollen of a self-sterile variety may 
be perfectly effective when applied to an¬ 
other variety. 

Even in those varieties which can be 
self-fertilized the pollen of another variety 
is prepotent, and when insects are not 
excluded most of the fruit seems to be the 
result of crossing. 

Self-fertilized pears contain small vesti¬ 
gial seeds and are smaller and less perfect 
than those produced by crossing. 

The ineffectiveness of the pollen in self- 
sterile varieties is due to no defect in the 
pollen. 

Tn 1892 Waite visited the large pear 
orchard of the Old Dominion Fruit Com¬ 
pany near Scotland on the James River. 
The orchard consisted originally of about 
22,000 standard Bartlett pear trees. It had 
been planted some 18 years previously, but 
had never borne a full crop. The maximum 
crop was three-fifths of a peck per tree, 
while a standard Bartlett tree 12 years old 


408 


FRUIT BLOSSOMS 



Enlarged section of the flower of a Bartlett pear; sp, sepal, the five sepals form the calyx or cup; v, 
petal, the five petals form the corolla or crown; the stamens consist of two parts, /, the filament or thread¬ 
like stem, and a, the anther, composed of two sacs which contain the pollen; the pistils consist of three parts, 
ov, the ovary ; st, the style, and s, the stigma ; d, the disc in which the nectar is secreted. Pollination is the 
transfer of the pollen to the rough sticky surface of the stigma. The pollen grains send out slender tubes, 
which pass down thru the style to the ovules. From the end of a tube a sperm cell passes into an ovule and 
unites with an egg cell—this is fertilization.— (After Waite.) 


should easily yield five times that amount. 
In 1892 the crop was less than 100 boxes of 
three peeks each. The trees in the orchard 
had always bloomed heavily,, and were every 
year snowy white with blossoms. It was 
clearly indicated that something was wrong. 
In three places in the orchard, where the 
trees had died, two Clapp’s Favorite and a 
Buffum tree had been planted by mistake, 
and in their vicinity the Bartletts fruited 
heavily. A small orchard containing a 
variety of trees had been very productive; 
and the Bartletts near this orchard also 
bore well. Waite determined the difficulty 
in the following way: After removing the 
stamens from a number of unopened buds 
he pollinated a part of them with pollen 
from Bartlett trees and a part with pollen 
from different varieties, and then enclosed 


them in paper bags. In the orchard at 
large, a week after the petals had fallen, 
the young pears all dropped off. Most of 
the trees were absolutely barren. Of the 
flowers enclosed in bags, not one pollinated 
with Bartlett pollen had set fruit, while a 
large proportion of the crosses with other 
varieties produced pears. As there were a 
sufficient number of insects to carry the 
pollen, it is evident that, had there been 
other varieties of pears scattered thru the 
great orchard, the crop would not have 
been a failure. The Bartlett pear is large¬ 
ly self-sterile.-^-Waite, M. B., “The Polli¬ 
nation of Pear Flowers,” Div. Veg. Path. 
Bull. No. 5, 1895; also Yearbook Dep. 
Agr., 1898. 

A pear flower remains in bloom seven or 
eight days. There are 20 stamens in four 












FRUIT BLOSSOMS 


409 


cycles and five pistils. The stigmas mature 
two or three days before the anthers, at 
which stage self-pollination is impossible. 
In the bud the stamens are bent inward, 
but gradually bend backward after the 
flower opens, the anthers on the outer row 
opening first. Self-pollination may occur 
by the styles finally bending backward un¬ 
til the stigmas touch the anthers, or in the 
case of flowers standing sidewise by the 
pollen falling on the stigmas. The quan¬ 
tity of nectar secreted within the concave 
receptacle is greatly affected by the weath¬ 
er; but sometimes it collects in large drops 
which overflow and fall to the ground. A 
great variety of insects, as honeybees, wild 
bees, wasps, flies, and beetles visit the flow¬ 
ers. Waite collected 50 and Mueller 30 
species. At Washington, D. C., Rochester, 
N. Y., and the Connecticut Experiment 
Station, the ground bees belonging to the 
genera Andrena and Halictus were found 
to outnumber all other insects. The writer 
observed a medium-sized pear tree in full 
bloom for an hour and a quarter, but dur¬ 
ing this time saw no insects except honey¬ 
bees, which were very abundant. A cluster 
of seven blossoms received eight visits in a 
quarter of an hour; and two other clusters 
consisting of 16 flowers received 16 visits. 
This was an average of a little more than 
four visits to each flower on the tree per 
hour. 

The great service rendered by insects in 
the pollination of pear blossoms is well il¬ 
lustrated by the experiments of V. H. Lowe 
at the Geneva Experiment Station, New 
York, in 1889. A number of small pear 
trees were covered with a hood of sheeting 
which came down over the tree like a bag, 
and was tied at the lower end around the 
trunk of the tree. On all the trees so cov¬ 
ered there was a large number of buds, and 
all the conditions were favorable for a 
good crop, except that the visits of insects 
were entirely prevented. As a result, on the 
whole lot of trees covered there was just 
one fruit. On another set of trees of the 
same sort and size, not covered, there were 
145 pears. In the case of another tree a 
large limb was enclosed in a bag with simi¬ 
lar results. 

Extensive experiments on the pollina¬ 
tion of Bartlett and Kieffer pears have 
also been made by Fletcher. Thirty thou¬ 


sand and eighty-one Bartlett blossoms, 
carefully deprived of their anthers and 
pollinated with Bartlett pollen, produced 
only six small fruits as compared with 763 
fruits produced by 7170 Bartlett flowers 
pollinated with Bartlett pollen, produced 
only six small fruits as. compared with 763 
fruits, produced by 7170 Bartlett flowers 
pollinated with Lawrence, Anjou, Dutch¬ 
ess, and, Kieffer. Two large 18-year-old 
Bartlett pear trees were completely cov¬ 
ered, just ^before the blossoms opened, 
with muslin sheeting in such a way that 
all insect visitors were excluded; but two 
limbs on each tree were permitted to pro¬ 
trude beyond the sheeting and were open to 
insect visits. These two limbs were loaded 
with fruit; while the flowers under the 
sheet, which were dependent on self-polli¬ 
nation, produced only 10 small pears. One 
thousand two hundred and sixty-eight Kief¬ 
fer pear blossoms pollinated with pollen of 
the same variety produced only five pears; 
while 2363 Ivieffer blossoms pollinated with 
Bartlett pollen produced 446 pears. Kief¬ 
fer is, therefore, almost completely self- 
sterile (Fletcher, S. W., “Pollination of 
Bartlett and Kieffer Pears/’ An. Rep. Ya. 
Poly. Inst. Agr. Exp. Sta., 1909-10). As 
in the case of the other fruits the impor¬ 
tance of honeybees, which can be import¬ 
ed, is clearly apparent. 

It was long believed that bees were act¬ 
ive in spreading fire blight; but more re¬ 
cent and careful observations show that 
the spores of this fungus are distributed 
by other agencies. See Fire Blight. 

THE POLLINATION OF THE APPLE. 

The apple is the most important of all 
fruits, and the value of the crop annually 
in the United States is at least $100,000,- 
000. Every orchardist should know what 
varieties are self-sterile and how they can 
be properly pollinated. Of 87 varieties of 
apples tested by Lewis and Vincent in Ore¬ 
gon 59 were found to be self-sterile; 15 
were self-fertile but gave better results 
when pollinated by some other variety; 
and 13 were partially self-sterile.* Among 
the self-sterile varieties were Bellflower, 
Gravenstein, King, Rhode Island Green- 

* The question whether a variety is sterile to its 
own pollen varies according to locality. For exam¬ 
ple, the bellflowers in the Pejario Valley, Calif., are 
self-fertile; elsewhere they appear to be self-sterile. 



410 


FRUIT BLOSSOMS 



1. Self-pollinated Newtown apples, producing at least one-third of the apples undersized. 2, Newtown 
apples pollinated by Grimes Golden; no small apples.— (After Lewis and Vincent.) 


ing, Tolman Sweet, Wealthy, and Wine- 
sap; among the self-fertile were Baldwin, 
Oldenburg, Shiawassee, Washington, and 
Yellow Newton; partially self-fertile were 
Ben Davis, Stark, Spitzenburg, and Yel¬ 
low Transparent. The experiments showed 
that in the majority of cases cross-pollina¬ 
tion is a necessity to ensure a profitable 
crop. Crossing always gave better results 
than self-pollination, and is the rule, while 
self-pollination is the exception. Cross- 
pollinated trees gave larger and finer fruit 
with well-developed seeds; while self- 
pollinated trees gave smaller fruit with 


the seed usually wanting or abortive, as is 
shown in the following table: 


EFFECTS OF SELF AND CROSS POLLINATION. 
Oregon Exp. Station, 1908. 


Pollinated 
by Self 
by Esopus 
by Grimes 


by Self 
by Newtown 
by Baldwin 


Newtown Apple 

Av. wt. fruit 
73 grams 
147 grams 
173 grams 

Esopus Apple 

100 grams 
126 grams 
157 grams 


Av. wt. seeds 
.05 grams 
.66 grams 
.60 grams 


.13 grams 
.65 grams 
.71 grams 



1, Keswick Codlin apple cross-pollinated; 2 and 3, self-pollinated. Notice the absence of seeds in the 
self-pollinated apples.— (After Lewis and Vincent,) 







FRUIT BLOSSOMS 


411 



The 17-acre orchard that in its tenth year produced 6 carloads of apples with the help of the bees. 


Waite found that hand-crossed Baldwins 
were highly colored, well-matured, and con¬ 
tained many seeds; while the self-fertilized 
fruit was seedless, only slightly colored, 
and only one-quarter to two-thirds of the 
regular size. 

The Journal of the Board of Agricul¬ 
ture, England, says that out of 63 varie¬ 
ties of apples on which unopened blossoms 
were enclosed and left untouched the only 
one that matured fruit was Irish Peach. 
Of those enclosed and pollinated with their 
own pollen by brush, only a few matiired 
fruit. Others failed to yield any fruit 
when pollinated with pollen of the same 
variety. On the other hand, of the 64 
crosses made, 43 were successful. In Illi¬ 
nois there were formerly many large or¬ 
chards of 40 to 80 acres of a single variety 
which seldom or never bore large crops; 
while mixed orchards in the vicinity often 
gave bumper yields (An. Rep. Mass. F. G. 
Assoc., 1914, p. 47). But under certain 
circumstances a single variety planted in 
large blocks has been known, according to 
Waite, to yield satisfactorily, as the Ben 
Davis at the Olden Fruit Farm in Missouri. 
In Oregon it has been the practice to plant 
two rows of one variety, then two rows of 
the variety used as a pollinator, followed 
by two rows of a third variety. Varieties 
must be selected, of course, that bloom at 
the same time. 

The flowers of the apple are larger than 
those of the pear, partially rose-colored 


and pleasantly scented, especially in the 
evening, when they are attractive to moths. 
The stigmas mature two days before the 
anthers. The stamens stand erect, so cov¬ 
ering the nectary that the nectar Is not as 
easity accessible as that of the pear. Bum¬ 
blebees, which seldom visit pear dowers, 
arq common on apple bloom. At the Con¬ 
necticut Experiment Station 52 insects 
were listed as visitors, among which were 
26 species of bees. 

It is a matter of common observation 
that where an apiary is located near an ap¬ 
ple orchard honeybees are frequent visitors 
to the bloom, and often appear to be the 
only insects present. Waite observed that 
in large orchards covered with blossoms 
there were not sufficient bees to pollinate 
the trees; and this is no doubt often the 
case in sections where apple-growing is the 
principal industry. The president of the 
Vermont Horticultural Society found on 
examination that in orchards which failed 
to produce abundantly there were no bees 
or too few to be of much use. Wherever 
there were large apiaries there was in 
every instance a large apple crop ( Glean¬ 
ings in Bee Culture, March 15, 1912). 
“Plant mixed orchards,” says Waite, “or 
at least avoid planting solid blocks of one 
variety. Be sure that there are sufficient 
bees in the neighborhood to pollinate the 
blossoms properly.” A large fruit-grower 
in California declares: “Bees and fruit go 
together. I can’t raise fruit without 




412 


FRUIT BLOSSOMS 


bees.” (Waite, M. B., “Cross-pollination 
of Apples,” Year Book Dept. Agr., 1898, 
Lewis, C. I., and Vincent, C. C., “Pollina¬ 
tion of the Apple,” Oregon Exp. Sta., Bull. 
No. 104, 1909.) 

THE POLLINATION OP THE QUINCE. 

The common quince (Pyrus Cydonia ) 
has solitary flowers, which are larger and 
bloom later than those of the apple or 
pear. The stigmas mature before the an¬ 
thers, but self-pollination occurs regular- 



shriveled condition of tlie upper seed and the de¬ 
pression of the apple on that side. 

ly. The flowers yield nectar, and 30 spe¬ 
cies of insects have been enumerated by 
the Connecticut Experiment Station as 
visitors. 

Experiments in crossing were made by 
Waite at Rochester, N. Y., in 1892-93. 
Pollen from Orange, Rea, Champion, and 
Meach were used, and the flowers (from 
which the anthers had been removed) were 
■enclosed in paper and cheese cloth bags. 
Both the crossed and self-pollinated flow¬ 
ers produced a fairly good percentage of 
fruit and practically an equal quantity. 
The experiments showed no striking bene¬ 
fits from crossing as did those with the 
apple and pear. (Waite, M. B., Yearbook 
of Dept. Agr., 1898, p. 178.) 

THE POLLINATION OF THE ORANGE. 

Numerous crosses have been made by the 
Department of Agriculture between the 
common orange and other species for the 
purpose of obtaining hardy and improved 
varieties with promising results. 


The flowers of the orange in California 
secrete nectar so freely that at times it 
drips upon the foliage and grass beneath 
the trees. After a foggy or rainy day it 
is often so abundant that the horses em¬ 
ployed in cultivating the groves and the 
clothing of their drivers are wet by the 
dripping nectar; while even the ground is 
dampened by the many falling drops. 
When a grove is properly irrigated, it 
has been estimated, that from. 500 to 800 
colonies of bees can be placed in one loca¬ 
tion. Thousands of colonies are moved an¬ 
nually in southern California from the 
sage regions to the orange groves, where 
a surplus of 60 to 120 pounds of honey 
may be obtained. 

No definite experiments have as yet been 
made showing the effects of cross-fertiliza¬ 
tion of the bloom of the orange trees in 
increasing the quantity of fruit and im¬ 
proving its size and quality; but many 
growers are positive that the quantity of 
fruit per acre is much larger, when bees 
are numerous in the orchards. Other 
growers, however, claim that they can see 
no difference. 

Most lemon-growers desire to have colo¬ 
nies of bees placed in their orchards. But 
a lemon grove is not considered a desirable 
location, since the trees bloom in winter, 
when it is so cold, that many bees become 
chilled, while gathering nectar, and are un¬ 
able to fly back to the hive. Citrus fruit¬ 
growers both in Florida and California 
very generally today recognize the impor¬ 
tance of honeybees as agents in the pollina¬ 
tion of the orange, lemon, and grapefruit. 

Formerly the orange-growers of Florida 
opposed the placing of colonies of honey¬ 
bees in the groves, believing that they in¬ 
jured the flowers and fruit. Beekeepers 
were obliged to pay for this privilege. But 
with a better understanding of the value of 
bees in pollination their presence is now 
recognized as desirable. Around Braden- 
town the citrus men are actually offering 
bee-yard sites free of rent, and in many in¬ 
stances even buy bees to place among the 
trees. The Manatee Fruit Company of Pal¬ 
metto has established three bee-yards in 
connection with their groves and wish for 
more. They declare the nearer the bees to 
the groves, the larger the quantity of fruit 
and the better the quality. An orange- 






FRUIT BLOSSOMS 


413 


grower of Terra Ceia for six years or more 
has had 40 colonies of bees in his grove and 
every year during this time has had a 
fine crop of fruit, which has attracted wide 
attention. The marked increase in the 
quantity and quality of the oranges raised 
around DeLand is largely attributed to 
the greater number of bees kept near the 
groves. Twenty years ago there were not 
ten hives and now there are hundreds. 
There should be at least five hives to the 
acre. (Baldwin, E. G., The DeLand News, 
Dec. 23, 1914.) 

CONCLUSIONS. 

(1) 

Many nut trees, cereals, and a few fruit 
trees are pollinated by the wind; but in 
general fruit bloom is either pollinated by 
insects or is self-pollinated. The few pol¬ 
len grains distributed by the wind are of 
no importance. This is clearly shown both 
by the structure of the flowers and by re¬ 
peated experiments. A noteworthy exam¬ 
ple is given in the bulletin of the Oregon 
Experiment Station for 1909. From 1500 
blossoms on a seven-year-old apple tree all 
the petals were removed in order that they 
might not attract insects. The result was 
that only eight bees were seen to visit the 
flowers, while another tree about 20 feet 
away, which bloomed profusely, received 
40 visits from bees in half an hour. The 
stamens were also removed to prevent self- 
pollination. Only five flowers set fruit. 
Evidently the wind did not pollinate a 
single blossom. 

( 2 ) 

Self-sterility is very common among cul¬ 
tivated fruits. It is partly due to the sep¬ 
aration of the stamens and pistils in dif¬ 
ferent flowers and partly to the impotency 
or ineffectiveness of the pollen in self-pol¬ 
lination. Hybrids, as among the grapes, 
are usually self-sterile. A variety may be 
sterile to its own pollen and also to the 
pollen of another variety; e. g., the Na- 
poeon and Bing sweet cherries are self- 
sterile and mutually inter-sterile. A knowl¬ 
edge of self-sterility is, therefore, of the 
greatest importance in fruit-growing. 

(3) 

Among cultivated fruits cross-pollination 
by insects usually prevails, even among 


species possessing the power of self-fer¬ 
tilization. Pollen from another variety is 
generally prepotent over pollen from the 
same variety. Self-pollination in the early 
stages of most fruit blossoms is prevented 
by the stigmas and anthers maturing at 
different times (dichogamy), also by their 
relative position. Fruits resulting from 
cross-pollination are usually larger, better 
formed, and contain fully developed seeds. 

(4) 

In the absence of cross-pollination many 
fruit blossoms may be self-pollinated in 
various ways. According to Waite self-pol¬ 
linated and cross-pollinated flowers of the 
quince were equally productive, but this 
(Statement may be modified by further ob¬ 
servation. Fruits from self-pollinated and 
self-fertilized flowers are usually smaller, 
less perfect, and contain only vestiges of 
seeds. Automatic self-pollination is as ef¬ 
fective as self-pollination by hand. At the 
Oregon Experiment Station two sets of 
flower buds of different varieties of apples 
were enclosed in bags. One lot was left 
untouched. The bags of the other lot were 
opened, the flowers pollinated by hand, and 
the bags then replaced. Both lots gave 
practically the same results. 

(5) 

Beetles, flies, butterflies, moths, sawflies, 
wasps, and bees are all useful agents in 
pollination; but sometimes certain beetles 
and flies do more harm than good. Ants 
are invariably hurtful. The bees and wasps 
are the most beneficial, next come the flies, 
followed by the butterflies and moths, while 
the beetles stand last. 

( 6 ) 

In wild or thinly settled regions and in 
small orchards the wild bees are very bene¬ 
ficial; and their visits to plums, cherries, 
blackberries, and in some instances other 
fruits greatly outnumber those of the 
honeybee. But many of the wild bees fly 
only from 30 to 90 days; a part are vernal 
and a part autumnal; and as they build 
their burrows largely in the ground they 
are destroyed or driven away by intensive 
culture. They cannot, therefore, be relied 
upon in extensive fruit plantations for pol¬ 
lination. 


434 FRUIT BLOSSOMS 


(7) 

The pollination of cultivated fruits can 
be controlled with certainty only by the aid 
of honeybees. This has been repeatedly 
pointed out in the preceding pages. It is 
confirmed by the practical experience of 
hundreds of fruit-growers. As these are 
essentially similar and all agree that hon¬ 
eybees are a necessity, it will be sufficient 
to give a few examples. In a remarkable 
statement of Albert Repp of Repp Broth¬ 
ers, owners of an 800-acre fruit farm at 
Gloucester, N. J., he says: 

“I could not do without bees. I never 
take a pound of their honey. All I want 
them to do is to pollinate the blossoms. 
I’d as soon think of managing this orchard 
without a single spray-pump as to be with¬ 
out bees. I’ve got 50 colonies now, and 
am building up the apiary each year.” 

About nine miles north of the plant 
where this work is published is a 50-acre 
apple orchard operated by J. L. Van Rens¬ 
selaer. This orchard for a number of years 
had been neglected in that it had not been 
sprayed nor pruned. Mr. Van Rensselaer 
finally leased it, sprayed and pruned the 
trees, and asked the publishers to put some 
bees on the place, which was done. The 
first year, 16,000 bushels of perfect apples 
were harvested, when, prior to that, scarce¬ 
ly 500 bushels were obtained. Every year 
since that, f^om 10,000 to 15,000 bushels 
have been secured. Mr. Van Rensselaer 
enthusiastically says the bees play a very 
important part in securing these results. 

The apple-growers of the country are 


waking up to the fact that there must be 
bees in the orchards; and beekeepers are 
now having a considerable demand from 
the large fruit-growers for bees for this 
purpose. 

The editors of the various fruit journals, 
among them The Fruit-grower, of Roches¬ 
ter, N. Y., and Better Fruit, Hood River, 
Ore., have a number of times published 
strong editorials in favor of putting bees 
in orchards. Among the leading agricul¬ 
tural journals is the Rural New-Yorker, 
whose editor makes the following state¬ 
ment: “I have seen the certain results of 
the good work of the honeybee in a neigh¬ 
bor’s orchard. Those bees break the trees 
down just as truly as tho they climbed on 
the trees by the million and pulled on 
them. The appearance of those trees after 
a few years of beekeeping would have con¬ 
vinced any fair-minded man that our little 
buzzing friends are true partners of the 
fruit-grower.” 

It is the unanimous opinion of all pro¬ 
gressive fruit-growers that honeybees and 
fruit culture are inseparable. 

( 8 ) 

Besides pollination the fruit crop is in¬ 
fluenced by the weather, the temperature, 
the condition of the soil, and the age of the 
trees. Insect pests, fungous growths, dis¬ 
eases, and spraying the trees while in 
bloom, are also injurious. Cold rainy 
weather, by preventing the flight of in¬ 
sects, interferes with the proper pollina¬ 
tion of the blossoms. 


G 


GALLBERRY (Ilex glabra). —Inkberry. 
Evergreen winterberry. An evergreen 
shrub, 2 to 6 feet tall, with oval or elliptic 
leathery leaves, smooth, shining, deep green 
above, and paler and dull beneath. The 
diffusely branched bushes form dense thick¬ 
ets which withstand the encroachments of 
all other plant growths, and can be passed 
thru with difficulty. The gallberry multi¬ 
plies both by offshoots and by seed, and in 
the southeastern States is rapidly extend¬ 
ing over land which has been recently 
cleared from forest. 

The blooming period lasts for about a 
month beginning with May and closing 
early in June. The small flowers, in a mul¬ 
titude of little clusters, are produced in 
the greatest profusion, and 3000 have been 
counted on a bush with a stem only half 
an inch in diameter. Innumerable sprays 
of white bloom, variegated with green 
leaves, toss and wave in the wind like a 
great foam-crested sea. The flowers are 
largely dioecious, i. e., a part of the bushes 
chiefly staminate and a part mostly pistil¬ 
late flowers; and they are, therefore, de¬ 
pendent on insects for pollination. The 
sterile flowers are in clusters of 3 to 6, 
while the fertile are solitary. The bushes 
begin to bloom the second year. The ber¬ 
ries (drupes) are shining black, and are 
sometimes used for dyeing wool or in 
making a substitute for ink, whence the 
name inkberry. They are also called win¬ 
terberry because they remain on the 
bushes in great numbers during the win¬ 
ter and afford a never-failing food supply 
for birds. Ripe fruit can be found on the 
bushes every month in the year. In the 
spring when they are in full bloom there 
still remain on the branches a part of the 
fruit of the previous year. As the name 
indicates the fruit is very bitter; but to 
some extent the gallberries are eaten by 
birds. 

The gallberry grows in sandy soil along 
or near the coast from eastern Massachu¬ 


setts to Florida and Louisiana. It is the 
most valuable honey plant in the south¬ 
eastern section of the United States, rival¬ 
ing or surpassing the gum trees in the 
amount of honey produced. It covers 
thousands of acres of the sour or acid soil 
of the Coastal Plain where sweet clover, 
white clover, and tobacco will not flourish. 
The limestone soils so necessary to the 
prosperity of the clovers are unfavorable 
to this shrub. Without it there would be 
an immense area of sour soils with no 
honey plant well adapted to the needs of 
bee culture. Upon the surplus secured 
from this species the South is largely de¬ 
pendent for a good table honey. In the 
swampland are found the gum trees, or 
tupelos, while on the higher ground grow 
the gallberry, blackberry, and huckleberry. 
Much of this land can never be drained or 
reclaimed, and will thus always remain in¬ 
viting territory to the beekeeper. So abun¬ 
dantly is the nectar produced that in south¬ 
eastern Georgia the little drops can be 
plainly seen glistening in the flowers. So 
much better and abundant is this source of 
nectar, that honeybees were observed by 
E. R. Root to actually desert the tupelos 
in the height of the honey flow and devote 
their attention wholly to the newly open¬ 
ing bloom of the gallberry. 

The gallberry first becomes important 
as a honey plant in the swamps around 
Norfolk in southeast Virginia where with 
the gum trees it seldom fails to yield a sur¬ 
plus. In Tidewater North Carolina, there 
is a vast area of low land comprising 
20,000 square miles, the eastern half of 
which is not more than 20 feet above sea 
level. Gallberry covers thousands of acres 
along the rivers and bays, blooming from 
May 10 to June 1 and yielding an excel¬ 
lent but rather thin honey, which is liable 
to ferment unless well ripened. 

The Coastal Plain is far superior to any 
other part of the State for beekeeping, and 
“there is practically,” writes the State Spe- 


416 


GLOVES EOR HANDLING BEES 


cialist in Beekeeping, “no limit to the ex¬ 
tent beekeeping can be developed in this 
section.” 

Owing to the much smaller area of 
swampland in South Carolina the gall- 
berry is less important than in North Caro¬ 
lina; but in southeast Georgia it is a very 
common honey plant, and a great yielder 
of nectar. It blooms ten days later than 
in North Carolina. “We iiave never 
failed,” says J. J. Wilder, ‘to get a sur¬ 
plus from it even during the most unfavor¬ 
able weather conditions.” In over half a 
century there is no record of its ever once 
disappointing the beekeeper. The largest 
surplus that has been obtained from a sin¬ 
gle colony is 147 pounds. During the hon¬ 
ey flow the bees disregard all other bloom, 
working for pollen until about eight 
o’clock in the morning, when the flow be¬ 
gins and continues for the remainder of 
the day. The honey is of a light color, 
very heavy, and very mild and pleasant 
in flavor. When free from other sources 
it tastes and looks very much like white 
clover. When it is pure and well ripened 
it has never been known to granulate). 
Wilder declares that he has never known 
a gallberry section to be overstocked, and 
in one location 362 colonies did nearly as 
well as 100. Good gallberry locations in 
Georgia are, in his opinion, nearly num¬ 
berless, and large quantities of this fine 
honey are annually lost for want of bees 
to collect it. Beekeepers often regret that 
fires started by the men engaged in the pro¬ 
duction of turpentine burn the gallberry 
thickets, but a much better growth is thus 
secured the following year. Wilder re¬ 
ports that he makes a practice of burning 
over one-half of the gallberry lands in his 
location once in two or three years. On a 
burned-over section the bushes make a 
rank growth, while on a section not burned 
over they are thin and scattering. 

But a word of warning is given by E. 
R. Root to the northern beekeeper who 
proposes “to go southeast.” He must not 
suppose that there are no obstacles to over¬ 
come or no failures. A large part of this 
remarkable bee country is swampland and 
will aways remains a wilderness. There 
are venomous snakes and hosts of mosqui¬ 
toes and red-bugs; the population is 
sparse; the villages are small and primi¬ 


tive; the country roads are very poor; the 
winters and springs are damp and chilly 
while the summers are very hot; and there 
are few modern conveniences. But there 
is reported to be very little malaria, and 
from most of the dangers and difficulties 
enumerated the adventurous apiarist can 
protect himself. 

Pure gallberry honey has nearly the fla¬ 
vor of white clover; but it differs from 
this blend in that it has a slightly tart re¬ 
action ten to fifteen seconds after it has 
been tasted. Its flavor is often injured by 
an admixture of honey from black titi 
(Cliftonia monophylla), which is abund¬ 
ant in the swamps and blooms a little ear¬ 
lier. 

Swamp gallberry ( Ilex lucida). This 
species is also an evergreen shrub, resem¬ 
bling the common gallberry in leaf, flower, 
and fruit; but it is a little larger, blooms 
a little earlier, and grows in swamps. It 
extends from Virginia to Florida and Lou¬ 
isiana. The honey is very similar to that 
of 1 . glabra, but is reported to be a little 
milder. Other species of Ilex of value to 
the beekeeper are holly (I. opaca ), dahoon 
(I. Cassine), yaupon (I. vomitoria), pos¬ 
sum haw (7. decidua) and black alder (7. 
verticillata) . See Holly, also The Honey 
Plants of North America. 

GLOVES FOR HANDLING BEES.— 

Altho a good many apiarists work with 
bare hands and bare wrists, there are a 
few who prefer to use gloves with long 
wrists, and quite a large number who use 
them with fingers and thumbs cut off. If 
the bees are hybrids, and extracting is car¬ 
ried on during the robbing season, it is a 
great convenience to use something that 
protects the back of the hands and wrists, 
leaving the fingers bare, so that, for all 
practical purposes of manipulation, one 
can work as well with protectors as with¬ 
out. 

Women beekeepers and men who are at 
all timid, and a very small number who 
seem to be seriously affected by even one 
sting, might use gloves to great advan¬ 
tage. 

A very good glove for working among 
bees is one made of kid or dogskin. While 
the sting of a bee will often puncture the 
former, one does not get much more than 


GLUCOSE 


417 


just the prick of the sting'. By removing 
the glove, the sting' is removed automati¬ 
cally. 

Then there is a kind of glove, shown in 
the illustration, made of heavy drilling 



Bee gloves. 

soaked in linseed oil or white-lead paint, 
made specially for the purpose. Some pre¬ 
fer to use them plain or uncoated, but 
where the bees are especially cross, the 
fabric will need to be further reinforced 
with paint or linseed oil. After one be¬ 
comes more familiar with handling bees, 
he can cut off: the finger tips so that the 
fingers themselves come actually in contact 
with the frames. One can work better 
when he can feel as well as see what he is 
doing. 

For further particulars regarding bee- 
dress, see Veils. 

GLUCOSE. —This name is applied to 
the thick viscous liquid obtained by the 
concentration of a solution coming from the 
incomplete hydrolysis of starch. The word 
is misapplied by a great many, especially 
in the sugar-cane belt, for the reducing 
sugars present in the cane. From a purely 
chemical side, glucose means the sugar dex¬ 
trose, so with these various applications of 
the word some little confusion exists. In 
the commercial world, however, the first is 
the accepted meaning of the word. In the 
United States the source of glucose is corn 
starch, but in Germany all is made from 
potato starch. 

Its manufacture consists in the heating 
of the freed starch with water and a small 
percentage of hydrochloric acid under pres¬ 
sure. The process is carefully conducted 
and stopped at the proper point of hydro¬ 
lysis. The liquid is neutralized with soda 
and concentrated to the desired consistency, 
which is a liquid of about 15 to 20 per cent 
14 


water. Formerly sulphuric acid was the 
acid used for conversion; but on account of 
its carrying arsenic its use was stopped. 
The solids of commercial glucose consist of 
about one-third dextrose and two-thirds 
dextrin. The dextrins present in commer¬ 
cial glucose are of a different character 
from those present in floral honey or 
honeydew, and by this property its pres¬ 
ence in honey can be easily detected. 

By increasing the amount of acid, and 
also lengthening the time of heating, prod¬ 
ucts are made which contain more dextrose 
and less dextrin. These are known com¬ 
mercially as “70,” “80,” and “anhydrous 
starch sugar.” They are, for the most 
part, solid. Their use in honey adultera¬ 
tion is very rare, and, if used, their detec¬ 
tion is comparatively easy for a trained 
chemist. 

Commercial glucose is sometimes known 
as corn syrup. 

The ease with which commercial glucose 
can be detected when mixed with honey has 
led to its disuse except in mixtures so la¬ 
beled. See Adulteration of Honey. 

Analysis of American commercial glucose 
according to Bryan, published in the Jour¬ 
nal of the Franklin Institute for October, 
1911, shows the following average, maxi¬ 
mum, and minimum figures: 

Average Maximum Minimum 


Water 

16.47% 

20.00% 

11.95% 

Dextrose 

35.51 

39.56 

30.21 

Mineral Matter 

.52 

.91 

.24 

Undetermined 

47.50 

52.49 

40.46 

Direct Polarizations: 



At 20° O. 

+173.9 

+184.3 

+ 155.8 

At 87° C. 

+ 166.0 

+176.6 

+150.0 

Invert Polarizations: 



At 20° C. 

+173.1 

+ 183.2 

+155.6 

At 87° C. 

+ 163.6 

+ 174.0 

+146.4 


The undetermined matter, so reported, is 
composed of dextrose and partially con¬ 
verted starch products. 

The percentage of dextrose given is really! 
the percentage of reducing (of Fehling so¬ 
lution) bodies calculated as dextrose. It 
may contain the sugar maltose and some 
of the reducible dextrin. 

German glucose, according to Herzfeld, 
published in the above article, shows the 
following: 

Average Maximum Minimum 
Water n 19.7% 20.4% 18.0% 

Dextrose 40.7 47.4 36.5 

Mineral Matter .267 .404 .179 




418 


GOLDENROD 


Polarization: 

Direct at 20° +161.6 +181.2 +149.6 

Invert at 20° +154.7 +161.2 +138.4 

Starch sugars show the following compo¬ 
sition according to Bryan (also given in 
same paper). 

Crystalline sugars (often referred to as 
Anhydrous Sugar) : 



Average Maximum Minimum 

Water 

7.42% 

9.94% 

5.04% 

Dextrose 

86.33 

90.70 

81.52 

Dextrin 

.39 

.54 

.16 

Mineral Matter 

.73 

1.06 

.48 

Undetermined 

Polarization: 

5.13 

7.53 

2.77 

100 grams to 

lOOcc— 




+ 27.89 

+ 28.65 

+27.50 

Dextrose calculated from polarization—- 


91.59% 

94.08% 

90.31% 

“Climax sugar” or 80 sugar: 



Average Maximum Minimum 

Water 

9.84% 

10.61% 

9.06% 

Dextrose 

77.54 

77.84 

77.24 

Dextrin 

1.04 

1.15 

.96 

Mineral Matter 

1.18 

1.18 

1.17 

Undetermined 

Polarization: 

10.40 

10.96 

9.83 

10 grams to 

lOOcc— 




+27.45 

+28.40 

+ 26.50 

Dextrose calculated from polarization— 


90.12% 

93.20% 

87.03% 

“Nabob sugar” or 70 sugar: 



Average Maximum Minimum 

Water 

16.43% 

18.03% 

13.77% 

Dextrose 

69.81 

73.16 

66.60 

Dextrin 

1.17 

2.42 

.57 

Mineral Matter 

.80 

1.12 

.45 

Undetermined 

11.79 

14.35 

9.30 


Polarization: 

10 grams to lOOcc— 

+28.94 +33.45 +24.90 

% dextrose calculated 
from the polarization 

• 95.05 109.85 81.77 

In these tables it is noted that the two 
percentages of dextrose given do not agree. 
That one calculated from the polarization is 
always high on account of the influence of 
the amount of dextrin (this having a larger 
polarization influence than dextrose). 

GOLDENROD ( Solidago .)—The golden- 
rods and asters are the most common and 
conspicuous of autumnal flowers in eastern 
North America. Both genera belong to the 
Compositae, the great family which stands 
at the head of the plant kingdom. The in¬ 
florescence of the Compositae represents 
Nature’s greatest triumph in flower-build¬ 
ing. Intercrossing by insects, economy of 


time and material, a large number of seeds 
well adapted to germinate, and their wide 
distribution have all been very perfectly 
secured. The individual flower is small and 
of little significance as compared with the 
community. Conspicuousness is gained by 
massing a large number of flowers in a head 
or capitulum, an arrangement which per¬ 
mits insects to visit them very rapidly. 
While in the common whiteweed, or daisy, 
the number of florets may exceed 500, in 
the head of the goldenrod there are only 
from 16 to 30, according to the species; 
e. g., in the cream-colored goldenrod ( S. 
bicolor ) there are about 16 ray and 14 disc 
florets, and in the tall hairy goldenrod 
( S. rugosa ) about 8 ray and 6 disc florets. 

The stately and beautiful genus of gold- 
enrods begins to bloom at midsummer, or 
earlier in the case of the early goldenrod, 
and in November there are still visible the 
flower clusters of the Canada goldenrod 
and the tall hairy goldenrod, while the salt 
marsh goldenrod may prolong the season 
until December. There are about 85 de¬ 
scribed species, confined chiefly to North 
America, with a few in South America and 
Europe. Fifty'species occur north of Ten¬ 
nessee and east of the Rocky Mountains. 
They are closely allied, often hybridize, and 
are difficult to distinguish. There is a form 
adapted to almost every kind of location. 
The woodland goldenrod (S. caesia ) is 
found in open woodlands, the field golden¬ 
rod ( S. nemoralis) is very common in dry 
fields, the rock goldenrod ( S. rupestris) 
prefers rocky situations, the swamp gold-’ 
enrod ( S. neglecta ) lives in swamps, while 
the seaside goldenrod ( S. sempervirens ) 
thrives in salt marshes. 

Altho the individual heads are so small 
conspicuousness is gained by massing them 
in great plume-like clusters or panicles. 
Their bright yellow color renders them vis¬ 
ible both by day and evening; and as the 
temperature at night is several degrees 
above the surrounding air they sometimes 
serve as a temporary refuge for insects. 
The floral tube is very short, seldom over 
one millimeter in length, so that there are 
few insects which are unable to gather the 
nectar. In Wisconsin Graenicher has taken 
on the early goldenrod (S. juncea) 182 dif¬ 
ferent species of bees, wasps, flies, butter¬ 
flies, and beetles either sucking or collect- 


goldenrod 


419 


ing or feeding on pollen; and on the Can¬ 
ada goldenrod (S. canadensis) 141 visitors. 
The honeybee visits the florets so rapidly 
that the number of visits per minute can¬ 
not be counted. A large amount of pollen 
is gathered both by the domestic bee and 
by wild bees. So abundant, indeed, are 
the flowers, and so ample the stores of pol- 


waste lands, and are almost the sole de¬ 
pendence of the beekeeper for winter 
stores. The bees work on the flowers with 
great eagerness, and the activity in the 
apiary equals that of the midsummer hon¬ 
ey flow. In Massachusetts a marketable 
surplus, according to Burton N. Gates, is 
often taken in September. Allen Latham 



Hairy goldenrod. 


len and nectar that four or five of our 
native wild bees, which fly only in autumn, 
never visit any other plants. Some of the 
goldenrods are pleasantly scented. Others 
are nearly odorless. 

In New England many species of gold¬ 
enrod grow luxuriantly in pasture and 


states that once in three or four years 
strong colonies in his apiary on Cape Cod 
would store upward of a hundred pounds 
from fall flowers. In southern Maine the 
bees never fail to fill many frames with 
goldenrod honey, which because of its 
golden-yellow color and fine flavor is pre- 




420 


GOLDENROD 


ferred by many persons to white honey. 
In other sections, as the South and West, 
it is of less importance; but it comes at a 
time of the year when it helps to keep the 
bees busy, and at the same time serves to 
make up the loss in stores during the lat¬ 
ter part of the summer. 



The species most common and valuable 
to Eastern beekeepers are sweet-scented 
goldenrod (S. odora ), early goldenrod ( S. 
juncea), field goldenrod (S. nemoralis ), 
Canada goldenrod ( S. canadensis), late 
goldenrod (S. serotina) , tall hairy golden¬ 
rod (S. rugosa ), and in great abundance in 
salt marshes and along sea-beaches, the sea¬ 
side goldenrod ( 8 . sempervirens). Unlike 
most of the other species the inflorescence 
of the common bushy goldenrod ( S . gram- 
ini folia) is in large flat-topped clusters or 
corymbs. It is one of the best nectar-yield- 
ers, and a favorite with honeybees. Once 
in a woodland pasture largely overgrown 
with the hairy goldenrod (S. rugosa) a 
dozen or more plants of the bushy golden¬ 
rod were found. Honeybees were the only 
insects present, and they showed a marked 
preference for the bushy goldenrod. They 
were repeatedly seen to leave the latter 
species; and after flying about, but not 
resting on the flowers of the hairy golden¬ 
rod, return to the plants they had left a 
few moments before. A plant of each of 
the above species was bent over so that 


their blossoms were intermingled, appear¬ 
ing as a single cluster; a honeybee alight¬ 
ed on the bushy goldenrod, and it seemed 
very probable that it would pass over to 
the flowers of the hairy goldenrod, but 
such was not the case, for presently it 
flew away to another plant of the former. 
The flowers have a sweet fragrance, and 
are visited by over a hundred different 
species of insects. All the goldenrods in 
New England yield nectar, altho the early 
goldemmd ( S . juncea) seems to be of less 
value than some of the later kinds; but, 
singularly enough, at Marengo, Illinois, 
they are of little importance to the bee¬ 
keeper. 

The quantity of nectar secreted by the 
goldenrods varies greatly in different local¬ 
ities. They are most valuable as honey 
plants in New England and Canada. In a 
large part of New England beekeeping is 
chiefly dependent on this genus of plant 
and the clovers, and in the absence of eith¬ 
er group would yield little profit. The 
goldenrods are also abundant in Nova Sco¬ 
tia and New Brunswick and in parts of 
Quebec, Ontario, and Manitoba. They 
yield nectar freely, and 40 or more pounds 



of honey per colony from this source may 
be obtained, but usually it is mixed with 
aster honey. This genus is also listed among 
the honey plants of British Columbia, 
Michigan, and Tennessee, and is widely 
distributed in New York, New Jersey, and 









GRADING COMB HONEY 


421 


other eastern States, altho not of great 
importance. It is apparently of more 
value in Florida, Louisiana, and Texas. 

But in the white clover belt, in Iowa, Illi¬ 
nois, and the adjoining States, the golden- 
rods yield little or no nectar. Great masses 
of the clustered flowers are visited only oc¬ 
casionally by bees. The conditions which 
produce the secretion of a great amount of 
nectar in white clover do not produce the 
same results in the case of goldenrod. In 
the arid cactus region of the Southwest, 
and in the semiarid region of the Rocky 
Mountain Highlands these plants are either 
absent or no help to the beekeeper. Again, 
in California they are the source of a small 
amount of honey. In New England the 
bushy goldenrod (S. graminifolia) and the 
tall hairy goldenrod ( S. rugosa) yield the 
most nectar; in Canada, S. squarrosa and 
S. puberula; and in California S. califor- 
nica and S. occidentalis. 

While the bees are bringing in the nec¬ 
tar, the whole apiary is filled with a dis¬ 
agreeable sour smell, which on a calm eve¬ 
ning can easily be perceived at a distance 
of 100 feet. The odor observed during a 
goldenrod honey flow has sometimes been 
likened to that of decaying carrion, but 
this is a mistake. When such an odor is 
present in the apiary, it is caused in most 
cases by one or more stinkhorn fungi 
(Phallus impudicus). Where there is de¬ 
caying organic matter, as near old stumps, 
these fungi frequently spring up in the 
fall. They exhale a strong fetid scent like 
putrefying carrion, which may easily mis¬ 
lead the beekeeper, as we have learned by 
experience. The stem is hollow, and the 
caplike top deliquesces into a sticky, semi¬ 
liquid mass, filled with spores, which is 
very attractive to carrion flies. The flies 
feed on the thick syrup and thus become 
an agent in distributing the spores. As 
soon as the fungi are removed the carrion¬ 
like odor disappears. The sour smell of 
the nectar also vanishes in a few days. 

Goldenrod honey is very thick and heavy 
with the golden-yellow color of the blos¬ 
soms. The quality is poor when first 
stored, but when capped and thoroly rip¬ 
ened the flavor is rich and pleasant. It is 
the general testimony of New England 
beekeepers that many persons prefer this 
honey to any other. They regard its color, 


body, and flavor as the qualities of an ideal 
honey. W T hen served on a plate for table 
use it is hardly less attractive than white- 
clover Honey. Its genuineness is never 
questioned. But the flavor is stronger than 
that of white clover, which would probably 
be given the preference by the majority as 
the great universal staple to be used with 
bread and butter. Extracted goldenrod 
honey crystallizes with a coarse grain in 
about two months. 

Goldenrod seldom fails to yield freely 
even in cold and wet weather, but it does 
exceptionally well during a warm dry fall. 
The honey has always proven an excellent 
winter food for bees, and without it there 
would be little hope for bee culture in New 
England. So far as the beekeeper is con¬ 
cerned goldenrod is well named, and it 
would be a want of gratitude on his part 
not to uphold its claims as our national 
flower. 

GRADING COMB BONEY.— The aver¬ 
age comb-honey producer, unless he sells 
his product thru an association of beekeep¬ 
ers, either does not grade his honey at all, 
or else does it so poorly that it is not wor¬ 
thy of the name of grading. One large 
dealer in honey, who buys and sells hun¬ 
dreds of thousands of dollars’ worth every 
year, makes the statement that practically 
all the comb honey that comes into his 
hands must be regraded before it is fit to 
send out; and, of course, he has to charge 
this up to the producer. Even beekeepers 
who are supposed to be up to date, he 
says, apparently pay very little attention 
to this important matter. A poorly graded 
honey, or one that is not graded at all, 
brings two to three cents less per pound on 
the whole shipment. If the producer 
has not the time, he could easily find some 
one who would be willing to do such work 
for him for about half a cent a pound. As 
a rule the grading should be done by some 
member of the family, or some one inter¬ 
ested in the sale of the honey. A hired 
man is inclined to be careless, and a poor 
grader reacts on his employer. 

Ordinary marketable comb honey can be 
divided into three or four classes: Fancy, 
No. 1, and No. 2, or choice. Nothing but 
fancy should be put into the fancy, and 
nothing but No. 1 in No, 1. The author 


422 


GRADING COMB HONEY 



Honey sent by the Ontario Beekeepers’ Association to the late King Edward. Note .—This wonld grade as 

Extra Fancy by the Root grading rules. 


lias personally inspected thousands of 
pounds of comb honey that had gone to 
market, and it is certainly surprising how 
some of the intelligent producers will mix 
the fancy among the No. 1 and the No. 1 
among the fancy, and even go so far as to 
put choice among the fancy. This disgusts 
the buyer or commission merchant, and, of 
course, he charges up the cost of regrading 
to the producer. Or if he does not grade 
the honey over, it is sent out directly 
to the consumer or retail merchant, who 
will pay at least two or three cents a pound 
less because the honey is of such uneven 
quality. 

In order to get the largest price possible 
for comb honey, it will be necessary to 
grade it; and the more thoroly and honest¬ 
ly the work is done, the higher will be the 
price secured. If one is careless in grading 
there will be inferior sections mixed in with 
sections of a higher grade; and, if the com¬ 
mission man or buyer discovers this, he is 
likely to “knock down the price” of the 
whole easeful to the price of the inferior 


sections. It is very important to have 
every section in a case of the same grade. 

Not much will be accomplished if there 
are a dozen different systems or rules of 
grading. Various rules have been adopted 
by the National Beekeepers' Association; 
but they have never been accepted by the 
large buyers and commission men of the 
country; nor have they received the gen¬ 
eral indorsement of even the beekeepers 
themselves. The great difficulty encoun¬ 
tered has been the diversity of conditions 
and variety of notions on the part of the 
producer. For example, one section of the 
country will have only white honey; an¬ 
other will have largely amber and dark. 
One locality prefers double-tier shipping 
cases; another single-tier. Some beekeepers 
prefer plain sections, and others want bee- 
way. The Colorado beekeepers prefer 
double-tier cases and 1%-keeway square 
sections. Under these diverse conditions it 
is a little difficult to get an agreement on 
one set of rules covering the whole coun¬ 
try. However, the Colorado beekeepers 


















GRADING COMB HONEY 


423 


have adopted a set of rules which, with 
some slight modifications from time to 
time, have been accepted and used by the 
beekeepers thruput the great West and to 
some extent in the East. After the new 
net-weight law went into effect, the rules 
were modified in that provision was made 
for weight of honey in a section exclusive 
of section and shipping case. The revised 
rules, as put out in February, 1915, by the 
Colorado Honey Producers’ Association, 
are as follows: 

COMB HONEY. 

Fancy .—Sections to be well filled, combs 
firmly attached on all sides and evenly cap¬ 
ped except the outside row next to the wood. 
Honey, comb, and cappings white, or slight¬ 
ly off color; combs not projecting beyond 
the wood; sections to be well cleaned. No 
section in this grade to weigh less than 1214 
oz. net or 1314 gross. The top of each sec¬ 
tion in this grade must be stamped, “Net 
weight not less than 1214 oz.” 

The front sections in each case must be of 
uniform color and finish, and shall be a true 
representation of the contents of the case. 

Number One .—Sections to be well filled, 
combs firmly attached, not projecting be¬ 
yond the wood, and entirely capped except 
the outside row next to the wood. Honey, 
comb, and cappings from white to light 
amber in color; sections to be well cleaned. 
No section in this grade to weigh less than 
11 oz. net or 12 oz. gross. The top of each 
section in this grade must be stamped, “Net 
weight not less than 11 oz. ” The front 
sections in each case must be of uniform 
color and finish, and shall be a true repre¬ 
sentation of the contents of the case. 

Number Two .—-This grade is composed of 
sections that are entirely capped except 
row next to the wood, weighing not less 
than 10 oz. net or 11 oz. gross; also of such 
sections as weigh 11 oz. net or 12 oz. gross, 
or more, and have not more than 50 un¬ 
capped cells altogether, which must be 
filled with honey; honey, comb, and cap¬ 
pings from white to amber in color; sec¬ 
tions to be well cleaned. The top of each 
section in this grade must be stamped, 
“Net weight not less than 10 oz.” The 
front sections in each case must be of uni¬ 
form color and finish, and shall be a true 
representation of the contents of the case. 

Comb honey that is not permitted in ship¬ 
ping grades: 

Honey packed in second-hand cases. 

Honey in badly stained or mildewed sec¬ 
tions. 

Honey showing signs of granulation. 

Leaking, injured, or patched-up sections. 

Sections containing honeydew. 

Sections with more than 50 uncapped cells, 
or a less number of empty cells. 


Sections weighing less than the minimum 
weight. 

All such honey should be disposed of in 
the home market. 

EXTRACTED HONEY. 

This must be thoroly ripened, weighing 
not less than 12 lbs. per gallon. It must be 
well strained, and packed in new cans; 60 
lbs. shall be packed in each five-gallon can, 
and the top of each five-gallon can shall be 
stamped or labeled, “Net weight not less 
than 60 lbs.” 

Extracted honey is classed as white, light 
amber, and amber. The letters “W,” “L. 
A.,” “A” should be used in designating 
color; and these letters should be stamped 
on top of each can. Extracted honey for 
shipping must be packed in new substantial 
cases of proper size. 

STRAINED HONEY. 

This must be well ripened, weighing not 
less than 12 lbs. per gallon. It must be well 
strained; and, if packed in five-gallon cans, 
each can shall contain 60 pounds. The top 
of each five-gallon can shall be stamped and 
labeled, “Net weight not less than 60 lbs.” 
Bright clean cans that previously contained 
honey may be used for strained honey. 

HONEY NOT PERMITTED IN SHIPPING GRADES. 

Extracted honey packed in second-hand 
cans. 

Unripe or fermenting honey weighing less 
than 12 lbs., per gallon. 

Honey contaminated by excessive use of 
smoke. 

Honey contaminated by honeydew. 

Honey not properly strained. 

As stated, the revised rules are modified 
to conform to the federal net-weight law, 
which specifies that only the comb and 
honey inside of the section and not the 
section and honey shall be the measure of 
the quantity sold by weight. Formerly the 
section surrounding the comb was included. 
Under the old rules it was permissible to 
sell the gross weight of the section and the 
honey at so much per pound. It will be 
noted, therefore, that the new Colorado 
grading rules specify the minimum weight, 
net, and one ounce more gross, as the sec¬ 
tions weigh approximately one ounce. 

Before a limit was placed on the weight 
of the sections, producers put up their 
honey in haphazard ways. Heavy and light 
sections—good, bad, and indifferent in 
other respects—were all put together in 
one case. This caused no end of com¬ 
plaint. Under the new set of rules, this is 
impossible. 


424 


GRADING COMB HONEY 


Producers of the country, after the fed¬ 
eral net-weight law went into effect, Septem¬ 
ber, 1914, were compelled to mark every sec¬ 
tion by weight. Sections that are approxi¬ 
mately of the same weight are put in a class 
by themselves. But no section in that weight 
shall be less than a certain definite figure 
in ounces. For instance, under the Colorado 
grading rules, for “Fancy,” no section 
may weigh less than 12% ounces net or 
13% ounces gross. In grade No. 1 the 
figures stand respectively 11 and 12 
ounces; in No. 2, 10 and 11 ounces. 

The operation of the federal net-weight 
law at first caused a general grumbling on 
the part of the producer and the dealer 
alike; but the result has been salutary, be¬ 
cause the dealer and the consumer now 
know exactly for what their money is pay¬ 
ing. While the producer at first lost a lit¬ 
tle because any weight in excess of the min¬ 
imum figure was given to the consumer, the 
producer soon learned that it was necessary 
for him to charge enough, more for his 
product to cover one ounce per section. 

The “fancy” grade provides that the 
comb shall be “firmly attached on all sides 
and evenly capped”; No. 1 grade provides 
that comb shall be “firmly attached, not 
projecting beyond the edge.” The No. 2 
grade makes no statement as to how the 
combs are to be attached, but still provides 
that “it shall be entirely capped except the 
row of cells next to the wood.” 

The revised rules provide, also, that hon¬ 
ey must not be packed in second-hand 
cases nor in badly stained or mildewed 
sections. It must not show any signs of 
granulation or leaks; must contain no hon- 
eydew, and must not have an undue 
amount of cells uncapped. 

While these rules are perhaps adequate 
for the great bulk of comb honey produced, 
they are not quite flexible enough to take in 
honey that will be above the Colorado 
“Fancy” and No. 1 grade. The A. I. Root 
Company have the following set of rules 
which, it will be observed, provide for 
“extra fancy,” fancy, No.l, and No. 2. 

In harmony with the federal net-weight 
regulations and the statutes of many States, 
all comb honey we handle is figured with the 
weight of the section box as well as the case 
excluded. To get the net weight, deduct the 
weight of the empty case and 1 lb. 8 oz. for 
the weight of 24 sections (1 oz. each). 


COMB HONEY. 

Extra Fauci /.—Sections to be evenly filled, 
combs firmly attached to the four sides, the 
sections to be free from propolis or other 
pronounced stain, combs and cappings white, 
and not more than six unsealed cells on 
either side. No section in this grade to 
weigh'less than 14 oz. net. Cases must av¬ 
erage not less than 22 lbs. net. 

Fancy .—Sections to be evenly filled, comb 
firmly attached to the four sides, the sec¬ 
tions free from propolis or other pronounced 
stain; comb and cappings white, and not 
more than six unsealed cells on either side 
exclusive of the outside row. No section in 
this grade to weigh less than 13 oz. net. 
Cases must average not less than 21 lbs. 
net. 

No. I .—Sections to be evenly filled, comb 
firmly attached to the four sides, the sec¬ 
tions free from propolis or other pronounced 



Fancy comb in 4 x 5 plain sections. 


stain; comb and cappings white to slightly 
off color, and not more than 40 unsealed 
cells, exclusive of the outside row. No sec¬ 
tion in this grade to weigh less than 11 oz. 
Cases must average not less than 20 lbs. 
net. 

No. 2 .—Combs not projecting beyond the 
box, attached to the sides not less than two- 
thirds of the way around, and not more than 
60 unsealed cells exclusive of the row adja¬ 
cent to the box. No section in this grade to 
weigh less than 10 oz. net. Cases must aver¬ 
age not less than 18 lbs. net. 


















GRADING COMB HONEY 


425 


CULL COMB HONEY. 

Cull honey shall consist of the following: 
Honey packed in solid second-hand cases or 
that in badly stained or propolized sections; 
sections containing pollen, honeydew honey, 
honey showing signs of granulation, poorly 
ripened, sour, or “ weeping” honey; sec¬ 
tions with combs projecting beyond the box 
or well attached to the box less than two- 
thirds the distance around its inner surface; 
sections with more than 60 unsealed cells, 
exclusive of the row adjacent to the box; 
leaking, injured^ or patched-up sections; 
sections weighing less than 10 oz. net. 

EXTRACTED HONEY. 

This must be well ripened, weighing not 
less than 12 lbs. per gallon. It must be well 
strained, and, if packed in five-gallon cans, 
each can shall contain 60 lbs. The top of 
each five-gallon can shall be stamped and 
labeled, “Net weight not less than 60 lbs.” 
Bright clean cans that previously contained 
clean light honey may be used for extracted 
honey. 

EXTRACTED HONEY NOT PERMITTED IN 
SHIPPING GRADES. 

Extracted honey packed in second-hand 
cans, except as permitted above. 

Unripe or fermenting honey, or weighing 
less than 12 lbs. per gallon. 

Honey contaminated by excessive use of 
smoke. 

Honey contaminated by honeydew. 

Honey not properly strained. 

It will be noted that while these rules 
are somewhat similar to the Colorado rules, 
they go further in providing an “extra 
fancy” or sections weighing not less than 
14 ounces net, and a case not less than 22 
lbs. net. That of course means some of the 
combs will weigh more than 14 ounces in 
order to bring up the entire weight to 22 
pounds. The “fancy” grade goes a little 
further than the Colorado fancy in making 
the net weight % ounce higher, and provid¬ 
ing that the weight of all sections in the 
case shall not be less than 21 pounds net. 
This means that the average weight will be 
exactly 14 ounces. This provision of the 
net weight per case puts the grading where 
many producers will not or cannot meet it; 
but if they can they will get paid for it, as 
there is a fancy trade that is willing to pay 
for a high standard. 

There is no doubt that the Colorado rules 
as written will cover 95 per cent of all comb 
honey produced; but they do not coa er 
special lots that will meet certain require¬ 


ments* and for which a correspondingly 
higher price will be secured. 

GRADING BY PICTURES. 

Some effort has been made to grade 
honey by means of-pictures; but nothing 
definite has been accomplished, as it is 
difficult to make photos flexible enough to 
take in the various comb surfaces and cap¬ 
pings of honey that can be included in one 
grade. It is possible engravings may be 
used in connection with the rules, to enable 
one to determine what section will grade 
Fancy, No. 1, and No. 2. It must be un¬ 
derstood that different persons would have 
a different notion as to whether one section 
should be graded as No. 1 or Fancy, and 
a set of pictures showing the idea of an 
expert on grading might be helpful to. a 
novice. A few half tones are here shown 
that may give an idea of what is meant. 
But it should be understood that in the 
pictures the unsealed cells show black — 
much more in contrast than in the actual 
combs themselves; or, to put it another 
way, in any thing but an extra fancy, 
where no empty cells show, the pictorial 
representations do not show up as well as 
the real article. 

The honey sent to the late King Edward 
would be what is called “extra fancy 
white,” according to the Root grading, for 
it is white honey put up in plain sections, 
and, as the illustration shows, it is evenly 
and nicely filled. When cells next to the 
wood are all sealed, or nearly so, it should 
be designated as “extra fancy”; but as 
such comb honey is the exception rather 
than the rule there will be very little “extra 
fancy” on the market, altho such honey is 
generally shown at exhibitions when com¬ 
peting for a prize. 

In the half-tone engraving above shown 
the honey in the top case, with its sample 
section opposite, would, by the Root grad¬ 
ing, grade Fancy; that in the middle case 
Fancy or No. 1, according to the amount 
of soiled surface, and that in the bottom 
case would be about No. 2. 

travel-stained and other soiled 
SECTIONS. 

There are really four classes of discol¬ 
ored sections, each due to a distinct and 
separate cause. T irst there is what is 


426 


GRANULATED HONEY 



Grading rules illustrated. 


called the real travel-stained section. As 
its name indicates, the cappings are soiled 
because the bees have gone over the sur¬ 
faces of the cappings with their dirty feet. 

Then there is another lot that are stained 
because the sections are capped over in 
the vicinity of old comb, dirt, or propolis. 
If the faces of such sections are examined 
carefully, it will be found that the stain or 
discoloration goes clear thru. These dis¬ 
colorations are due to the bees taking up 
pieces of old black wax, propolis, or any¬ 
thing that will answer as a substitute or 
filler for pure wax. The cappings of some 
sections of this sort are filled with bits of 
old rope, lint from newspapers, small hard 
chunks of propolis, fine slivers of wood— 
anything and everything that is handy. 
Sections of this class often look like those 
of the first class, hence the frequent con¬ 
fusion. 

In the third class are those with soiled 
cappings, due to the pollen dust or possibly 
a thin layer of propolis stain. 

The fourth and last class takes in all 
those that are called “greasy” or “water- 
soaked,” having cappings that lie on the 
honey. The covering to each cell is more 
or less transparent, or water-soaked—the 


transparent part being half-moon shaped, 
or in the form of a ring encircling a white 
nucleus center that is not greasy nor trans¬ 
parent. 

GRANULATED HONEY.— Nearly all 
kinds of liquid honey, and most comb 
honey, if given time enough, are liable to 
cloud and partially solidify at the ap¬ 
proach of or after cold weather; that is, 
it assumes a granular mealy condition 
something like moist fipe white granulated 
sugar. The granules of candied honey 
may be about the size of grains of ordinary 
table salt, or they may be much finer. 
Comb honey granulates less readily than 
extracted, and only after a much longer 
period. While cold weather is much more 
conducive to solidification, yet in some lo¬ 
calities, and with some honeys especially, 
the granulation takes on the semi-solid 
form even in warm, weather. Some hon¬ 
eys will candy in a month after being 
taken from the comb, and others will re¬ 
main liquid for two years. The honey 
most likely to candy is extracted alfalfa, 
the action taking place in from three to 
five months. Mountain sage from Cali¬ 
fornia and tupelo from Florida remain 















granulated honey 


427 


liquid for a year or longer. Ordinary comb 
honey in sections, if well ripened, will usu¬ 
ally remain liquid as long as the weather 
is warm. After that time, especially if it 
has been subjected to cold, there are likely 
to be a few scattered granules in each cell. 
These gradually increase in number until 
the comb, honey, and wax’ become almost 
one solid mass. In such condition it is un¬ 
suitable for the market, the table, or for 
feeding back, and should be treated by 
the plan described farther on. See Comb 
Honey, to Produce. 

IS GRANULATION A TEST OF PURITY? 

In the eyes of the general public, granu¬ 
lated honey is not pure, many thinking it 
has been “sugared,” either with brown or 
white sugar. But the very fact that it 
granulates solid is one of the best proofs 
of its purity. If honey granulates only 
partially, in streaks, it may be evidence 
that it has been adulterated with glucose. 
But even pure honey will assume this con¬ 
dition, while honey that is nearly two- 
thirds or three-quarters glucose granulates 
very little. Here, again, it must not be 
taken as positive evidence that, because 
honey refuses to granulate, or does so only 
slightly, therefore it is adulterated. The 
purity of any honey can usually be deter¬ 
mined thru the taste by an expert bee¬ 
keeper who has tested various grades of 
honey and knows their general flavor. But, 
again, even taste must not be considered as 
infallible. Doubts can be removed only by 
referring a sample or samples to an expert 
chemist. See Adulteration of Honey. 

CAUSE OF GRANULATION. 

As already stated, the primal cause of 
granulation is alternation of cold and warm 
weather. During any very cold tempera¬ 
ture, prolonged for days, honey probably 
would not candy at all, but chill into a 
hard waxy mass, readily softening again 
in a warm atmosphere. Honeys that con¬ 
tain a larger amount of dextrose granulate 
more readily than where the reverse is 
true. Stirring or violent agitation hastens 
granulation; and if some granulated honey 
is mixed with ordinary liquid extracted, the 
action is likewise hastened; for when honey 
once starts to cloud, the process goes on 
very rapidly, altho it may take from ten 


days to six months for the honey to pass 
entirely from the liquid condition into 
solid. 

Under Bottling reference is made to the 
method of preventing from granulating 
by the use of heat. For full particulars 
regarding this, see Bottling Honey. 

THE SCIENCE OF GRANULATION. 

While no one knows very much as yet 
about the theory of honey granulating, yet 
it is known that, while the nectar of flow¬ 
ers may be, chemically, cane sugar, yet 
after it has been stored in the hive by the 
bees, and partially digested or worked over 
as explained under Honey elsewhere, it 
becomes an invert sugar. Ordinary honey 
is a combination of dextrose and levulose, 
in approximately equal portions, with a 
little water. “Honey candies upon stand¬ 
ing,” says Dr. Headen, of the Colorado 
Experiment Station at Fort Collins, “be¬ 
cause of the ability of its dextrose to as¬ 
sume a crystalline form much more readily 
than the levulose.” At the Colorado State 
beekeepers’ convention some years ago he 
showed samples of free dextrose and levu¬ 
lose. The former looked like very nice 
light-colored brown sugar; the latter ap¬ 
peared like a cheap grade of dark-colored 
molasses. The doctor explained that, if 
granulated honey were subjected to a suf¬ 
ficient pressure, the greater portion of the 
levulose could be obtained, leaving the 
solid mass largely dextrose. The levulose 
of honey candies slighty, but is very dif¬ 
ferent in appearance from its dextrose con¬ 
stituent. 

freaks of honey-granulating. 

This problem of honey-granulating is 
very interesting. It sometimes happens 
that of two lots taken from the same barrel 
or can, and placed in two self-sealing pack¬ 
ages, the honey in one will soon granulate 
while in the other it will remain liquid, 
notwithstanding that both packages have 
been subjected to the same temperature and 
general conditions. If this happened in 
the case of sealed packages only, it might 
be inferred that the sealing of one pack¬ 
age was less perfect than the other; but 
that the candying does not depend on the 
sealing altogether is shown by the fact that 
the two lots of honey may not be sealed at 


428 


GRANULATED HONEY 


all, and yet one of them turns to a solid 
while the other remains liquid. These in¬ 
stances are by no means frequent; indeed, 
they are rare; yet they occur just often 
enough to excite curiosity. 

The author has seen alfalfa honey after 
it had been in glass jars seven years, and 
was told that it had candied solid within a 
few months after being taken from the ex- 
tracting-cans. At the time (seven years 
after), it was going back to the liquid con¬ 
dition. Some cans were almost entirely 
liquid, and others had streaks of granula¬ 
tion reaching out like the branches.of an 
evergreen tree all thru the package. There 
was every evidence to show that so far it 
had undergone a slight chemical change. 
This change was doubtless due to the con¬ 
tinued effect of light upon the granules. 

HEATING LIQUID HONEY TO PREVENT 
GRANULATION. 

There is no plan that will act as an abso¬ 
lute preventive, but granulation can be de¬ 
ferred for one or two years. Even after 
treatment, if the honey is subjected to a 
freezing and thawing temperature for a 
series of days, it will be almost sure to 
start candying again. Continuous cold 
weather with the mercury slightly above 
zero is not so favorable as alternate cold 
and warm weather. 

After the first few days the honey will 
appear slightly cloudy. This murky ap¬ 
pearance grows more pronounced when the 
action proceeds more rapidly, until the 
point of solidification is reached. But there 
is no excuse for having honey at any time, 
either comb or extracted, kept in a zero or 
freezing temperature; for all practical pur¬ 
poses it is possible to prevent extracted 
honey from granulation for a year on the 
average. 

HEATING TO LIQUEFY GRANULATED HONEY. 

There are two methods of heating honey. 
One is, to put it in a double boiler or vat 
and gradually raise the temperature to 150 
or 160 degrees Fahr., holding it at that 
point till all the honey is melted. It should 
then be put into bottles or tin cans, and 
sealed while hot. Another plan is to lique¬ 
fy the granulated honey slowly, and keep 
it at a temperature of 130 degrees Fahr. 
for three days. It should not go above 


135 degrees when the heat is prolonged. 
The process of melting will be very slow, 
and a continuous slow heat so acts on the 
honey that it will remain liquid much long¬ 
er than when the heat is applied more 
rapidly and ,raised to a higher point. 

For full particulars on bottling honey to 
keep it in a liquid condition, see Bottling 
Honey. 

To liquefy honey in a granulated state, 
or to heat it to prevent its getting into 
that condition, the honey should be placed 
in a double boiler—that is to say, a tank 
with double walls, having the space be¬ 
tween the walls filled with water. This 
may be placed on the stove and filled with 
honey. 

Where one doesn’t have such a boiler, 
and cannot afford one, he can make a very 
good substitute by taking a large wash- 
boiler. Into this he puts some blocks about 
an inch square. On these blocks he places 
one or possibly two 60-lb. square cans of 
granulated honey, with caps removed. Or 
he may put in two or three tin pails, or as 
many as will go into the boiler. Should he 
have something larger than a wash-boiler 
it would be all the better, especially for 
square cans. The honey is then poured 
into the tin pails. If granulated solid in 
a barrel it may be handled with a spade 
after removing the head. Water is poured 
into the wash-boiler until it comes within 
two inches of the top of the pails. The 
whole is then placed on the stove, and 
subjected to a slow heat. When the water 
reaches a temperature of 160, or nearly 
that, the fire is checked; the honey should 
not become any hotter because it may oth¬ 
erwise injure the flavor as well as the 
color. Honey should never be brought to 
a boiling temperature except to kill the 
germs of foul brood, when all such honey 
may be fed back provided it has boiled at 
least one-half hour with a cover on, after 
having been first thinned down with water, 
so it will not burn. Some recommend 
again bringing to a boil just before feed¬ 
ing. 

C. W. Dayton of Chatsworth, Cal., has 
another and very simple outfit to liquefy 
honey. As it can be made out of mate¬ 
rials found in any beekeeper’s yard, at 
very small cost, many will, perhaps, prefer 
it to the double boiler. 


GRANULATED HONEY 


429 


As will be seen from the following cut, 
Mr. Dayton makes use of second-hand 60- 
pound square cans. He cuts off the top at 
a convenient height, then washes out the 
cans thoroly. For the purpose of liquefy¬ 
ing he uses eight on top of an ordinary 
cookstove. To keep the honey from burn- 



Dayton’s outfit for liquefying honey. 


ing he gets some band iron, % x 3-16, at 
some hardware store, and makes a series 
of hoops on which the cans are to stand 
while heating. Eight of them are placed 
together as shown; then, to conserve the 
heat further, a tin cover large enough to 
slip down over the whole is provided. 

With the help of this outfit Mr. Dayton 
says he can melt up 200 lbs. of honey in a 
very short time. These cans would be 
more convenient to handle, were he to take 
heavy wire, make some bails and hook 
them into holes punched on two opposite 
sides. He would then have a very service¬ 
able pail at a small cost. When the honey 
is melted, he could lift it off the stove and 
pour it into some other receptacle from the 
corner of the cans. This corner makes 
the finest kind of pitcher mouth. 

pouder’s method of liquefying. 

Undoubtedly the best arrangement for 
liquefying granulated honey in square 
cans is that formerly used by Walter S. 
Pouder. Here is what he says of it: 

For years I have depended upon the hot- 
water tank for melting five-gallon cans of 
granulated honey, but have found many in¬ 
conveniences connected with the method, 
and have been obliged to adopt a safer and 
speedier method. To take care of the ex¬ 
pansion I have used siphons, coal-oil pumps, 
funnels soldered to perforated screw caps, 
and other methods, but have always found 
a lack of tidiness; and in some instances we 


have ruined very superior honey by over¬ 
heating. If we overlooked a nail-hole near 
the bottom of the can we would find a can 
of sweetened water instead of honey; and 
in lifting heated cans from the water I have 
had the handles pull off; and the can, in 
falling back, would cause the hot water to 
slop over and scald my toes till I have se¬ 
riously wished I did not have to dabble in 
honey at all. 

I have longed for a method in which the 
liquid honey would flow away from the heat 
as fast as it became fluid, and at last I have 
such a device in use, and I believe many 
readers of this work will be interested. It 
is simply a gas oven, made of heavy galvan¬ 
ized sheet iron, and of a capacity for six 
cans, three on each side of the gas burner, 
cans to be suspended on brackets in an in¬ 
verted position with caps removed. When 
in use the honey-gate at the bottom of the 
oven is left open; and as fast as the honey 
becomes liquid it flows to the outside tank. 
Considerable experimenting was required in 
order to maintain proper temperature, and 
we have learned to regulate the temperature 
by using a thermometer before we place any 
honey in the oven. Naturally the highest 
temperature is nearest the top of the oven, 
and we are able to keep within 180 and 190, 
and the temperature declines toward the bot¬ 
tom of the oven, hot air being circulated 
thruout. Some heat is slightly radiated 
against the lower part of the cans, and I 
find this in my favor, as it tends to prevent 
openings of cans being clogged with granu¬ 
lated honey. 

The two round openings in the front are 
for ventilation, and to secure perfect com¬ 
bustion. There is a three-inch space between 
the burner and the bottom of the oven; 
cans are suspended with a 12-inch space 
between the bottoms of the cans and the 
bottom of the oven, and a two-inch space 
over the tops of the cans; and there is also 
a 12-inch space between the two rows of 
cans. We also find the device very con¬ 
venient in melting jars of granulated honey 
without so much as injuring the label by 
simply inverting the open jar on a heavy 
wire screen. 

Such an oven could be constructed for any 
capacity—for two, four, or six cans at one 
time, and could be used over a gasoline 
stove where gas is not obtainable. A ther¬ 
mostat could be added, thus making it an 
automatic arrangement; but in my business 
I have not found it necessary. The honey, 
as it flows into the outside tank, is just 
right to be strained into our bottling-tank, 
and there is no deterioration, because it 
could not be overheated. 

Visiting beekeepers pronounce the entire 
arrangement a model of perfection, and I 
submit the above description by request. 

Under Bottling Honey will be found a 
description of a similar oven using' steam. 




























430 


GRANULATED HONEY 



Fig. 1.—Pouder’s hot-air oven for liquefying honey in sixty-pound cans. The cans are held upside 
down, as shown in Fig. 2; and the honey, as fast as it becomes liquid, runs down to the bottom of the oven 
and from thence out the gate, away from the heat. 


MELTING HONEY TN A CAPPING-MELTER. 

Under the head of Extracting and 
Comb Honey the use of a capping-melter 
is described with a set of illustrations. 
This outfit is also well adapted for melt¬ 
ing granulated comb honey, Ordinarily 


granulated extracted will run thru it very 
readily without any danger at all of im¬ 
pairing the flavor, and, what is more, it 
will be strained in the process. In the case 
of granulated comb honey, the wax and 
honey will be very nicely separated by rea¬ 
son of the beat causing the wax to melt. 


















granulated honey 


431 



HOW TO GET GRANULATED HONEY OUT OF 
BROOD-COMBS AND YET SAVE BOTH. 

Where honey granulates at all in brood- 
combs, it will usually be only partially, so 
after uncapping, M. M. Baldridge of St. 
Charles, Ill., recommends placing all such 
combs in the extractor, and throwing out 
any portions of the honey remaining liquid. 
He next lays the combs in the bottom of a 
clean wash-boiler, and, from an elevated 
dipper, pours water slowly into the cells. 
He then turns the comb over and treats the 
other side the same way. As fast as the 
combs are splashed with water he places 
them in a hive or super. After they have 
all been doused he takes them out and sets 
them over strong colonies. He says the 
bees, by aid of the water, liquefy the whole 
mass, clean the combs, and save both the 
combs and honey. 

Granulated comb honey in sections can 
scarcely be treated ia this way, as it wo.uld 


be impracticable to uncap the cells. These 
should be treated in a capping-melter, as 
directed. 

HOW TO MARKET GRANULATED 
HONEY. 

Some years ago attempts were made to 
put up granulated honey in small pack¬ 
ages for retail purposes. R. C. Aikin of 
Loveland, Col., put up his honey in cheap 
lard pails. He allowed it to granulate, 
and then sold it direct to consumers. As 
the packages were cheap he could afford 
to put the honey on the market at a price 
that would compete with ordinary sugar. 
A little later on he conceived the idea of 
using stout paraffin-paper bags instead of 
pails, and made a complete success of it. 

Alfalfa honey, as is well known, granu¬ 
lates very rapidly. As soon as the grain¬ 
ing begins to show he draws the honey off 
into the bags, and allows them to stand in 










































































































































432 


GRANULATED HONEY 


a cool place, when it soon becomes solid. 
The illustration shows the solid cake of 
granulated honey after the bag is torn 
away preparatory for the table. The only 
expense is for bags, which can be bought’ 
in various sizes. It was thought for a 
time that eastern clover and basswood 
noneys would not granulate solid enough 
when put up in this shape; but experience 



Aikin’s paper-bag package dissected for the table. 


shows that they as well as alfalfa can be 
handled in that package, provided they are 
already graining when the bags are being 
filled, or if a little old candied honey is 
mixed in to expedite the process. This 
point is very important in putting up such 
honey in hags or pails. 

On each paper package are printed di¬ 
rections for liquefying, reading like this: 

The solid condition of this honey is proof 
of its purity. If preferred liquid, put it into 
a pail, and the pail into warm water, but not 
hotter than you can hold your hand in. 
Never let it boil, for boiling spoils the hon¬ 
ey flavor. To remove the bag, cut from top 
to bottom, then peel it around. 

Granulated honey in paper bags should, 
if possible, be sold before hot summer 
weather comes on. 

GRANULATED HONEY IN OYSTER PAILS. 

Another package, somewhat similar to 
the Aikin bag, is the ordinary oyster pail. 
When honey begins to granulate it can be 
drawn off into pails of proper sizes, the 
covers put on, and the honey allowed to 


stand. In the course of a few weeks in 
cool weather it should become quite solid; 
but it should be remembered that at an ex¬ 
tremely cold temperature honey will not 
granulate so readily as during alternate¬ 
ly warm and cool weather. Oyster pails 
have the advantage that beekeepers can 
buy them at any grocery, and they are al¬ 
most as cheap as the Aikin paper bags. 
They have the merit, also, that honey can 
be sold in them in a practically liquid con¬ 
dition without fear of leaking. They can 
also be handled quite roughly. If the 
honey should granulate, so much the bet¬ 
ter. 

CUTTING GRANULATED HONEY INTO BRICKS. 

Honey in 60-lb. square cans that is gran¬ 
ulated solid requires a considerable amount 
of treatment before it can be gotten out, 
put into bags, and candied again. The 
cans must be immersed in a boiler of water 
of about 160 degrees, and kept there for 
hours at a time, before the honey melts 
enough to be poured out. Jesse A. Warren 
conceived the plan of stripping the tin 
away from the honey within, leaving it in 
the form of a solid cake. With a pair of 
snips the top and bottom of the can are cut 
off; then it is slit down at one comer. A 
strand of steel wire, after attaching a han¬ 
dle to each end, is slipped under the cake 
of honey about two inches. The wire is 
then folded around the cake, the two ends 
crossed, and with a handle in each hand 
the operator draws slowly, sinking the 
wire gradually into the cake from all four 
sides, until continuous pulling causes it to 
pass clear thru. A thin-bladed knife is 
now inserted in the slit where the wire en¬ 
tered, and slabs off a chunk like that shown 
in cut next page. Other pieces are slabbed 
off in like manner. These are then cut up 
into bricks, using the same general plan—- 
bricks all the way from 5 oz. up to 2 lbs. 
They are wrapped in paraffin paper, on 
which are general directions explaining 
how to liquefy. 

CUTTING GRANULATED HONEY WITH A 
MACHINE. 

The plan just described can be used in 
only a very limited way. It has the fur¬ 
ther disadvantage that it is almost impos¬ 
sible to cut the cakes in regular sizes. A 



GRANULATED HONEY 


433 



Aikin’s paper-bag honey-package for granulated honey. 


far better apparatus is the ordinary but¬ 
ter-cutter shown on page 435, and sold 
by the Cleveland Galvanizing Works, Cleve¬ 
land, Ohio. The same thing, or something 
like it, can be obtained of any dealer in 
dairy supplies. This butter-cutter employs 
the same pi’inciple—a wire drawn taut for 
cutting butter. Since butter has about the 
same consistency as hard-granulated hon¬ 
ey, the same machine will slice up a. cake 
of granulated honey in uniform bricks, 
and do it more quickly and neatly than can 
possibly be done with a single strand by 
hand. 


In using the machine, care should be 
taken not to crowd the frame holding the 
strands of wire too fast, as it is a job that 
cannot be rushed without danger of break¬ 
ing the wires. A gentle continuous pres¬ 
sure is what is required. 

For the perpendicular cuts two heavy 
weights are applied in such a way that, 
after the cake of honey is put in place, the 
horizontal frame and its wires gradually 
work their way thru the mass. When the 
cake is cut the other way, on the horizon¬ 
tal line, the operator takes hold of the 
gate, as it were, pulling gently. 





















434 


GRANULATED HONEY 


All that then remains is to take a thin- 
bladed knife, pick up each brick and lay it 
on a piece of paraffin paper. The brick is 
then neatly wrapped, when it is slipped 



Square oyster pails for granulated honey. 


inside of a special carton made just large 
enough to receive it. The carton is then 
covered with another wrapper, neatly let¬ 
tered, and containing directions how to 
liquefy the honey when desired. As a rule) 
the consumer is advised to use the honey in 
the solid form by explaining that it can be 
spread on bread like so much butter. 



Round oyster pails filled with granulated honey. 


Tt is advantageous to adopt the lVi-lb. 
brick or 48 to the 00-lb. cake from the 
square can. 

CAUTION. 

The fip should not be cut off from the 
can of candied honey unless the honey is 


very solid. If it is slightly mushy there 
will be trouble. The mass of granulated 
honey will settle out of shape, and run all 
over everything. There is no use in trying 
to cut up honey like this into bricks. It 
should either be melted or put into oyster 
pails, where the process of solidifying can 
be completed. 

It may be questioned whether it pays to 
cut off square cans and take the honey in a 
solid chunk; but it enables one to fill rush 
orders for granulated honey on short no- 



Slab of honey nearly cut thru by wire. 


tice. Second-hand cans are worth only a 
few cents; whereas to melt the honey out 
and re-candy is out of the question. 

GENERAL REMARKS ON HOW TO MAKE HONEY 
GRANULATE QUICKLY. 

As already explained, continuous zero 
weather is not so favorable as weather 
somewhere near the freezing-point, now 
moderating up to the thawing-point, then 



Slat of honey cut off. 










GRANULATED HONEY 


435 


In the early days the author cut up some 
brick honey with a wire into packages 
weighing 5 ounces. These sold for a nickel. 
They went off so fast the demand could not 
be supplied. For the sake of experiment 
one 60-lb. can of granulated honey was 
cut into 160 cubes.. The honey cost 6% 
cents per pound. These cubes were re¬ 
tailed at 5 cents, or 13V 2 cents a pound- 
doubling on the money. 


freezing, then thawing again. When the 
weather remains continuously cold, set the 
honey out in pails or bags in a room where 
the temperature goes a little below freez¬ 
ing, leaving it for a day or two, then bring¬ 
ing it into a warm room. After it is 
thoroly warmed up, put it into the cold 
room again, and so continue with changes 
of temperature. Stir the honey occasion¬ 
ally, and always make it a rule to have 
some granulated honey mixed with that 
which is to be brought to a solid condi¬ 
tion. 


EDUCATING THE PUBLIC TO GRANULATED 
HONEY. 


The question may arise whether it would 
be everywhere practicable to sell granu¬ 
lated honey in any one of the forms de¬ 
scribed. It could hardly be deemed advis¬ 
able to furnish buyers or commission 


Butter-cutter for cutting granulated honey into 
bricks. 


point” on the purity of the honey, 
the facts once become known, old 
dices give way. 


Machine for cutting granulated honey. 


houses that know neither the shipper nor 
the real character of the honey. The packer 
or producer must first introduce it to his 
own customers—people who know him. 
The nature of the honey must be explain¬ 
ed ; how put up; that only the purest and 
best can be solidified in this manner; and 
that it can be liquefied. In short, the trade 
must be educated to it. The fact that no 
unripe or glucosed honey can be put up m 
bags or bricks will be a strong talking- 


When 

preju- 


Granulated honey put up in bricks. 

After the trade gets educated to buying 

honey in this form no effort at all is neces- 





































436 


GRANULATED HONEY 


sary to sell it. The cost of the package is 
practically nothing, and all trouble from 
the honey candying again is overcome, be¬ 
cause the trade has been educated to know 
that such honey is the pure article. 

The time may come when granulated 
honey will be known on the market as a 
common article of commerce; because when 


the public generally understands that such 
honey must be of the best quality , and ab¬ 
solutely pure, it will sell without any trou¬ 
ble. 

For particulars *on how to prevent comb 
honey from granulating and how to dis¬ 
pose of it when it does granulate see Comb 
Honey, To Produce. 



Comb containing aster honey granulated so solid that the bees could not use it. Note the granules in the 
open cells at the left. These were almost, like flint. The bees had gnawed the 
cappings from the other cells but had left the honey. 



H 


HANDLING BEES.—See Manipula¬ 
tion of Colonies; Frames, Self-spacing; 
Anger of Bees; also Stings, and Hives. 

HAULING BEES.—See Moving Bees. 


tral North America, particularly in Illi¬ 
nois, Kansas, and Nebraska. In the last- 
named State it reaches a height of from 
three to five feet, and grows luxuriantly on 
all waste and stubble lands. The flowers in 



Heartsease or smartweed. 


HEARTEASE (Polygonum Persicaria). 
■—This is one of the large family of nec¬ 
tar-bearing plants of which the common 
buckwheat is one. Heartsease, sometimes 
known as lady’s thumb, knotweed, or heart- 
weed, is naturalized from Europe, and is 
widely distributed over eastern and cen- 


oblong- clusters are generally reddish pur¬ 
ple, and, in rare instances, white. It yields 
in Nebraska, and other States in that sec¬ 
tion of the country, immense quantities of 
honey. One beekeeper, T. R. Delong, at 
the North American convention held in 
Lincoln, Neb., in October, 1896, reported 


438 


HIVE-MAKING 


two of his colonies yielded each 450 lbs. 
extracted honey, and that the average for 
his entire apiary was 250 lbs. per colony— 
all heartsease. While perhaps these yields 
were exceptionally large, quite a number of 
other beekeepers reported at the same con¬ 
vention an average of 200 lbs. from the 
same source. There are in Nebraska acres 
and acres of this honey plant extending 
over the plains as far as the eye can reach; 
and, as it secretes nectar from August until 
frost, the enormous yields are not sur¬ 
prising. 

The extracted honey varies in color from 
a light to a dark amber; and the flavor, 



Heartsease. 


while not quite up to that of white honey, 
is very good. Heartsease comb honey, in 
point of color, is almost as white as that 
of clover. The extracted granulates in very 
fine crystals, and looks very much like the 
candied product of any white honey. Care 
should be taken in liquefying, as hearts¬ 
ease honey is injured more easily by over¬ 
heating than any other honey. 

HEAT. —See Artificial Heat. 

HERMAPHRODITE BEES.— These are 
nothing more nor less than freaks of na- 


nature—that is to say, one will sometimes 
see worker bees having drone heads and 
drones with worker heads. They are not 
very common, it is true; but about once 
a year there is sent in to the author speci¬ 
mens of either the one or the other kind 
of bees that have, apparently, appropri¬ 
ated the wrong head. The beginner needs 
to be reminded that the head of a drone is 
very different in appearance from that of 
a worker or queen. The two compound 
eyes of the former are large and well de¬ 
veloped, while in the latter they are much 
smaller. 

Under the head of Drones, to which 
the reader is referred, mention is made of 
another freak of nature—namely, drones 
with variously colored heads. 

HIVE-MAKING. —Unless one is so sit¬ 
uated that freights are high, and unless, 
also, he is a mechanic, or a natural genius 
in “making things,” he would better let 
hive-making alone. Hives can be bought 
usually, with freight added, for much less 
than the average beekeper can make them 
himself, if spoiled lumber, sawed fingers, 
and the expense of buzz saws are consider¬ 
ed; moreover, hives made in the large fac¬ 
tories, where they are turned out by the 
thousands, by special machinery run by 
skilled workmen, are generally much more 
accurately cut. 

The following letter from a practical 
planing-mill man, who ought to know and 
does know what he is talking about, sets 
forth the actual facts as they are: 

ELIAS BAMBERGER 
Manufacturer of 
SASH, DOORS, BLINDS 
Contractors’ and Builders’ Supplies 
including all kinds of Window Glass 
Cor. Exchange and Adams Sts. 

Estimates Furnished on Application. 

Freeport, Ills., June 11, 1907. 
The A. I. Root Co., Medina, Ohio. 

Gentlemen:—I received five of your AE 
525-10 hives yesterday, and find that I can 
not make my own hives and supplies as 
cheap as yours and use the same quality of 
lumber. You can see by the head of this 
letter that if any one can make hives cheap¬ 
er than your prices or any of the so-called 
"trust-hive” manufacturers, I ought to be 
able to do it; but, using the same quality of 
'lumber, I can not. John H. Bamberger. 

But there is fun in making things, even 






fitlVE-MAKlNG 


43d 


if they are not so well made; and there 
are some rainy or wintry days in the year, 
when, if one is a farmer, for instance, he 
can as well as not, and at little or no ex¬ 
pense for time, make a few hives and other 
equipment. Again, if one lives in a for¬ 
eign country, he may not be able to get the 
hives here recommended. 

REQUISITES OF A GOOD HIVE. 

While it is very important to have good 
well-made hives for the bees it should be 
clearly understood that the hive will not 
insure a crop of honey. As the veteran 
Mr. Gallup used to say, “A good swarm of 
bees will store almost as much honey in a 
half-barrel or nail-keg as in the most elab¬ 
orate and expensive hive made, other things 
being equal.” This is based on a good 
colony in the height of the honey season. 
If the colony were small, it would do much 
better if put into a hive so small that the 
bees could • nearly or quite fill it. This 
would economize the animal heat so that 
they could keep up the temperature for 
brood-rearing and the working of wax. 
Again, should the bees get their nail-keg 
full of honey, unless more room were given 
them they would have to cease work or 
swarm, and either way a considerable loss 
of honey would be the result. The thin 
walls of the nail-keg would hardly be the 
best economy for a wintering hive, nor for 
a summer hive either, unless it were well 
shaded from the direct rays of the sun. 

P. H. Elwood of Starkville, N. Y., who 
owns over 1,000 colonies, said in Gleanings 
in Bee Culture some time ago, “A good 
hive must fill two requirements reasonably 
well to be worthy of that name. 1. It must 
be a good home for the bees. 2. It must in 
addition be so constructed as to be conven¬ 
ient to perform the various operations re¬ 
quired by modern beekeeping. The first of 
these requirements is filled very well by a 
good box or straw hive. Bees will store as 
much honey in these hives as in any, and in 
the North they will winter and spring as 
well in a straw hive as in any other. They 
do not, however, fill the second require¬ 
ment; and to meet this, the movable-frame 
hive was invented.” 

Under A B C of Beekeeping, subhead, 
The Modern Hive, are shown the general 
features of the hive, and under Hives and 


Frames will be shown styles and the spe¬ 
cial features that belong to each. But 
there is only one hive that is used largely 
thruout the United States, and that is the 
Langstroth—that is, it embodies the Lang- 
strot.h dimensions. The frame is 17% long 
by 9% deep, outside measure. This estab¬ 
lishes the length and depth of the hive. As 
to width, that depends upon the number of 
frames used. It is the rule to allow 5-16 
bee-space between the ends of the frames 
and the inside ends of the hive. This will 
make the inside length of a Langstroth 
hive 18i/4 inches, or the outside length 20 
inches if made of %-inch planed lumber. 
It is the rule to make the depth of the hive 
% inch deeper than the frame—% inch 
under the frame and % inch on top. For 
dry climates a greater allowance should be 
made on account of shrinkage. The selec¬ 
tion of the frame, the number to the hive, 
and the distance they are spaced apart 
determine the dimensions of the hive it¬ 
self. 

As stated, the Langstroth is the standard 
thruout the United States; but there has 
been a tendency on the part of a very few 
toward a frame of the same length, but two 
inches deeper. There is also a tendency to 
go to the other extreme in adopting a 
frame of Langstroth length, but two or 
three inches shallower, using two stories of 
such a hive for a single brood-nest. 

On account of the diverse notions of 
beekeepers and the peculiarities of locality, 
it would hardly be worth while to give gen¬ 
eral directions for the manufacture of any 
one hive; and, besides, no printed direc¬ 
tions will give as good an idea of the con¬ 
struction of a hive as the very thing itself. 
For these and other reasons it would be far 
better for the one who intends to make 
hives to send to some manufacturer foi a 
sample in the flat, all complete. With the 
several pieces for patterns he will then 
know exactly the shape and dimensions, 
how to make rabbets, and in general how 
the hive is constructed in every detail. If 
one does not find on the market just such a 
hive as suits his notion, of course he sees, 
or thinks he sees, “in his mind’s eye” some¬ 
thing better; but in that case the author 
would strongly urge him to make a sample 
or two before he makes very many of 
them; for nine times out of ten—-yes, 


440 


HIVES 


ninety-nine times out of one hundred—lie 
will discard the one of his invention, and 
adopt some standard made by manufac¬ 
turers generally. 

HIVE ON SCALES.— See Scale Hive. 

HIVES. —The word “hive,” broadly 
speaking, covers any sort of inclosure in 
which bees make'their home. In the prim¬ 
itive days these consisted of hollow logs 
two or three feet long with a board for the 
cover and another board for the bottom. 
Later, boxes were constructed. (See Box 
Hives.) In early times straw skeps were 
used, and are still used in parts of Europe 
and southeastern United States. See Skep. 

The modern hive consists, first, of a 
brood-body, a box without top or bottom, 
to hold a series of frames. (See Frames.) 
Each frame incloses a comb. But no hive 
is complete without a roof or cover, and a 
bottom, usually called a bottom-board. In 
addition to the roof and hive-body, with its 
frames and bottom, there are upper stories, 
or supers. A super, just as its name indi¬ 
cates, is an upper story—a box without 
cover or bottom to hold either a set of 
frames, the same as in the brood-nest or 
shallower, or a set of holders to support 
section honey-boxes in which bees store 
honey. For a further description of mod¬ 
ern hives, see A B C of Beekeeping. For 
particulars regarding comb-honey supers, 
see Comb Honey, Appliances for. For 
directions to make see Hive-making. For a 
description regarding the hives of early 
days, leading up to the present, see Hives, 
Evolution of. 

DIMENSIONS OF HIVES. 

Hives based on Langstroth dimensions 
are the standard. Some 30 years ago there 
were in use the American, Gallup, Lang¬ 
stroth, Adair, and Quinby frames. All of 
these required, of course, hives of different 
dimensions. Between the Adair, the Gal¬ 
lup, and the American there was but very 
little difference, comparatively, as they 
were cubical, and very nearly of a size. 
The Langstroth was long and shallow—the 
shallowest frame that had then been intro¬ 
duced; and the Quinby, having about the 
same proportions, was the largest frame in 
general use. By consulting the diagram 
containing the different sizes of frames it 


will be seen that there are practically two 
classes—the square and the oblong. As 
there would be but very little difference, 
theoretically and practically, between the 
results secured with a Gallup, American, 
and Adair, the arguments for the square 
frames will be considered. 

SQUARE FRAMES. 

In nature, bees have a tendency to make 
a brood-nest in the form of a sphere; 
patches of brood are more inclined to be 
circular than square or oblong. Theoreti¬ 
cally, then, a circular frame would be the 


11 X 


18Ji 



p 

Gallup. K 


Quinby. JK; 




17^8 

Jumbo. K 


best; but as that would not be practicable, 
owing to the difficulty in the construction 
of the frame and hive, obviously the square 
frame would come the nearest in conform¬ 
ing to nature and a perfect cube for the 
hive. The square frame, as a rule, calls 
for a hive in the exact shape of a cube. If, 
for instance, the frame was 12 inches 
square, outside dimensions, then the hive, 
if the combs were spaced 1% inches apart, 
and 12% inches wide inside, should take in 
just nine American frames. Such a hive, 
it was argued, would conserve the heat of 



























HIVES 


441 


the bees to the best advantage, would give 
the greatest cubical contents for a given 
amount of lumber—barring, of course, the 
perfect sphere. As it economized heat in 
winter, it would winter bees better than a 
hive having oblong frames. 

All of this seemed to be very pretty in 
theory; and there are some users of square 
frames who insist that the theory is borne 
out by actual experience. But the great 
majority of beekeepers, after having tried 
the square and the oblong frames, finally 
decided in favor of the Langstroth. 

At this point the reader should read the 
article on bee-spaces, found under Bee- 
Space, and also Frames.- Both of these 
articles discuss principles that are vital in 
the construction of a modern hive. 

THE LANGSTROTH FRAME AND HIVE AND 
WHY IT BECAME THE STANDARD. 

1. A shallow frame permits the use of 
a low flat hive that can easily be tiered up 
one, two, three, and four stories high. This 
is a great advantage when one is running 
for extracted honey, as all that is necessary 
when the bees require more room is to add 
upper stories as fast as the bees require 
them, and then at the end of the season ex¬ 
tract whenever it is convenient. Square or 
deep hives cannot be tiered up very high 
without becoming top-heavy and out of 
convenient reach of the operator. 

2. The long shallow frame is more easily 
uncapped because the blade of the uncap¬ 
ping-knife can reach clear across it. 

3. The shape of the Langstroth frame 
favors an extractor of good proportion. 

4. A deep frame is not as easily lifted 
out of a hive and is more liable to kill bees 
in the process of removing and inserting 
frames. 

5. The shallow frame is better adapted 
for section honey. It is well known that 
bees, after forming a brood-circle, are in¬ 
clined to put sealed honey just over the 
brood. In a frame as shallow as the Lang¬ 
stroth, there will be less honey in the 
brood-nest and more in the boxes; for bees, 
in order to complete their brood-circle in 
the Langstroth, will, with a prolific queen, 
of{en push the brood-line almost up to the 
top-bar, and, consequently, when honey 
comes in, will put it into the supers or 
boxes just where it is wanted. 


(i. When hees are left to themselves they 
will generally form a cluster late in the 
season, immediately over the entrance of 
the hive, and down two or three inches 
from the top of the frames. As the season 
progresses the cluster eats into the stores 
above it; and on reaching the top it works 
backward. It therefore happens that the 
cluster reaches the top of the hive where it 
is the warmest during the coldest part of 
the year. In the case of the ordinary 
square frame the bees will be found just 
over the entrance, four or five inches 
from the top; but in the midst of the cold¬ 
est weather the bees may not and probably 
will not be near the top of the hive, as 



The original Langstroth hive. 


on reaching the top they can progress 
backward only a comparatively short dis¬ 
tance because the top-bar of a square 
frame is relatively short. In the case of 
the Langstroth hive, the bees during the en¬ 
tire cold part of winter stay in the top of 
the hive, where it is the warmest. As the 
stores are consumed they move backward 
and gradually reach the back of the hive, 
and by that time warmer weather will 
probably prevail. 

In actual experience bees seem to winter 
just as well on a Langstroth as any other; 
and, as the shallow frame is better adapted 
to section honey, beekeepers naturally 
turned toward the shallower frame, with 
the result that now probably 99 per cent 
of all the frames in the United States are 
of Langstroth dimensions; and whatever 
advantage there may be in favor of the 























• 442 


HIVES 


square shape, the beekeeper is able to buy 
standard goods so much cheaper that he 
adopts the Langstroth frame. 

FRAMES SHALLOWER AND DEEPER THAN THE 
LANGSTROTH. 

A few years ago there was a tendency 
toward a frame still shallower than the 
Langstroth, which resulted in what is called 
the Heddon; but as eight or ten of these 
frames, or one super, make too small a 
brood-nest, two sets of such frames are 
used to accommodate a whole colony. Of 
the Heddon hive more will be given farther 
on. See Contraction. 

There is another class of beekeepers who 
feel that the Langstroth is not quite deep 
enough, and who, therefore, prefer the 
Quinby. They argue that 10 such frames, 
or frames Langstroth length, and two 
inches deeper, are none too large for a 
prolific queen, and that these big colonies 
swarm less,- get more honey, and winter 
better. Of these, more will be said un¬ 
der the subject of “Large vs. Small Hives.” 



Original dovetailed hive, Langstroth dimensions. 


The old original Langstroth hive that the 
Rev. L. L. Langstroth put out contained 10 
frames 17% x 19%.* Each hive had a por¬ 
tico, and cleats nailed around the top edge 
to support a telescoping cover, under which 
were placed the comb-honey boxes, or big 
cushions, for winter. There was a time 
when this style of hive was the only one 
used; but owing to the fact that it was not 
simple in construction, that the portico was 
a splendid harboring-place for cobwebs 
and gave the bees encouragement for clus¬ 

* The length for nearly 50 years has been 17 % 
instead of 17%. 


tering out on hot days instead of attending 
to their work inside of their hives, a far 
simpler form of hive was devised. The 
Simplicity, first brought out by A. I. Root, 
having Langstroth dimensions, was the re¬ 
sult. Instead of having telescope covers 
the contiguous edges of the hive were bev¬ 
eled so as to shed water and give in effect 
a telescoping cover. The cover and bottom 
of this hive were exactly alike, the entrance 



being formed by shoving the hive forward 
on the bottom, thus making an entrance as 
wide or narrow as seemed most desirable. 
But it had one serious defect, and that was 
the beveled edge. It was found to be prac¬ 
tically impossible at times, on account of 
the bee glue, to separate the upper story 
from the lower one without breaking or 
splitting the bevel. Finally there was in¬ 
troduced a hive very much the same, hav¬ 
ing straight square edges, and along with 



Modern hive based on Langstroth dimensions. 


it came the feature of dovetailing or lock- 
cornering, as shown. 

This hive was introduced in 1889, and 
seemed to meet with the general approba- 















































































HIVES 


443 


tion of beekeepers. It embodied in the 
main the Langstroth dimensions, but used 
eight instead of ten frames; for at the 
time it was introduced, nearly every one 
preferred eight frames. The original Dove¬ 
tailed hive had a flat cover, and a bottom- 
board made the same as the cover, except 
that there were side-cleats to raise the hive 
off the bottom-board. 

Since that time there have been modifica¬ 
tions of the hive, and it is now made in 
eight, ten, and twelve frame sizes. While 
the eight was used almost exclusively, the 
ten-frame size has nearly supplanted it. 
There is also a tendency toward tfle twelve- 
frame size. See the Twelve-frame Hive 
further on in this article. 

The cover is made single or double. The 
body is locked at the corners, and the bot¬ 
tom-board is made in several styles. See 
Entrances. 

The Hoffman self-spacing frames, de¬ 
scribed under Frames, Self-spacing, and 
Frames, to Manipulate, also Frames, are 
used in the Dovetailed hive almost exclu¬ 
sively. The supers for this hive are the 
same as those shown under Comb Honey. 

As now constructed the hive embodies 
the very latest developments in hives and 



hive is a good cover. While the flat cover 
—one making use of one flat board and 
two cleats—was a good one, yet, owing to 
the width of the single board, and increas¬ 
ing scarcity of such lumber, something 
made of two or three narrow boards had to 



Excelsior flat cover. 


be used. Accordingly, the Excelsior was 
devised. It consists of boards not exceed¬ 
ing 6 inches in width, because narrow 
boards can be easily secured, and because 
they will not shrink and check under the 
influence of the weather like the wide ones. 
The two side boards, B, B, are beveled or 
chamfered on one side so that the one edge 
is left only about three-fourths the thick¬ 
ness of the other edge, but the ends are left 
full thickness of the boards to shed water 


Flat cover, old style. 

hive-construction. It can be handled rap¬ 
idly, and is especially adapted for out- 
apiary work, where frequent moving from 
one field to another is necessary. It is 
standard, being made by all the supply¬ 
manufacturing concerns, and is for sale 
everywhere. The lock corner is especially 
well adapted for hot climates; and for any 
place it is far superior to corners depend¬ 
ing on nails alone. The ordinary miter or 
halved joint is inclined to pull apart in 
parts of California, Texas, Florida, and 
other portions of our country subject to 
extremes of heat, or hot dry winds. 

Having discussed hives in a general way, 
it will now be in order to take up covers. 

A very important requisite of a good 



away from the edge and to give more nail- 
room for the grooved end-cleats, E, that 
slip over and bind the whole together. The 
purpose of the chamfering is to shed water 
to the sides of the hive and away from the 
centerpiece, AD. Of this centerpiece, AD, 














































444 


HIVES 


the part D projects beyond A. It is ton- 
gued and grooved to fit a corresponding 
tongue and groove edge of the two side 
boards that were beveled to shed water. 
The space under D is filled with a thin 
board *4 inch thick, the ends of which pro¬ 
ject into the %-ineh groove of the end- 
cleats, E, where it is securely held in place. 

In very hot climates a two-thickness or 
gabled cover is used. The lower part of 
the cover is flat, and the upper part ga¬ 
bled, as shown in the preceding cut. 

TELESCOPE COVERS. 

There is a strong and rapidly growing 
tendency at the present time toward a dou¬ 
ble or telescopic cover, as is shown in the 
illustrations. 



Telescope cover. 


The loAver cover consists of two or more 
tongued-and-grooved boards, % inch thick, 
with rim of % x %-inch wooden strip 
around the edge. At the center there is a 
hole for a Porter bee-escape, so that by in¬ 
serting the escape the inner cover can be 
used as an escape-board. The inner cover 
takes the place of the metal-bound super¬ 
cover as used formerly. It lies directly 



over the frames, and over this is placed a 
shallow telescoping cover made of % lum¬ 
ber, and covered with sheet metal or roofing 
paper. 

A top protection of this sort is not only 
better than a single-board cover, but it 
shuts out the weather. The air-space be¬ 
tween the two covers gives the bees better 
protection from the direct rays of the hot 
sun if the hives are out in the open, and, 


if kept painted, such a cover will last in¬ 
definitely. The lower cover will be sealed 
down by the bees. The upper one cannot 
blow off: because the downwardly project¬ 
ing sides hold it in place. Of course such 
an arrangement makes extra handling in 
opening and closing the hive; but the 
majority of beekeepers are beginning to 
see that this is more than offset by the 
greater durability and better protection. 

This cover is so far superior to all the 
other covers previously shown that it is 
rapidly superseding them. , It is warmer 
in winter and cooler in summer. It is also 
more durable. 

HIVE-BODIES OR BROOD-NESTS. 

These are plain boxes without top or bot¬ 
tom, preferably lock-cornered. They are 
rabbeted at the upper inside ends to re¬ 
ceive the projections of the frames referred 
to later on. Under the head of “Frames” 
and “A B C of Beekeeping” there will be 
found a diagram showing the position of 
the hive-body or brood-nest, and how the 
frames to hold the combs hang in the rab¬ 
bets before mentioned. Practically all of 
the hives sent out by the regular beehive 
factories are lock-cornered for additional 
strength. When made in local planing- 
mills the corners are usually “halved” by 
cutting out a rabbet in the sides or ends; 
but the lock-cornering is much preferable 
for the reason stated. 

HIVE BOTTOMS, OR FLOORS. 

The general practice is to make the bot¬ 
tom or floor of the hive separate from the 
hive-body. Bodies are made to sit down 
upon raised edges of the floor or bottom. 
This floor should preferably have a deep 



Bottom-board. 


side and a shallow side. During hot weather 
it is customary to use the deep side to give 
more space under the hive, affording a 
larger entrance and better ventilation. This 





HIVES 


445 


deeper side is usually % inch in depth; the 
shallower side, only % inch, is used by 
those who prefer to have a shallower space 
under the hive. When the wide space is 
used it is customary to have a contracting 
entrance-cleat. When colder weather comes 
on, or where the colony is weak, it is good 
practice to contract the entrance down to 
the space of ^4 inch by any size from % 
to 8 inches wide. See Entrances. 

There are different styles of floor-boards 
or bottoms; but the kind used by those 
who have factory-made hives is like that 
shown in the illustration. 

BROOD-FRAMES. 

The modern hive consists not only of the 
parts already mentioned—cover, body, and 
bottom—but a series of frames, all of 



which hold a comb. In a modern hive the 
top of the frame has projections at each 
end that hang in the rabbets of the hive- 
body. Each of the frames is removable, 
and may or may not be self-spacing. Some 
frames have the same width all around. 
Some have the end-bars made a little wider 
near the-top, and some have end-bars that 
make contact with the adjacent end-bars 
their entire length. The latter are called 
“closed-end” frames. 

For particulars regarding frames the 
reader is referred to the A B C of Bee¬ 
keeping at the beginning of this work, and 
Frames and Frames, Self-spacing. 

As the closed-end frames make up a part 
of the inner walls of the hive in which they 


are used, a description will be given at this 
point. 

CLOSED-END FRAMES. 

Closed-end frames may be divided into 
two classes—the standing and suspended. 
The Quinby, already spoken of under 
Frames, Self-spacing, the Bingham, and 
the Heddon are of the first-mentioned 
class; the Danzenbaker belongs to the lat¬ 
ter class. It is generally considered that 
frames with closed uprights, while not so 
convenient, perhaps, for general manipula¬ 
tion, are better adapted to wintering. 
Frames with partly closed end, like the 
Hoffman, or open all the way up, like the 
unspaced hanging frame, permit of cur¬ 
rents of air around the ends of the frames, 
and (it is claimed), as a consequence, bees 
are not so much inclined to bring their 
brood clear out to the end-bars as they do 
when closed ends are used. The difference 
is more theoretical than real. 

THE BINGHAM HIVE. 

Mr. Quinby was the first to apply Hu¬ 
ber’s principle of closed-end frames in this 
country (see Hives, Evolution of). This 
he introduced shortly after the appearnce 
of the Langstroth hive. Not long after, 



Mr. Bingham in 1867 brought out his hive 
with closed-end frames with a narrow top- 
bar and no bottom-bar, but still embody¬ 
ing the chief featimes of Huber’s hive of 



The Bingham Hive. 


















































446 


HIVES 


1789. But the peculiar feature of the 
Bingham was that it made use of shallow 
frames only five inches deep, a series of 
them being lashed together by means of a 
wire loop and stretcher sticks, said loop 
drawing on the follower-boards in such a 
way as to bring tight compression on 
frames enclosed in the manner shown. Seven 
of these brood-frames in the hive made up 
a brood-nest, and an entire brood-nest 
might consist of one or two sets of frames. 
The top-bar was dropped down from the 
top of the end-bars a bee-space, while the 
bottom-bars were flush with the bottoms of 
the end-bars. With a bottom-board having 
a %-inch strip on each side, the ordinary 
bee-space is preserved thru the several divi¬ 
sions of the hive. 

The super is like any ordinary one 
adapted to comb honey, except that it uses 
coiled springs to produce the necessary 
tension. 

Altho Mr. Bingham used this hive for 
a great many years, and quite successfully 
too, no one else seems to have done much 
with it; but a modification of the hive is 
shown in the Danzenbaker and the Hed- 
don. 

THE DANZENBAKER HIVE. 

The Danzenbaker consists of a brood- 
chamber of the same, length and width as 
the ten-frame Langstroth Dovetailed hive, 
but deep enough to take in a depth of 



frame of only 7^4> inches. The rabbet, in¬ 
stead of being near the upper edge, is 
dropped down about midway; or, more 
strictly speaking, there is a cleat 01 board 
nailed on the inside of the ends of the hive. 
On this support hang the closed-end brood- 
frames, pivoted at the center of the end- 
bars by means of a rivet driven thru from 


the inside, as shown in the cut below. 
Ten of these frames fill the hive. As these 
frames are pivoted in the center, as shown 
below, they can be reversed; and this fea¬ 
ture, while it costs nothing, is something to 
be desired, as it enables us to have all 
frames filled solid with comb. 

The bottom of the hive is the same as 
that for the Dovetailed hive, already de¬ 
scribed. The super for comb honey takes 



in the 4x5 plain section, and makes use of 
the fence-separator system. The sections 
are supported in section-holders; indeed, 
the whole arrangement is the same as the 
section-holder super already described in 
Comb Honey. 

This hive was designed primarily for the 
production of comb honey. As a comb- 
honey hive it is a very good one; but on 
account of handling the brood-frames it 
has become so unpopular that it has almost 
gone out of use. Any hive with Hoffman 
or with the unspaced frames, will, in a 
given time, permit the examination of 
three or four times the comb surface of the 
closed-end frames unless a single exception 
be made of the closed-end Quinby, illus¬ 
trated and described under the head of 
Frames, Sele-spacing. 

Where bee glue (propolis) is very abun¬ 
dant the closed-end frames become so bad¬ 
ly gummed up that it is almost impossible 
to separate them at times. For that rea¬ 
son the foul-brood bee inspectors general¬ 
ly advise against the Danzenbaker frames. 

The same general criticisms above men¬ 
tioned would apply with equal force 
against the Heddon hive next described, 
which likewise, and for the same reasons, 
has all but gone out of use. 




















HIVES 


447 


THE HEDDON HIVE. 

This hive was patented and introduced 
in 1885. Its peculiar and distinguishing 
feature was in the use of one brood- 
chamber divided into halves horizontally, 
each half containing a set of eight closed- 
end close-fitting brood-frames, 5% inches 
deep by 18 1-16. The end-bars, as already 
stated, were close-fitting — that is, the 
brood-frame slid into the hive with just 
enough play to allow of its easy removal 
and insertion. On the bottom inside edge 
of the ends of each case were nailed strips 



The Heddon Hive. 


of tin to support the frames, and the whole 
set of eight were squeezed firmly together 
by means of wooden thumbscrews as 
shown. Under the head of Comb Honey 
mention is made of the value of compres¬ 
sion for squeezing sections or section-hold¬ 
ers or wide frames. The more tightly the 
parts are held together, the less chance 
there is for bees to chink propolis into the 
cracks. 

The bottom-board of this hive was much 
like that used on the standard hives, in 
that it had a raised rim on the two sides 
and end to support the brood-chamber, to 
provide a bee-space above the bottom-board, 
and at the same time provide for an en¬ 
trance at the front. The cover was the or¬ 
dinary flat one-board, cleated by the ends. 

The purpose of the inventor in having 
the hive divided in this way was to afford 
more rapid handling, and to accomplish 
contraction and expansion by simply tak¬ 
ing from or adding to the brood-part of 


the hive one or more sections. This divisi¬ 
ble feature of the hive, according to its in¬ 
ventor, enabled him to handle hives instead 
of frames, to find the queen by shaking the 
bees out of one or both of the shallow sec¬ 
tions. The horizontal bee-space thru the 
center of the brood-nest he considered an 
advantage in wintering, in that the bees can 
move up and down and laterally thru the 
combs. 

This hive, as was explained at the close 
of the article on Contraction, was respon¬ 
sible in a large measure for the failure of 
the crops of those who used it. The prin¬ 
ciple of small hives and excessive contrac¬ 
tion has been shown to be a monumental 
failure. 

THE DADANT HIVE. 

Almost the very opposite of the Heddon 
in principle and general construction is the 
Dadant hive. While Mr. Heddon divided 
the brood-chamber into one, two, or three 
separate portions, the Dadants have it all 
in one large complete whole. The frames 
are 18 y 2 x 11%—that is to say, they have 
the Quinby dimensions. There are ten to 
the hive. Such a hive has about the equiv¬ 
alent capacity of a twelve-frame Lang- 
stroth, regular depth. The Dadants have 
always insisted that their ten-frame Quin- 
bys, when compared with the ten-frame 
Langstroth, averaged up year after year, 
would give far better results, both in honey 
and in economy of labor. This opinion is 
not based on the experience of two or three 
years, but on a period covering a good 
many years. In the large hives, they claim, 
bees swarm less, produce more honey, and 
winter better. They claim they do not have 
to exceed two per cent of swarming, and 
this average has been maintained year after 
year. Apparently the colonies in these, 
large hives have very little desire to swarm; 
but when they do swarm the swarms are 
enormous. 

THE TEN-FRAME HIVE OF EXTRA DEPTH. 

It was suggested by A. N. Draper, for¬ 
merly of Upper Alton, Ill., one of Mr. 
Dadant’s followers, that, instead of mak¬ 
ing a hive after the Quinby’s dimensions, 
and on the Dadant pattern, a hive be con¬ 
structed after the pattern of the regular 
ten-frame Dovetailed, having Langstroth 




















448 


HI YES 


dimensions save in one measurement—that 
of depth. He would add to the hive and 
frame 2Vs inches. As the Dadants use nine 
frames in their original Quinbv hives, 



The comparative difference in size between a regu¬ 
lar eight-frame hive and a ten-frame Jumbo. 


ten frames 2% inches deeper, with Lang- 
stroth top-bar, would give the hive equal 
capacity. Such a hive would take regular 
Langstroth ten-frame bottom-boards, cov¬ 
ers, supers, honey-boards, winter-cases—in 
fact, everything adapted to the regular ten- 
frame Langstroth Dovetailed hive. As the 
ten-frame hive is one of the standards, if 
the large hive is really better, such a hive 
would be more simple and cost less than to 
adopt regular Quinby-frame dimensions. 



The modified Dndant hive with a regular ten-frame 
Langstroth upper story. As the latter is narrower 
it is necessary to close up the space with a couple 
of cleats. ' 


The supply-dealer will make the brood- 
chamber for about 25 per cent more than 
the regular ten-frame Langstroth Dove¬ 
tailed; the supers, covers, and bottom- 
boards would, of course, cost no more. 

THE MODIFIED DADANT HIVE. 

In 1917 the Dadants brought out some¬ 
thing similar to the one just described, ex¬ 
cept that it was 11 frames wide, l^-ineh 
spacing, Langstroth length, and Quinby 
depth. The extra frame makes it a little 
too wide to use supers and hive-bodies of 
standard dimensions without cleats to close 
up the space as shown. This hive requires 
a special bottom-board and a special cover. 

THE TWELVE-FRAME LANGSTROTH HIVE. 

There are some others besides the Da¬ 
dants who believe that the ordinary ten- 
frame Langstroth hive-body makes too 
small a brood-chamber; that a good queen, 
such as ought to be in every hive of the 
up-to-date honey-producer, will easily fill a 
twelve-frame hive with brood. There is no 
use in denying the fact that the ordinary 
user of a common ten-frame hive often 
wishes he had a hive of two frames more 
capacity. To put on a upper story to 
take in the extra frames sometimes gives 
too much room. 

R. P. Holtermann of Brantford, Canada, 
operates something like 700 colonies on 
twelve-frame hives. He is one of the best 
and most extensive lioney-producers in 
America. He tried out the ten and twelve 
frame hives side by side and gives his ver¬ 
dict in favor of the latter. 

THE THIRTEEN-FRAME LANGSTROTH HfVE. 

There are a few who use a thirteen-frame 
Langstroth hive, which is practically the 
same as the twelve-frame hive that has 
been in use so long. The advantage claimed 
is that the hive is larger and exactly 
square. This makes it possible to reverse 
the position of the frames with reference 
to the entrance, during summer or winter, 
by merely turning the hive around one- 
quarter-turn on the bottom. During the 
winter it is an advantage to have the sides 
of the frames exposed to the entrance 
During the summer it is certainly better to 
have the ends of the frames next to the 







HIVES 


449 


entrance, because then the air can blow in 
clear thru the hive, cooling it in hot 
weather. 

The advocates of the thirteen-frame hive, 
like those of the twelve-framers, claim al¬ 
most immunity from swarming, and a hive 
large enough to accommodate practically 
all of the best queens. It is very seldom 
that any queen will go beyond 14 frames of 
brood, so that the thirteen-frame reaches 
the maximum capacity of most queens. 

TWO-STORY TEN-FRAME OR EIGHT-FRAME 
LANGSTROTH HIVES. 

Where the eight or ten frame hive is 
used, it is customary to have the colony 
breed in two stories. As already explained, 
the average queen will go beyond ten 
frames. If she or the bees are not given 
unlimited room for breeding, cells may be 
started and a swarm may follow. To pre¬ 
vent this it is usually customary to put on 
another hive-body, or upper story contain¬ 
ing combs.- In order to start the queen 
above, one or more combs of brood are put 
upstairs, and the empty ones from the up¬ 
stairs are put downstairs, preferably on 
either side of the brood-nest. The brood in 
the upper story induces the queen to go 
above when she might not otherwise do so, 
and thus expand the brood-nest, with the 
result that there may be thirteen or four¬ 
teen frames of brood, the other frames con¬ 
taining honey or pollen. In the production 
of comb honey it is customary, at the be¬ 
ginning of the flow, to put all the sealed 
brood in the lower story, removing the up¬ 
per story and putting the other combs of 
brood in a weak colony. A super of sec¬ 
tions is then put on the lower story, from 
which the upper story was removed. See 
“Comb Honey” and “Swarming,” partic¬ 
ularly the subjects of prevention and con¬ 
trol of swarming. When producing ex¬ 
tracted honey the practice is to put a 
queen-excluder between the upper and 
lower stories after the flow starts, with the 
queen below. 

One reason why the ten-frame hive is so 
popular is because many beekeepers believe 
that the twelve and thirteen frame hives 
are too heavy to lift—that tjie ten is laige 
enough; that by the use of two stories, and 
raising brood in the upper story, all the 
breeding room that the queen needs, will 
15 


be afforded and at the same time swarm¬ 
ing will be kept under control. 

The author has tried to control swarm¬ 
ing by using two-story brood-nests, and 
finds that swarming is held under control 
nearly if not the same as in the larger 
hives with the advantage that everything 
is standard. 

Ninety-nine per cent of the honey-pro¬ 
ducers of the country are using hives of 
Langstroth dimensions. It is possible for 
the expert beekeeper or the novice if he 
will study directions carefully, to manipu¬ 
late his brood-chambers of Langstroth di¬ 
mensions so that he not only can secure 
the maximum amount of brood and bees of 
the right age for the harvest, but he will 
be able to keep down swarming, for the 
production of extracted honey or for 
comb honey. For particulars regarding 
this see Swarm Control, under Swarming. 

LONG-IDEA HIVES. 

Some 50 years ago the long-idea hive%— 
that is, 30 and 35 frame hives all in one 
brood-nest—were advocated by various bee¬ 
keepers in the United States. Many at the 
time were very enthusiastic in praise of 
this hive; but when comb foundation and 
the one-pound section honey-box came to 
the front these hives were dropped by 
nearly every one because they were not 
adapted to the production of comb honey. 
In later years, especially during and fol¬ 
lowing the period of.the Great War, ex¬ 
tracted honey was produced almost exclu¬ 
sively. During this time attention was 
again directed to the Dadant-Quinby hive, 
the ten-frame Jumbo, practically the same 
thing, and the twelve and thirteen frame 
hives. The last two mentioned, it was ar¬ 
gued, would not have to be tiered so high, 
because three thirteen-frame hives, for ex¬ 
ample, would be the approximate equiva¬ 
lent of five eight-frame hives that would 
be so top-heavy and tall that they would 
require rails or props to keep them from 
being blown over. The ten-frame Jumbo 
requires two sizes of frames—one for the 
brood-nest and one for the extracting- 
supers. 

While quite a number were favoring the 
larger hives of the styles mentioned, there 
were a few who were going back to the old 
long-idea hive containing all the way from 


450 


HIVES 


25 to 35 frames. The dimensions of these 
hives would be more like those of a coffin 
or a trunk. The advocates of these hives, 
particularly 0. 0. Poppleton of Florida, 
who had always used them, claim that they 
are large enough so that no tiering up is 
required—no lifting on or off of upper 
stories, no manipulation of brood-combs 
from the lower to the upper story to hold 
back swarming—in short, nothing heavier 
to lift than a single brood-frame. They 
also claim almost entire immunity from 
swarming. 

The i;sual practice with such a long hive 
is to have the entrance on the side, the long 
way, and place the brood-nest in the center 
of the hive. This leaves room for ten or 
twelve frames capacity for more brood on 
either side. Mr. Poppleton argued that a 
queen would move sidewise from one brood- 
frame to another more readily- than from 
one brood-frame in a lower hive-body to a 
brood-frame in the hive above, and he was 
undoubtedly right. The argument was 
briefly this: That the average Langstroth 
frame will have a circle of brood running 
within about two inches of the top-bar. 
The general reason for this is because the 
comb will stretch near the top, making 
neither worker nor drone comb. The queen 
avoids this, and the bees fill it with honey. 
In a hive of two stories the queen is appar¬ 
ently slow about getting over this two 
inches of honey, % inch of a top-bar, % 
inch of a bee-space, ^4 inch of a bottom- 
bar and another bee-space before she 
reaches the comb proper in the upper hive. 
In the long-idea hive it is claimed that the 
queen can move from comb to comb on a 
horizontal line, because the brood surfaces 
are within % inch apart, the space between 
being filled with bees. When the queen ex¬ 
pands the brood-chamber in the natural 
way she moves from comb to comb. If the 
worker-cells are not stretched, and there 
are no obstructions, she will move vertical¬ 
ly as well as horizontally; but in the mod¬ 
ern tiered-up hive she may not move up¬ 
ward unless the brood is carried upstairs 
by the apiarist himself. It is for this rea¬ 
son that the old long-idea hive has been re¬ 
vived. 

Another advantage claimed for the long 
single-story hive is that it is adapted to the 
use of old men, and women, young and 


old, or any one else who, for physical rea¬ 
sons, can not lift a weight of a filled super 
of 40 or 50 pounds, but who can handle 
individual units of one comb at a time. 

Finally, it is argued that during winter 
or cool weather the brood-nests can be 
confined down to about twelve or fifteen 
frames, and the space on either end filled 
with packing material. If the cover of the 
long-idea hive is three or -four inches deep, 
and telescoping, additional packing can be 
put on top. The hive is, therefore, adapted 
for wintering as well as for summering 
bees. 

This hive is especially adapted to the 
use of beginners who either will not learn 
how to handle swarms in standard hives or 
have not time to do so. A colony in such a 
large brood-chamber that can expand lat¬ 
erally will require less attention than any 
other hive here shown. However, in locali¬ 
ties where brood diseases are prevalent, 
neither this hive nor any other should be 
left to itself without frequent examination 
during the breeding season. 

It should be understood, also, that the 
same objections that apply to especially 
large brood-chambers apply to this one. As 
a general rule, the ordinary beekeeper 
would do well to have everything standard. 
The Langstroth ten-frame hives described 
in these pages are more standard than any 
other hive in the United States if not in 
the whole world. None of these big hives 
are adapted to the production of comb 
honey in sections, and none of the advo¬ 
cates make any claims for them along this 
line. There are times when comb honey 
brings such good prices that it is advan¬ 
tageous to change over from the produc¬ 
tion of extracted honey to honey in sec¬ 
tions, and this is entirely practicable with 
the standard hives. 

Last, but not least, if one wishes to sell 
his apiary at any time he can get the best 
price for it, if it is in standard Langstroth 
hives. 

The author does not advocate the general 
adoption of any of these special hives in a 
large way. If the reader is interested, let 
him experiment with half a dozen or a 
dozen hives; and if the tests of the few are 
satisfactory he can use more. It is usually 
a safe policy for the average reader of this 
work, especially if he is somewhat of a be- 


HIVES 


451 


ginner, to follow in the beaten paths, or, 
more exactly, use standard ten-frame Lang- 
stroth hives and equipment. As a rule, bees 
will sell at a higher price in these hives 
than when they are in something that is 
odd-sized or irregular. Moreover, the av¬ 
erage dealer or beehive manufacturer al¬ 
ways has the standard equipment in stock. 
While the regular Langstroth may require 
extra manipulation and extra lifting (if 
they be compared with the long-idea hive), 
it would be wise to use these hives until 
the general public has proved that what 


packing-cases, as the single walls hardly 
afford sufficient protection to enable the 
average colony to go thru the winter safe¬ 
ly, or without great loss both in bees and 
in stores. The poorer the protection, the 
greater the consumption of stores. A col¬ 
ony poorly protected outdoors will prob¬ 
ably consume twice as much as one ade¬ 
quately protected and with the possible 
handicap of dysentery. 

In the South, of course it is not neces¬ 
sary to carry the single-walled hives into 
the cellar or winter repository, but north 



Long-idea hive holding twenty-five Langstroth frames. Two regular 10-frame supers may be placed side 
by side on this hive, as it is two and a half times the size of a regular 10-frame hive. 


some may call ‘‘freaks are better than the 
standards. 

DOUBLE-WALLED OR CHAFF 
HIVES. 

The hives thus far described and illustrat¬ 
ed are what may be called single-walled 
hives; that is, the outer shell or case con¬ 
sists of a single-board thickness of lumber. 
Such hives in the northern climates, as a 
rule, cannot very well be wintered outdoors 
on their summer stands. They must either 
be carried into the cellar at the approach 
of cold weather, or else be put in outside 


of latitude 40, hives of single-board thick¬ 
ness ought to be either housed or protected 
with winter cases. Where one from choice 
or necessity has to winter outdoors, what 
are known as double-walled hives should be 
used. These have the same inside dimen¬ 
sions as the single-walled hive, and are 
generally made to take the same supers and 
the same inside furniture. The one shown 
in the illustration next following repre¬ 
sents a ten-frame Langstroth single-story 
double-walled hive; and as it represents 
the simplest form of wintering hive, we 
will describe this only, leaving the reader 




452 


HIVES 


to adapt it to the dimensions of whatever 
frame he is using. 

The space between the walls is filled 
with some porous material like dry leaves, 
planer shavings, cut straw or hay, ground 
cork, or any material that is light, loose, 
and porous. An examination of the fol- 
. lowing illustrations will show how this 
warm ideal hive differs from the others. 

Bees are essentially warm-blooded ani¬ 
mals, and if they are not warmly housed in 
our northern climates they will die during 
winter. 

Careful observations have shown that 
these double-walled packed hives will yield 


But this is not all. While bees in single- 
walled hives often do come thru the winter 
successfully, the result is attained at a con¬ 
siderable loss in stores. Overfeeding on the 
part of the bees, in order to keep up the 
temperature of the cluster, causes over¬ 
loading of the intestines, and this sooner 
or later brings on the fatal disease known 
as dysentery. (See Dysentery.) Nothing 
will use up a colony’s vitality in the spring 
more than this. On the other hand, bees 
in double-walled packed hives unless the 
winter is severe will rarely have it. They 
come thru stronger, cleaner, and better 
with a larger stock of stores in reserve to 


Root double-walled hive with removable bottom. 



larger returns in honey. For it is a well- 
known fact in the domestic economy of a 
hive that comb-building cannot progress 
unless a temperature of 98 degrees is main¬ 
tained. Frequently in good honey-gather¬ 
ing weather the nights are cold enough so 
that the inside of the hive will be chilled, 
and comb-building will stop; for the bees 
are compelled to leave that work to hover 
around their brood to keep it warm. In 
the double-walled packed hive brood-rear¬ 
ing and comb-building can continue, dur¬ 
ing ordinary summer weather, no matter 
what the temperature may be outside. 


take care of the necessary brood-rearing 
that takes place as soon as warm weather 
opens up. 

The'reason for this is plain: Experi¬ 
ments show that the internal temperature 
of a single-walled hive outdoors during 
winter is only slightly higher than that 
outdoors. On the other hand, the internal 
temperature of a double-walled packed 
hive is at least 25 to 50 degrees higher 
than the outside temperature. (See Glean¬ 
ings in Bee Culture, page 78, for 1912.) 
The colder the atmosphere in which the 
bees are kept, the more they have to eat. 














HIVES 


453 


Overfeeding plus cold causes dysentery. 

Taking everything in consideration, if 
the double-walled hives cost more than the 
single-walled, they will save from 25 to 50 
per cent of the stores and at least 50 
to 90 per cent of the winter losses, year 
in and year out. During spring and sum¬ 
mer a larger return in honey may be ex¬ 
pected for the reason the bees are not 
obliged to stop their comb-building because 
their super is too cold nor stop brood-rear¬ 
ing in the spring. Neither are they forced 
to eat too much of the freshly gathered 
stores in order to keep up bodily heat. 

Under Wintering Outdoors will be 
found a description of the quadruple win¬ 
ter cases. Bees in four single-walled hives 
packed in one of these cases will be as 
well if not better protected than bees in 
the double-walled hives. In some locali¬ 
ties, where migratory beekeeping is prae- 



Buckeye double-walled hive with space between the 
walls filled with packing material. 


ticed, or where a scheme of out-apiaries is 
used, a single-walled is preferable to a 
double-walled hive, because it takes less 
room in the wagon or truck, is lighter, and 
more easily handled. Where such hives 
are used, they should be kept in a winter 
packing-case until settled warm weather 
comes. 

The double-walled hive has the advan¬ 
tage in that it is more suitable for the back- 
lot beekeeper, the farmer beekeeper, or 
those who desire to leave their bees on the 
same stand the year round, and who, on 
account of other duties, cannot fuss with 
putting bees in the cellar and taking them 
out again, or packing and unpacking in 


large winter cases. Even when bees are 
wintered in the cellar, a double-walled hive 
is a great advantage in that it protects the 
brood and the bees after the bees are set 
out of the cellar in early spring. If they 
could be kept in the cellar until settled 
warm weather, the bees would not be sub¬ 
jected to the rapid and severe changes of 
weather conditions. But this not practic¬ 
able. In localities where the climate is 
very severe, many find it advisable to put 
these double-walled hives in the cellar and 
set them out in the spring. Bees need pro¬ 
tection, not only during cold winter weath¬ 
er, but in the spring, after they are set 
out when changes are often frequent and 
severe. 

CONSTRUCTION OF THE BUCKEYE HIVE. 

The brood-chamber is made of an outer 
and inner rim of select %-inch lumber, 
lock cornered together for strength. The 
space between the two walls is covered 
over with a sort of picture-frame water- 
table. This is secured to the inner cham¬ 
ber in the manner shown; cleats 11, as well 
as the water-table, are then nailed to the 
inner and outer wall. The unfinished hive 
is turned upside down before the bottom 
cleats are nailed in and the double wall 
filled with packing material. 

Experience shows that the top needs 
protection more than the sides. Hence 
we have tray E made of %-inch lumber 
with a bottom of common burlap, which is 
left in a baggy condition so that the tray 
will fit tightly to the hive, thus preventing 
the wind from whistling in under the tray'. 
Cover D is put in place after the frames 
and the bees are in the hive, then tray E 
is put on top of the whole. This is filled 
level full of packing material, such as 
leaves or planer shavings, and over this 
then is placed the large cap or cover that 
goes over the whole. 

It will thus be observed that this double 
hive is made on the plan of an ordinary re¬ 
frigerator, or like a safe cabinet built to 
protect its contents from fire. Anything 
that will keep ice from melting will in like 
manner keep water from freezing. The 
principle is the same as that of the well- 
known thermos bottle. The thermos bot¬ 
tle will keep water cold or hot for hours 
and hours. The double-walled hive here 















454 


HIVES 


shown will keep a cake of ice, if the en¬ 
trance is closed, almost as well as a refrig¬ 
erator. It will also hold a pail of boiling 
water and keep it hot for hours on the 
principle of a tireless stove. 

The general features that go to make up 
a refrigerator or a tireless cooker apply 
equally well to a beehive. 

Some have the idea that a hive having 
so-called dead-air space will winter bees as 
well as one having space tilled with packing 


material. This is a mistake. In the first 
place, there is no such thing as “dead air” 
space in a beehive or in anything else. Air 
is bound to circulate. The air 
nest to the outer wall that is 
cold cools and necessarily circu¬ 
lates over to the other side or 
inner side Avhere it is warm. The 
cold air rushing over to the warm 
side cools the warm side, thus 
making the inner wall almost as 
cold as the outer. When a hive 
is so designed that it can hold 
packing material, this material 
holds an infinita number of pock¬ 
ets of air in little compartments. 

As the air in these compart¬ 
ments cannot circulate, it fol¬ 
lows that the outer Avail may be 
comparatively cold, while the 
inner one will be warm. The fact that all re¬ 
frigerators have the space betAveen the Avails 
packed with material, goes to sIioav that the 


theory of “dead air” space between two 
Avails is Avrong. Not only that, but actual 
practice shows a big difference between 
the so-called double-walled dead-air-space 
hive and a real double-walled hive, the 
spaces between which are packed. 

The hive just described is one of the 
standard double-Avalled hives that has been 
on the market for a number of years. 
There is a feeling, however, on the part of 
Government officials and others, that for 
very cold localities it does not 
afford enough packing. Indeed, 
Dr. E. F. Phillips, in charge of 
Bee Culture Investigations in 
the Bureau of Entomology at 
Washington, D. C., stated that, 
in his opinion, the original two- 
story A. I. Root chaff hive was 
much better and was the best 
winter hive that was ever on the 
market. It provides for two or 
three times the amount of pack¬ 
ing on the sides and top that is 
given in the Buckeye hive. The 
author’s experience with it 
showed that the bees wintered 
in it much better during severe 
winters than in the Buckeye. 
Moreover, the bottom was pack¬ 
ed, as well as the sides, ends, 
and tops. In the early editions of this 
work it Avas shown that bees wintered in 
this hive in the Medina climate for a series 


of tAvelve years with a loss not exceeding 
on an average three per cent. This is a 
record beyond that subsequently secured in 



Buckeye hive dissected, showing separate parts, and how the 
brood-chamber packing is shut in by cleats M and L. A, outer 
wall brood-chamber ; T, inner wall brood-chamber; X, W, pack¬ 
ing space cover; L, M, packing space bottom; F, telescope 
cover; E, chaff-tray; D, super-cover. 



Buckeye hive dissected, showing the inner walls detached 
from the outer walls of the brood-chamber. 































































HIVES, EVOLUTION OF 


455 


the Buckeye hive. For the average locality, 
where it is not too cold, where there is 
plenty of snow, or where there are good 
windbreaks, the Buckeye hive affords suf¬ 
ficient protection. It is admirably adapted 



Original Root chaff hive. 

for localities like that of Tennessee, some 
of the other southern States, and many 
parts of California, where the nights are 
cold, down almost to freezing, and the days 
are warm. The double walls prevent the 
bees from coming out too freely on warm 
days, and protect the brood at night. 

PACKING MATERIAL. 

In former times, when chaff from wheat 
or oats was available, this was the material 
used. In later years planer shavings from 
a planing mill have been used 
very extensively with excellent fiq 

results. Dry forest leaves when 
packed solid are perhaps better 
yet. 


HIVES, EVOLUTION OF — 

Primitive hives were simply the 
trunks of hollow trees in which 
bees were lodged, cut down and 
carried wherever the beekeeper 
desired. This plan of beekeep¬ 
ing is still practiced in some 
parts of Europe, in southeastern 
United States, and is common 
enough in Africa. The stingless- 
bee apiaries of South America 
have hives of this description. 

The next step was to construct 
a cylinder resembling the trunk 
of a tree, either of wood or 
earthenware. In northern cli¬ 
mates straw came into use, but 
had to be fashioned in the shape 


of a bell to make it easy of construction. 
This is the kind of hive which wak so high¬ 
ly praised by poets. It has the merits of 
extreme simplicity and cheapness. Usually 
it had cross-sticks added inside to keep the 
combs from falling down. See Skeps. 

Not all beekeepers were satisfied with 
these hives; and as early as the 17th century 
some few began to cast about for something 
better. Della Rocca, who wrote a book on 
bees in the 18th century, mentions bar hives 
as in vogue in the islands of the Grecian 
Archipelago, where he lived for many years. 
Bar hives and movable combs are referred 
to in a book published in Italian in 1590. 
The author was Giovanni Rucellai. Such 
hives were known even to the ancient Greeks. 
They resembled large flowerpots with wood¬ 
en bars on which the bees were to fasten 
their combs. The shape of the hive made it 
practically impossible to cause a breakdown 
of the combs except by heat. 

The plan of a movable roof was another 
step in advance, as it gave the beekeeper an 
opportunity to put on an upper story or a 
super to hold the surplus honey where it 
should be, and remove it at the end of the 
honey harvest. 

Mewe, in Great Britain, constructed hives 
of wood on somewhat the same plan as 



















































































456 


HIVES, EVOLUTION OF 


early as 1652, and these were gradually the use of these that he was able to make 

improved by various inventors. the discoveries in apiculture which so as- 

Maraldi, about the same era as Mewe, tonished and delighted the scientific world 

invented a single-comb observation hive (see Fig. 2). Huber invented these hives 

made with glass sides, which contained the about 1789, or perhaps a little earlier. It 

germ of the movable-comb frame. He al- has been contended by some writers that 

lowed too much space for one comb, and Huber’s hive was not practical; but some 



frequently the bees built their combs cross¬ 
wise. Still there was in the Maraldi hive 
the important advantage of handling one 
comb at a time, and by' this means to get 
a far better conception of what was going 
on inside the hive. Huber extended this 
idea by his improvement, Fig. 1, which 
came very near to the hanging movable 


of the most practical beekeepers the world 
has yet produced used modified Huber 
hives, notably Quinby and Hetherington, 
beekeepers of New York State, whose 
names are revered by American beekeep¬ 
ers. 

An examination of the illustrations of 
Huber’s hive makes it plain that he had a 



Fig- 3. Huber hive, showing how he artificially increased the number 
of his colonies. E, E, E are entrance holes .—From Cheshire. 


frame invented by Langstroth 60 years 
later. 

To Huber belongs the credit of inventing 
hives with movable frames,* and it was by 

* This honor is usually ascribed to Langstroth, for, 
indeed, he was the first one to invent an all-round 
practical hive and frame—a frame that provided a 
hee-space all around it; but he did not invent the 
first movable frame (see Frames) , 


clear idea of what was required in a hive 
for practical purposes. Fig. 3 shows how 
he increased his apiary by artificial means. 
In this case he divided a strong colony by 
slipping a board between the frames, there¬ 
by splitting it in two. His plan of pro¬ 
viding a part of each frame for surplus 
honey (Fig. 2) is excellent. Thus it is evi- 


























































































































HIVES, EVOLUTION OF 


457 


dent that Huber invented some of the prin¬ 
cipal features of our movable-comb hives. 
The Heddon and Bingham hives are on the 
movable-comb plan. See Hives. 

About 1819 Robert Kerr of Stewarton, 
Scotland, invented a bar hive of consider¬ 
able merit, shown in Fig. 4. This hive was 
used very successfully, and is still in use, 
but with movable frames instead of mere 
bars. It was still further improved by 
Howatson, also of Scotland, about 18S5. 
Here we have the tiering principle clearly 
comprehended; and had this author and 
inventor grasped the idea of movable-comb 
frames instead of bars he would have in¬ 
vented a hive on the Heddon principle. 

Prokopovitsch, a Russian, about 1830, 
invented and made in large numbers a 



matter of fact, according’ to his own state¬ 
ments, he used bars until 1855, when he was 
persuaded by Baron Berlepsch to use mov¬ 
able frames, which had just been intro¬ 
duced from America. (See Dzierzon; also 
Dzierzon Theory.) Dzierzon’s bar combs 
were removed by using a long knife to cut 
the attachments from the back of the hive 
one by one; for, to reaeh the comb at the 
front of the hive, all the other combs had 
first to be removed. His hive was far in¬ 
ferior to those already mentioned. When 



Fig. 4.—The Stewarton hive, 1819 ; shallow- 
bar hive with glass strips between bars. 

—From Cheshire. 


i^1 

Fig. 5.—Prokopovitsch’s hive, 1830 .—From Framiere. 


movable-comb hive of great merit. See 
Fig. 5. In his own apiaries, of which he 
had many, were over 3000 of these hives in 
actual use. His pupils (for he established 
a school of beekeeping) had many more 
in use. 

It may be noted that his surplus frames 
bear considerable resemblance to our bee¬ 
way sections, and that his hives were dove¬ 
tailed. Prokopovitsch was certainly a bee¬ 
keeper of remarkable abilities. He em¬ 
ployed means and methods far ahead of his 
time. 

It has been claimed by some writers that 
Dzierzon of Germany invented movable 
frames in 1845; but it is evident he has no 
claim whatever to this distinction. As a 


he adopted frames he did not change the 
construction of his hives in the least. 

Next came Langstroth with his epoch- 
making movable-comb hive with movable 
roof, which combined the essential require¬ 
ments of a hive. All the combs in the 
Langstroth hive are readily removable 
without the slightest annoyance either to 
the beekeeper or the bees. Langstroth did 
his work so well that he left very little for 
future inventors to do. Many have tried 
to improve his hive, but in most cases the 
so-called improvement has proven to be a 
backward step. The striking feature of the 
Langstroth hive is the provision for a bee- 
space on all sides of the comb. This bee- 
space cannot be less than one-sixth of an 






















































































































458 


HOLLY 


inch nor more than one-third. This alone 
was a great discovery, and placed Lang- 
stroth far above the mere inventor. See 
Bee-space and Frames; also A B C of 
Beekeeping. 

From his writings it is evident that 
Langstroth knew nothing about what others 



Debeauvoy’s hive, 1845; invented in France before 
Langstroth’s hive appeared. 

had done before him in this line; and it is 
apparent that his invention was the result 
of a profound study of the bee and its 
habits. To some extent he was misled by 
others into thinking that the principle of 
the Langstroth hive had been discovered by 
Dr. Dzierzon independently, whereas it is 
now proven that the German beekeeper had 
no claim to the invention of the hanging 
movable comb, to say nothing of the bee- 
space and the movable roof, which are es¬ 
sential features of the hive. 

Langstroth’s invention, accompanied by 
an excellent treatise* on the art of keeping 
bees, created a revolution in beekeeping in 
a short time, linking his name with that 
of Huber as the two founders of modern 
apiculture. 

HIVES, MANIPULATING.— See Man¬ 
ipulation of Colonies. 

HIVE-STANDS.— See Apiary. 

HOLLY (Ilex opaca ).—American holly. 
White holly. A small evergreen tree, 20 to 
50 feet tall, with a trunk sometimes six 
feet in circumference. Bark smooth and 
grayish white, twigs light brown. The 
leaves are elliptical, leathery, spiny-toothed, 

*A reprint of the original work has been pub¬ 
lished by The A. I. Root Company; price $1.50. 


dark green, shining above and dull be¬ 
neath, with bright red berries in the axils. 
As in the common gallberry the flowers are 
small, white, and a part are pistillate and 
a part staminate, the staminate being clus¬ 
tered and the pistillate solitary. Only one 
kind of flower occurs usually on an indi¬ 
vidual tree. Holly extends thruout the 
southern States from Florida to Texas, and 
in the Mississippi Valley northward to Mis¬ 
souri, and along the coast to Massachu¬ 
setts, but is not abundant north of Vir¬ 
ginia. 

American holly is widely distributed in 
Georgia, but is seldom very common in 
any one locality. The flowers expand in 
April, and, altho the honey is never ob¬ 
tained pure, it is undoubtedly excellent. In 
Florida it is confined to the northern part 
of the State, where it blooms a little ear¬ 
lier than in Georgia. The honey is always 
mixed with that from other early spring 
flowers; for example, on the eastern coast 
it forms a fine blend with the honey of the 
saw palmetto. In South Carolina holly is 
also considered a valuable honey-producer, 
and the odor of the flowers is very notice¬ 
able in the apiary when the trees are in 
bloom. In Massachusetts the holly does 
not flower until June. There is in this 
State a variety with yellow fruit. 

But locally thruout western Mississippi 
and southern Arkansas holly is an impor¬ 
tant honey plant, and the source of a large 
amount of surplus. At Graysport, Gre¬ 
nada County, Mississippi, it is the only 
honey plant yielding a surplus. The hon¬ 
ey is almost white or a very light amber 
color, heavy, excellent in flavor, and when 
pure will not candy for years. “I would go 
out of business,” writes a beekeeper from 
this town, “were it not for holly. It is al¬ 
ways reliable except when it rains con¬ 
stantly dui’ing the blooming period. I have 
had strong colonies store 17 pounds per 
day from holly.” A large quantity of holly 
honey is also secured in the Yazoo Delta. 

HONEY. —Many readers of a work of 
this kind, no doubt, have a good idea of 
the physical properties of a honey, and 
may be able from the taste to determine 
to some extent from what special plant 
any given honey was mainly produced. It 
may be possible, perhaps, that they have an 























HONEY 


459 


idea of chemical composition. They may 
also be able to supply a good definition of 
a honey. But for the benefit of others, a 
brief statement covering this extensive field 
may not be out of place. 

As regards definition: 

According to the Century Dictionary, 
“Honey is a sweet viscid fluid collected 
from the nectaries of flowers and elabor¬ 
ated for food by several kinds of insects, 
especially by the honey bee (Apis melli- 
fica ).” An accepted German definition is, 
“Honey is the nectar obtained from flow¬ 
ers by worker bees, which, after modifica¬ 
tion in the honey-stomach of the latter, is 
stored in the cells of the comb for the nour¬ 
ishment of the young brood.” In this coun¬ 
try the food standards consider “honey as 
the nectar and saccharine exudations of 
plants.” This comes about in that many 
plants contain sugar in their saps, and, 
when an exudation of sap takes place, and 
the water in the sap is evaporated, a sac¬ 
charine residue remains, which is gathered 
by the bees. Also, many trees exude a 
sweet sap when stung by some insect, and 
this is also gathered by the bees. See 
Honeydew. 

Physically considered, honey may be a 
solid block resembling a pound cake of 
creamery butter or it may be semi-solid or 
decidedly liquid. The old idea that crystals 
of dextrose in a honey indicated beyond 
doubt that the product was badly adulter¬ 
ated with sugar should be and has been dis¬ 
pelled. 

In color, honey may be water-white, or 
it may grade thru the yellows to the brown 
into the seal brown and nearly to the black. 
It has been known to be decidedly red in 
color, and again at another time to have a 
greenish tinge—none of these indicating 
by any means the addition of artificial 
colors, but being due entirely to the source 
of the bees’ food. Honey may be as mild 
or as strong in flavor as one can imagine, 
and may possess all the fragrant aroma im¬ 
aginable, and again have a nauseous aroma. 
Yet in each, case it will be absolutely pure. 

The consuming public are very apt to 
jump at conclusions as to the purity of 
this product on account of these various 
flavors and aromas. A person used to clo¬ 
ver or alfalfa hone} 7 would immediately say 
buckwheat honey is not honey at all; 


and, vice versa, one used to buckwheat 
honey would say clover honey is nothing 
more than a mild-flavored sugar syrup. 

As regards composition: 

Honey belongs to the carbohydrate foods. 
It is practically a solution of the two su¬ 
gars, dextrose and levulose in water with 
sucrose in varying small quantities, nat¬ 
urally flavored and containing aromas im¬ 
parted to it by the flower and by the bee. 
Early analyses of honey were very incom¬ 
plete. Hassall in his “Food—Its Adulter¬ 
ations and the Methods for their Detec¬ 
tion,” published along in the sixties, re¬ 
ports moisture, cane sugar, glucose, insol¬ 
uble matter, and mineral matter in four 
samples. In his report he states, “With the 
exception of these, so far as we are aware, 
no reliable analyses have yet been made.” 

Wiley in Part 6, Bulletin 13, Division of 
Chemistry, published in 1892, gives a 
rather complete analysis of a number of 
American honeys. But by far the most 
complete and exhaustive study of Ameri¬ 
can honeys was made by Browne and pub¬ 
lished in 1908 as Bulletin 110, Bureau of 
Chemistry, United States Department of 
Agriculture. Following this, in 1912, Bryan 
published results of examinations of im¬ 
ported honeys from Cuba, Mexico, and 
Haiti as Bulletin 154 of the same bureau 
and department. Miss Alice R, Thompson 
in 1908 published results of the examina¬ 
tion of Hawaiian honeys as Bulletin No. 
17, Hawaiian Agricultural Experiment Sta¬ 
tion. 

Abstracting these, we obtain some inter¬ 
esting facts, and at the same time a fairly 
complete analysis of representative Ameri¬ 
can honeys, together with those likely to 
enter the American market. 

Browne made a classification of his sam¬ 
ples according to floral origin; that is, 
placing all those supposed to be obtained 
from clover together, etc., and then at¬ 
tempted drawing some conclusions as to 
physical and chemical constants of each 
variety. While the results do show some 
conformity to type, they are not as close 
as could be desired, for examination of the 
pollen found in the samples showed that 
the bees had gathered nectar from other 
flowers, altho the prevailing pollen was 
that of the species under which the analy¬ 
sis had been classified. 


460 


HONEY 



In this same bulletin is a rather ex¬ 
haustive study of the several kinds of pol¬ 
len found and the characteristics of the 
pollen of the various individual flowers. 
The quantity of pollen varied considerably 
in the samples, hence the examination for 
pollen cannot give any index of the percen¬ 
tage of adulteration. From the kinds of 
pollen found one can judge with some de¬ 
gree of accuracy the kind of flowers visit¬ 
ed, but it is hardly safe to say that with 
the absence of a certain pollen, the nectar 
from that flower has not been gathered and 
stored. 

In the preceding table are contained the 
analytic results of the examination, show¬ 
ing the average, maximum, and minimum 
figures for American, Haytian, Cuban, 
Mexican, and Hawaiian honeys. 

It is noted that the American as well as 
the Hawaiian honeys are divided into two 
classes levorotatory and dextrorotatory. 
The former may be termed honeys under 
the National Food Law, while the latter are 
honeydew honeys. The standard of food 
products under the national law states that 
“Honey should be levorotatory, and should 
contain not more than 25 per cent water, 
not more than .25 per cent ash, and not 
more than 8 per cent of sucrose. 

The quantity of ash stated is too low, as 
Browne’s examination has shown 0.90 per 
cent ash. 

The analytical figures given in the analy¬ 
ses are for percentage of moisture, invert 
sugar, sucrose, dextrin, ash, and undeter¬ 
mined matter. The acidity of the honey 
samples has also been given. 

In American honeys there is an average 
of 3.73 per cent of undetermined matter. 
The composition of this material is the 
subject of much work now, and the sub¬ 
stances found in this class by the chemist 
are often the deciding figure in determin¬ 
ing the adulteration of honey with commer¬ 
cial invert sugar. 

The composition of the sugars reported 
as invert sugar, viz., percentage of dextrose 
and levulose, are sometimes of value. Tak¬ 
ing Browne’s results for the average of the 
various species of honey we find: 

Kind of Honey Dextrose Levulose 

Alfalfa .. 36.85% 40.24% 

White clover . 34.96 40.24 

Alsike clover . 36.06 40.95 

Sweet clover . 36.78 39.59 
































































HONEY 


461 


Catsclaw . 

.... 38.21 

40.81 

Mesquite . 

_38.04 

41.03 

Locust . 

.... 35.98 

40.35 

Dandelion . 

.... 35.64 

41.50 

Goldenrod . 

_34.45 

37.85 

Aster . 


41.31 

Apple . 

.... 31.67 

42.00 

Raspberry . 

.... 33.57 

41.34 

Buckwheat . 

.... 36.75 

40.29 

Wild bnckwheat. 

.... 35.39 

41.36 

Cotton . 

.... 36.19 

39.42 

Basswood . 

.... 36.05 

39.27 

Sumac . 

.... 33.72 

37.61 

Tupelo . 

.... 24.73 

48.61 


In every ease the levulose predominates. 
This is of value, as in commercial invert 
sugar the two are equal or the dextrose 
predominates. See Insert Sugar. 

The distinction between honey and honey- 
dew honey is only possible by means of the 
polariscope. If a solution of the honey 
turns a polarized ray of light to the left it 
is levorotatory, and the honey is a true 
honey; but if it turns the ray to the right 
it is a honeydew honey, provided no com¬ 
mercial glucose has been added. 

For further consideration see Granu¬ 
lated Honey, Extracted Honey, Honey- 
dew, Honey as a Food, Honey, Analysis 
of, and Nectar. 

PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS OF HONEY. 

The amount of water present in honey 
depends upon the degree of evaporation to 
which the bees have brought the product in 
the hive. Honey which has been taken out 
of the hive prematurely is said to be “un¬ 
ripe.” According to the committee on food 
standards and also the German Standard, 
honey which consists of more than 25 per 
cent of water must be classed as immature. 
It is obvious some standard percentage such 
as this is necessary, even tho arbitrary, in 
order that a basis may be had for deterniin- 
ing what honeys are unripe. 

Honey which has not been capped over is 
sometimes ripe, but more often unripe; and 
the combs of unripe honey should never he 
placed on the market as anything but im¬ 
mature honey. It possesses poor keeping 
qualities. Honey extracted from uncapped 
combs should be exposed to evaporation be¬ 
fore bottling. 

The amount of moisture in honey is not 
conditioned by the nectar of the flower 
from which the honey is derived. It varies 
jn some degree, however, with the environ¬ 


ment of the apiary. Evaporation within 
the hive is promoted or retarded by local 
conditions of humidity. For this reason 
honey from arid parts of the country is 
thicker in general than honey from regions 
where rainfall is plentiful. The difference 
in average water content of ripened honeys 
between those from the humid States of 
the upper Mississippi and those from the 
Southwest, is 3.5 per cent, according to the 
tests in the Government sugar laboratory. 

The degree of granulation which a par¬ 
ticular sample of honey may reach, as well 
as the length of time it takes to granulate, 
is another physical characteristic worth 
noting and forms roughly an index to its 
purity. Honeys high in dextrose are prone 
to granulation; This characteristic of al¬ 
falfa honey is well known. Conversely, 
honeys low in dextrose do not granulate 
readily. Note that tupelo, a non-granulat¬ 
ing honey, shows only 24.73 per cent of 
dextrose, while alfalfa, an early granulat¬ 
ing honey, shows by the table 36.85 per 
cent. See science of granulation under 
Granulated Honey. Impure honeys, such 
as honeydew honey and honey adulterated 
with glucose, do not ‘granulate as readily 
as pure honey. Sage and tupelo by na¬ 
ture seldom granulate. This characteristic 
is utilized by packers in preparing a prod¬ 
uct which will not readily crystallize on the 
market when exposed to changes in temper¬ 
ature. See Bottling. 

Ordinarily honey is judged by its color, 
flavor, and density. There is an almost 
endless variety of flavors, making it prac¬ 
ticable to suit the most exacting connois¬ 
seur. The flavors, like the evanscent aroma 
of honey, are very difficult to describe and 
really cannot be satisfactorily communi¬ 
cated thru printed description. Alfalfa, 
buckwheat, basswood, cotton, orange, and 
several other kinds of honey have a charac¬ 
teristic flavor and aroma which any one 
accustomed to them can recognize without 
difficulty. The presence of honeydew is 
usually detected by a burnt-sugar flavor. 
The flavors of some of the prominent hon¬ 
eys are described under the respective 
plahts. 

Color is a fair guide, but not always so, 
for the famous heather honey of Europe is 
quite dark, and yet no honey stands higher 
in popular esteem cm that continent. The 
















462 


HONEY, ANALYSIS OF 


best honeys of this country are usually 
spoken of as white, and, tho this is not 
quite correct, still it is near enough for all 
practical purposes without coining a new 
word. 

Clover honey may be taken as the typical 
white honey by which others may be con¬ 
veniently judged. For the purpose of com¬ 
parison some may be a little lighter, and 
others a little darker shade; but these nice 
points of distinction are visible only to an 
expert. See Honey and Its Colors. 

It has been the custom of a number of 
honey producers to market their products 
under such names as “white clover honey,” 
“sage honey,” and “pure orange honey.” 
Upon this practice, Bulletin No. 110 of the 
Bureau of Chemistry makes the following 
statement: “Bottled honeys are frequently 
labeled by some floral designation, and 
these honeys, even when within the stand¬ 
ard, often show a suspicious variation from 
the analyses of such honeys of known floral 
origin, especially as regards sucrose con¬ 
tent. The miscroscopic examination of these 
honeys frequently shows an almost com¬ 
plete absence of pollen from the flower in 
question. Beekeepers and bottlers of honey 
are sometimes extremely careless in the 
labeling of their products and apply the 
name of almost any flower, thinking that 
they keep within the requirements of the 
law so long as their product is pure honey. 
This is a mistake, as the product should be 
labeled exactly according to its origin.” 
See Labels for Honey. 

HONEY, ANALYSIS OF.— Outside of 
the determination of moisture or water 
content, the methods of analysis of honeys 
can hardly be carried on by the beekeeper 
or bottler; first, on account of the rather 
complicated procedures, and, second, on 
account of the expensive apparatus needed. 
The moisture determination described be¬ 
low for the beekeeper or bottler is not so 
accurate as that one described for the chem¬ 
ist, but it will yield comparative results. 
It is the one in general use by makers of 
maple, sorghum, and also cane syrup. 

The analytical procedure described for 
the chemist are all well-known methods and 
should yield accurate results. It is on the 
interpretation of analytical results that the 
chemist may fail, if he has not bad some 


little experience with honey. This latter 
phase of the question would easily'fill many 
pages, and then it would be doubtful 
whether the whole field had been covered in 
such a way as to explain all cases and con¬ 
ditions. So one can give here only the out¬ 
line of the general and special methods 
used in honey examination, followed with 
some remarks about detecting adultera¬ 
tion. 

For sake of convenience and ease of pre¬ 
sentation, the method of procedure adopt¬ 
ed is to divide the matter into statements of 
the methods for the individual determina¬ 
tions; then follow with maximum and min¬ 
imum figures obtained on pure honeys for 
each determination. Maximum or mini¬ 
mum figures not given may be obtained 
from the table of analysis given under 
Honey. 

The first step in any analytical examina¬ 
tion is the drawing of a representative 
sample. This is of greatest importance and 
prevents difficulties with honey on account 
of partial crystallization or candying of 
numerous honeys. 

sampling. 

Comb. —In comb honey it is necessary to 
select either a representative comb or bet¬ 
ter to take portions of a number of combs. 
Then by means of a knife cut across the 
top of the comb and allow the honey to 
drain from the cells. Should the honey have 
granulated in the comb, it will be necessary 
to heat the comb in a water bath at a tem¬ 
perature not above 160° Fahrenheit until 
the wax liquefies, stirring, then allow the 
whole to cool. The wax will solidify in a 
layer on top. This can be removed and the 
sample is ready for analysis. Should the 
liquid so obtained be full of dirt, treat it 
as given below under “Extracted Honey.” 

Extracted Honey. —If the sample is 
free from granulation, and also clear and 
clean and in a perfectly liquid condition, 
no preparation is necessary. When the 
sample has granulated or shows partial 
granulation, it should be heated on a water 
bath (never over a direct flame) to a tem¬ 
perature never over 160° Fahrenheit until 
the crystals are in solution. If the sample 
is dirty, it can be passed in this state thru 
a fine linen cloth to filter. The heated 
honey is allowed to cool to collect and solid- 


HONEY, ANALYSIS OF 


463 


ify the wax. It is then ready for analy¬ 
sis. 

Drawing' representative samples from 
large containers is a difficult proposition. 
The best procedure in such cases should be 
to liquefy the whole, then stir before tak¬ 
ing the sample. Under these conditions 
only could one obtain an average sample. 

MOISTURE METHOD FOR BOTTLER. 

The necessary apparatus is a Baume 
hydrometer graduated from 0—50, which 
can be obtained from any wholesale drug¬ 
gist or chemical house, and a tin cylinder as 
shown in cut about two inches in diameter 
and twelve inches high. 

BY BAUME HYDROMETER. 


A hydrometer or spindle is an instru¬ 
ment for showing the density of a liquid. 
Hydrometers are graduated to various 



scales and for various purposes. The one 
generally used for rough sugar work is the 
Baume. The standard of graduation is an 
arbitrary one and varies somewhat with 


different makes. The usual Baume hydrom¬ 
eter is made of glass and shows a gradua¬ 
tion from zero to 50, divided into degrees, 
as shown in figure below. The density is 
measured by floating the hydrometer freely 
in the liquid, which is generally held in a 
tall cylinder, as shown in the illustration. 
The point on the scale where the instru¬ 
ment comes to rest is considered the den¬ 
sity. It will be noted that the surface of 
the liquid is curved up at the points of 
contact with the metal cylinder, and also 
with the hydrometer. The correct reading 
of the instrument is on a line with the 
surface of the liquid as shown in the cut 
and not at the upper edge of the curved 
portion. The temperature at which Baume 
hydrometers are standardized is 60°F., un¬ 
less it is otherwise marked on the stem of 
the hydrometer, so for correct readings the 
honey should be cooled to that temperature. 
A honey of standard density has a Baume 
reading of 40.9°, but if measuring the 
density of the warm honey by drawing 
Some out into a cylinder the density will 
be somewhere about 37° to 40°, and on 
cooling 40.9° to 41.5°. This is readily un¬ 
derstood when one considers that the zero 
of the hydrometer is at the upper end and 
the 50 at the lower end. On heating a 
liquid, there is an expansion and the liquid 
is lighter, so the hydrometer sinks further 
down than on cooling, when there is a con¬ 
traction of the liquid. The accuracy of 
these glass hydrometers is very much af¬ 
fected by using them in hot liquids, hence 
it is not good practice to use the accurate 
instruments in the hot honey. 

The following table shows the solid con¬ 
tent and the water content for different 
degrees Baume. These figures are only 
approximate. A gallon of the honey should 
be weighed to give accurate results. 

It is not to be understood that a degree 
Baume corresponds to 1.7 per cent of 
sugar, for the hydrometer measures other 
dissolved solids also. 

In order to detei’mine relatively the num¬ 
ber of degrees Baume of the cooled honey 
when the reading is made with the hydrom¬ 
eter at a high temperature, it is necessary 
to take the temperature at the same time 
that the hydrometer is read. Subtract 60 
from the number of degree. Fahrenheit of 
the heated honey (this being the normal 















































4G4 


HONEY, ANALYSIS OF 


DBY SUBSTANCE and water corresponding 68° to 72° C. under a 20 to 24 inch va- 

TO EACH DEGREE BAUME. CUUIU. 


Degrees 

Baume* 

Dry sub¬ 

stance 
per cent 

Water 

per cent 

Degrees 

Baume* 

Dry sub¬ 

stance 
per cent 

Water 

per cent 

1 

1.7 

98.3 

26 

46.8 

53.2 

2 

3.5 

96.5 

27 

48.6 

51.4 

3 

5.3 

94.7 

28 

50.5 

49.5 

4 

7.0 

93.0 

29 

52.4 

47.6 

5 

8.8 

91.2 

30 

54.3 

45.7 

6 

10.6 

89.4 

31 

56.2 

43.8 

7 

12.3 

87.7 

32 

58.1 

41.9 

8 

14.1 

85.9 

33 

60.0 

40.0 

9 

16.0 

84.0 

34 

61.9 

38.1 

10 

17.7 

82.3 

35 

63.9 

36.1 

11 

19.5 

80.5 

36 

65.8 

34.2 

12 

21.3 

78.7 

37 

67.8 

32.2 

13 

23.0 

77.0 

38 

69.7 

30.3 

14 

24.8 

75.2 

39 

71.7 

28.3 

15 

26.6 

73.4 

40 

73.7 

26.3 

16 

28.4 

71.6 

41 

75.7 

24.3 

17 

30.3 

69.7 

42 

77.7 

22.3 

18 

32.1 

67.9 

43 

79.7 

20.3 

19 

33.9 

66.1 

44 

81.8 

18.2 

20 

35.7 

64.3 

45 

83.8 

16.2 

21 

37.5 

62.5 

46 

85.9 

14.1 

22 

39.4 

60.6 

47 

88.0 

12.0 

23 

41.2 

58.8 

48 

90.1 

9.9 

24 

43.1 

56.9 

49 

92.2 

7.8 

25 

| 44.9 

55.1 

50 

94.4 

5.6 


* Taken at 60°F. 


temperature) and multiply the difference by 
0.0265. This figure (which is the tempera¬ 
ture correction expressed in degrees 
Baume) is added to the Baume reading of 
the hot honey; and the result is the 
Baume reading of the cooled honey. For 
example, a heated honey shows a reading 
of 38 at a temperature of 160° F. Then—- 
160° minus 60 equals 100 
100 times .0265 equals 2.65 
38 plus 2.65 equals 40.65 
The cooled honey would read 40.65, or 
by above table have about 25.5 per cent 
water. 

MOISTURE FOR THE CHEMIST. 

Weigh 2 grams of the sample in a fiat- 
bottom aluminum (or platinum) dish 2% 
inches in diameter containing from 10 to 
15 grams of fine quartz sand which has 
been thoroly washed and ignited. A small 
glass stirring rod is weighed out with the 
dish and sand, and after the addition of the 
honey and weighing dissolve the latter in 
5 to 10 cc. of distilled water and thoroly 
incorporate with the sand by stirring with 
the rod. Then .place the dish in a vacuum 
oven and dry to constant weight at from 


ASH (MINERAL MATTER). 

Carefully weigh 5 grams of the honey in 
a tared platinum dish, add a few drops of 
olive oil, and heat the whole over a flame, 
using care not to lose any honey by spat¬ 
tering. Then ignite in a muffle or over 
direct flame at a low red heat. Cool, weigh, 
and calculate percentage. Should the ash 
run around .1 per cent it would be well to 
check the result by using 10 grams of the 
honey. The greatest care is necessary in 
ashing a product not to overheat. 

DEXTRIN. 

Transfer 8 grams of the honey to a 100 
cc. flask with 4 cc. of water and add suffi¬ 
cient absolute alcohol to bring up to the 
mark. (The transfer is best made by de¬ 
canting as much as possible of the liquid 
honey into the flask, then adding 2cc. of 
water to the dish (from a burette) to take 
up adhering honey and again decanting. 
By using lcc. more of the water in two 
successive washings and adding a few cubic 
centimeters of the absolute alcohol each 
time before decanting, the honey can be 
completely transferred without the necessi¬ 
ty of using more than 4 cc. of water. 
Finally rinse out the dish with absolute 
alcohol and then add it to the flask with 
continual agitation until the volume has 
reached lOOce. Allow this to stand until 
the dextrin has settled out on the sides of 
the flask and the supernatant liquid is per¬ 
fectly clear. 

Then decant the clear solution thru a 
filter and wash the precipitated residue 
with lOcc. of cold 95 per cent alcohol to 
remove the adhering liquid, pouring the 
washings also thru the filter. Dissolve the 
residue adhering to the flask and the parti¬ 
cles which may have been caught upon the 
filter in a little boiling water and wash into 
a tared platinum dish. Evaporate the con¬ 
tents of the latter and dry in a vacuum 
oven to constant weight as for the moisture 
determination. The alcohol precipitate is 
liable to carry sugars with it; so it is neces¬ 
sary to determine the weight of these and 
therefore make corrections for them. 

After determining the weight of the 
dried alcohol precipitated, redissolve the 


















HONEY, ANALYSIS OF 


465 


latter in water and make up to a definite 
volume. If the alcohol precipitate weighs 
as much as 0.5 gram, the volume should be 
50cc.; from 0.5 to 1.0 gram, it should be 
lOOcc.; from 1.0 to 1.5 grams 150cc. and 
so on. Determine the sugars in aliquots 
from the filtered solution of the alcohol 
precipitate, both before and after inver¬ 
sion. The total alcohol precipitate less the 
weight of invert sugar and sucrose gives 
the weight of dextrin, from which the per 
cent can be obtained. 

REDUCING SUGARS. 

Take lOcc. of the solution used for the 
immediate polarization determination (see 
later) before inversion and make up to 
250cc. in a flask with water. Use 25cc. 
for reduction according to Allihns’ method. 
Calculate the results expressed as dextrose 
to invert sugar by the factor 1.044. If 
Munson and Walker’s method is used for 
reducing sugar determination, use 25ce. of 
the above sugar solution and 25cc. off 
water. Allihns’ method and also Munson 
and Walker’s method are given in detail 
in the Official Methods of the Association 
of Agricultural Chemists, in various hand¬ 
books for sugar chemists, such as Browne’s, 
Spencer’s, and in most works on food an¬ 
alysis as Leach’s, etc. 

SUCROSE. 

Determine the total sugars after inver¬ 
sion by transferring lOcc. of the 55ee. 
solution (see .later) used for the invert 
polarization to a 250cc. flask and making 
up to the mark with water. Take 25cc. 
for a reduction by either Allihns’ or Mun¬ 
son and Walker’s method. Calculate to 
per cent invert sugar. Subtract the per 
cent of invert sugar before inversion from 
this figure and multiply the difference by 
the factor 0.95 to obtain the per cent of 
sucrose. The percentage of sucrose cannot 
be determined accurately from the polari¬ 
zations. 

POLARIZATIONS. 

Transfer 26 grams of honey to a lOOcc. 
(true cc.) flask with water, and add 5cc. 
of alumina cream; make up the solution to 
volume at 20° C, and filter and polarize the 
liquid at once for the “immediate polariza¬ 
tion.” Transfer 50ee, of this filtrate to a 


50-55cc. flask; add 5cc. of concentrated 
hydrochloric acid, and allow the whole to 
stand over night for inversion. Place the 
remainder of the filtrate in a flask, after 
removing the quantity necessary for the 
reducing sugar determination, and allow 
to stand over night. On the following day 
again polarize the two solutions at -20° and 
also at 87° C, making a total of five differ¬ 
ent readings. 

The polarization at 87° C is a rather 
difficult one to make. It is necessary to 
have a water-jacketed tube and run water 
at about 95° thru at first to bring quickly 
the temperature up to around 85°, then run 
the water at about 90°. When the solution 
itself has readied 87°, make a reading. If 
much time is necessary to bring the solu¬ 
tion up to 87°, it might-be well nearly to 
neutralize the invert solution before mak¬ 
ing the reading. This practice will give 
different results, and also the solutions will 
turn much darker, making a reading more 
difficult. 

The purpose of the 87° reading is to 
obtain a reading after the invert sugar has 
become optically inactive. With substances 
other than honey dextro readings at 87° on 
the inverted solution would indicate the 
presence of commercial glucose. In honeys 
the reading is due to the excess of dextrose 
plus the natural dextrins. Many chemists 
have fallen into this mistake. 

ACIDITY. 

Dissolve 10 grams of honey in water and 
titrate with tenth-normal sodium hydrox¬ 
ide, using phenolphthalein as indicator. 
Express the acidity as formic acid. 

It is known that the sting of a bee is due 
to formic acid, so all analyses are calcu¬ 
lated to formic acid. Experimental work 
on the acids of natural honey has shown 
that there are two groups of acids, present, 
volatile and non-volatile acids. Of the 
former, formic acid forms about one-half, 
the others being butyric, valeric, caproic, 
and capric. Of the non-volatile acids lactic 
acid predominates, then malic acid, suc¬ 
cinic, and oxalic have been recognized. 
Where the honey has soured or fermented 
the acid formed is acetic. 

DEXTROSE AND LEVULOSE.’ 

The percentage of these sugars can be 


466 


HONEY, ANALYSIS OF 


calculated from the polarizations and re¬ 
ducing sugar contents. The results are only 
true when the reducing sugar content has 
been determined by Allihns’ method. The 
calculation is as follows: 

Multiply the direct polarization at 87° 
by 1.0315 (lOOcc. of solution at 20° ex¬ 
pands to 103.15cc. at 87°). Subtract this 
figure from the direct constant polarization 
at 20°, and then divide by the factor 
2.3919. The figure thus obtained is the 
grams of levolulose in the normal weight of 
honey. Hence to find percentage, this must 
be divided by 26. 

The percentage of levulose, so found, if 
subtracted from the percentage of invert 
sugar obtained by reduction will give very 
closely the percentage of dextrose if these 
two sugars are present in nearly equal 
amounts. If these two sugars differ widely 
in percentages an error is introduced into 
the original calculation of invert sugar and 
hence in the percentage of dextrose. The 
most accurate procedure is to reduce the 
levulose to its dextrose equivalent in cop¬ 
per-reducing power by multiplying by the 
factor 0.915. This subtracted from the to¬ 
tal inducing sugars as dextrose will give 
the true percentage of dextrose. The re¬ 
sults then of this determination, viz., per 
cent of dextrose plus per cent of levulose, 
will be greater than the percentage of in¬ 
vert sugar found by reduction, but such re¬ 
sults are correct. 

UNDETERMINED. 

The sum of the percentages of water, 
sucrose, levulose, dextrose, ash, dextrin, 
acidity, subtracted from 100 gives the per¬ 
centage of undetermined matter. This con¬ 
sists of wax particles, pollen grains, albu¬ 
minoids, proteids, tannin, essential oils, 
combined acids, and a number of other 
substances. 

PROTEIN. 

Weigh out 2 grams of the honey and 
transfer to a 500cc. Kjeldahl flask; add 
10 grams of powdered potassium sulphate 
and 25ee. of C. P. sulphuric acid. Place 
the flask in an inclined position, and heat 
below the boiling-point of the acid for 
from 10 to 15 minutes, or until frothing 
has ceased (a small piece of paraffin may 
be added to prevent extreme foaming). 


This part of the operation is tedious on 
account of the sugars in the honey. Grad¬ 
ually increase the heat until boiling is ob¬ 
tained, then continue boiling until the mix¬ 
ture is colorless or nearly so, or until oxi¬ 
dation is complete. This may take over five 
hours. Cool and add 200cc. of water, then 
neutralize with sodium hydroxide solution 
(a few drops of phenolplithalein may be 
added to the liquid to determine easily 
when enough soda has been added). Con¬ 
nect immediately with a condenser and dis¬ 
till into half or tenth normal acid. Titrate 
this with tenth normal alkali, using cochi¬ 
neal as an indicator. A blank should be 
run with the reagents and the results sub¬ 
tracted from those obtained from the honey 
before calculating the percentage of nitro¬ 
gen. The per cent of nitrogen times 6.25 
gives the per cent albuminoids or protein. 

American honeys run from 0.1 to 1.0 per 
cent, and even higher. German honeys 
average about 1.08 per cent with a range 
from 0.30 to 2.42 per cent. 

DETECTION OF COMMERCIAL GLUCOSE. 

The dextro rotation of a honey at 87 
is due to honey dextrins. These are dif¬ 
ferent in character from those dextrins 
obtained by the acid hydrolysis of starch, 
or such as occur in commercial glucose. 
One point of difference is the fact that 
honey dextrins are not colored by iodin 
solution, while the dextrin of glucose, ex¬ 
cept those of high-conversion products, are 
colored by iodin. Due to this fact Beck¬ 
man has proposed the following test, which 
is qualitative in nature. 

Prepare a one-to-one solution of honey 
with water and add a few drops to 2cc. of 
iodin solution. If commercial glucose be 
present the solution turns red or violet. 
The depth and quality of the color depend 
upon the quantity and nature of the glu¬ 
cose employed for adulteration. A blank 
test with a pure honey of about the same 
color, using the same quantity of iodin solu¬ 
tion, should be made at the same time for 
the purpose of securing an accurate com¬ 
parison of color. 

If the original honey is dark in color or 
the test is not delicate enough, one can take 
the honey solution, add absolute alcohol 
until all the dextrins are precipitated, 
allow these to settle (never filter), decant 


HONEY, ANALYSIS OF 


467 


Glucose 
per cent 

Honey 
per cent 

Direct 

Polariz. 

20% 

1 

Invert l 

at 20 

Polariz. 
at 87 

Polariz. 

difference 

between 

20 and 87 

Invert 

before 

inversion 

Sugar 

after 

inversion 

% glucose 

found by 1 

the above 

formula 

100 


+ 153.8 

+ 153.34 

+ 144.32 


30.02 

30.45 


50 

50 

+ 67.0 

+ 65.67 

+ 73.81 

8.14 

53.67 

54.50 

56.9 

20 

80 

+ 15.4 

+ 13.42 

+ 33.00 

19.58 

69.00 

70.35 

19.2 

10 

90 

— 2.4 

— 4.84 

+ 18.59 

23.43 

74.42 

74.12 

8.8 

5 

95 

— 11.5 

— 14.30 

+ 11.66 

25.96 

75.74 

77.80 

3.8 

3 

97 

— 14.2 

— 16.94 

+ 9.13 

26.07 

76.62 

78.01 

3.7 

2 

98 

— 16.0 

— 18.70 

+ 8.14 

26.84 

76.64 

78.34 

1.2 

i 

99 

— 18.2 

— 20.90 

+ 6.93 

27.83 

77.20 

78.87 

.0 

0 

100 

— 19.5 

— 22.11 

+ 5.94 

28.05 

77.68 

78.93 

.0 


liquid, and dissolve the dextrin in hot 
water, then treat with iodin. By this means 
as low as 2 per cent glucose can be de¬ 
tected. 

To determine the quantity of commercial 
glucose the following method by Browne 
gives fair results. It is better than other 
proscribed methods. 

METHOD FOR ESTIMATING GLUCOSE FROM 
THE POLARIZATION. 

The invert polarization at 20° is sub¬ 
tracted from the invert polarization at 87°, 
and the result multiplied by 77 (the aver¬ 
age per cent invert sugar after inversion in 
pure honeys). This product is divided by 
the per cent invert sugar after inversion 
found in the sample under examination. 
This figure is multiplied by 100 and the re¬ 
sult divided by 26.7. The result so ob¬ 
tained is the percentage of pure honey in 
the sample under examination. This per¬ 
centage subtracted from 100 gives the per 
cent glucose. 

The table at the top of page gives results 
by this method on mixture of honey with 
varying percentage of glucose. 

The percentages actually found agree 
fairly well with those added. However, it 
is not safe for the percentage of glucose 
in mixtures with less than 10 per cent. Its 
presence in small quantities is easily told 
thru the qualitative test described above. 

ENZYMES. 

Enzymes are bodies of varying chemical 
nature (considered to be albuminous in 
nature) which occur in the constitution of 
animals and plants and effect decomposi¬ 
tion of certain chemical compounds occur¬ 
ring in association with them without being 
used up themselves. They are all destroyed 
by high heat, but at lower temperatures are 


more or less affected. In honey, both in- 
vertase and diastase are present and are 
the principal ones. Invertase is capable of 
breaking up sucrose into dextrose and lev- 
ulose while diastase is capable of changing 
starch into dextrose. All honeys contain 
these enzymes. Boiling a honey destroys 
them. Heating a honey to 170° or 180° F. 
(a temperature above that recommended 
for liquefying a honey) destroys the action 
of invertase and weakens but does not de¬ 
stroy diastase. To destroy the activity of 
the latter it is necessary to bring the tem¬ 
perature up to 200° F. 

The test for enzymes is then important 
in assisting in the determination of adulter¬ 
ation with commercial invert sugar. A 
color reaction (See below Browne’s or 
Bryan’s modification of Fiehe’s test) and 
a positive diastase test would signify com¬ 
mercial invert sugar. 

The method of carrying on the test is as 
follows, “Moreau method.” 

Ten grams honey with 2 to 3cc. of water 
are added drop by drop, shaking constant¬ 
ly to 100 cc. absolute alcohol. Allow to 
stand, then decant, and add cold recently 
boiled distilled wmter to the precipitate and 
filter. Repeat this process on a second 10 
grams of the honey, boiling the filtered so¬ 
lution a few minutes. According to an¬ 
other method use the same amount of 
honey, but add 250cc. of 95 per cent alco¬ 
hol, shake and centrifuge, then wash the 
precipitate repeatedly with 75 per. cent al¬ 
cohol to remove all sugars, next dissolve in 
cold water and neutralize the solution to 
methyl-orange, using tenth normal sodium 
hydroxide, then add 1.5cc. of one per cent 
formic acid. 

The invertase is determined by adding 
5cc, of ten per cent sucrose solution to a 












468 


HONEY, ANALYSIS OF 


portion of the honey-extracted solutions, 
made to lOOce. with cold recently boiled 
distilled water and determine the reducing 
portion of each of the honey-extracted solu¬ 
tions. To the remainder of the solution, add 
5 drops of toluene to prevent growth of 
micro-organisms; place in an oven at 25 to 
30° C. for four days and again determine 
reducing sugars. For diastase, use the 
same procedure as described above, starting 
with 10 grams of honey, except that a solu¬ 
tion of starch equivalent to 0.25 grams of 
potato starch is substituted for sucrose and 
the solution is kept at 45 to 50° C. 
for 24 hours in place of 4 days at 25 to 
30° C. The results in each case are ex¬ 
pressed in grams of reducing sugars per 
100 grams of honey. 

The following figures for diastase on 
pure German honeys have been obtained: 
0.60 to 3.68, and for invertase 1.05 to 12.02. 
There are no figures so far published for 
American honeys. 

ALBUMINOID PRECIPITATE. 

“LUND’S TEST.” 

In the undetermined matter of honey, 
there are varying quantities of substances 
precipitated by the addition of tannin and 
also phosphotungstic acid. The quantity of 
the precipitate so obtained has been used 
as a measure of adulteration. Commercial 
invert sugar contains none of these mate¬ 
rials, hence no precipitate, so that a figure 
for this test below the minimum of a pure 
honey in conjunction with the diastase test 
and color test strongly indicated adultera¬ 
tion. 

For these tests a special glass tube is 
necessary, similar in form to a Horvet 
maple tube. The tube should hold over 
40cc., and have a mark at the 40cc. point. 
The lower portion of the tube should hold 
4cc., and be 8mm. in diameter and be 
graduated into tenths of a cubic centimeter. 
The upper portion should be 16mm. in 
diameter. The lower portion of this part 
should be graduated into half cubic centi¬ 
meters up to 20cc.; from 20cc. to 40cc. 
there need be no graduation. 

lund’s tannin test. 

Take 20cc. of a filtered ten-per-cent 
honey solution in the tube and add 5co, of 


a five-per-cent tannin solution (in distilled 
water), then add distilled water to the 
40cc. mark and shake thoroly. Allow the 
tube to stand 24 hours and then read off 
the volume of the precipitate. Results in 
Germany on this test show pure honeys 
never go below 0.9cc. of the precipitate 
and seldom below 1.2ce. and may go as 
high as 4.0ce. Adulterated honeys show 
figures from nothing up to 0.30 and higher,- 
but seldom above l.Occ. 

lund’s phosphotungstic acid test. 

In a tube described above, add 20cc. of 
a filtered ten-per-cent honey solution and 
then 5cc. of the following reagent: phos- 
photungstie acid, 2 grams; sulphuric acid 
(1 to 4), 20 grams; water, 80 grams; then 
water to the 40cc. mark. Shake as before 
and allow to stand 24 hours. Pure honeys 
show from 0.3cc. to 40cc. of a precipitate, 
while adulterated honey much less. This 
latter test has been used more than the 
tannin test. Results from American honeys 
by American chemists have not been pub¬ 
lished. 

COLOR TESTS. 

In the commercial manufacture of invert 
sugar there is more or less decomposition 
of a small percentage of the levulose, giv¬ 
ing rise to furfural or oxymethyl furfural. 
This latter body when treated with various 
reagents develops brilliant colors. This, 
then, is the basis of a color test for com¬ 
mercial invert sugar. As levulose and dex¬ 
trose are present in pure honey, it is 
claimed that by overheating these same 
furfural bodies will be formed. Much has 
been written pro and con on this point, 
possibly mainly to cast doubt on these very 
delicate color tests. Heating as carried on 
by the beekeeper (up to 160° F.) will never 
develop furfural in a pure honey. Heat¬ 
ing to boiling and then cooling will not de¬ 
velop this substance. Boiling a very acid 
honey may give a very slight test, but 
taken along with the strength of color 
shown by commercial invert sugar when 
present in as low as 5 per cent no one 
would be confused by the test. 

The number of these color tests proposed 
are too many to be given in one place. The 
following are easily worked. 


HONEY AND ITS COLORS 


469 


brown's analin acetate test. 

Prepare fresh each time it is used the 
following reagent: 

To 5cc. of anilin (this should be water- 
white) add 5cc. of water, shake, and then 
add glacial acetic acid to clear the emulsion 
(generally about 2cc. is necessary). To 
5cc. of a 1-to-l solution of the honey with 
water in a test tube add 1 to 2cc. of the 
above reagent. Allow the latter to flow 
down the walls of the test tube to form a 
layer. In the presence of commercial in¬ 
vert sugar a red ring forms at the junction 
of the two liquids. 

BRYAN'S MODIFICATION OF FIEHE'S TEST. 

Prepare the following reagent fresh at 
each time of testing: 

Five-tenths gram of resorcinol in 50ce. 
of hydrochloric acid (Sp. Gr. 1.19). Place 
lOcc. of a 50-per-cent honey solution in a 
test tube and run 5cc. of redistilled ether 
on top. Shake contents gently (taking 
care not to form an emulsion), and allow 
to stand until ether layer is perfectly clear; 
transfer 2cc| of the clear ether solution to 
a small test tube, and add a large-sized 
drop of the reagent. Shake,. and note the 
color immediately. In the presence of. com¬ 
mercial invert sugar the drop in the bottom 
assumes an orange-red color, turning to a 
dark red. Most pure honeys show this 
coloration when allowed to stand anywhere 
from half to one hour, but never on the 
immediate application of the reagent. 
Heated honeys do not develop an immedi¬ 
ate coloration. 

feder's ANILIN CHLORIDE TEST. 

Prepare freshly each time it is used the 
following: 

To lOOcc. of C. P. anilin add 30ce. of 
25 per cent hydrochloric acid. For the 
test, 5 grams of the honey are mixed direct¬ 
ly in a porcelain dish with 2.5ec. of the 
anilin reagent. A bright-red color indi¬ 
cates commercial invert sugar. Pure honeys 
may show a faint pink color at the start, 
but on standing this very often disappears. 

SUMMARY. 

To form a conclusion on a sample of 
honey it is necessary to make most of the 
determinations described above. A mois¬ 
ture determination gives the data as to 


whether a sample complies with the United 
States standards in this particular. The 
determination of reducing sugars before 
and after inversion gives the only reliable 
data as to sucrose content. In this connec¬ 
tion it should be noted that a fresh honey 
may show a high percentage of sucrose, 
but on standing show less, little, or none, 
depending on the activity of the enzyme in- 
vertase in the honey. The polarization fig¬ 
ures, together with the reducing sugar con¬ 
tent, furnishes' the data along with the 
Beckman test for the presence or absence 
of commercial glucose. The presence of 
large quantities of sodium chloride in the 
ash would also help in deciding on com¬ 
mercial glucose. Too much dependence 
cannot be placed on the chlorine content 
of a honey unless it is known that the 
honey was not produced near salt water. 

For commercial invert sugar the per¬ 
centage of dextrose and levulose, the 
amount of ash and composition of the ash, 
the amount of tannin and phosphotungstic 
acid precipitate, the diastase and invertase 
reaction, the percentage of nitrogen, and 
the color tests are all helpful and needed. 
The presence of tartaric, phosphoric, hy¬ 
drochloric, and sulphuric, also acetic acids 
in appreciable quantities are extra, and are 
valuable determinations. The quantity and 
kind of pollen, also appearance, are some¬ 
times of value in deciding on a honey. 

For the further consideration of this 
subject see Granulated Honey, Ex¬ 
tracted Honey, Honeydew, Honey as 
Food, and Nectar. ' 

HONEY AND ITS COLORS.— The va¬ 
rious kinds of honey differ very much in 
color, flavor, and density. One variety may 
be practically colorless, while another pro¬ 
duced in the same locality, under the same 
conditions, by the same bees, but from dif¬ 
ferent flowers, may be a dark brown. One 
kind may contain less than one-sixth of 
water, while another may contain a fourth. 
The proportions of dextrose, levulose, and 
sucrose vary considerably; but as the ex¬ 
tent of the variation is known to chemists 
they are compelled to .take this into account 
in forming an opinion from the analytical 
figures. 

Ordinarily honey is judged by its color, 
flavor, and density. There is an almost 


470 


HONEY AND ITS COLORS 


endless variety of flavors, making it prac¬ 
ticable to suit the most exacting connois¬ 
seur. Color is a fair guide, but not always 
so, for the famous heather honey of Europe 
is quite dark, and yet no honey stands 
higher in popular esteem on that continent. 

The best honeys of this country are usu¬ 
ally spoken of as “water-white,” and, tho 
this is not quite correct, still it is near 
enough for all practical purposes without 
coining a new word. 

Clover honey may be taken as the typi¬ 
cal white honey by which others may be 
conveniently judged. For the purpose of 
comparison some may be a little lighter, 
and others a little darker shade; but these 
nice distinctions are visible only to experts 

Taken by this standard, in the North 
there are all the clovers—white, alfalfa,* 
crimson, mammoth, alsike, sweet—and the 
European, sainfoin; basswood, raspbenw 
(wild), willow-herb (or fireweed), milk¬ 
weed, Canada thistle, apple, cucumber 
(pickle), and Rocky Mountain bee plant. 
In the South white honey is obtained from 
the following: Gallberry (holly), sour- 
wood, tupelo, mangrove, cotton, palmetto, 
bean, huajilla, catsclaw, huisache, mesquite, 
California sage, orange, and some others 
of less importance. In the American trop¬ 
ics the chief white honey is from logwood 
or campeche; on all tropical seashores, from 
campanilla (Cuba), and the mangrove. 

Amber-colored honey comes from many 
sources. Among them, only the more fa¬ 
miliar ones can be noted in a popular book 
of this kind; namely, goldenrod, wild sun¬ 
flower, heartsease, Spanish needles, sumac, 
poplar, gum, eucalyptus, magnolia, mari¬ 
gold, horsemint, horehound, carpet-grass, 
and the hog plum (hobo), rose-apple, and 
royal palm of the West Indies. 

Of dark honeys there are two great ex¬ 
amples—the buckwheat of the United 
States and Europe, and heather, which is 
confined to Europe alone. The latter, tho 
dark, is a rich, strong-flavored, thick hon¬ 
ey, so dense that the extractor is not used 
to take it from the combs. That produced 
in Scotland commands a very high price, 
while that of England is cheaper, being 
gathered from another species of heather. 
In North Germany the heath or heather 

* This is a light amber in southern California 
and Arizona. 


honey commands a good figure. It is large¬ 
ly produced by migratory beekeepers, their 
bees existing on white clover during sum¬ 
mer, and in the fall being moved to the 
heaths. 

Buckwheat honey is not nearly so good 
as clover, either in flavor, density, or color; 
but it is so liberally produced in buckwheat 
localities that it is a paying crop to the 
beekeeper. It blooms late, hence the bees 
can be prepared in ample time to profit 
by its bloom. This feature alone makes it 
very valuable to the beekeeper who is for¬ 
tunate enough to live in a buckwheat- 
growing section. In those parts of this 
country where buckwheat is grown largely, 
consumers are willing to pay as much, or 
almost as much, as they will for fine white 
honey. Indeed, many prize it more highly. 

In France there is a great demand for 
buckwheat honey from bakers of a kind of 
bread which has been made for centuries. 
No other sort of honey is desired by these 
bakers, who derive nearly all their supply 
from Brittany, where buckwheat is com¬ 
monly sown. Attempts have been made to 
get the bakers to use other dark honeys, 
but without success. 

In Europe there are some prominent 
honeys which are almost or quite unknown 
in this country. Heather has been men¬ 
tioned. Sainfoin is another which is quite 
common, being almost the same as our 
alfalfa honey. Narbonne honey belongs 
to this class. In southern Europe romarin 
(rosemary) is very highly spoken of; and 
in Greece there is the classically famous 
honey of Mount Hymettus, from wild 
thyme. In Australia the honey of eucalyp¬ 
tus is highly appreciated, but attempts to 
sell it in England have always ended in 
failure, altho it ought to be useful for per¬ 
sons suffering from coughs and colds. In¬ 
stead of the eucalyptus flavor proving to 
be an attraction it proved to be a draw¬ 
back. In California, eucalyptus has a lim¬ 
ited demand. 

HONEY AS A FOOD.— During the cen¬ 
turies previous to the advent of cane and 
beet sugar, honey was the only concentrated 
sweet in the world’s dietary. In those 
times honey was not produced in abund¬ 
ance as now, and people could not freely 
indulge their desire for sweet. Cheap 


HONEY AS A FOOD 


471 


granulated sugar has made a very great 
change in the situation. The use of sweets 
has increased almost beyond belief. In the 
United States, for instance, the per capita 
consumption is about 85 lbs. per year—an 
enormous amount, viewed from any stand¬ 
point. People at large have not stopped 
to consider the probable effect of eating 
so much sugar; but it is a serious ques¬ 
tion nevertheless, whether the present gen¬ 
eration would not be benefited if honey 
were restored, at least partially, to its for¬ 
mer place in the diet. A study of dietetic 
values discloses at least two reasons why 
honey should be given a preferred place 
among the sweets. 

First, honey is more easily assimilated 
than any of the other sweets. Granu¬ 
lated sugar and allied products have a ten¬ 
dency, when eaten in more than small 
amounts, to produce irritation in the di¬ 
gestive tract. This sometimes results in 
nothing more than a hindrance to diges¬ 
tion,; at other times it is severe enough to 
cause real indigestion. Especially is this 
true with sedentary workers. Honey is re¬ 
markably free from this fault. To begin 
with, it does not require digestion at all; 
it is ready for absorption into the blood 
without change. In addition, it is much 
less likely to have the hindering effect on 
digestion noticeable in the case of cane 
sugar. This has been recently clearly dem¬ 
onstrated by Philip B. Hawk, of Jefferson 
Medical College, Philadelphia, Pa. Pro¬ 
fessor Hawk carried out a series of experi¬ 
ments, upon a normal man, to determine 
the influence of honey on gastric digestion. 
He first fed the man 40 grams of whole¬ 
wheat bread alone. The contents of the 
stomach were analyzed for acid and pep¬ 
sin at 15-minute intervals, and an accurate 
and detailed record was kept. The experi¬ 
ment was then repeated, adding to the 
bread half its weight in honey (20 grams). 

The following quotation tells the result 
of the work in Prof. Hawk’s own words: 

“An examination of the chart will show 
that the bread with honey was digested 
and left the stomach as quickly as the 
bread alone. Similar pepsin values were 
obtained; and, while there was a slight de¬ 
pression of acidity such as always follows 
the ingestion of foods containing much 
sugar, digestion was completed as soon as 


with the bread alone, altho the addition of 
honey had practically doubled the food 
value of the product from the energy 
standpoint. 

“The use of honey with bread and in 
similar ways would, therefore, appear to 
be generally preferable in the case of chil¬ 
dren to the eating of candies. Honey serves 
to make the highly nutritious bread far 
more palatable, leading to greater con¬ 
sumption of body-building foods instead of 
depressing the appetite, as is likely to be 
the case with candies which are eaten be¬ 
tween meals. At the same time, honey fur¬ 
nishes the body very considerable amounts 
of energy in the most available form. The 
high place given to it in the diet is there¬ 
fore well deserved.” 

There is a second reason why honey de¬ 
serves a preferred place among sweets. It 
is a reason the importance of which is sel¬ 
dom appreciated, but a reason which should 
be of vital concern to every one interested 
in good health. Honey differs from most 
of the other concentrated sweets, notably 
granulated sugar, in that it is not pure 
sugar. Granulated sugar is so pure that it 
is practically a chemical entity, sucrose and 
nothing else. It contains no mineral mat¬ 
ter at all. It is too pure, strange as that 
may sound. On the other hand, honey 
contains, besides its sugars, numerous “ac¬ 
cessory components.” From a dietetic 
standpoint, these accessory components are 
important because we have in them prac¬ 
tically all the mineral elements found in 
the human body. It is true that they do 
not occur in large quantities in honey, but 
the amounts are comparable to the amounts 
found in numerous other foods of impor¬ 
tance. It may be wondered whether the 
stress placed on the presence of mineral 
matter in our food is well founded or not. 
Some may be inclined to think that enough 
mineral matter is found in other foods to 
cover up the deficiency in white sugar. But 
it must be considered that white sugar is 
used in literally enormous amounts. This 
situation is most clearly set forth by Prof. 
Henry C. Sherman, one of the foremost 
authorities on food and dietetics in the 
United States. We quote: 

*“Dogmatic statements regarding the 

*“Food Products,” by Henry C. Sherman. (Mac¬ 
millan.) 



472 


HONEY AS A FOOD 


propei' place of sugars in the diet are apt 
to be seriously misleading. The problem 
is complicated and the evidence in many 
respects is still obscure. 

“Until relatively recent times sugar was 
too expensive to be used freely by most 
people; but, with the development of the 
industry and the cheapening of the prod¬ 
uct, the consumption of sugar has in¬ 
creased at an exceedingly rapid rate. 

“The thoughtful student of food prob¬ 
lems must regard this development with 
mixed emotions. The cheapening of a sta¬ 
ple article of food, which is almost uni¬ 
versally popular and which, like the re¬ 
fined sugar of commerce, is of uniform and 
well-known composition and practically 
free from danger of adulteration or harm¬ 
ful deterioration, would be a source of 
great satisfaction but for the fact that re¬ 
fined sugar constitutes an extreme case of 
a one-sided food, its sole nutritive function 
being to serve as fuel so that, as the en¬ 
ergy requirement of the body is met to a 
larger and larger extent by the consump¬ 
tion of refined sugar, there is a constantly 
increasing danger of unbalancing the diet 
and making it deficient in some of the sub¬ 
stances which are needed for the building 
and repair of body tissue and for the reg¬ 
ulation of physiological processes. 

“The fuel value of sugar is about 1800 
calories per pound, so if, as estimated, the 
consumption of sugar in the United States 
now amounts to 85 pounds per capita per 
year, the energy obtained from eating 
sugar must amount to about 420 calories 
per capita per day. If the per capita en¬ 
ergy requirement be estimated at about 
2000 calories per day it follows that about 
one-fifth of the energy requirement is be¬ 
ing met by eating sugar (of course not all 
of this sugar appears on the table as such) 
and that the intake of protein, phosphorus, 
calcium, potassium, iron, and other essen¬ 
tial elements and of such important tho 
imperfectly understood substances as the 
lipoids and vitamines, is on the whole about 
one-tenth lower than would be the case if 
the sugar were reduced one-half and the 
energy now derived from sugar were sup¬ 
plied by an increased consumption of the 
other articles of food. Are we to assume 
that the ordinary dietary of the people of 
the United States furnishes such an abun¬ 


dance of all the essential elements and 
each specific necessary compound that a 
difference of 10 per cent in the intake is of 
no consequence? The investigations of re¬ 
cent years indicate clearly that no such 
assumption is justified. 

“The objection to the too free use of • 
sugar, on the ground that it serves only 
as fuel and may replace to an undue ex¬ 
tent other food materials which meet other 
nutritive requirements, applies equally to 
commercial glucose and to most candy. It 
does not hold to the same extent as re¬ 
gards molasses and those syrups which con¬ 
tain the natural ash constituents of the 
plant juices.” 

Before closing the discussion of the food 
value of honey, it is very important that 
mention is made of the vitamine content of 
honey. The reading public has learned a 
great deal about vitamines in the last two 
or three years, and nearly everyone has 
been educated to a realization of the im¬ 
portance of these almost intangible “food 
accessories.” For those who do not feel 
sufficiently acquainted with the subject it 
is suggested that the article Vitamines, 
further on in this volume, be read. The 
matter may be summarized here by say¬ 
ing that Prof. Hawk, mentioned above, 
has proved the presence of what many 
scientists consider the most important class 
of vitamines, Fat Soluble A, in comb hon¬ 
ey. This places comb honey in a class en¬ 
tirely apart from all the rest of the sweets, 
none of which have any vitamine content 
at all. 

In concluding, it may be said briefly that 
honey is preferable to other sweets, from a 
dietetic standpoint merely (if from no 
other), for the following reasons: First, it 
is far easier to assimilate than the other 
sweets, especially white sugar, in that it 
taxes the digestion not at all; second, it is 
not super-refined, and utterly lacking in 
accessory food components, like white 
sugar; and third, comb honey contains the 
rarest and most important of the vita¬ 
mines, Fat Soluble A. See also Sugar, 
and Vitamines. 

THE USE OF HONEY IN COOKING. 

The simplest way to serve honey is the 
most common—just spread it on bread or 
rolls, either in the form of comb or liquid. 


HONEY AS A FOOD 


473 


It goes as far as jam in this way. Honey 
is often served with rice, breakfast cereals, 
pancakes, and similar foods. Honey and 
cream is an ideal combination. Honey can 
be used to advantage in flavoring ice cream, 
gelatine creams, and delicate blanc-manges. 
Honey combines particularly well with or¬ 
anges, apples, bananas, peaches, and dried 
fruits. A delicious substitute for maple 
syrup is made by honey diluted with hot 
water, and the same syrup cold is superior 
to undissolved sugar for sweetening sum¬ 
mer drinks. This method of flavoring goes 
well with carbonated water. 

Fruits cooked in honey keep indefinitely. 
Bar-le-Duc currants, which sell ordinarily 
at a high price, are often made by cooking 
currants in honey. A brighter color is pres¬ 
ent in fruits so preserved than in those 
bottled in the usual way, as honey is a pre¬ 
servative. 

Indiscriminate substitution of honey for 
corresponding amounts of molasses or su¬ 
gar in recipes does not always give the 
expected results. The cook should keep in 
mind the difference in chemical nature be¬ 
tween honey and syrup before making up a 
recipe. Better make a small amount as a 
test before entirely filling a new recipe. 

Less soda is required when substituting 
honey for ordinary molasses. Experiments, 
in the government nutrition laboratory 
have shown that % level teaspoonful of 
soda is generally the amount required with 
a cupful of honey. In baking with sour 
milk and soda it is well to add a pinch of 
baking-powder to every pint of flour. 
Cakes will be lighter and finer grained if 
this is done. When baking-powder is sub¬ 
stituted for soda use a little more. 

When honey is used in a recipe less milk 
is required on account of the water in the 
honey. Compared with some of the “com 
syrups” on the market, honey is sometimes 
considered, pound for pound, more expen¬ 
sive, but where two or three cups of syrup 
will be required in a recipe only one of 
honey is necessary. The cake or cooky is 
improved in flavor and healthfulness with 
no increase in cost. 

Baked foods keep much better when 
prepared with honey instead of with sugar. 
It was formerly believed that cakes baked 
with honey absorb moisture from the air, 
but experiments have been made in the 


government nutrition laboratory which 
seem to show that the softness of the honey 
cake is due to the presence of the levulose 
in the honey. The fact that such cakes, tho 
soft, never become soggy, even tho exposed 
to moist air for a long time, seems to bear 
out this conclusion. Cakes should be al¬ 
lowed to “ripen” for a day or two at least, 
to develop the honey flavor. Honey fruit 
cakes, hermits, and the like are better at 
the end of two or three weeks. 

Cakes made with honey and butter will 
keep until the butter grows rancid. Cook¬ 
ies made with honey will not dry out. 
Dough itself containing honey will stay 
fresh indefinitely. The remarkable merits 
of goods baked with honey have led large 
wholesale bakers and cracker manufactur¬ 
ers to use quantities in their product. Some 
big firms buy honey annually by the car- 
load. The same power in retaining mois¬ 
ture and freshness is present in icings made 
with honey. The icing will last for months 
unimpaired in consistency arid taste, and is 
especially valuable for such cakes as fruit 
cakes which are to be kept for a long time. 
Orange, bitter almonds, lemon, and fruit 
flavors generally blend well with honey, as 
do also anise, cardamon, coriander, and 
other spicy seeds. , 

Contrary to directions for cooking honey, 
as given in some of the old cook books, it 
is seldom necessary to bring honey to the 
boiling-point and then skim and cool it. 
Bringing honey to the boiling-point is sure 
to give a burnt flavor. It should not be 
kept unnecessarily hot for any length of 
time. 

THE HONEY RECIPES. 

All of the recipes here given have been 
thoroly tested; but any recipe, while it 
may be successful in the hands of the ori¬ 
ginator, often needs modification when it is 
tried by others. All will give good results, 
but the following 20 recipes (pictured on 
page 475) are especially fine. In this con¬ 
nection particular attention is drawn also 
to the one for making cereal coffee. The 
ingredients used are so simple and the work 
of preparing consumes so little time that 
there is no one who should miss trying 
this delightful drink. It has a very rich 
flavor, especially when cream is used, with¬ 
out the scorched, bitter taste that most 


474 


HONEY AS A FOOD 


cereal coffees have. The expense, of course, 
is so little as to be practically nothing. The 
honey and egg used allow the bran to 
brown to a rich color without burning, so 
that the final result is surprising. Try it. 


1.—oatmeal cookies. 


2 cups rolled oats 
2 cups flour 
1 teaspoon soda 
1 tablespoon grated choc¬ 
olate or cocoa 
Vs teaspoon cinnamon 
V 2 teaspoon cloves 


Vs teaspoon nutmeg 
Vs teaspoon salt 
1 cup chopped raisins 
Vs cup chopped nuts 
1 cup honey 

1 cup sour cream 

2 eggs 


Sift the dry ingredients together (except the rolled 
oats) and add all other ingredients, the soda dis¬ 
solved in the sour cream. Stir well, and drop by 
teaspoonfuls into cooky pans, or bake in gem-pans. 
Nuts may be omitted. 


2.-HONEY RUSKS. 


3 cups flour 
2 cups milk 
1-3 cup honey 
V 2 cup warm water 
1 cake compressed yeast 
Vi teaspoon salt 


3 table-spoons melted 
butter. 

Raisins, currants, or car¬ 
damon seed 
1 egg 

1 cup flour 


Dissolve the yeast in the warm water. Mix the 
flour, milk, honey, yeast, and salt and set in a 
warm place to rise. When very light, add the beat¬ 
en egg, butter, and enough flour to make a stiff 
dough. Knead lightly and mold in small biscuits 
or twists. Raisins, currants, or cardamon seed 
may be added at discretion. Rub the top with 
beaten egg; cover, and let them rise again until 
they are double in bulk, and are very light and 
fluffy. Bake 20 to 25 minutes in a moderate oven, 
glazing them with sugar affid water just before re¬ 
moving them from the oven. 1 


3.-HONEY BAKER BEANS. 


teaspoon lemon extract. Mold in layers, adding 
nuts to one part and maraschino cherries to the 
other. Serve with or without whipped cream. 


6.-FRUIT CANNED WITH HONEY. 

Prepare fruit as usual in canning. Put on to 
boil. When the fruit is ready for canning add 
honey, about as much of it as one would use of 
sugar. Be sure to let the fruit come just to the 
boiling point; after adding the honey do not boil, 
as this is liable to damage the fine flavor of the 
honey. Have the jars ready, clean, and very hot; 
put in the fruit and seal. Fruit canned thus keeps 
better than by the old method of canning with 
sugar; it has in addition the delicate' flavor of the 
honey. Only those who regularly use honey in can¬ 
ning and preserving can appreciate the rich flavor 
and the fresh natural color of the fruit thus pre¬ 
pared. 

7.-SOUR-MILK CAKE 


Vi cup lard or butter 
V2 cup sugar 
Vs cup honey 
Vs cup sour milk 
1 egg 

12-3 cups flour 


Vs teaspoonful soda 
1 teaspoon baking pow¬ 
der 

Vs teaspoon cinnamon 
Vi teaspoon cloves 

Pinch salt Nutmeg 


Beat the sugar and lard to a cream and then add 
the egg well beateii and the other ingredients. Use 
little nutmeg and mix the soda with the flour. Bake 
in either jelly-tins or loaf in a moderate oven, and 
put together with caramel frosting. 


8. - GRAHAM PUDDING. 


Vi cup butter 
2-3 cup honey 
Vs cup milk 
1 egg 


1 Vs cups graham flour 
Vs teaspoon soda 
1 teaspoon salt 
1 cup seedless raisins 


Melt the butter; add the honey, milk, and egg, 
well beaten; dry ingredients mixed and sifted, and 
raisins. Turn into buttered mold; cover and steam 
2 V 2 hours. Serve with pudding sauce. 


Soak over night one pint of small white beans. 
Bring to a boil, adding baking soda the size of a 
bean, and allow to simmer for half an hour. Drain, 
and cook till tender in salted water, but not long 
enough to break the skins. Drain and rinse the 
beans, and put them in an earthern bean-pot. Pour 
over them a pint of milk, adding a tablespoonful 
of butter, 2 tablespoonfuls honey, and a pinch of 
cayenne pepper. Cover closely, and bake in a slow 
oven till the milk is absorbed. 


1 4.-LADY FINGERS. 


1 cup honey 

2 eggs 

Vs cup butter 
4 cups flour 


Vs teaspoon baking pow¬ 
der 

Vs teaspoon soda 
1 teaspoon salt Sugar 


Blend the honey warmed with butter, add beaten 
eggs and flour, sifted with the dry ingredients. Cut 
in strips. Roll in sugar. Bake in a quick oven. 

5. - -MARSHMALLOW CREAM 


Vi cup honey Vs cup boiling water 

1 teaspoon gelatine Whites 2 eggs 

Vs cup cold water 1 teaspoon vanilla 

1 teaspoon lemon extract 

Dissolve gelatine in the usual way, heating it 
over a teakettle until thoroly dissolved. Cool, but 
do not chill; stir in the honey, and add to the 
whites of the eggs beaten very light, a few spoon¬ 
fuls at a time, beating constantly. Divide into 2 
parts; to one part add a color and flavor with va¬ 
nilla, about 1 teaspoon; to the other part add 1 


9.-HONEY NOUGATINES. 

1-3 cup honey 1 teaspoon vanilla 

1-3 cup pure corn syrup Whites 2 eggs 

Paraffin (size of a pea) Vs pound chocolate 
1 cup sugar 1 cup almond or walnut 

Vi teaspoon salt meats, chopped fine 

Vi cup water 

Mix the honey, corn syrup, or glucose, sugar, 
paraffin (piece size of pea), and water and boil 
until a drop makes a hard ball when dropped in 
cold water (248° F.). Stir occasionally while boil¬ 
ing. Pour part of the syrup gradually on to the 
whites of the eggs, beaten dry. Add the salt. Beat 
constantly in pouring. Boil the remainder of the 
syrup until it is brittle when t.ested in cold water 
(290° F.), and again pour on the eggs, this time 
all of the syrup, and beat constantly while pour¬ 
ing. Then boil the mixture and beat constantly 
until it is crisp when tested. Cool in a buttered 
tin. Cut in oblong pieces and coat with choco¬ 
late. 

10.- HONEY DROP CAKES. 


1 cup sugar 

2 tablespoons honey 
2 or 3 eggs 

2-3 cup shortening 
1-3 cup buttermilk or sour 
cream 

Vi teaspoon soda 


2 teaspoons baking pow¬ 
der 

Pinch salt 
Vs teaspoon vanilla, 

orange, or lemon to 
taste 

About 3 Vs cups flour 


Cream the sugar, shortening, and honey, add the 
eggs well beaten an<} then the buttermilk. Sift the 


HONEY AS A FOOD 


475 



The results of tyvepty of the recipes selected as the best. See preceding and following pages. 













476 


HONEY AS A FOOD 


dry ingredients in flour enough to make a stiff bat¬ 
ter to drop from spoon. Bake in moderate oven. 
These cakes will run together in baking, and must 
be cut apart with a knife, but are much better than 
rolled, and much less trouble to bake. 


Mix the honey, salt, and cornstarch. Stir in the 
hot milk gradually, stirring until smooth. Stir and 
cook over boiling water until the mixture thickens. 
Cover and cook 15 minutes. Turn into a wet mold, 
chill, and serve with cream and sugar. 


11 - 

% cup honey 
% cup butter 
2 eggs 
% cup milk 
1 cup raisins 
% cup chopped citron 


-FRUIT CAKE. 

1 cup maraschino 

cherries, cut up 
3 teaspoons baking pow¬ 
der 

% teaspoon salt 
1 teaspoon ginger 
5 cups flour 


Warm the butter, honey, and milk over a slow 
fire; cool, and add the well-beaten eggs, the salt, 
and the ginger. Sift the baking powder with the 
flour; dredge the fruit with flour, and add these 
alternately. Mix well and baked in greased loaf- 
tin about an hour. 


12.-—APPLE PUDDING. 


Apples sliced fine 
14 cup honey 
Cinnamon 
Butter 

1 teaspoon salt 


2 eggs 

% cup water 

3 or 4 slices bread 

crumbled 
1 cup cooked rice 


The rice should be cooked for several hours. 
Beat into this the yolks of the eggs. In the bot¬ 
tom of the pan place a layer of crumbs with dots 
of butter here and there; then a layer of apples, 
with honey and cinnamon on top. The third layer 
is a mixture of rice, egg, and salt. The fourth and 
fifth layers are a repetition of the first and second. 
Add water and bake in a moderate oven. Cover 
with meringue. 

13.- DOUGHNUTS. 


1 egg 

1 cup sweet milk 

1 cup honey 

2 tablespoons shortenin; 


1 teaspoon cream tartar 
1 teaspoon soda 
Flour 
Pinch salt 


Cream the honey and shortening together and 
add the egg, well beaten, and the other ingredients. 
Mix well, and add flour enough to roll out and cut 
easily. Roll out on baking board, and cut with 
doughnut-cutter. Fry in hot lard. The honey in 
this recipe makes the doughnuts a delicious brown, 
and also keeps them moist for a long time. 


14.— PUMPKIN PIE 

2 cups sifted pumpkin 2 teaspoons ginger 
2-3 cup sugar 1 teaspoon cinnamon 

1 cup honey 3 cups milk 

4 tablespoons flour 

Mix the flour with the sugar and add to the 
pumpkin. Then stir in the honey, the spices, and 
the milk with all its cream. Recipe makes 2 pies. 


17.- HONEY FONDANT. 

2 cups granulated sugar 1-3 cup honey 
% cup water 

Mix, put over fire, and stir only until the sugar 
is dissolved. Boil carefully until able to shape a 
very soft ball when tested in cold water (about 
238° F.). Do not stir while boiling and do not 
scrape off sugar which adheres to the side of the 
pan. When done pour into greased platter and 
partially cool. Beat and stir with a wooden spoon 
until it begins to crumble and then knead with the 
hands like dough. Pack in a bowl, cover. with 
cloth, and set aside until needed. When ready for 
use the bowl of fondant may be set in hot water 
until soft enough to handle. Any flavoring may be 
added when shaping into candies. The honey flavor 
alone is delicious when the fondant is used to stuff 
dates. 

The use of noney in fondant obviates the necessity 
of using cream of tartar. The slight acidity of the 
honey keeps it from graining too soon. If the fon¬ 
dant is boiled too hard, pull until white; the result 
will be a fine taffy. 

18.- WHOLE-WHEAT BREAD. 


1 quart whole-wheat flour 
(maj; be x /z graham 
or 1-3 rye) 

1 pint water (may be % 
scalded milk cold 


1 large cooking spoon 
honey 

V 2 compressed yeast cake, 
or the equivalent 
1 Y 2 teaspoons salt 
Butter, size of an egg 


Dissolve the yeast thoroly in the water; have the 
water slightly warm in cold weather. Add the 
honey; mix well; add the salt, and stir until dis¬ 
solved. Mix the flour and water thoroly by means 
of a large cooking spoon, putting all together at 
once. The dough should be rather sticky and soft. 
If the dough is too stiff with a pint of water, more 
may be added, a teaspoonful at a time thoroly in¬ 
corporated, until the right consistency is‘ obtained. 
If the bread is wanted rather dry, leave the dough 
stiffer. 

Cover closely, keeping in a warm place in cold 
weather, and vice versa. In the morning turn the 
dough out on the board, and knead into it the but¬ 
ter, flouring the board and hands as lightly as pos¬ 
sible. Make 2 loaves in narrow pans, cover, and 
keep warm to rise. It should about double in bulk. 
If the dough is not covered closely the surface will 
dry so as to form a skin. This will cause streaks 
in the bread. Bake 30 to 40 minutes in an oven 
not too hot. This bread does not become stale as 
soon as other bread. It contains all the vitalizing ele¬ 
ments of the grain. 


15.-GINGER DROP CAKES. 


19.;— TIP-TOP LEMON PIE 


1 cup sugar 
1 cup honey 
1 egg 
1 cup lard 


% cup sweet milk 
1 tablespoon ginger 
% teaspoon salt. 

1 teaspoon soda 


Cream the sugar, lard, and honey together. Dis¬ 
solve the soda in a little hot water. Add the egg 
well beaten and the milk. Use enough flour to 
make the batter stiff enough to drop from spoon. 
Bake in greased gem pans in moderate oven, or 
drop on greased pan from spoon. 


16.-HONEY CORNSTARCH PUDDING. 


1-3 cup honey 4% tablespoons cornstarch 

14 teaspoon salt 4 cups scalded milk 


3 eggs V 2 lemon 

% cup honey 1 teaspoon melted butter 

1 tablespoon flour 1 % cups rich milk 

Combine thoroly the yolks of the 3 eggs beaten 
light, the honey, flour, the juice, flesh, and grated 
rind of half a lemon, and the butter. Mix thoroly 
in the order given and add the milk; pour into a 
pie-plate lined with a good crust, pricked to prevent 
air blisters. Bake until set. Cover with a mer¬ 
ingue of the whites, beaten with 3 tablespoons honey 
and a few drops of lemon juice, and brown lightly. 

Many prefer to bake the crust separately and also 
cook the filling in a double boiler before putting it 
in the shell, 


HONEY AS A FOOD 


477 


20.-BAKED SQUASH. 

Peel and slice the squash into pieces about % 
inch thick. Place slices in the bottom of a large 
bread pan. Dot each slice with a generous piece 
of butter; strew honey over squash, 1 teaspoon to 
each slice; then pour in enough hot water to cover 
the bottom of the pan. After cooking on top of the 
range for 10 or 15 minutes, turn each slice with a 
knife and boil until tender. More hot water may 
have to be added. Place the pan in the oven and 
let the squash take on a delicate brown. Serve at 
once after removing from the pan. 

HONEY CAKES. 

Lemon Cakes. — Bring 1% cupfuls of honey .to 
the boiling point. Skim if necessary. Add % 
cupful of butter and cool. Add 2 cupfuls of pastry 
flour, stirring it in carefully. Let this mixture 
stand over night. When ready to bake, stir in the 
grated yellow rind of 1 lemon, 2 tablespoonfuls of 
lemon juice, % cupful chopped blanched almonds; 
add % teaspoonful of soda dissolved in a little 
lukewarm water, and bake in small round tins. 
Ice when cool. 

Nut Cakes. — Beat to a cream % cupful of but¬ 
ter and 1 cupful of powdered sugar. Beat into 
this 1 egg well beaten and y 2 cupful of honey. 
Stir in 2 cupfuls of pastry flour, previously sifted, 
with 2 teaspoonfuls of baking powder, and last stir 
in % cupful of finely chopped filberts. Let the mix¬ 
ture stand where it is very cold (do not freeze) 
over night. When ready to bake, roll the dough 
very thin, cut into fancy shapes, brush them over 
with the white of an egg diluted with a teaspoonful 
of warm water. Sprinkle the cakes with granu¬ 
lated sugar and chopped filberts. Bake in a hot 
oven until a golden brown. 

Short Cake. — Three cups flour, 2 teaspoonfuls 
baking powder, 1 teaspoonful salt, % cup shorten¬ 
ing, IV 2 cups sweet milk. Roll quickly, and bake 
in a hot oven. When done, split the cake and 
spread the lower half thinly with butter, and the 
upper half with V 2 pound of the best-flavored hon¬ 
ey. (Candied honey is preferred. If too hard to 
spread well it should be slightly warmed or creamed 
with a- knife.) Let it stand a few minutes and 
the honey will melt gradually, and the flavor will 
permeate all thru the cake. To be eaten with 
milk. 

Soft Cake. —One cup butter, 2 cups honey, 2 
eggs, 1 cup sour milk, 2 teaspoonfuls soda, 1 tea¬ 
spoonful ginger, 1 teaspoonful cinnamon, 4 cups 

flour. 

Egoless Cake. — One cupful sugar, y 2 cup honey, 
1 cupful sour milk, 2 tablespoonfuls of butter, 1 
cupful chopped ,raisins, 1 cupful chopped dates, 1 
teaspoonful soda, 2% cupfuls flour. Spices may 
be added to taste. 

Sponge Cake. —One coffee-cup honey, 1 cup 
flour, 5 eggs. Beat yolks and honey together. Beat 
whites to a froth. Mix all together, stirring as little 
as possible. Flavor with lemon juice or extract. 

Railroad Cake. —One cup honey, 1 heaping 
cup flour, 1 teaspoonful eream tartar, y 2 teaspoon¬ 
ful soda, 3 eggs, and a little lemon juice. Stir all 
together ten minutes. Bake 20 minutes in quick 
oven. 

Lemon Cakes. —One cup butter, 2 cups honey, 3 
eggs well beaten, 1 tablespoonful essence of lemon, 
14 ' cup spur milk, 1 teaspoonful soda. Flour enough 
to make as stiff as can well be stirred. Bake at 
once in quick oven. 


Jelly Roll. —Three eggs or yolks of 6, 1 cup 
of white sugar (scooped), 1 cup of flour (heaped), 

1 teaspoonful of butter, 2 tablespoonfuls of sweet 
milk, 2 teaspoonfuls of cream tartar, 1 teaspoonful 
soda or 2 of baking powder. Bake in an oblong 
pan, spread with granulated honey, and roll at 
once. Set where it will cool quickly. 

Swiss Cake. —Melt 4 ounces butter; add 1 lb. 
of honey, stirring well; take it off the fire and let 
it cool. Add the minced rind of a large lemon, 4 
ounces sweet almonds chopped fine, a little nutmeg, 

2 scant teaspoonfuls of baking soda, dissolved 
in a little water. Mix these well and add flour until 
very stiff, and set in a cool plaee 12 hours. Roll out 
*/4 inch thick, cut into squares, decorate with nuts 
and chopped citron. Bake in hot oven. Make two 
dozen cakes from this amount. 

Pork Cake. —One pound fat pork chopped fine, 
1 pint boiling water poured on pork; 2 cups honey, 

3 teaspoonfuls soda, 2 cups raisins, 2 teaspoonfuls 
each of cloves, cinnamon, and nutmeg; about 7 
cupfuls of flour. 

Coffee Cake. —1 cup of honey, V 2 cup of sugar, 
shortening size of an egg, 3 cups flour, 1 teaspoon¬ 
ful soda dissolved in 2-3 cup of cold coffee (scant), 
1 teaspoonful of cinnamon, y 2 teaspoonful of cloves, 
V 2 teaspoonful of nutmeg, 1 cup of raisins (flour¬ 
ed). If too thin, add a little more flour. 

Fruit Cake. —Two cups of honey, 2 cups of 
raisins, 1 cup of shortening, 14 cup of sour milk, 
1 teaspoonful soda, 14 teaspoonful cloves, y 2 tea¬ 
spoonful cinnamon, y 2 teaspoonful nutmeg, 4 cups 
flour. Bake 40 minutes. 

Fruit Cake. —One and one-half cups honey, 2-3 
cup butter, 14 cup sweet milk, 2 eggs well beaten, 
3 cups flour, 2 teaspoonfuls faking powder, 2 cups 
raisins, 1 teaspoonful each of cloves and cinnamon. 

Fruit Cake. —One-half cup butter, % cup honey, 
1-3 cup apple jelly or boiled cider, 2 eggs well 
beaten, 1 teaspoonful soda, 1 teaspoonful each of 
cinnamon, cloves, and nutmeg; 1 teacupful each 

of raisins and dried currants. Warm the butter, 
honey, and apple jelly slightly; add the beaten eggs, 
then the soda dissolved in a little warm water; add 
spices and flour enough to make a stiff batter, then 
stir in the fruit; and bake in a slow oven. Keep 
in a covered jar several weeks before using. 

Fruit Cake. —Two eggs well beaten, 1 cup but¬ 
ter, y 2 cup sour cream, 1 cup honey, 14 cup sugar, 
1 teaspoonful soda dissolved in warm water, 1 tea¬ 
spoonful cinnamon, 14 teaspoonful cloves, 1 cup 
raisins, 1 cup currants, 2 cups flour. 

Honey Tea-cake. —One cup honey, y 2 cup sour 
cream, 2 eggs, 14 cup butter, 2 cups flour, scant 
14 teaspoonful soda, 1 teaspoon cream of tartar. 
Bake 30 minutes in a moderate oven. 

Fruit Cake. —Four eggs, 5 teacups flour, 2 tea¬ 
cups honey, 1 teacup butter, 1 teacup sweet milk, 6 
teaspoonfuls baking powder, 1 lb. raisins, 1 lb. cur¬ 
rants, 1 teaspoonful cloves, 1 teaspoonful cinna¬ 
mon, 1 teaspoonful nutmeg. Then bake in slow 
oven. The above will keep moist for months. 

Citron Cake. —Two eggs, 1 cup dark honey, 4 
tablespoon fuls butter, 1 cup milk; 3 cups flour, 14 
lb. citron chopped fine, 2 teaspoonfuls baking pow¬ 
der, 1 teaspoonful lemon. 

Raisin Cake. —Three eggs, 1 cup honey, 4 table¬ 
spoonfuls melted butter, 1 cup sweet milk, 1 1-3 
cups raisins chopped fine, 3 cups flour, 1-2 tea- 


478 


HONEY AS A FOOD 


spoonful soda, 2 teaspoonfuls baking powder, 1 tea¬ 
spoonful vanilla extract. 

Drop Cakes. —Two eggs beaten without separat¬ 
ing, 3 tablespoonfuls softened butter, D3 cup honey, 

1 1-3 cups flour, 1 1-3 teaspoonfuls baking powder. 
Drop on buttered baking-sheet about Y 2 teaspoon¬ 
ful of batter to a cake. Put them well apart; 
spread lightly with the bowl of a tin spoon, dipped 
in cold water; press one pecan nutmeat on the 
top of each. 

Drop Cakes. —One cup honey, Yz cup sugar, Y 2 
cup butter or lard, Y 2 cup sour milk, 1 egg, V 2 tea¬ 
spoonful soda, 4 cups sifted flour. Flavor to taste. 

Choice Drop Cakes. —One gallon honey (dark 
honey is best), 15 eggs, 3 lbs. sugar (a little more 
honey in its place may be better) ; IY 2 oz. baking 
soda, 2 oz. ammonia, 2 lbs. almonds chopped up, 2 
lbs. citron, 4 oz. cinnamon, 2 oz. cloves, 2 oz. mace, 
18 lbs. flour. Let the honey come almost to a boil; 
then let it cool off, and add the other ingredients. 
Cut out and bake. The cakes are to be frosted aft¬ 
erward with sugar and white of eggs. 

Drop Cakes. —Take Yz cupful of butter, Yz cup¬ 
ful of sugar, and blend them; after which add 1 
cupful strained honey, the beaten yolks of 2 eggs, 
3 tablespoonfuls of lemon juice, and the whites of 

2 eggs beaten dry. Mix well, and add 3 Ms cupfuls 
of flour and 1 teaspoonful of soda; 1 teaspoonful 
baking powder, a little nutmeg. More flour may be 
added, if needed, and it often is, for the dough 
should be stiff enough so that it will drop by spoon¬ 
fuls on to a buttered bakingpan. Shape round, and 
bake in a moderate oven. 

Tea Cakes. —Blend 1-3 cup honey, 1 teaspoonful 
butter, 1 egg well beaten, 2-3 cup flour, sifted with 
half a teaspoonful of 4 baking powder, and a pinch 
of salt. Drop by teaspoonfuls on a tin, and bake 
in a quick oven. These proportions will make 
about 20 cakes. 

Ginger Cake. —One cup honey, V 2 cup butter, 
or drippings, 1 tablespoonful boiled cider, in Y 2 
cup hot water (or Yz cup sour milk will do in¬ 
stead). Warm these ingredients together, and then 
add 1 tablespoonful ginger and 1 teaspoonful soda 
sifted in with flour enough to make a soft batter. 
Bake in flat" pan. 

Gingerbread. —Warm together Y 2 cup of brown 
sugar and honey, with 1-3 cup of shortening. Re¬ 
move from stove; add % cup sour milk and 2 eggs; 
pour gradually into bowl containing 2 cups of 
flour sifted with a tablespoonful of ginger. Flour 
to make rather stiff batter. 

Gingerbread. —One egg, 1 cup honey (dark), 
1 cup milk (sour), 2 tablespoonfuls butter, Yz tea¬ 
spoonful soda, 1 teaspoonful ginger. Flour to make it 
rather stiff batter. 

Ginger Cake. —'Put 1 cup darkest honey into a 
dish with Y 2 cup brown sugar; 1 teaspoonful salt, 
2-3 teaspoonful vanilla, 14 teaspoonful ground 
cloves, Y 2 teaspoonful cinnamon, Y 2 teaspoonful 
ginger. To this add 2 tablespoonfuls soda dissolved 
in 1 cup boiling water. Stir together well; % 
cup cold water. Nearly 1 cup shortening. Stir 
in flour until thiqk as molasses. Break in 1 large 
egg; beat thoroly with egg-beater. Pour into two 
9-inch jelly-tins and tuck in raisins. Bake in an 
even, brisk oven. 

Ginger Cake. —Three cups flour, Y 2 cup butter; 
rub well together. Add one cup brown sugar; 2 


large tablespoonfuls ginger; same of caraway seeds 
if you like; 5 eggs, 2 cups honey, 3 teaspoonfuls 
baking powder. Beat it well, and bake in an iron 
pan an hour or more. 

Layer Cake. —Two-thirds cup butter, 1 cup hon¬ 
ey, 3 eggs beaten, Y 2 cup milk. Cream the honey and 
butter together, then add tno eggs and milk. Then 
add 2 cups flour containing IY 2 teaspoonfuls bak¬ 
ing powder previously stirred in. Then stir in more 
flour to make a stiff batter. Bake in jelly-tins. 
When the cakes are cold take finely flavored can¬ 
died honey, and, after creaming it, spread between 
layers. 

HONEY COOKIES. 

Aunt Millie’s Cookies. — One cup butter beaten 
light, 1 cup sugar beaten to cream with butter, 1 
cup honey. Let honey warm; put 1 teaspoonful of 
soda in the honey. If you have fermented honey, 
use that with soda, as it is as good as cream tartar. 
If you have not the fermented honey, then use 2 
teaspoonfuls of cream tartar and 1 teaspoonful of 
soda, or 2 teaspoonfuls of baking powder. When 
the honey has cooled, beat light and add to the but¬ 
ter and sugar. Then add 1 cup cold water, 1 tea¬ 
spoonful vanilla, flour to make a very stiff dough. 
Fill a salt-shaker with powdered sugar; shake over 
the sheet of dough after it is rolled; press the sugar 
by rolling the rolling pin over it once more. Then 
cut out and bake brown in a moderate oven. 

Cream Cookies. — One teacupful extracted hon¬ 
ey, 1 pint sour cream, scant teaspoonful soda, fla¬ 
voring if desired; flour to make a soft dough. 

Fowls’ Cookies. —Three teaspoonfuls soda dis 
solved in 2 cups warm honey, 1 cup shortening con 
taining salt, 2 teaspoonfuls ginger, 1 cup hot water; 
flour sufficient to- roll. 

Vinegar Cookies. — One cup of butter and lard 
mixed; 1 cup of sugar, 4 eggs, 2 cups of honey, 3 
teaspoonfuls of soda in Y 2 cup of boiling water; 
spices to taste; flour to roll out; Y 2 cup of vine¬ 
gar. 

Hard-time Cookies. — One pint of honey, Y 2 
teacupful of granulated sugar, % pint of melted 
lard and butter mixed; 1 even teaspoonful soda 

dissolved in % cup warm water; Y 2 teaspoonful 
of ginger, Y 2 teaspoonful nutmeg, a little salt. Roll 
rather thin, and bake quickly. 

Swiss Cookies.— Prepare some dough as for the 
gingerbread, and mix with it Yz lb. crushed almonds, 
orange and lemon juice, and cinnamon; and, if de¬ 
sired, cloves to suit the taste. 

Tennessee Cookies.— Melt together 1 cup of 
honey and 1 cup of lard or butter. When cold, add 
1-3 of a cup of sugar, a pinch of salt, a tablespoon 
of soda and 1 egg. Stir in flour enough to make a 
stiff dough; roll, and cut into small cakes, and 
bake on greased tins, in a moderate oven. 

Sugarless Cookies. —Two cups honey; 1 cup 
butter, 4 eggs (mix well) ; 1 cup buttermilk (mix) ; 
1 good quart flour; 1 level teaspoonful soda or 

saleratus. If it is too thin, stir in a little more 
flour. If too thin it will fall. It does not want to 
be as thin as sugar cake. Use very thick honey. 
Be sure to use the same cup for measure. Be 
sure to mix the honey, butter, and eggs well to¬ 
gether. You can make it richer if you wish by 
using clabbered cream instead of buttermilk. Bake 
in a rather slow oven, as it burns very easily. To 
make the cookies, use a little more flour, so that 


HONEY AS A POOD 


479 


they will roll out well without sticking to the board. 
Any kind of flavoring will do. 

Ginger Cookies. —One cup honey, Vz cup of 
sugar, y 2 cup shortening, % cup warm water, 1 
teaspoonful soda, 1 teaspoonful ginger, 5 cups flour, 
pinch of salt. 

Honey-jumbles. —'Two quarts flour, 3 table¬ 
spoonfuls melted lard, 1 pint honey, 14 pint mo¬ 
lasses, iy 2 level tablespoonfuls soda, 1 level tea- 
spoonful salt, 14 pint water, y 2 teaspoonful va¬ 
nilla. 

Ginger Cookies. —One cup honey, 1 cup sugar, 
1 cup buttermilk, 1 cup lard, 1 teaspoonful salt, 1 
teaspoonful cinnamon, 1 teaspoonful ginger, 1 tea¬ 
spoonful soda, heaping; 1 teaspoonful lemon ex¬ 
tract. Stir stiff with flour; for gingerbread, mix 
stiff and roll out and cut and bake in quick oven. 
Also very good with caraway seeds instead of 
spices. 

Gingersnaps. —One pint honey, % lb. butter, 2 
teaspoonfuls ginger. Boil together a few minutes, 
and when nearly cold put in flour until it is stiff. 
Roll out thin and bake quickly. 

Dark Cookies. —One cup brown sugar, y 2 cup 
sour cream, 1-3 cup butter, 2-3 cup dark honey, 1 
egg, 1 tablespoonful cinnamon, 1 scant teaspoonful 
soda. Flour to make thick batter. Improved with 
chopped nuts sprinkled over and pressed in with 
the bowl of spoon. 

Lemon Snaps. —Mix 1 quart honey, y 2 lb. pow¬ 
dered sugar, y 2 lb. fresh butter, and juice of two 
oranges or lemons. Warm just enough to soften 
the butter. Beat the mixture very hard. Add a 
grated nutmeg. Mix in gradually 2 lbs. or less of 
flour. Make a dough hard enough to roll out eas¬ 
ily. Beat it well all over with rolling-pin. Roll % 
inch thick; cut with tumbler dipped in flour. Bake 
well on buttered tins. 

Oatmeal Cookies. —Cream together 1 cup sugar, 
y 2 cup honey, % cup lard or butter, 6 tablespoon¬ 
fuls milk, y 2 cup raisins, 2 cups rolled oats, 2 eggs; 
sift together 2 or more cups flour, y 2 teaspoonful 
salt, 2 teaspoonfuls cream of tartar, 1 teaspoonful 
soda; 1 teaspoonful cinnamon. Mix together, and 
roll quite thick. 

Doughnuts. —One egg, 1 cup sweet milk, 1 cup 
honey, 2 tablespoonfuls shortening, 1 heaping tea¬ 
spoonful cream tartar, % teaspoonful soda. Flour 
to roll and cut easily. Pinch of salt. 

Doughnuts. —Take two eggs, butter, the size 
of an egg; 1 y 2 cupfuls alfalfa honey; 1 cupful 
of sour milk to which has been added 1 teaspoon¬ 
ful of soda and flour to roll, to which add 2 tea¬ 
spoonfuls of cream of tartar. 

Sugar Cookies. —One and one-half cups sugar, 
y 2 cup honey, x / 2 cup butter or lard, % cup sour 
milk, 1 level teaspoonful soda, V 2 nutmeg, grated, 
1 pinch of salt. Add flour to make a rather soft 
dough. Roll out to % inch thick, and bake in 
quick oven. 

BREAD, GEMS, ETC. 

Brown Bread. —One heaping coffee-cup of corn 
meal; 2 cups graham flour; sift three times to¬ 
gether, then beat together with 1 cup of honey, 2 
cups sweet milk, 1 cup sour milk, 1 dessertspoon¬ 
ful soda and 1 teaspoonful salt. Place in form, 
and steam 3% hours. 


Brown Bread. —One cup corn meal, 1 cup rye 
meal, 1 cup sour milk, x / 2 cup or less of honey; a 
teaspoonful of salt and a teaspoonful of soda. 
Steam 4 hours, and then dry in the oven 15 min¬ 
utes. It may be added that most of the molasses 
now sold is not fit to eat, and in any case honey is 
much better. 

Steamed Brown Bread. —Two cups graham 
flour, sometimes heaped, depending on condition of 
milk, 1 eup meal, 2-3 cup dark honey or sugared 
honey, 2 cups sour milk, 1 teaspoonful salt, 2 tea¬ 
spoonfuls soda dissolved in one tablespoonful boil¬ 
ing water, stirred into the milk and honey; x / 2 

cup of raisins. Stir thoroly; fill pound baking pow¬ 
der cans half full; cover tight, and steam 3 hours. 

Graham Bread. —Three cups graham flour, 1 
tablespoonful salt (scant), 2-3 cup honey, 2 cups 
sour milk, 1 teaspoonful soda dissolved in warm 
water; pinch baking powder; a few nuts chopped 
fine. Bake 1 hour and 15 minutes. 

Graham Bread. —One pint sweet milk, y 2 cup 
extracted honey, % cup sugar, 1 teaspoonful soda, 
a pinch of salt, 2% cups graham flour. Stir all 
into a batter in a vessel in which it is to be steamed 
for 3 hours. Then remove from the steamer and 
bake % hour. 

Graham Bread. —Gne and one-half cups sour 
milk, y 2 cup shortening, 2-3 cup honey, 1 egg, 1 
teaspoonful soda, 3 cups graham flour. 

Honey Graham Biscuits. —Use 2 cups graham 
flour, 2 cups white flour, y 2 cup butter, y 2 cup 
honey, 2 teaspoonfuls baking powder. Sift the 
flour and baking powder well together; rub the 
butter into the flour thoroly. Add the honey, and 
just enough sweet milk to make a soft dough. Roll 
out and bake in a quick oven. 

French Muffins. —One and one-half pints 
flour, 1 cup honey, ^ teaspoonful salt, 2 teaspoon¬ 
fuls baking powder, 2 tablespoonfuls butter, 3 eggs, 
and a little over a half pint milk or thin cream. 
Sift together the flour,. salt, and powder; rub in 
the butter cold; add beaten eggs, milk, and honey. 
Mix smoothly in batter as for pound cake. About 
half fill sponge-cake tins, cold and well greased, 
and bake in good steady oven for eight minutes. 

Cornmeal Cake. —One cupful cornmeal (yel¬ 
low), % cupful white flour, putting both in flour 
sieve; add one level teaspoonful soda and a round¬ 
ing teaspoonful cream of tartar, and sift all to¬ 
gether ; then add 1 cupful of honey, V 2 aupful 
of shortening; add enough sweet milk to a batter 
that will not run, but drop from spoon in a lump. 
Bake one-half hour in hot oven. 

Bran Gems. —Take 2 cups bran, 1 scant cup 
wheat flour, 1 large pinch salt, 1% cups butter¬ 
milk, 1 level teaspoonful soda, 3 tablespoonfuls 
strained honey. Mix the bran, flour, and salt 
thoroly, add buttermilk, in which soda has been 
dissolved; lastly, add honey. Bake until (crusty) 
thoroly done in greased gem-pans in a hot oven. 

MISCELLANEOUS. 

Honey Cereal Coffee. —Use 1 egg, 1 cup hon¬ 
ey (preferably dark), 2 quarts wheat bran. Beat 
the egg add honey, and lastly the bran, and stir 
until well blended. Put in oven and brown to 
dark brown, stirring frequently, being careful the 
oven is not too hot. To prepare the coffee, allow 
one heaping tablespoonful to a cup of hot water, 
and boil for at least ten minutes. 


480 


HONEY AS A FOOD 


Plum Buttle. —Take 4 quarts of plums after 
being rubbed thru the colander. Let it come to a 
boil; then add 1 quart of honey, and 1 quart of 
sugar, or 2 quarts of honey, and boil until it 
crusts on top when cooled, or about fifteen minutes. 
Stir frequently to prevent burning. 

Apple Buttee. —One gallon good cooking ap¬ 
ples, 1 quart honey, 1 quart honey vinegar, 1 
heaping teaspoonful ground cinnamon. Cook sev¬ 
eral hours, stirring often to prevent burning. If 
the vinegar is very strong, use part water. 

Bab-le-Duc Peesebves. —These preserves are 
believed to be the finest of their kind, and have 
hitherto been imported at extravagant prices. Other 
fruits besides currants may be treated in this way, 
as honey is of itself a preservative. These pre¬ 
serves do not require to be kept absolutely air¬ 
tight. 

Take selected red or white currants of large 
size, one by one; carefully make an incision in the 
skin % of an inch deep with tiny embroidery scis¬ 
sors. Thru this slit remove the seeds with the aid 
of a sharp needle; remove the seeds separately, pre¬ 
serving the shape of the fruit. Take the weight of 
the currants in honey, and when this has been 
heated add the currants. Let it simmer a minute 
or two, and then seal as for jelly. The currants 
retain their shape, are of a beautiful color, and 
melt in the mouth. Care should be exercised not 
to scorch the honey; then you will have fine pre¬ 
serves. 

Custabd. —Use 1 egg, 1 tablespoonful honey (or 
more to suit individual taste), 1 cup rich milk, 
nutmeg or other flavoring. Beat the eggs, and add 
the honey and other ingredients. 

Honey Beans (Navy). —S'oak beans and bacon 
over night and cook till skins crack. Place 1 
onion, pound bacon, and butter the size of an 
egg in the bottom of a bean-pot or iron spider. 
Pour over the beans 2 tablespoonfuls olive or 
cooking oil, and 2 tablespoonfuls best quality ex¬ 
tracted honey. Lay sliced Greening apples to 
cover over the top of beans. Keep moist while 
baking. Bake until well done. Add pepper to 
suit taste. 

Baked Beans. —Boil 2 pints of beans in slight¬ 
ly salted water until tender; then add 1 cupful of 
extracted honey and V 2 cupful of butter, with 
salt and pepper to suit taste. Bake in a covered 
baker until solid, but not dry. 

Summee Deink. —One spoonful fruit juice and 
1 spoonful honey in Y 2 glass water; stir in as 
much soda as will lie on a dime, and then stir in 
half as much tartaric acid, and drink at once. 

Filling foe Layee Cake. —Take 1 tablespoon¬ 
ful of lemon-juice, 2 heaping tablespoonfuls of 
granulated honey; stir to a smooth cream. When 
cake is done, lay on a plate; spread with the 
honey while hot. 

Pickled Geapes in Honey. —Seven pounds 
good grapes (wine grapes if possible) on the 
stalks, carefully packed in a jar without bruising 
any of them. Make a syrup of 4 pounds of honey, 
a pint of good vinegar with cloves, etc., to suit 
the taste. Then boil the syrup for twenty min¬ 
utes, carefully skimming it. While boiling hot, 
pour the syrup over the grapes and seal up. This 
will keep perfectly for years, as the honey is a 
preservative. 

Honey Cbab-apple Jelly. —Boil fruit with as 
little water as possible; squeeze thru a jelly-bag. 


Add % cup of honey and V 2 cup of sugar to 1 
cup of juice; then boil about twenty minutes, or 
until it begins to jell. Pour into glasses. Do not 
cover up until cool. 

Baked Apples. —Spit some sour apples, cut out 
the core, and fill pan. When they begiiT to soften, 
fill the cavity with some honey and lemon juice. 
Set back in oven to finish baking. 

Salad Dbessing. —Take 1 egg, well beaten, with 
2 dessertspoonfuls honey. Add a pinch of salt; 
pepper to taste; M teaspoonful of mustard. Stir 
well together, and add % cup of vinegar. Let 
come to a boil, stirring constantly. Cool, and add 
% pint of sweet cream just before using. 

Salad Deessing. —Take the yolks of 4 eggs, 
beat well, add 4 tablespoonfuls cider vinegar, 2 
tablespoonfuls butter, 2 tablespoonfuls honey, 1 
teaspoonful mustard. Mix thoroly together, and 
cook in a double boiler to a smooth paste, stirring 
constantly. Mix with thick sweet cream, when 
ready to use. It will keep two weeks in a cool 
place. 

Steamed Pudding. —Use 2 eggs, % cup honey, 
1 cup chopped raisins, Y 2 teaspoonful salt, Y 2 
teaspoonful soda, V 2 teaspoonful cinnamon, % tea¬ 
spoonful cloves, Y 2 teaspoonful allspice, 2 teaspoon¬ 
fuls baking powder, 2 tablespoonfuls ground choco¬ 
late, 1 cup sweet milk, 114 cups flour; more if 
needed. Steam three hours. 

Mince Meat. —Four pounds of apples, pared, 
cored, and minced; 1% pounds of raisins, stoned 
and minced; 4 pounds of beef suet shredded, or 2 
pounds butter; 1 pound honey and pound sugar; 
14 pound of mixed spices, minced rind of 4 lemons 
and juice of two lemons. Make a month before 
using. If apples are very sour, use more honey. 

Buckwheat Pancakes. —Take scant 2 quarts 
of water a little below blood heat—cooler if weath¬ 
er is warm; dissolve salt in the water till' it tastes 
almost briny; 2-3 compressed yeast cake, thoroly 
mixed in water before flour is added. Mix in the 
water a large tablespoonful of liquid honey; add 
the buckwheat flour thru a sieve. The batter 
should then be stirred or beaten a long time. If 
any batter is left, set away in a cool place, not 
too tightly covered. When ready for the next 
batch add the necessary quantity of salted warm 
water and the honey; stir thoroly, and then add the 
buckwheat as before. It is better to mix a little 
too thick rather than too thin. Water can be 
safely added before baking, if necessary. If sour 
in the morning from being kept too warm, use a 
little baking soda, dissolved in warm water. The 
old batter is useless after the soda treatment. 

Buckwheat Pancakes. —When buckwheat pan¬ 
cakes are raised over night and the soda is put in 
when ready to bake, add one or two spoonfuls of 
extracted honey. It makes them bake nice and 
brown, and gives them a fine flavor. 

Junket. —To a pint of milk, just warm, add 2 
dessertspoonfuls of honey and V 2 junket tablet, 
dissolved in cold water; flavor to taste. Set in a 
warm place until firm. 

HONEY CANDY. 

Caeamels.- —Take 1 pint honey, 1 teaspoonful 
cinnamon or vanilla, % pound cocoa, % pound 
pecan nuts, 2 pounds sweet almonds. Cut the nuts 
fine, and boil them with other ingredients until 
thick. Cool and roll out. Cut in squares and dry 
in the oven. 


HONEY AS A FOOD 


481 


Caramels. —One cup extracted honey of best 
flavor; 1 cup granulated sugar; 3 tablespoonfuls 
sweet cream of milk. Boil to “soft crack,” or 
until it hardens when dropped into cold water, 
but not too brittle—just so it will form into a soft 
ball when taken in the fingers. Pour into a greased 
dish, stirring in a teaspoonful extract of vanilla 
just before taking off. Let it be Yi or % inch 
deep in the dish; and as it cools cut in squares and 
wrap each square in paraffin paper, such as gro¬ 
cers wrap butter in. To make chocolate caramels, 
add to the foregoing one tablespoonful melted choc¬ 
olate, just before taking off the stove, stirring it 
in well. For chocolate caramels it is not so im¬ 
portant that the honey be of best quality. 

Taffy. —Boil some honey until it hardens when 
dropped into cold water. Pull it till it becomes 
white. Any quantity may be used. A pound re¬ 
quires twenty minutes’ boiling and stirring. Great 
care must be exercised not to burn the honey. It 
makes very fine taffy. 

Peanut Honey Candy.— Take l cup butter, 2 
cups honey, 2 cups sugar, 1 cup boiling water, % 
teaspoonful cream tartar, Y 2 teaspoonful glycerine, 
a tiny dash of soda. Boil ten minutes to a soft 
ball, and set in a cool place. When it has cooled 
slightly, stir in one or two tablespoonfuls of pea¬ 
nut butter, or to suit the taste; keep stirring till 
creamy; then pour into buttered pans; mark in 
squares. 

Peanut Candy. —Use 1 cup honey, 1 cup gran¬ 
ulated sugar, 4 tablespoonfuls sweet cream. Boil 
until it cracks when dropped in cold water. Re¬ 
move from the fire and stir in a pound of peanuts 
that have been previously shelled and well crushed 
with the rolling-pin. Pour into a greased pan and 
set to cool. 

Peanut Rolls. —Take 1 cup butter, 2 cups 
honey, 1 cup boiling water, % teaspoonful cream 
tartar, Y 2 teaspoonful glycerine, a tiny dash of 
soda. Boil ten minutes; pour over a layer of rolled 
peanuts which have been scattered evenly over the 
bottom of the buttered pan. When nearly cold, 
mark off in long strips and roll up tight; then 
slice across with a sharp knife, before it gets quite 
cold. 

Honey Chocolate. —Chocolate sweetened with 
honey rather than with sugar is excellent. It is 
very easily made: Melt 1 pound of gelatine in a 
pint of water; add 10 pounds of honey, thoroly 
warming • the same, then add 4 pounds of cocoa. 
Flavor with vanilla when, taken off the fire, and 
then pour into greased dishes or molds. 

French Candies. —In an enameled sauce-pan 
melt 1 part of gelatine in 1 part of water, stirring 
well. When at the state of a soft paste, add 4 
parts of honey previously warmed, stirring livel> ■ 
Take from the fire; add the desired flavor and 
color, mixing carefully, and pour into a shallow 
lightly greased dish. Let it dry for a few days. 

Nougat. —Take 3 cups granulated sugar, 1 Y 2 
cups any kind nut-meats, 2-3 cup honey, 2-3 cup 
hot water, white of one egg beaten stiff. Boil the 
sugar, honey, and water together until they make 
a rather hard ball when dropped in cold water. 
Remove from the fire, pour in the beaten white of 
the egg, and beat briskly with a silver fork. After 
beating a while, pour in the nut-meats and beat 
until it begins to form a hard creamy mass, then 
pour into a buttered tin to cool. 

Taffy. —Use 3 cups sugar, 2-3 cup extracted 
honev, % cup hot water. Boil' all together till it 

16 


spins a thread when dropped from a spoon, or 
hardens when dropped into cold water. Pour into 
a greased vessel. When cool, pull until white. 

Popcorn Balls. —Use 2 gallons of corn, 2 cups 
granulated sugar, 3 tablespoonfuls honey, 2 table¬ 
spoonfuls apple vinegar, Y 2 cup of water. Stir 
together and boil until it will rattle in water. Then 
pour over the corn, and mix well . Dampen the 
hands in cold water and form into balls. 

Popcorn Balls. —Take 1 pint extracted honey; 
put it into an iron frying-pan, and boil until very 
thick; then stir in freshly popped corn, and, when 
cold, mold into balls. These will specially delight 
the children. 

Good Candy. —Use 2 Yz cups sugar, Y 2 cup hon¬ 
ey, Y 2 cup water. Boil until thick syrup. Pour 
one cupful of syrup on the beaten whites of 2 
eggs, stirring meanwhile. Boil remainder of syrup 
till it hardens when dropped in water; then pour it 
into the syrup and eggs, stirring briskly. Add a 
cupful of peanuts. Stir until it begins to harden; 
then spread in a pan and cut in squares. Flavor 
to taste. If properly made it will be soft and pli¬ 
able. 

Crystallized Honey Popcorn. —Take 1 teacup¬ 
ful water-white honey, 1 teacupful white sugar, 1 Ys 
tablespoonfuls butter, 1 tablespoonful water. Boil 
until brittle on being dropped in cold water. Have 
ready 2 quarts of nicely popped corn, and pour 
the candy over until evenly distributed over the 
corn, stirring briskly until nearly cool. 

Honey Candy. —Take 1 cup sugar, 2 tablespoon¬ 
fuls honey, 2 tablespoonfuls of water, walnut meats. 
Cook and test like molasses candy. 

Candy. —Granulated sugar 1 cup; strained hon¬ 
ey 1 tablespoonful; butter, size of walnut; sweet 
cream enough to dissolve the mixture. It does not 
need much cooking. When taken from the fire, 
beat with a spoon until smooth. 

HONEY REMEDIES. 

Cough Syrup. —One-third teaspoonful of pow¬ 
dered ipecac dissolved in 1 teaspoonful of cold 
water. Add a teacupful of warm water, table¬ 
spoonful of extracted or strained honey, and boil 
down half. 

Honey-and-tab Cough-cure. —Put a table¬ 
spoonful liquid pine tar into a shallow tin dish 
and place it in boiling water until the tar is hot. 
To this add a pint of extracted honey and stir well 
for half an hour, adding to it a level teaspoonful 
pulverized borax. Keep well corked in a bottle. 
Dose, teaspoonful every 1, 2, or 3 hours, according 
to severity of cough. 

Cough Syrup. —Buy a five-cent package >of 
lobelia herb; put about Ys of it in a large cup of 
good cider vinegar; put it in a granite dish to 
simmer on the stove for not less than Y 2 hour, but 
do not let boil after the strength is well out of the 
herb. Strain, put back on the stove, stir in about 
as much honey as you have used vinegar. See 
that the honey is well mixed while hot. Bottle 
ready for use. Dose, about Yi teaspoonful every 
15 minutes if the cold is bad. 

Cough Syrup. —Make 3 pints of strong tea by 
boiling a good-sized bunch of old field balsam in a 
covered vessel; strain, add 1% cups of sugar; boil 
to 2 pints; take from the fire; add a small tea¬ 
spoonful of pine tar; let cool five minutes, then 
add Y 2 cup of strained honey. Dose: 1 teaspoon- 


482 


HONEY AS A FOOD 


ful as often as needed—2 to 4 hours, according to 
the case. 

For Colds. — Boil 2 ounces of flaxseed in a quart 
of water; strain, and add 2 ounces of rock candy, 
V 2 pint of honey, juice of 3 lemons. Mix, and let 
all hoil well. Let cool and bottle. Dose: One cup¬ 
ful on going to bed; cupful before meals; the 
hotter the better. 

Honey for Freckles. —Half a pound of honey, 
2 oz. glycerine, 2 oz. alcohol, 6 drams citric acid, 
15 drops ambergris. Apply night and morning. 

Balm of Gilead Salve. —Four ounces mutton 
tallow; 1 pint balm-of-Gilead buds; 3 ounces loaf 
sugar; 1 ounce castile soap; 1 ounce rosin; 3 

ounces beeswax; 1 ounce alum; 1 pound lard. Put 
the buds in a kettle with the lard, and boil slowly 
for half an hour, stirring often. Strain, and take 
the buds out. Put in the rest of the ingredients, 
and cook slowly ( until done. This usually takes 
from one-half hour to an hour; excellent for chap¬ 
ped hands or lips, sores, or cuts, frost bites, and 
piles. 

Honey as a Softener of the Hands. —Many 
are unaware that the very best cosmetics are 
made with honey as a prime ingredient. Here is 
one for the hands, which is said to be very fine: 
Bub together 1 lb. of honey and the yolks of 8 
eggs; gradually add 1 lb. oil of sweet almonds, 
during constant stirring; work in y 2 lb. hitter alm¬ 
onds, and perfume with 2 drams each of attar of 
bergamot and attar of cloves. Of course, the quan¬ 
tities may be reduced if necessary. 

Honey Soap. —Cut 2 pounds of yellow soap in 
thin slices and put into a saucepan with sufficient 
water to prevent the soap from being burned. 
Place on the fire, and as soon as all the soap has 
dissolved add 1 pound of honey and stir until the 
whole begins to boil. Then remove from the fire, 
add a few drops of essence of cinnamon, pour into 
a deep dish to cool, and then cut in squares. It 
improves by keeping. 

Honey-paste for Chapped Hands. — An excel¬ 
lent paste for chapped hands is made as follows: 
The white of 1 egg, 1 teaspoonful of glycerine, 1 
ounce of honey, and sufficient barley flour to com¬ 
pose a paste. 

Cold Cream. —One cup of honey, % of a cup 
of beeswax, 1 cup of cottolene. Melt all, take it 
off the fire, and stir till it is cool. Rose or violet 
perfume may be added. It should be well pro¬ 
tected from the air. The blending should be well 
done. This is fine for chapped or rough hands, if 
they are slightly moistened before applying. 

Polish for Kid Shoes. —Beeswax softened with 
neatsfoot oil. The composition is made by mixing 
the oil with the melted wax so as to be, when cold, 
about like butter, soft enough to “spread.” A 
small portion of lampblack is also mixed in while 
the mass is melted. If there is any ordinary shoe 
polish on shoes, it should be washed off and the 
surface allowed to dry. An old toothbrush can be 
used to apply a thin even coat, which is then 
polished with a soft woolen rag, see-sawed across 
the surface. 

TFaterproofing for Leather. —Take 2 pounds 
tallow, 1 pound resin, % pound beeswax. Melt 
over a slow fire; and before applying to the uppers 
of boots or shoes, fill the leather with neatsfoot oil, 
as there is less danger of burning the leather, and 
they will keep soft and pliable longer. For the 


soles use the tallow and resin in equal parts. Be 
careful not to burn the leather. 

bibliography. 

In Bureau of Chemistry Bulletin No. 
13, Part YI. (out of print), page 871, will 
be found a bibliography of honey litera¬ 
ture for the years 1867 to 1891, inclusive. 
In Bulletin No. 110, page 89, will be found 
a continuation of this up to the first part 
pf 1907. In Bulletin No. 154, page 17, the 
bibliography takes the literature up to the 
close of 1911. These bibliographies were 
compiled by A. H. Bryan, chief of the 
sugar laboratory, and are complete. 

Browne, C. A. Chemical Analysis and 
Composition of American Honeys. Bui. 
110, U. S. Dept. Agr. Bureau of Chemis¬ 
try. 1908. 

Browne, C. A. Methods of Honey-test¬ 
ing Hawaiian Honeys. Bui. 17, Hawaii 
Agr. Bureau of Entomology, 1911. 

McGill, A. Strained Honey. Bui. 217, 
Inland Revenue Dept. Ottawa, Canada, 
1911. ■’ 

Van Dine, D. L., and Thompson, A. R., 
Hawaiian Honeys. Bui. 1, Hawaii Agr. 
Exp. Sta. 1908. 

Root, H. H. The Use of Honey in 
Cooking. A. I. Root Co., Medina, 1916. 

Hunt, C. L., and Atwater, H. W. Honey 
and its Uses in the Home. U. S. Dept. 
Agr., Farmers’ Bui. No. 653, 1915. 

Honey for Cooking, special number of 
Gleanings in Bee Culture, Medina, vol. 42, 
Oct. 1, 1915. 

Miehaelis, Reinhold. Deutsches Honig- 
buechlein, 1911. 

HONEY-BOARDS. — See Extracted 
Honey, and Hives. 

HONEY - BUYING. — See Marketing 
Honey. 

HONEYCOMB. —A beautiful thing in 
nature is a piece of comb honey with its 
snowy whiteness and its burden of sweet¬ 
ness. Aside from its whiteness and sweet¬ 
ness, the marvelous structure of the comb 
compels our admiration. The walls of its 
cells are so thin that from 3.000 to 4000 
of them must be laid one upon another to 
make an inch in thickness, each wall so 
fragile as to crumble at a touch, and yet so 
constructed that tons of honey stored in 

-I 


HONEYCOMB 


483 


them are transported in safety thousands 
of miles. 

Formerly the word “honeycomb” meant 
both the comb and the honey contained in 
it; in other words, what we now call 
“comb honey” was called “honeycomb/’ 
Wherever the word “honeycomb” is found 
in the Bible, it means “comb honey.” 

It is only in comparatively recent years 
that the real source of the wax of which 
comb is constructed has been known. In 
1684 Martin John discovered that with the 
point of a needle he could pick scales of 
real beeswax from the abdomen of a bee 
working at comb-building. 

These wax scales may be found plenti¬ 
fully on the floor of a hive at a time when 
much comb-building is going on. They are 
somewhat pear-shaped, as shown in cut 
below, where is shown also the powerful 
jaw of the worker by which the wax is 
worked. These wax scales are much more 
brittle than the wax that has been worked 
into comb, and are transparent, looking 
somewhat like mica. Some say they are 
white, some say pale yellow. Likely 
enough both are right, the color depending 
upon the pollen consumed. 

These wax scales are secreted by eight 
wax-glands on the under side of the abdo¬ 
men of the worker bee, as seen in cut, next 
column.* Examine a swarm lately hived, 
and plenty of bees will be formed showing 
this appearance. When first secreted, wax 
is liquid. It is derived from the blood of 


Wax scale. Jaw of a worker bee. 

the bee by cell action. So it is an expen¬ 
sive product, and one might well say it is 
derived from the “sweat and blood” of the 
bee, for it is sweat out from the blood by 
the wax-glands. Just how expensive it is 
seems a hard matter to learn. For many 
years the stereotyped expression was, 
“Every pound of wax requires 20 pounds 
of honey for its production.” Later inves¬ 
tigations have cut down that estimate 
greatly. But there is no agreement. Some 

* For a description, of how these are removed by 
the bees see Wax. 


estimate as low as 3 or 4 pounds of honey 
to one of wax. Others say 7, 15, or some 
other numbers. 

Some hold that the secretion of wax is 
involuntary, and that, if not utilized, there 
will be so much dead waste, and so nothing 
can be gained by trying to save the bees the 



Wax scales on the under side of the abdomen of a 
worker .—After Cheshire. 


work of wax secretion. But this is by no 
means the general view. Cowan says, in 
“The Honeybee,” page 171, “Wax is not 
produced at all times, but its secretion is 
voluntary.” The practically unanimous 
agreement among beekeepers, that a very 
much larger quantity of extracted than of 
comb honey can be obtained, is hard to ex¬ 
plain without admitting that the furnishing 
of drawn combs saves the bees much labor 
in the way of wax-production, and that 
production depends on conditions that come 
largely under the control of the beekeeper. 

A high temperature favors the secretion 
of wax, and when it is produced in large 
quantities the bees hang inactively in clus¬ 
ters or festoons. 

“Wax is not chemically a fat or glycer¬ 
ide,” says Cheshire, in “Bees and Bee¬ 
keeping,” Vol. I., page 160, “hence those 
who luyve called it The fat of bees’ have 
grossly erred; yet it is nearly allied to the 
fats in atomic constitution, and the physi¬ 
ological conditions favoring the formation 
of one are curiously similar to those aiding 
in the production of the other. We put our 
poultry up to fatten in confinement, Avith 
partial light; to secure bodily inactivity 
we keep warm, and feed highly. Our bees, 
under Nature’s teaching, put themselves up 
to yield Avax under conditions so parallel 
that the suitability of the fatting-coop is 
vindicated. 








484 


HONEYCOMB 


“The wax having been secreted, a single 
bee starts the first comb by attaching to the 
roof little masses of the plastic material, 
into which her scales are converted, by pro¬ 
longed chewing with secretion; others fol¬ 
low her example, and the processes of 
scooping and thinning commence, the 
parts removed being always added to the 



How combs are attached to a vertical support. 

edge of the work, so that, in the darkness, 
and between the bees, grows downward that 
wonderful combination of lightness and 
strength, grace and utility, which has so 
long provoked the wonder and awakened 
the speculation of the philosopher, the nat¬ 
uralist, and the mathematician.” 

A chief use for the honeycomb being to 
furnish cradles for the baby bees during 
their brood stage, the problem is to find 
what arrangement will accommodate them 
in the least space and with the least ex¬ 
penditure of wax. If a number of cylin¬ 
ders with rounding bottoms be piled, and 
just back of them, back to back, and, as 
closely as they can be packed, another 
series of cylinders piled, there will be an 
arrangement that will leave a great waste 
of room between the lines of contact of 
those cylinders, and another waste between 
the points of contact of the rounding bot¬ 
toms. If pressure be exerted on those cyl¬ 
inders so that the sides and bottoms come 
into contact, there will be cells that are 
six-sided, with bottoms that are made of 
three lozenge-shaped plates, or what, as a 
whole, is an exact counterpart of honey¬ 
comb. Some have argued that bees make 


the cells cylindrical in the first place, and 
then, by pressure from within, force the 
dells into the forms of hexagons; but, un¬ 
fortunately for this theory, plaster casts, 
of which cross-sections have been made of 
combs in all processes of construction, 
show that bees start their work by making 
true hexagons and not circles or cylinders. 
This can be seen by looking thru a piece 
of glass on which combs have been built. 
However the combs are made, their gen¬ 
eral construction is such that the great ec¬ 
onomy of space and material is effected, 
both for holding brood or honey. There 
would be an equal saving of wax if the 
cells could be square with flat bottoms; 
but such cells would not fit the young bees, 
nor would the comb be as strong. The 
hexagonal is the very best form of con¬ 
struction. 

By far the larger portion of the cells in 
a hive will be found to measure about five 


k '*&+3 a 8 a Mp2»^ 


... 


A characteristic spur of natural cotnb built from 
horizontal support. 


to the inch. These are called worker-cells, 
■and may be used for rearing worker-brood, 
or for storing honey or pollen. A smaller 
number of cells will be found to measure 
about four to the inch. These are called 
drone-cells, and may be used for rearing 
drone brood, or for storing honey—seldom 
for pollen. 






Natural-comb building, illustrating how the several pieces of comb are joined together. Photographed by W. Z. Hutchinson. 




















486 


HONEYCOMB 


I f the worker-cells were exact hexagons 
measuring five to the inch, there would be 
exactly 28 13-15 cells to the square inch on 
one side of a comb. But there is not this 
exactness, as will be shown by careful 
measurement, altlio the eye may detect no 
variation. Count the number of cells in a 
given length in a horizontal row of cells, 
and then make the same count in one of 
the diagonal rows, and it will be found that 
they are not precisely the same. That 
shows that the cells are not exact hexagons. 



The merging of drone to worker comb. 


Measure the cells in a number of combs 
built by different colonies, or even by the 
same colony, and it will be found that they 
are by no means all of them five to the 
inch. 

This, of course, refers to natural comb 
built by the bees without any comb founda¬ 
tion being supplied to them. Comb foun¬ 
dation is generally made with cells of such 
size that worker comb built upon it con¬ 
tains about 27 cells to the square inch. 

Instead of lessening our admiration, the 
slight variation from exactness in the work 
of comb-building, Avhen the bees are left 
free to take their own course, rather in¬ 
creases it, just as a piece of “hand-made” 
work is often more admired than that 
which is “machine-made.” The marvelous 
ingenuity displayed in adjusting the work 
to varying circumstances is something far 
beyond machine-like exactness. Cut a few 
square inches of comb out of the middle of 
a frame of worker comb in the middle of 
a good honey flow, and the chances are 
rather that the bees will fill the hole with 
drone combs. A few cells will be built that 
are neither drone-cells nor worker-cells, 
and these are called accommodation cells; 
but so skillfully are the adjustments made 
in passing from worker to drone cells that 
at a hasty glance one would likely say that 
all were either worker or drone cells. Ob¬ 
serve the small pieces of comb started at 
different points on the same top-bar on 


previous page. They may be at such dis¬ 
tances apart that, when the two combs 
meet, if built with rigid exactness, the cen¬ 
ter of a cell in one comb will coincide with 
the edge of a cell in the other comb. Yet 
so skillfully are measurements made, and 
so gradual the change as one comb ap¬ 
proaches the other, that the unaided eye 
can detect no variation from an unbroken 



Cross-section of honeycomb, enlarged view. The 
cells are partly filled with honey. This illustration 
shows that the cells are not straight and horizontal, 
hut curved and slanting upward. 

comb of worker-cells, and the whole is such 
an exquisite work of skill as no human ex¬ 
pert can equal. Besides the worker and 
drone cells, queen-cells are built at times, 
as described. 

In general, comb is built so that an an¬ 
gle is at the top and bottom of each cell, 
as in Fig. 1; and this is believed to give 
greater strength than if the cells were built 
like Fig. 2. 








Ippl 


Wm 


§■ 


MB 




The development or evolution of comb honey. These sections were selected from two supers of 32 sections. 






































488 


HONEYCOMB 


When combs are built upon foundation, 
the rows of cells run in a horizontal line 
with exactness. But when the bees build 
at their own sweet will, there is no little 
variation from the horizontal. 


While the cell-walls vary from 1-3000 to 
1-4000 inch in thickness, the septum is thin¬ 
ner, sometimes being as thin as 1-5000 of 
an inch when first built. But as successive 
generations of young bees are reared in the 
cells, cocoons and secretions are left at the 
bottom of each, and in time the septum 
may become Ys inch thick. From this it 
happens that, altho worker comb is % 
inch thick when first built, specimens of 
old comb may be found measuring an inch 
in thickness, since the bees draw out the 
cell-walls at the mouth of the cell to bal¬ 
ance the additions made at the bottom of 
the cell, so as to maintain the same depth 
in an old cell as in a new one. 

When, however, worker-cells are used 
for storing honey, if there be room for it, 
the depth of the cells may be so increased 
that the comb may be two or three inches 
thick. Drone comb is even more likely to 
be thus built out. The cells of both kinds 
slant upward from the center to the ex¬ 
terior of the comb, yet so slightly that to 
the casual observer they appear entirely 
horizontal. Yet when the comb is so great¬ 
ly thickened for the storing of honey, the 
slant may be much increased, giving the 
cell a curved appearance. 

Formerly it was taught that the cap¬ 
pings placed over honey are air-tight, and 
this in spite of the fact that it is a com¬ 
mon thing to see white comb honey become 
watery and dark when kept in a damp 
place, the thin honey finally oozing out 
thru the cappings. Cheshire, who at one 
time held that the sealing of honey-cells is 
air-tight, says (Bees and Beekeeping, Yol. 
I., page 174), “By experiments and a mi¬ 
croscopic examination, I have made evi¬ 



FlG. 2. 



Fig. i. 


dent that former ideas were inaccurate, 
and that not more than 10 per cent at 
most of the sealing of honey is absolutely 
impervious to air.” The sealing of brood- 
cells, however, is very much more porous 
still (see Brood), no doubt for the sake of 
allowing proper air for the brood. The 
brood-cell cappings seem to be made up of 
shreds of cocoons, pollen, and almost any¬ 
thing that comes handy, with only enough 
wax to weld the whole together. 



Drone-cells used for honey storage. It will be 
seen that the lower part of the opening is capped 
first. This, with the slant of the cells, keeps the 
new honey from running out. 

The beautiful white color of honeycomb 
becomes dark with age, and when used for 
brood-rearing becomes nearly black. 

Drone comb measures just about four 
cells to the inch, but the bees seem less par¬ 
ticular about the size of it than with the 
worker. They oftentimes seem to make the 
cells of such size as to fill out best a given 
space; and, accordingly, the cells dif¬ 
fer from worker size all the way up to 
considerably more than Ya of an inch in 
width. Drones are raised in these extra- 
large cells without trouble, and honey is 





HONEYCOMB 


489 



Top view of honeycomb greatly enlarged, showing the thick circular rim or coping at,the top of the cell. 


also stored in them; but where they are 
very large, the bees are compelled to turn 
them up, or the honey would flow out. 
As honey is kept in place by capillary 
attraction, when cells exceed a certain size 
the adhesion of the liquid to the wax walls 
is insufficient, of itself, to hold the honey 
in place. Where drones are to be reared in 
these very large cells the bees contract the 
mouth by a thick rim. As an experiment, 
some plates were made for producing 
small sheets of foundation, having only 
3% cells to the inch. The bees worked on 
a few of these, with these same thick rims, 
but they evidently did not like them very 
well, for they tried to make worker-cells 
of some of them, and it proved so much 
of a complication for them that they finally 
abandoned the whole piece of comb, ap¬ 
parently in disgust. Bees sometimes rear 
worker brood in drone comb, where com¬ 
pelled to from want of room, and they 
always do it in the way already mentioned, 
by contracting the mouth of the cells and 
leaving the young bee a rather large berth 


in which to grow and develop. Drones are 
sometimes reared in worker-cells also, but 
they are so much cramped in growth that 
they seldom look like fully developed in¬ 
sects. See Laying Workers; also Brood. 

Several times it has been suggested that 
the race of honeybees could be enlarged by 
giving them larger cells; and some circum¬ 
stances seem to indicate that something 
may be done in this direction, altho there 
is little hope of any permanent enlarge¬ 
ment in size without combining with it the 
idea of selecting the largest bees from 
which to propagate. By making the cells 
smaller than ordinarily, small bees are ob¬ 
tained with very little trouble; and the au¬ 
thor has seen a whole nucleus of bees so 
small as to be really laughable, just be¬ 
cause the comb they emerged from was 
set at an angle so that one side was con¬ 
cave and the other convex. The small 
bees came from the concave side. Their 
light, active movements, as they sported in 
front of the hive, made them a pretty and 
amusing sight for those fond of curiosi- 




490 


HONEYCOMB 





wzM 

* *• e t * #*V>V 2 
■s • • • •ttltV li 

vMtfMH « t f 

' * • • « * *«•««« 

-‘(MIMlMn 

’> * * m 

. * * • « 




K ’JAmm 
k tmm* * 


Natural-comb building in a hive made entirely of glass. 



Bees living on combs built in the open air. 




















HONEYCOMB 


491 


ties. Worker bees reared in drone-cells 
are sometimes extra large in size; but as 
to whether they can be made permanently 
larger by such a course is very doubtful. 
The difficulty, at present, seems to be the 
tendency to rear a great quantity of use¬ 
less drones. By having a hive furnished 
entirely with worker comb, it is possible 
to restrict the rearing of drones down to a 
comparatively small number. A few cells 
near the bottom or corners of a frame are 
sometimes reconstructed into drone comb. 
See large illustration under Brooi> and 
Brood-rkaring ; also Comb Foundation. 

ITOW BEES BUILD COMB. 

In this day and age of bees and honey it 
would seem that one should be able to de¬ 
scribe how bees build comb, with almost as 
much ease as one would tell how cows and 
horses eat grass; but for all that, records 
are lacking of careful and close experi¬ 
ments, such as Darwin made many years 
ago. In the author’s house-apiarv there 
were dozens of hives where the bees were 
building right up close to the glass; and 
all one had to do, in order to see how it was 
done, was to take a chair and sit down be¬ 
fore them. But the little fellows have such 
a queer sleight-of-hand way of doing the 
work that one hardly knows how they do 
accomplish it. 

If one will examine his bees closely dur¬ 
ing the season of comb-building and honev- 
gathering, he will find a good many of 
them with wax scales protruding between 
the rings that form the body, and these 
scales are removed from their bodies as 
described at the beginning of this article. 
If a bee is obliged to carry one of these 
wax scales but a short distance, it takes it 
in its mandibles, and looks as business-like 
with it thus as a carpenter with a board on 
his shoulder. If it has to carry it from the 
bottom of the honey-box, it takes it in a 
way that it is difficult to explain any better 
than to say it slips it under its chin. When 
thus equipped, one would never know it 
was encumbered with anything, unless it 
chanced to slip out, when it will very dex- 
trously tuck it back with one of its fore 
feet. The little plate of wax is so warm 
from being kept under its chin as to be 
quite soft when it gets back; and as it 
takes it out, and gives it a pinch against 


the comb where the building is going on, 
one would think it might stop a while, and 
put it into place; but not that bee; for oft' 
it scampers and twists around so many dif¬ 
ferent ways one. might think it was not one 
ot the working kind at all. Another fol¬ 
lows after it sooner or later, and gives the 
wax a pinch, or a little scraping and bur¬ 
nishing with its polished mandibles, then 
another, and so on; and' the sum total of 
all these maneuvers is, that the comb seems 
almost to grow out of nothing; yet no one 
bee ever makes a cell. 

The finished comb is the result of the 
united efforts of the moving, restless mass; 
and the great mystery is, that anything so 
wonderful can ever result at all from such 
a mixed-up, skipping-about way of work¬ 
ing as they seem to have. When the cells 
are built out only part way they are filled 
with honey or eggs, and the length is in¬ 
creased when they feel disposed, or “get 
around to it,” perhaps. It may be that 
they find it easier \vorking with shallow 
walls about the cells, for they can take care 
of the brood much easier, and put in the 
honey easier, too, in all probability; and. 
as a thick rim or coping is always left 
around the upper edge of the celi (see page 
489), no matter what its depth, they have 
the material at hand to lengthen it. This 
thick rim is also very necessary to give the 
bees a secure foothold, for the sides of the 
cells are so thin they would be very apt to 
break down with even the light weight of a 
bee. When honey is coming in rapidly, and 
the bees are crowded for room to store it, 
their eagerness is so plainly apparent, as 
they push the work along, that they fairly 
seem to quiver with excitement; but for all 
that they skip about from one cell to an¬ 
other in the same way, no one bee working 
in the same spot to exceed a minute or two 
at the very outside. Quite frequently, after 
one has bent a piece of wax a certain way, 
the next tips it in the opposite direction, 
and so on until completion; but after all 
have given it a twist and a pull, it is found 
in pretty nearly the right spot. As nearly 
as the author can discover, they moisten the 
thin ribbons of wax with some sort of fluid 
or saliva. As the bee always preserves the 
thick rib or rim of the comb at the top of 
the cell it is working, the looker-on would 
suppose it was making the walls of consid- 


492 


HONEYD.EW 


erable thickness (page 489) ; but if it be 
cut away, and this rim be broken, its 
mandibles will have come so nearly together 
that the wax between them, beyond the 
rim, is almost as thin as tissue paper. In 
building natural comb, of course the bot¬ 
toms of the cells are thinned in the same 
way, as the work goes along, before any 
side walls are made at all. 

When no foundation is furnished, little 
patches of comb are started at different 
points, as shown on page 485. Then, 
as these patches enlarge, their edges are 
united so perfectly that it is sometimes dif¬ 
ficult, when the frame is filled solid, to de¬ 
termine where the pieces were united, so 
perfect is the work. At other times there 
is, perhaps, a row of irregular or drone 
cells along the line of the union. 

The midrib of natural comb becomes 
thicker as it approaches the line of sup¬ 
port and tapers toward the bottom. Why 
this is so is evident. It seems wonderful 
that there should be' a gradual gradation 
in thickness from top to bottom in spite 
of the haphazard, skip-about work bn the 
part of so many different bees. 

For the consideration of the thickness of 
combs and how far to space them apart 
see Frames, Self-spacing; also Spacing 
Frames and Comb Foundation. 

NO ARTIFICIAL COMB HONEY. 

Some persons who are foolish enough be¬ 
lieve there is a honeycomb made from wood 
pulp, punk, putty, paraffin, or perhaps 
material other than wax. Why foolish? 
Because a wise man changes his mind 
(when it becomes necessary); but a fool, 
never. It would not be surprising in these 
days of sensational journalism and of false 
nature-stories if one should get the notion 
that artificial comb honey really exists; 
but the foolish part comes in when a per¬ 
son, totally inexperienced with bees, stout¬ 
ly and smilingly maintains that there is 
such a thing as manufactured honey in the 
comb. The inimitably foolish expression 
of such a person is, perhaps, the origin of 
the colloquialism, “The smile that won’t 
come off.” No use. Do not argue. It 
won’t come. ‘“Why, I’ve seen in at the 
stores. Grocer told me all about it—was 
several cents cheaper. I tried it; we didn’t 


like it as well as the genuine.” And then 
the beekeeper goes away, not a wiser but a 
madder man, and wonders why the fool- 
killer doesn’t do his duty, and why every 
one except the beekeeper knows all about 
bees and their products. See Comb Hon¬ 
ey, also Honey Exhibits. 

HONEYDEW — Honeydew is a sweet 
glutinous liquid excreted in large quantities 
on the foliage of plants by Hemipterous 
insects, chiefly plant-lice and scale-insects. 
It is often so abundant on the leaves of 
trees and bushes that it drops upon the 
grass and sidewalks, covering them with a 
glistening coating resembling varnish. At 
times it falls in -minute globules like fine 
fain. Altho readily gathered by honeybees, 
it has an inferior flavor and is detrimental 
to beekeeping. The ancient Roman nat¬ 
uralist Pliny supposed that honeydew fell 
from the stars, and this belief was general¬ 
ly accepted for centuries. The honeydew 
gathered by bees is produced chiefly by 
five families of insects belonging to the 
suborder Homoptera of the order Hemip- 
tera or bugs; plant-lice (Aphididae), bark- 
lice or scale-insects (Coccidae), lantern- 
flies (Fulgoridae), jumping plant-lice 
(Psyllidae) and white flies (Aleyrodidae). 
A small amount of honeydew is also ex¬ 
creted by a few species of tree-hoppers 
(Membracidae),- which are attended by 
ants. 

The white flies (Aleyrodidae), small 
winged insects covered with a whitish pow¬ 
der, were formerly classed with the scale- 
insects, as in their immature-state they are 
scale-like in form. In warm regions they 
are reported to exude honeydew in large 
quantities, but in the temperate zone they 
are not sufficiently abundant to produce 
much of this excretion. 

The jumping plant-lice (Psyllidae) are 
small winged insects about one-sixth of an 
inch in length. Many of the species form 
galls. The pear tree Psylla often destroys 
pear trees by sucking the sap from the 
twigs. According to Slingerland it ex¬ 
cretes honeydew copiously. “It literally 
rained from the trees upon the vegetation 
beneath; in cultivating the orchard the 
backs of the horses and the harnesses often 
became covered with the sticky substance 
dropping from the trees. It attracts thou- 


HOHEYDEW 


493 


sands of ants, bees, and wasps, which feed 
on it.” 

More than 400 tons of honey dew are 
shipped from the Hawaiian Islands annu¬ 
ally, most of which is an excretion of the 
sugar-cane leaf-hopper ( Perkinsiella sac- 
charidica), a species belonging to the fam¬ 
ily Eulgoridae. In 1903 these insects be¬ 
came so abundant as to prove a serious 
check to the cultivation of sugar cane. For 
several years it caused a loss of about 
$3,000,000 annually to the planters; but it 
has been brought under control and today 
the plantations are again producing heavy 
crops of sugar. The honey dew from the 
sugar-cane leaf-hopper is described by 
Phillips as very dark amber in color and 
slightly ropy. In flavor it strongly re¬ 
sembles molasses; while most honeydews 
granulate very rapidly, this type does not 
granulate at all. Samples several years 
old are as clear as when first extracted. A 
small amount of this honeydew mixed with 
the light-colored algaroba honey imparts 
its color and flavor to the entire amount. 
Bees prefer floral nectar to the excretion; 
but, when the floral nectar is not abundant, 
they gather both and the honey is a mix¬ 
ture. 

The chemical composition of Hawaiian 
honeydew honey differs so widely from 
floral honey that many buyers on the'main¬ 
land have charged that it was adulterated; 
but after careful investigation Phillips 
was convinced that it was a natural sweet 
product collected by bees and shipped 
without the addition of other sugars. It 
is not placed on the market in competition 
with the honeys of the mainland derived 
from flowers, but is sold to bakers, who 
have found that it has superior baking 
properties and prefer it to algaroba honey. 
On the Hew York market it commands a 
slightly higher price per pound than al¬ 
garoba honey. 

Analysis (see table) of the honeydew 
honey of the sugar-cane leaf-hopper shows 
that the ash content is very high, ranging 
from three to six times the amount found 
in normal honeys. The percentage of dex¬ 
trin is also very high, and its acidity is 
three times that of algaroba honey. The 
percentage of sucrose or cane sugar is a lit¬ 
tle higher than that of the average of floral 
honeys. A ray of polarized light is turned 


to the right by the honeydew, while pure 
floral honey turns the ray to the left. 

The Coccidae are commonly known as 
scale r bugs, scale-insects, bark-lice, mealy¬ 
bugs, and Coccids. The species are very 
numerous and infest the bark and foliage 
of a great variety of plants, and also 
nearly every kind of fruit. They excrete 
great quantities of honeydew both in tem¬ 
perate and tropical regions. Only the 
adult females exude honeydew. Hot all 
of the species produce honeydew, as many 
excrete wax or resinous substances. In 
early autumn a great quantity of honeydew 
is occasionally gathered from oak trees, 
the limbs of which are covered with a great 
number of small Coccids, gall-like in form, 
about a quarter of an inch in length, from 
the ends of which there flows continuously 
a clear sweet liquid. So profusely is the 
honeydew exuded that the trees appear as 
tho they had been sprayed with hundreds 
of gallons of it. When it dries it solidifies 
and hangs in small stalactites. This hon¬ 
eydew is produced not by a gall, as is often 
reported, but by the adult females of a 
species of Kermes » which are remarkable 
for their gall-like form. “So striking is the 
resemblance,” says Comstock, “that they 
have been mistaken for galls by many en¬ 
tomologists.” 

Species of Lecanium, a genus of Coccids 
found everywhere on plants, attack bass¬ 
wood, tulip tree, maples, and many other 
trees, covering the leaves with a sweet liquid 
similar to that yielded by plant-lice. In 
California a scale-insect ( Lecanium oleae) 
coats the foliage of citrus fruit trees with 
great quantities of shining dew. A fungus 
often grows luxuriantly on such leaves, 
forming a dense felt over their surface. At 
Amherst, Mass., and at Guelph, Canada, 
thousands of bees have been observed gath¬ 
ering from spruce trees the sweet excretion 
of a scale-insect ( PhysoTcermes piceae). 
They are found at the base of the new 
growth and have the appearance of little 
buds. Pine trees are likewise at times pro¬ 
lific sources of honeydew gathered from 
•scale-insects living at the base of the leaves. 

Probably more honeydew is produced by 
plant-lice or aphids ( Aphididae) than any 
other family of insects. They occur on & 
great variety of trees and shrubs, a part 
of the species living on the leaves, a part 


494 


HONEYDEW 


on the limbs, and others on the roots. 
Among the deciduous-leaved trees on which 
honeydew is very frequently found are 
oaks, beech, poplar, ash, elm, hickory, 
chestnut, maple, willow, basswood, gum 
trees, fruit trees, grapevine, currant, black¬ 
berry, and hazel. The aphids are so well 
known that they require only a brief de¬ 
scription. They are small, thick, usually 
greenish insects with pear-shaped bodies 
and long legs. On the back of the sixth 
abdominal segment of Aphis and Lachnus 
there is a pair of tubes called cornicles. A 
part of the forms are winged and a part 
are wingless. In the fall both males and 
females appear. The females are wing¬ 
less, but the males may be either winged or 
wingless. After mating the males soon 
die; the females lay one or more eggs, 
after which they die also. The eggs may 
often be found on the terminal buds of 
trees; e. g., on many of the terminal 
buds of the apple tree three or four 
minute black eggs are laid. Early in the 
spring the eggs hatch, but produce only fe¬ 
males known as stem-mothers. By bud¬ 
ding they give birth to living young instead 
of laying eggs. The second generation 
consists like the first wholly of females, 
from which again come living offspring. 
Reproduction under these conditions with¬ 
out pairing may continue for eight or more 
generations, until with the approach of 
winter both sexes are again produced. From 
time to time a part of the females are 
winged and thus provide for the spread of 
the species. The winged forms fly from 
tree to tree, and are likely to infest the 
tender upper growing shoots. Later they 
spread to the lower branches. Virgin re¬ 
production (parthenogenesis ), or the pro¬ 
duction of young without fertilization, is 
of special interest to the beekeeper, as 
worker bees are able to lay eggs which pro¬ 
duce only drones, and the unfertilized eggs 
of the queen also give birth to males alone. 

Plant-lice multiply with extreme rapid¬ 
ity and it has been estimated that the off¬ 
spring of each plant-louse, if all survived, 
would in 100 days amount to over 3,200,- 
000 individuals. Fortunately they are held 
in check by a vast number of parasitic in¬ 
sects, as syrphid flies, lady beetles, and 
plant-lice lions, or they would threaten the 
destruction of all vegetation. Their de¬ 


velopment is also probably greatly influ¬ 
enced by the weather. Occasionally there 
comes a year when plant-lice and scale-in¬ 
sects appear in hosts, and there is conse¬ 
quently a great abundance of honeydew, 
as in 1884 and 1909 in this country and 
1898 and 1907 in Great Britain. In 1909 
there was in eastern North America an un¬ 
precedented amount of honeydew, while 
the crop of white clover and basswood was 
almost a complete failure. Most of the 
honeydew came from the leaves of hickory 
and oak. While gathering it the bees were 
exceptionally cross. Since it became al¬ 
ternately partially liquid in the forenoon 
and gum-like in the afternoon, they were 
able to work on it only in the morning 
hours; the moisture in the air softened- it 
at night, but by noon the sun again dried 
it to a viscous state. Honeydew honey is 
often stored by the ton, and in certain lo¬ 
calities as in the Sacramento Valley, Calif., 
a crop is gathered almost every year. 

The dew is forcibly ejected or flipped 
from the end of the abdomen, and when 
there are many aphids falls in a spray of 
minute globules. If the dew were not thrown 
a little distance from their bodies they 
would soon be glued together. As they 
usually feed on the under side of the 
leaves, the sweet liquid naturally drops on 
the foliage beneath them. As it is gum¬ 
like it may dry and reihain on the leaves 
for a long time, so that the absence of 
plant-lice is no proof that it is of vegetable 
origin. If it is very abundant it may drip 
from the leaves to the ground. In 1891 
Busgen observed that a single plant-louse 
on a maple leaf produced 48 drops in 24 
hours (the drops were 1-25 of an inch in 
diameter), on a basswood leaf 19 drops, 
and on a rose leaf only 6 drops. The pro¬ 
duction of honeydew has been found to be 
most active in the middle of the day when 
the temperature is highest. The pair of 
tubes, or cornicles (also called siphons 
and nectaries) are commonly believed also 
to excrete honeydew; but this is denied by 
Forel and other entomologists, who assert 
that they exude only a gluey substance, 
which is not sought by ants. The tubes do 
not connect with the digestive tract, and 
the liquid which issues from them is pro¬ 
duced by glandular cells at their base. In 


HONEYDEW 


495 


a part of the aphids the tubes are wanting 
or are greatly reduced in size. 

Hemipterous insects of the families de¬ 
scribed live wholly on plant sap. The 
mouth-parts form a jointed beak consisting 
of four slender bristles enclosed in a joint¬ 
ed sheath, which is a prolongation of the 
lower lip. With this pointed beak the in¬ 
sect easily pierces the bark or leaf and 
sucks out the sap of the plant tissues. The 
jointed sheath permits of a change of po¬ 
sition without the removal of the beak. A 
part of the sap is digested and is used for 
growth and the production of young, while 
the residue is expelled as a waste substance 
known as honeydew. It is thus undoubt- 


This type might perhaps be used by manu¬ 
facturers of blacking or of lubricants. It 
is not a safe food for winter. If the bees 
are left on the summer stands and can 
obtain frequent flights, they may winter in 
fair condition; but, if they are placed in 
a cellar, they will all probably perish from 
dysentery. For brood-rearing in the 
spring it is unobjectionable, and it is, 
therefore, advised that it be removed from 
the hives in the fall and sugar syrup fed 
in its stead. 

The composition of honeydew honeys as 
compared with floral honeys is shown in the 
chemical analyses given in the following- 
table : 



Water 

Invert sugar 
(Grape and 
fruit sugar) 

Sucrose 
(Cane Sugar) 


Dextrin 

(Gums) 

Undetermined 

c5 r 

© o 

O; * 

j* CO 

W c3 

Floral konevs 








Sweet clover . 

17.49 

76.20 

2.24 

0.12 

0.45 

3.50 

0.12 

White clover . 

17.64 

74.92 

1.77 

0.07 

0.82 

4.78 

0.06 

Alfalfa . 

16.56 

76.90 

4.42 

0.07 

0.34 

1.71 

0.08 

Honevdews 








Hickorv . 

16.05 

65.89 

2.76 

0.78 

12.95 

1.57 

0.12 

White oak . 

13.56 

55.87 

4.31 

0.79 

10.49 

4.98 

0.08 

Hawaiian sugar cane. 

15.46 

64.84 

5.27 

1.29 

10.01 

3.13 

0.15 


edly an excretion which escapes by way of 
the anal opening. It may not, however, 
consist entirely of the waste products of 
digestion. MacGillivray states that in 
plant-lice, which produce honeydew abun¬ 
dantly, the posterior portion of the rectum 
is greatly enlarged and is lined with large 
active cells, which may excrete the honey¬ 
dew. The objection ta honeydew on the 
ground that it is an excretion rather than 
a secretion is largely imaginary, as secre¬ 
tion is the more general term including ex¬ 
cretion. 

The quality of honeydew varies greatly 
according to the plant on which it occurs 
and the insects producing it. When fresh¬ 
ly gathered it may be clear, sweet, and 
agreeable in flavor, or at least not unpala¬ 
table. The better grades find a ready 
sale to bakers, who prefer it for baking 
purposes to floral honey. But usually it 
is very inferior in quality, for when it i’e- 
mains for days on the foliage it gathers 
many impurities. A black smut sometimes 
Covers the leaves so that the extracted hon¬ 
eydew is inky black resembling coal tar. 


From the above table it is apparent that 
honeydew honey contains less invert sugar; 
but more sucrose or cane sugar, dextrin 
or gums, and ash. It is because of the 
larger percentage of gums and ash that it 
is unsuitable for winter feeding. Honey¬ 
dew honey may also be distinguished from 
floral honey by means of the polariscope. 
A ray of light passed thru a solution of 
floral honey is turned or rotated to the 
left, but passed thru a solution of honey¬ 
dew honey it is turned to the right. If 
floral honey turns the ray to the right, it 
has been adulterated with glucose. No 
floral honey is obtained from the wind- 
pollinated flowers of hickory and white 
oak. 

Besides bees honeydew is attractive to 
wasps, ants, flies, and other insects. Bees 
pay no attention to plant-lice, but ants care 
for them and stroke them gently with their 
antennas in order to induce them to yield 
honeydew more freely. This behavior led 
the botanist Linnasus to call Aphis the cow 
of the ants (Aphis formicarum vacca). 
Ants defend plant-lice from their enemies, 























496 


HONEYDEW 


, move them to new pastures, care for their 
eggs, and build over them covers of earth 
or cow-sheds to keep them warm. Ants 
also estend their protection to scale-insects. 

The term honeydew should be rigidly re¬ 
stricted to the sweet excretions of insects 
gathered by honeybees. Nectar is the se¬ 
cretion of nectaries whether floral or ex¬ 
tra-floral. It has been asserted by many 
beekeepers and not a few botanists in the 
past, that there is a third sweet liquid, 
which, under favorable weather conditions, 
is exuded directly by the leaves. The 
statement of Gaston Bonnier is often 
quoted to the effect that he had often seen 
trees on which there was not a single plant- 
louse, covered with a sweet liquid which 
exuded from the leaves. Cowan, editor of 
the British Bee Journal, gives the follow¬ 
ing opinion: “We are perfectly aware that 
opinions are divided as to the source of 
honeydew; but we agree with those who 
think it generally is an exudation from the 
pores of leaves under certain conditions 
of the atmosphere, -altho it may sometimes 
be produced by aphides. We have on sev¬ 
eral occasions examined trees producing 
honeydew in abundance that were free 
from aphides.” Many similar views might 
be given. But in the majority of cases it 
has been conclusively shown that the sweet 
liquid found on the foliage of trees is of 
insect origin, and that the assertions to 
the contrary were based on insufficient ob¬ 
servation and superficial investigation. 

Recent investigations by Davidson and 
Teit, however, show that from the tips of 
the leaves of the Douglas fir in British Co¬ 
lumbia, and Washington State west of the 
Cascades, there is exuded a sweet liquid in 
large quantities. “Fir sugar” was known 
to the Indians of British Columbia long 
before the discovery of America, and in 
recent years its presence has repeatedly 
been reported by beekeepers, but it does 
not occur every year. The sugar-yielding 
firs (Pseudotsuga Douglasii) are confined 
chiefly to the dry belt of British Columbia 
between the parallels of latitude 50 and 51 
degrees and the meridians of longitude 121 
and 122 degrees. The sugar is not formed 
on trees in the dense forest, but only on 
those in comparatively open areas, on gen¬ 
tle slopes facing the east and west, during 
hot summer droughts. In leaves of the 


Douglas fit exposed to continuous sunlight 
a larger quantity of carbohydrates is 
formed during the day than can be stored 
or earned away to the growing tissues. In* 
the hot dry atmosphere transpiration 
ceases and the leaves become gorged with 
water, which is f-orreed out thru their tips. 
A beekeeper at Victoria states that many 
of the firs, particularly isolated trees, are 
well spattered with the exudation, and the 
needle-like leaves studded with pale amber 
diamouds. A large number of bees gather 
the liquid and in some years two or three 
supers of sections are filled with it. The 
honey is fair in quality, pale amber in 
color, with rather dark cappings. It crys¬ 
tallizes quickly. By the evaporation of 
the water the liquid is transformed into 
white masses 14 inch to 2 inches in dia¬ 
meter. This solid may again be dissolved 
by rain and recrystallized in patches at 
the base of the tree. 

A beekeeper living in the Olympic Na¬ 
tional Forest, Ore., 21 miles from Port 
Angeles, reports that his bees stored 150 
pounds of fir sugar during a very dry sea¬ 
son. The following winter many bees died 
from dysentery, which was attributed to 
the effects of the sugar. This seems very 
probable, as the composition of this excre¬ 
tion is very different from that of floral 
honey. It contains among other constitu¬ 
ents nearly 50 per cent of the rare sugar, 
melezitose. 

It is certainly not improbable that 
other species of conifers may under spe¬ 
cial climatic conditions exude a sweet liq¬ 
uid. In Switzerland about 40 per cent of 
the honey crop is gathered from the weisst- 
anne (Picea excelsa), a fir tree. From an 
excretion found on the leaves of this fir 
tree the beekeepers in the Vosges Moun¬ 
tains, the Black Forest, and in parts of 
Switzerland harvest large crops of “honey¬ 
dew,” also called “waldhonig.” J. A. Heb- 
erle believes that this honey is of plant ori¬ 
gin, since metereological conditions seem 
to determine its production. Unfortunate¬ 
ly most assertions that the leaves of coni¬ 
ferous and hardwood trees exude occa¬ 
sionally a sweet liquid are based on ob¬ 
servations that are too superficial to be 
conclusive. But in the case of the Doug¬ 
las fir the investigations of Davidson and 
Teit appear to establish beyond question 


HONEY EXHIBITS 


497 


the existence of such an exudation. This 
liquid differs widely in its composition both 
from honeydew and honey, and should be 
clearly distinguished from them. Such ex¬ 
udations of leaves should receive a special 
name, as leaf-dew or leaf-sugar. 

The exudation of nearly pure water by 
the leaves of many plants is clearly very 
closely allied to the exudation of sweet liq¬ 
uids, and it may prove that there is no 
sharp line of demarkation. The Fuchsia, 
Indian corn, jewelweed, cabbage, primrose, 
grapevine, potato, elm, plane tree, the ar- 
oids, and other species of plants often ex¬ 
ude drops of water from the tips and mar¬ 
ginal teeth of the leaves. These drops may 
be observed on lawn grass, the ends of 
corn leaves and the margins of jewelweed 
leaves in the morning when they are-likely 
to be mistaken for dew. The exudation of 
drops of water may easily be shown ex¬ 
perimentally by placing a young cabbage 
plant grown in a flowerpot under a bell- 
jar. In a few hours drops of water will 
appear on the apices or margins of the 
leaves, gradually increase in size, finally 
fall off, and new drops form. A surplus 
of water in the plant thus escapes when 
the air is too damp to permit of its pass¬ 
ing off as water vapor thru the leaf pores. 
A great amount of water may thus be ex¬ 
uded, and in a single night a leaf may ex¬ 
crete half its weight in water. A vigorous 
leaf of Calocasia has been observed to eject 
water at the rate of 195 minute drops per 
minute, so that there seemed to be an al¬ 
most continuous jet of water. The liquid 
is pure water except for a trace of salts 
(one-tenth of one per cent). Excreted wa¬ 
ter has probably been mistaken by some 
observers for honeydew, and, as has been 
stated, it is possible that the water under 
certain conditions, as in the Douglas fir, 
may contain more or less sugar. Many 
hairs on leaves have been reported to ex¬ 
crete drops of water, but this is open to 
doubt, altho possible. 

HONEY EXHIBITS.— Very much in¬ 
deed has been accomplished by the exhib¬ 
its of bees, honey, and apiarian imple¬ 
ments at state and county fairs. Several 
of the larger fair associations have had 
very pretty buildings erected on the fair¬ 
grounds for these displays. 


Such exhibits have a decidedly educa¬ 
tional influence on the public. They show 
how beautiful honey is; how it can be pro¬ 
duced ; how it can be produced by the ton 
and carload. On account of newspaper 
yarns, that were current some years ago, 
there existed an impression that has all 
but been removed, that comb honey is 
manufactured, and that the extracted ar¬ 
ticle is adulterated with glucose. It is 
hardly necessary now to say that it is im¬ 
possible to manufacture comb, fill it with 
honey, and “cap it over with appropriate 
machinery”—just as impossible as it is to . 
manufacture eggs. The publishers) have 
had for many years a standing offer of 
$1000 to any one who would show where 
comb honey was manufactured, or even 
procure a single manufactured sample 
which could not be told from the genuine. 
Altho this offer has been published broad¬ 
cast in the daily papers, no one took it up. 
The conditions of this offer were printed 
on a neat little card, which has been distrib¬ 
uted by beekeepers at fairs and other 
honey exhibits, so that, if such a thing had 
been possible, the offer would have been 
taken up. As to extracted honey, there 
was a time when it was adulterated some¬ 
what, but owing to the action of state and 
national laws there is very little of it now. 
See Adulteration of Honey, also the 
last paragraph on Honeycomb. 

Beekeepers, besides educating the gen¬ 
eral public as to the genuineness of their 
product, can create a larger demand for 
honey. As a usual thing, exhibitors are 
allowed to sell their honey, distribute cir¬ 
culars, and do a great deal of profitable 
advertising. This not only helps the indi¬ 
vidual, but helps the pursuit in general. 

The accompanying engravings will give 
an idea of how model exhibits should be 
arranged. 

There should be shelving arranged in the 
form of pyramids, octagons, and semicir¬ 
cles. The honey should be put up in tin 
and glass, in large and small packages, 
and the whole should be neatly “set off” 
with appropriate labels. As a general 
thing, glass packages should have a very 
small label, so that as much of the liquid 
honey as possible will show. Tin recepta¬ 
cles should have labels to go clear around 
the can. Comb honey should be put up in 


498 


HONEY EXHIBITS 



Suggestion for a beeswax exhibit at state fairs. 


cartons and shipping cases; and yellow 
cakes of wax should be shown in a variety 
of shapes. 

In one’of the illustrations will be seen a 
large pyramid of beeswax, supporting on 
its several shelves packages of honey, the 
whole surmounted by the bust of a goddess. 
A series of square shallow boxes are made 
of such sizes that, when piled one on top 
of another, they form a perfect pyra¬ 
mid. These are completely covered with 
sheet wax having the edges that come in 
contact nicely cemented together with a 
hot iron. The letters are cut out of inch 
boards with a jigsaw, after which they are 
dipped in hot wax, and secured with nails 
to the pyramid. The next thing to make is 
the goddess of liberty, or the bust of a 
prominent man. These in plaster can usu¬ 
ally be purchased at any of the stores for 
a small sum of money, and, after being 
dipped in hot wax, give a very fine wax 
figure. 


Besides the exhibit of honey in various 
styles of packages, there should be a col¬ 
lection of bee-supplies, so that when the 
interested persons come along with their 
string of questions, they can be shown step 
by step the process of producing honey and 
its final putting-up for market. A good 
many questions will be asked in regard to 
the extractor. It will be called a churn, a 
washing-machine, and everything else ex¬ 
cept what it really is. This should be ex¬ 
plained. There should.be one or more ob¬ 
servatory hives to show how bees behave 
when at home, and particularly the queen. 

Very much can be done by having a 
glass hive and live bees, with an entrance 
communicating outdoors thru the sides of 
the building where the exhibit is made. 
What is equally good, or perhaps better, is 
a one-frame nucleus having glass sides, 
making, as it is called, an observatory hive. 
This should contain one frame of nice 
healthy brood, regular and perfect comb, 











HONEY EXHIBITS 


499 



Exhibit of J. M. Buchanan, Franklin, Tenn., at Tennessee State Fair, Nashville, October 9, 1909. 


finely marked bees, and a bright-yellow 
queen. Hundreds of people will stop and 
examine, and ask a variety of questions 
about the bees and the queen. 



Observation hive and comb-honey super. 


Bees in an observatory hive will stand 
confinement for two or three days but not 
longer. Ordinarily at fairs and other 
places, where the show lasts only two or 
three days, the confined bees will do very 
well. But at expositions, where they are 


shown week after week, it is necessary to 
give them a flight every two or three days. 
Some arrangement should be made with 
the management by which these glass hives 
may be placed next to the Avail of the 
building, the entrance communicating with 
a hole thru the building. Where this can 
not be done, one can have tAvo or three ob¬ 
servatory hives, and keep one or two on 
exhibition all the time Avhile the other is 
being freshened up by a flight outdoors. 
After these latter have had two or three 
days in Avhich to cleanse themselves the 
entrance is closed at night, Avhen the hive 
is set back on its stand, and another ob¬ 
servatory hive takes its place. Thus in 
alternation each one of the two or three 
lots of bees can be freshened up. 

Where it is impossible to place the ob¬ 
servatory hive next to the outside Avail of 
the building, a long tube from the hive 
communicating with the outside wall of 
the building can sometimes be used. But 
the distance must not be over eight or ten 
feet.* The hees, strange as it may seem, 

* The exit from the building should be above the 
heads of pedestrians. To make this possible, the 
tube will have to slant upward from the hive. 


































500 


HONEY EXHIBITS 



Demonstration work at the Ohio State Fair, Columbus. 



The A. I, Root Company’s demonstrating-cage at the Medina County Fair. 

















honey exhibits 


501 


will pass out thru the tube to the outside 
and return to their hive. This avoids a 
replacement of bees, and permits the nor¬ 
mal work of the colony to g'o on uninter¬ 
ruptedly. Bees coming in with loads of pol¬ 
len can be seen; and their rejoicings, with 
a quick nervous wagging of their bodies, 
attract the attention of the visitors. 

THE ADVERTISING VALUE OP OBSERVATORY 
HIVES IN SHOW-WINDOWS OP GRO¬ 
CERIES AND DRUGSTORES. 

In the fall, when the active selling sea¬ 
son for honey naturally starts, a beekeep¬ 
er can very often to advantage place a sin¬ 
gle-comb observatory hive in the show-win¬ 
dows of groceries and drugstores where his 
honey is on sale. (See Observatory 
Hives.) The presence of live bees, the hon¬ 
eycomb, the sections just above, in addi¬ 
tion to their educational value to the gen¬ 
eral public, call attention to the honey on 
sale in the window as nothing else can. 
The sidewalk will very often be blocked by 



Charles Mondeng and his son Norman demon¬ 
strating "bees at the Minnesota State fair. Mr. Mon¬ 
deng and his son were awarded the first prize for 
bee demonstration; first prize on golden Italian 
bees; first prize on leather-colored Italian bees. 

crowds to see the “king bee” as they call it, 
and the bees making honey. When both 
comb and extracted are displayed in pack¬ 
ages of various sizes in show-windows 
along with the exhibit of live bees the by¬ 


stander will naturally step inside and buy 
a package of honey. The first package 
will taste so good that it will call for an¬ 
other and another. 

The advertising value of live bees can 
scarcely be overestimated, especially in lo- 





I— 


Norman Mondeng was only eleven years old, yet 
he handled bees without fear. His entire clothing 
was a bathing suit. 


calities where such exhibits have never been 
made before. When sales of honey are 
once started they will keep on and on. 
See Marketing Honey; also Bottling 
Honey. 

It should be understood that bees in 
show-Avindows should be replaced every 
three or four days. After that time they 
will become logy and die. The “exhibit” 
from that time loses its advertising value. 


LIVE-BEE DEMONSTRATION WORK TO ADVER¬ 
TISE HONEY AT THE PAIRS. 

In connection with an exhibit inside of 
a building, there should be a placard 
directing the visitor to a bee-show outside, 


















HONEY EXHIBITS 


502 

as near the building as possible. This 
should be a demonstration of the method 
of handling live bees inside a wire cage, 
the operator taking them up by handfuls 
and forming artificial swarms. Where the 
two . exhibits, one of honey and bee-sup¬ 
plies, and the bee-show itself, can be lo¬ 
cated outdoors, it will be better. The for¬ 
mer should then be in a temporary booth 
or tent, since it would not be advisable to 
have the exhibits of wax and comb honey 
exposed to the direct action of the sun. The 
demonstrating cage should be located close 
by, within ten or twenty feet. Tt consists 
of a wire-cloth structure large enough to 
take in a man, a hive of bees, and room 
enough to practice ordinary bee-manipula¬ 
tion. This cage should be elevated on a 
stand four or five feet above the ground— 
the higher the better, because there will be 
a great jam of people around to see the 
man inside pick up live bees by the hand¬ 
ful. 

Announcement should be made from out¬ 
side of the cage that, during certain hours, 



Mr. Wallace with his fine cape of bee’s. 

an operator, bareheaded and barearmed, 
will perform some wonderful stunts in 
handling bees. When the performance be¬ 
gins, the people will surge around the 
stands, and that is just what is desired in 


order to sell honey at the other stand a few 
feet away. 

'flie operator begins his performance by 
stepping inside the cage of live bees, and 
closing the door. He then tells the crowd 





Such stunts draw large crowds. 

that he is going to handle live bees, every 
one of which is armed with a sting; and if 
any one doubts it to come forward and he 
will furnish the “proof.” He proceeds to 
take oft' his coat and vest and roll up his 
sleeves, take off his collar, and tuck down 
his shirt-band. It will then be necessary 
l or him to put on bicycle pants-guards, or 
slip his trousers into his stockings. The 
crowd will quickly appreciate this part of 
the performance, because the operator tells 
them the bees will sting if they get inside 
of his clothing. With a lighted smoker he 
opens up the hive. After pulling out the 
frames he shows the bees and queen on the 
comb; then he calls out for everybody to 







HONEY EXHIBITS 


503 



The A. I. Root Company’s exhibit at the Ohio State Fair. 


wait and see the next stunt, for he is going 
to make a swarin. With a large dishpan, 
which lie has previously provided, he 
shakes the bees from two or three combs 
into this pan. Then he takes it up and 
turns to the crowd, saying, “The bees are 


* 



William H. Crowson demonstrating bees at the 
Tri-state Fair, Memphis, Term. 


not real mad yet, so I'll begin to shake 
them up to make them so.’’ The people 
wonder what he is going to do, seeing him 
barearmed and bareheaded. He keeps on 
shaking until he has the bees all in one big 
ball, and to the unitiated it looks as if 
they would sting him to dath. But, no! 
the continual shaking is the very thing that 
makes them gentle instead of cross. He 
now runs his hand under the ball of bees, 
pushing it under gently, being careful not 
to pinch any. The movement must be very 
deliberate—so slow indeed that the hand 
scarcely seems to move. He picks up a 
handful and holds them up for the crowd 
to examine. If he has good nerves he can 
put three or four bees in his mouth; shake 
a handful of bees on top of his head, and 
in the meantime pick up another handful. 

At the next performance there will be 
big crowds around to see the work. While 
the man is doing his stunts with the bees 
he tells what honey is, saying that it is a 
wholesome sweet, and that there is no such 
thing as manufactured comb honey, and 
that he will pay $100 for a single sample 
of it. At that psychological moment he 
draws attention to the fact that he has 
some good honey at the stand opposite or 
in the building yonder. The crowd will 
then go round to the stand and buy the 
honey. 














504 


HONEY PEDDLING 


The preceding illustrations show the ex¬ 
hibits of bees and honey, the exhibit of the 
live-bee cage, and the crowd that assembled 
around it, both at the Ohio State Fair held 
at Columbus, and the Minnesota State 
Fair. 

After the exhibitor gets his questioner 
interested, he can hand out one of his ad¬ 
vertising cards, and at the same time give 
him a little sample of honey to taste. This 
can be done very readily by handing out 
some strips of strong manila paper, which 
are to be dipped in the honey and then 
transferred to the mouth. 

HONEY-HOUSE. — See Extracting- 

HOUSES. 

HONEY, METHODS OF ANALYSIS. 

—See Honey, Analysis op. 

HONEY ON COMMISSION.— See Mar¬ 
keting Honey. 

HONEY-PEDDLING.— Under Market¬ 
ing Honey farther on in this work are 
given specific instructions on selling honey. 
Under this head making a house-to-house 
canvass will be considered. There are two 
objections to this method of selling. One is, 
that it antagonizes the grocers who may be 
selling the same honey. The other objec¬ 
tion is that peddling is in more or less dis¬ 
favor among the housewives. The first 
objection does not apply where honey is 
sold in the country; and the second can be 
overcome where the right methods are em¬ 
ployed. Dan White, a progressive and prac¬ 
tical beekeeper, struck upon a novel plan 
that entirely eliminates the several objec¬ 
tions. He thus describes it: 

PEDDLING MADE EASY. 

I packed my grip and took two 12-pound 
cans of honey and started out. About all 1 
had in my grip was a good supply of those 
leaflets published by the A. I. Boot Co.; also 
50 postals addressed to myself. 

I got into the town just before noon; 
and after eating a good meal at a board¬ 
ing-house I filled my pockets with leaf¬ 
lets and took one honey-can and commenced 
business. I started down a street and did 
not miss calling at every house. After ring¬ 
ing the bell, or rapping, a lady would open 
the door and look at me with more or less 
suspicion. I would say, “I made the call to 
ask you if your family were fond of honey. ’ ’ 

They generally answered yes, but believed 
they would not buy any. 


“Well,’' I would answer, “but I am not 
selling honey today. I am giving it away, 
and should be glad to give you some in a 
sauce-dish. ’ ’ 

Some would look astonished, others would 
smile, and say /‘That’s funny,” but in 
every instance I was invited in. I would 
pour out the honey, then hand out a leaflet, 
telling them to read every word of it. 
“You will find it very interesting; it will 
tell you all about honey—how and why we 
extract it, etc. Then here is a postal card 
addressed to me; and should you decide to 
want a 12-pound can, put your name, street, 
and number, on the card; drop it in the 
office; and when I deliver in about ten 
days you will get a can of honey.” 

Well, there were enough cards put m he 
mail within five days to take thirty cans >f 
honey. I promptly made the delivery en 
time, taking along twenty extra cans that 
sold about as fast as I could hand them out; 
and since thep I have received orders for 50 
more cans from the same town. I tell you, 
it has got all over town that a honey-man 
had been there selling real honey. I am 
certain that this one place will take over 
2000 pounds, all in one-gallon cans. Now, 
then, 18 pounds of honey given away from 
house to house, 50 postal cards, 200 leaflets 
left at houses and handed to people on the 
street, and one day walking over a very 
small portion of the town, has found a place 
for at least 2000 pounds of honey. Then 
think what I can do next season should I 
secure a good crop. All I shall have to do 
is take a big load and go up there and hand 
it out. 

By the way, the honey sold there was 
thrown out of clean white combs, over every 
inch of whose surface the uncapping-knife 
had to go. It weighed strong 12 pounds to 
the gallon—just as good as the best comb 
honey, only it was out of the combs. Of 
course, I can go back just as often as I 
choose; yes, and the people will be glad to 
see me. Dan White. 

New London, Ohio. 

It would appear that one of the prime 
requisites is a first-class article of well- 
ripened extracted honey. Many persons 
make a mistake right here, and, of course, if 
the honey is poor, one is not likely to make 
a second sale. Mr. White’s scheme is to have 
the honey taste so good that, when it is 
gone, the good people will drop that postal 
for more. 

In a similar way Herman F. Moore of 
Chicago retailed large amounts of honey. 
His plan, like that of Mr. White, was to go 
around and solicit orders. In the cities of 
Cleveland and Toledo, or even those of 
smaller size, he would start out on foot, 


HONEY PEDDLING 


505 


exhibiting a sample of his honey in a quart 
Mason fruit-jar. His reason for using this 
package was that almost any family would 
be willing to take a household article of 
this kind, for the simple reason that it 
would not have to be thrown away when it 
had served the purpose of holding the 
honey. 

With this package Mr. Moore would call 
at private houses, one after another, and 
ask for a dish and spoon, saying that he 
had some very nice honey, and that he 
would like to give the women-folks a sam¬ 
ple to taste. He then held up the beautiful 
transparent goods to the light, told them 
he was a beekeeper, and dealt only in pure 
honey; explained how it was produced, 
and finally named the price. If the lady of 
the house cared to take any he would take 
her order and deliver the next day. As a 
rule he took an order. 

In this way he made the rounds of a 
certain section of the city. When he first 
began he took the orders one day and de¬ 
livered the next; but his business grew so 
rapidly that he was finally obliged to take 
on a helper, his brother, and, a little later 
on, two more men and a man and his wife. 
The two last named washed the jars and 
filled them. Two of them delivered while 
he and his brother took orders. In this 
way they sold enormous quantities of 
honey; and as it was always the finest 
quality, and guaranteed to be pure, they 
built up a large trade. 

There is another plan, provided one can 
trade honey for other useful articles too 
numerous to mention. Even if one did not 
sell much he would get a day of royal 
sport. 

TRADING HONEY FOR DUCKS, PIGS, PUPS, ETC. 

In all the literature on bees and honey, we 
are urged to develop the home market. Act¬ 
ing on the advice, after I had traveled over 
my regular route this fall I went into an 
entirely new locality. After enjoying the 
scenery and the sunlight for about a five- 
mile drive I called at a farmhouse and in¬ 
quired of the good lady if she would like 
some honey. 

‘ ‘ Well, yes, I should like some, but I 
have no money.” 

Seeing some ducks, I offered to trade 
honey for ducks; and for a pair I gave four 
pint jars of honey. 

Calling at another house, I sold $2.00 
worth for cash; and while I was talking 


with the man one of the ducks gave a quack, 
which led to an inquiry as to what I had. 
I told them I had traded honey for ducks. 

“Well, now, look here; can’t I trade you 
some hens for honey?” 

I traded for half a dozen, and made the 
children, I hope, happy (I was). In this 
way I passed the day, and on my drive 
home I was trying to figure out my profits. 
I had disposed of two gross of pint jars, 
and 120 pounds of comb honey. For the 
pint jars I received 25 cents; also 25 cents 
each for the sections of comb. I had had 
a royal day’s sport; and as I listened to 
the quack of the ducks and geese, the cackle 
of the hens, and squeal of the pigs, and 
looked at the large box of eggs that I had 
in the wagon, I thought I would have to 
send for some egg-preservative. After get¬ 
ting home I took account of stock. I had 
$54.40 cash, 108 dozen eggs, 8 ducks, 1 
goose, 2 pigs, 24 hens, and 1 bullpup. (The 
pup is for sale.) Geo. L. Yinal. 

Charlton City, Mass. 

Another experience is thus given by G. 
C. Greiner of La Salle, N. Y.: 

Peddling honey has, like everything else, 
its ups and downs. We don’t always strike 
it rich. Some days it may seem like terribly 
steep uphill business, while other days the 
money may roll in by the handfuls. As an 
illustration, and a proof that the latter sen¬ 
tence is almost literally true, let me give 
you one day’s experience. 

Late last fall I chanced to take a trip to 
Niagara Falls with the intention of making 
a display of my goods at the city market. 
At first things looked a little gloomy. Pur¬ 
chasers did not flock in as I had hoped, until 
after some minutes of patient waiting. One 
passing lady, in looking at my honey, asked, 
“Is your honey pure?” The reply I made 
must be imagined, for it would fill more 
space than the editor would be willing to 
allow. But let me emphasize—here is where 
the blabbing came in. In answering her 
question I delivered a good half-hour lecture 
in less than two minutes, trying to convince 
her of the purity, and all the good points 
of my honey. In the mean time, passing 
people had stopped to listen; and by the 
time my lady friend was ready to buy one 
of my quart cans I had quite a crowd 
around me. To cut the story short, for 
quite a few minutes I handed out cans, 
mostly quarts, as fast as I could make 
change (many of the purchasers promising 
to buy more the next time I attended the 
market, if the honey proved to be what I 
had recommended it to be). 

When the market closed, at 11 a. m., I had 
a few cans left. With those I drove to 
Main Street and tied my horse in front of 
one of the stores, where I had a little busi¬ 
ness to transact. A few minutes later, while 
I was conversing with the storekeeper in- 



Selser, his honey-peddling wagon, and his honey-bottling shop 



































HONEY PLANTS 


507 


side, some one opened the door and in¬ 
quired: 

“Hello! where is this honey-man ?” 

After introducing myself he requested me 
to show him what I had to sell. It did not 
take very long to convince him that I car¬ 
ried the genuine article; and what pleased 
me still more was the fact that he ordered 
two cans to be left at the corner drugstore 
across the street. 

When I delivered the cans they were 
closely scrutinized by the clerks and some 
other parties who happened to be present, 
and one of the clerks asked: 

‘ ‘ Wliat guarantee have we that this is 
pure honey?” 

Here another lecture-like conversation, too 
long to be repeated, took place, the sub¬ 
stance of which may be concentrated in my 
reply: 

“First, pure honey and my name and ad¬ 
dress are on every package; and, second, 
back of this is the New York State law that 
prohibits all honey adulteration.” 

Before I left the place I sold two more 
cans to those other parties. 

A great help in selling honey on the road 
is a proper traveling-outfit, which enables 
us to present our products in clean, neat, 
and inviting appearance. I know from ex¬ 
perience that at least one-fourth of my 
sales of honey can be traced back to this 
feature. 

PEDDLING HONEY AT GROCERIES AND OTHER 
RETAIL STORES. 

W. A. Selser of 10 Vine St., Philadel¬ 
phia, is not only a practical beekeeper, but 
he was also a large buyer of honey. In 
addition to the amount he produced in his 
own apiaries, he bought up every year the 
product of several large yards. All of 
this, mostly extracted, he peddled out from 
a honey-wagon to the retail trade. 

The secret of his success in selling and 
in getting good prices was in putting up 
always a first-class article in a neat and 
attractive form. He advertised liberally, 
and every one knew him about Philadel¬ 
phia as “the honey-man.” 

After several gross were put up, Mr. 
Selser loaded all he could carry in a spe¬ 
cial wagon, shown at the left of the illus¬ 
tration on the preceding page. He then 
visited the city stores and replenished their 
stock. After he had supplied all the city 
retail places he then went into the coun¬ 
try, visited the suburban towns, and even 
drove as far as the city of New York, sup¬ 
plying some stores. 

In these days of light automobile deliv¬ 


ery cars the territory can be greatly ex¬ 
tended ; in fact, a bottler can make several 
outlying towns, and follow up the trade, 
taking care of a large line of fancy grocery 
stores. Light automobile trucks with tops 
of the familiar Ford type are now being 
used for this very purpose—to sell and 
distribute honey. 

HONEY PLANTS. —The importance to 
American beekeepers of a tlioro knowledge 
of the honey-producing flora of this coun¬ 
try cannot be overestimated. A beginning 
in this work lias already been made by sev¬ 
eral States. An excellent preliminary list 
of Texan honey plants by Louis H. Scholl 
was published in 1908, and in 1911 there 
appeared a carefully prepared bulletin on 
the honey plants of California by M. C. 
Richter. In both these lists much attention 
is given to the geographical distribution 
within the state limits of the species enu¬ 
merated. More or less complete lists of the 
chief mellifluous plants of Massachusetts, 
North Carolina, Iowa, Oklahoma, and Ari¬ 
zona have also been prepared. So helpful 
have these publications been to beekeepers 
that there can he little doubt that similar 
bulletins will soon be issued by other 
States. Such investigations promise to 
bring to light many interesting and valu¬ 
able facts. No one should enter extensively 
upon the production of honey without first 
investigating the flora on which he must 
depend for a marketable surplus. Success 
or failure may often depend upon such in¬ 
formation. 

The geographical distribution of honey 
plants in the United States presents many 
striking peculiarities. While some occur 
over the entire country, others are re¬ 
stricted to a small area. The sumacs extend 
from the Atlantic to the Pacific; so do the 
carrot and carpetweed, tho the latter is 
commercially most valuable in central Cali¬ 
fornia. Sweet clover is spreading every¬ 
where; and the golclenrods and asters 
know no north nor south. While hearts¬ 
ease grows thruout nearly all North Amer¬ 
ica, the wild sunflower is confined chiefly 
to the West, cotton to the South, white 
clover to the East, and willow-herb to the 
North. Much narrower are the limits of 
many other species. The white-tupelo re¬ 
gion is a tract of land along the Apalachi- 


508 


HONEY PLANTS 


cola River and the coast of South Carolina, 
Georgia, and Alabama; manehineel occurs 
in the extreme south of Florida; the black 
mangrove in tide-water marshes in the south¬ 
ern half of the same State; our native aca¬ 
cias belong to Texas, the sages to southern 
California, and scores of other honey plants 
are equally restricted in their distribution. 
But it is not only in individual states that 
they are very variable in their range, but 
in almost every township; for example, 
within less than a mile of each other, yet 
without invading each other’s territory, 
there may be found the salt-marsh golden- 
rod, the field goldenrod, and the wood gold- 
enrod. 

Honey plants are likewise very variable 
in the preference they exhibit for different 
soils. The tupelo and willows grow in wet 
swamps, the tickseed in marsh lands, the 
smooth sumac prefers a rocky soil, the mes- 
quite and cacti are dwellers in the desert; 
the gallberries in Georgia avoid a limestone 
region, while sweet clover will grow no¬ 
where else. The spikeweed and the alkali- 
weed thrive in alkaline soil; the Rocky 
Mountain bee plant in a dry saline soil; 
the salt-marsh goldenrod in a soil and at¬ 
mosphere impregnated with salt, while the 
fireweed springs up in profusion on burnt 
lands, and the production of nectar in wild 
alfalfa is greatly stimulated by a moun¬ 
tain fire. 

Undoubtedly the secretion of nectar is 
often, if not always, correlated with the 
character of the soil, the temperature, and 
water supply. Alfalfa, which, in irrigated 
sections of California, is a large and most 
reliable yielder, is of little value along the 
coast or in the East. A heavy thunder¬ 
shower followed by a sudden fall in the 
temperature mdy bring a successful honey 
flow from buckwheat or basswood to a pre¬ 
mature end. Wild alfalfa may produce 
nectar abundantly on one side of the Coast 
Ranges, and very little on the other side. 
Heavy rains are likely to lessen greatly and 
light rains may either stimulate or retard 
the quantity of nectar secreted by a honey 
plant. The last honey obtained from lima 
beans and alfalfa is darker than the first. 
On a sandy soil the honey obtained from 
alfalfa is lighter in color than on a heavy 
soil, and lime in a soil is also reported to 
render a honey lighter, A prolonged drouth 


is apt to bring loss and disappointment, 
tho it shortens the tubes of the red clover 
so that part of the nectar is available. 
Black sage requires a clear warm season 
preceded by abundant rain. Blue gum and 
red clover are very reliable yielders, and 
are largely independent of the weather. 

Nor must the periodicity of honey plants 
be overlooked. The orange tree and the 
cabbage palmetto in Florida can be de¬ 
pended upon only about one year in three; 
but orange is a fairly reliable source in 
California. Sage does its best one year in 
five, and is a partial failure every other 
year. The rules which govern the bloom¬ 
ing of white clover have not yet been 
formulated. Manehineel does not afford a 
heavy flow every year. The different spe¬ 
cies also vary greatly in the length of time 
they are in bloom. In many cases they 
are in flower for only a few weeks; but 
carpet grass yields from May until frost; 
pepper bush from July to September; pin 
clover in California begins in February 
and continues thru the summer, and al¬ 
falfa from April to October. The different 
kinds of honey vary also in the rapidity 
with which they granulate. After 10 years 
white tupelo is still liquid, while the honey 
from blue curls granulates in the cells be¬ 
fore they are sealed. Usually a honey 
granulates within six months after it is 
extracted. 

A honey containing a large percentage 
of grape sugar (dextrose) crystallizes 
much more readily than one containing a 
small percentage. For example, alfalfa 
honey, which granulates in a few months, 
contains 36.85 per cent of grape sugar 
(dextrose) and 40.24 per cent of fruit 
sugar (levulose); while tupelo honey, 
which never granulates, contains only 24.73 
per cent of grape sugar and 48.61 per cent 
of fruit sugar. The reason for this is that 
grape sugar granulates easily, while fruit 
sugar usually remains a liquid. Frequent 
changes of temperature also hasten granu¬ 
lation. See Granulation of Honey. 

Even where there is a good honey flora 
fair weather is essential, or the bees can 
not bring the nectar into the hive. The 
willows and the gallberries, which bloom in 
the spring when there are much rain and 
foggy weather, are, therefore, not so desir¬ 
able as species which flower later. The sue- 


HONEY PLANTS 


509 


cession of honey plants should also be 
considered. In California, after the orange 
trees have ceased to bloom, the bees if 
moved to the sages will get honey from 
that source if it is a season when they yield 
honey. After the sages comes the Lima bean. 

More information about the honey plants 
of foreign countries should be obtained. 
Who can say what happy surprises Africa, 
Asia, and the Pacific islands may yet af¬ 
ford the beekeeper? It should not be for¬ 
gotten that sweet clover, alfalfa, pin clover, 
borage, eucalyptus, horehound, carrot, cat¬ 
nip, wild marjoram, thyme, and red, alsike, 
and crimson clovers are all introduced 
plants. Our agricultural and horticultural 
explorers are successfully seeking new 
fruits, grains, and flowers; but do they 
ever look for new honey plants? 

The possibilities of artificial pasturage 
are only partially recognized. In many 
localities the apiarist might greatly in¬ 
crease the number of nectariferous flowers 
by sowing each season a few pounds of 
sweet clover in waste places and along the 
roadside. There are many plants which 
produce paying crops, and are at the same 
time valuable to the apiarist, such as cot¬ 
ton, alfalfa, mustard, buckwheat, clovers, 
the orange, and a great variety of fodder 
plants and fruit trees. When it is remem¬ 
bered that more than one-half of the prin¬ 
cipal honey plants of Florida are arboreal, 
and that many shade and timber trees yield 
nectar freely, there would seem to be good 
reason to expect that in the future forestry 
and bee culture may be united. 

By hybridization and selection many new 
varieties of fruits and flowers have been 
originated; and the laws of heredity and 
breeding are studied more zealously today 
than ever before in the history of biology. 
Why should not plants, especially those 
valuable for fruits and seeds, be developed 
with a greater capability for secreting nec¬ 
tar? Insects have shown us what is possi¬ 
ble in this direction. It is probable that 
there would have been very few nectar- 
producing flowers but for their agency. 
There may yet be an apple tree that, in 
addition to excellent fruit, will yield nectar 
as freely as does the orange or basswood. 
The orchardist of the next century may 
obtain a crop of honey from fruit bloom 


which will rival in value the later harvest 
of fruit. No effort has yet been made in 
this direction, and many of the achieve¬ 
ments of the horticultural experimenter ap¬ 
pear to have offered greater difficulties. 
There may yet be plants of which it may 
literally be said that they flow with nectar. 

POLLEN PLANTS. 

Probably no factor was more important 
in determining the development of the 
families of bees than the rise of the 
habit of feeding their brood on pollen. 
The wasps feed their young on animal 
food, and had the ancestors of the bees, 
which were wasp-like insects, continued to 
use the same kind of food for brood-rear¬ 
ing,. the bees would never have come into 
existence. Deprived of pollen at the pres¬ 
ent time the bees would speedily disappear. 
There is nothing in Nature which can be 
used as a satsfactory substitute for pollen, 
altho bees sometimes collect the spores of 
fungi and mosses to a small extent. Pollen 
famines occur in Australia, when the brood 
dies in the hive, and no artificial substitute 
gives satisfactory results. The same scar¬ 
city of pollen occurs in the tupelo region 
of Florida, in southern Alabama, and in 
parts of Texas. It is highly important, 
therefore, that the beekeeper should be fa¬ 
miliar with the sources of pollen, on which 
the bees in his apiary are dependent for 
brood-rearing. 

Of the true flowering plants called an- 
giosperms, because they have their seeds 
enclosed in a seed case, and receive the pol¬ 
len on a prepared surface known as the 
stigma, there have been described in North 
America north of Mexico about 14,600 spe¬ 
cies. Of this number, at least 3000 are 
nectarless, but of necessity produce pollen. 
Very many of them have small green or 
dull-colored flowers, and are pollinated by 
the wind, as the alders, birches, poplars, 
elins, beeches, oaks, and hickories; the 
grasses, sedges, and rushes; many homely 
weeds like pigweeds, ragweeds, nettles, 
pondweeds, sorrels, hemp, and meadow rue. 
Usually the stamens and pistils are in sep¬ 
arate flowers, which are borne on the same 
plant (monoecious), or on different plants 
(dioecious). They are commonly without 
nectar, since they depend on the wind for 
pollination; but they produce great quan- 


510 


HONEY PLANTS 


tities of pollen, and are consequently often 
valuable to the apiarist. See Pollen. 

Other pollen plants bear large handsome 
flowers like the roses and poppies, which 
are pollinated by insects, and are called 
pollen flowers; they contain no nectar, and 
insects visit them for pollen alone. Mis¬ 
takes are often made in regard to these 
flowers, and bees are reported as bringing 
in nectar when such is not the case. Possi¬ 
bly some of these errors have arisen from 
the presence of honeydew on the leaves. A 
list of the more important pollen plants is, 
therefore, given separately. No attempt 
has been made to include all nectarless 
flowers, but only those of importance to 
beekeepers. A great number of flowers 
yield both nectar and pollen; but these are 
placed under Honey Plants. The species 
in the following list are nectarless unless 
otherwise stated. 

PLANTS THAT YIELD POLLEN ONLY. 

Alder (Alims).-—•Wind-pollinated; the small 
brownish flowers appear in early spring. The 
aments (staminate) of the common or hoary alder 
(A. incana) are visited by honeybees for pollen. 

Anemone (Anemone quinquefolia) . —Large white 
pollen flowers; pollen gathered by bees in spring. 

Ash (Fraxinus). —Some species are pollinated by 
insects, others by the wind; small greenish flow¬ 
ers. 

Bayberry ( Myrica ).—Shrubs blooming in spring; 
flowers small, greenish, wind-pollinated. 

Beech (Fagus) . —Large trees, with small wind- 
pollinated flowers. Honeydew is found on the 
leaves. 

Birch (Betula). —Small greenish or golden-yel¬ 
low flowers, appearing with or before the leaves 
in spring; wind-pollinated; mostly trees. 

Bloodroot ( Sanguinaria canadensis). —Large hand¬ 
some white pollen flowers in April or May. Visited 
by honeybees in large numbers, which remove nearly 
all the pollen. 

California Poppy ( Eschscholtzia californica). — 
Large orange-yellow pollen flowers; great numbers 
of bees visit them for pollen. 

Castor-oil Bean ( Ricinus communis).- —The small 
flowers are wind-pollinated; stamens very numer¬ 
ous ; an abundance of pollen; extra-floral nectaries 
at the base of the leaves. 

Chestnut ( Castanea ).—The chestnut tree (C. 
dentata) has small, pleasantly scented, pale-yellow 
pollen flowers; but chinquapin ( C . pvmila) , a 
spreading-shrub, is reported to be a valuable honey 
plant in the South. 

Clematis.—A part of the wild species and the 
large handsome flowers of the cultivated varieties 
of C. Jackmanni are nectarless, but are visited by 
bees for pollen. Other species yield nectar includ¬ 
ing the common wild Clematis ( C. virginiana). 

Cockle-burr (Xanthium canculense). —Small flow¬ 
ers from which bees obtain pollen in the fall. They 
contain a little nectar. 

Corn (Zea Mays). —Wind-pollinated; bees gather 
pollen from the spindles; in some seasons they gather 
also large quantities of honeydew from the leaves. 

Cone trees (Coniferae) . —‘Fir, spruce, pine, cedar, 


juniper, and many other cone trees. While they 
produce enormous quantities of pollen, it is not 
used bu bees—probably too resinous. From the 
foliage of pine trees and spruces bees obtain mucii 
honeydew. See Honydbw. Gymnosperms. 

Date Palm ( Phoenix dactylifera) .-—Large areas 
of California an,d Arizona are adapted to date cul¬ 
ture. There are extensive plantations of great age 
in Lower California and Mexico. In southern Asia 
and northern Africa this tree is of inestimable value. 
The staminate and pistillate flowers are produced 
on different trees, or the trees are partly “male” 
and partly “female.” In nature pollination is ef¬ 
fected by the wind, but under cultivation by binding 
a sprig of staminate flowers among the pistillate. 
Flowers small, in large clusters; in California bees 
visit the staminate flowers freely for pollen. Bloom 
in early spring. 

Elder (Sambucus) . —Small white pollen flowers 
in large clusters; bees sometimes gather the pol¬ 
len. 

Elm ( TJlmus americana) . —Small purple flowers 
which appear in the spring, and are wind-pollin¬ 
ated. They are visited by great numbers of bees 
for pollen. 

Furze (TJlex europaeus) . —Gorse. Introduced 
from Europe. A pollen flower, yields considerable 
pollen, which honeybees and wild bees gather and 
also search the flowers for nectar. In Australia the 
large area over which it has spread presents a 
golden landscape in spring; reported to yield, nec¬ 
tar in warm regions. 

Grape ( Vitis ).—Valuable for pollen; yields some 
nectar. Honeydew occurs on the foliage. 

Grasses (Gramineae) . —Small greenish flowers, 
with a great abundance of pollen; wind-pollinated; 
sparingly visited by insects. About 429 species in 
North America. 

Hazelnut ( Corylus americana). —Small yellowish 
flowers, valuable for pollen in early spring; wind- 
pollinated. 

Hepatica ( Hepatica triloba). —Handsome blue or 
white pollen flowers; attractive to bees in early 
spring. 

Hemp (Cannabis sativa). —Small flowers pollin¬ 
ated by the wind. 

Hickory (Cary a). —Pecan, mocker nut; large 
trees with small wind-pollinated flowers; valuable 
for pollen; much honeydew on the leaves. 

Hop (Humulus Lupidus) .-—Small greenish flow¬ 
ers, wind-pollinated; common. 

Hornbeam (Carpinus caroliniana) . —Large tree 
with small wind-pollinated flowers. 

Indian Wheat (Plantago ignota) . —Very abund¬ 
ant over va-st areas of sandy mesas in Arizona, 
where it affords valuable pasturage for cattle. The 
flowers are nectarless, but are valuable for pollen. 

Loosestrife (Lysimachia vulgaris). — Medium¬ 
sized yellow pollen flowers. 

Lupine (Lupinus). —‘The flowers are nectarless, 
but are frequently visited by honeybees and other 
bees for pollen. Honeybees sometimes vainly at¬ 
tempt to suck nectar from the flowers. Blue lupine 
(L. subcarnosus) is very abundant in Texas, and 
is often visited by bees for pollen. 

Meadow-rue (Thalictrum) .-—Common; white or 
greenish pollen flowers visited by honeybees for 
pollen. Rue anemone (Anemonella thalictroides) 
produces a great abundance of white flowers in low 
land; wind-pollinated. 

Mullein ( Verbascwm ). —Common ; bright-yellow 
pollen flowers. A part of the species are nectarless. 
Others contain some nectar. 

Mulberry (Morus rubra). —A tree with small 
wind-pollinated flowers. 

Nettle (TJrtica ).— -Greenish flowers in summer; 
wind-pollinated. 

Oak (Quercus). — Small greenish or reddish 


HONEY PLANTS 


511 


flowers; wind-pollinated. Honeydew is found on 
the foliage of many species. In California enough 
honeydew is gathered from blue or rock oak ( Quer - 
cus Douglasii) to winter bees. 

Olive (Olea europaea ).—The flowers are wind- 
pollinated and do not yield nectar. A beekeeper 
located near 5,000 olive trees in California reports 
that bees store no honey from the bloom. 

Pigweed (CKenopodium ).— Goosefoot. White 
mfealy garden weeds, with small greenish sessile 
flowers in large clusters, wind-pollinated. Also am¬ 
aranth; also called pigweed (Amaranthus retro- 
flexus) ; coarse wind-pollinated weeds in cultivated 
ground; flowers in large clusters, of some value for 
pollen. 

Poppy (Papaver ). — The poppies are very large 
showy pollen flowers visited by honeybees. The 
scarlet color does not repel bees, as has been re¬ 
ported. 

Plantain (Plantago ). — Partly pollinated by wind 
and partly by insects. Very common, nectailess 
weeds, often visited by bees for pollen. 

Poplar (Populus). —Aspens. Small purplish 
flowers, wind-pollinated; pollen abundant, forcibly 
expelled from the anthers; valuable; nectar-glands 
at base of leaf-stalks. Honeydew sometimes occurs 
on the foliage. It should be distinguished from 
the tulip tree (Liriodendron Tulipifera). 

Prickly Poppy (Argemone ). — Large yellow or 
white pollen flowers. A. platyceras in Texas blooms 
in June, and honeybees gather large quantities of 
its pollen. 

Ragweed (Ambrosia ). — Small green flowers pol¬ 
linated by the wind; valuable in the fall for their 
abundant supply of pollen. Two common species 
are Roman wormwood (A. artemisiifolia) and great 
ragweed (A. trifida). \ 

Rockrose (Helianthenvurm canadense). — Large, 
solitary, yellow pollen flowers; common in the east¬ 
ern States. 

Roses (Rosa ). — These handsome well-known 
flowers are nectarless, but yield much pollen which 
is gathered by honeybees and many wild bees. The 
sweetbrier rose in Europe and the Cherokee rose 
in northern Georgia are reported to yield nectar. 

Rushes (Juncaceae). — Small, green, lily-like flow¬ 
ers ; wind-pollinated. 

Sagebrush (Artemisia). — Wind-pollinated herbs 
and shrubs, which produce a large amount of pol¬ 
len. Thousands of acres are covered with sagebrush 
in Utah and Nevada. 

St. John’s-wort (Hypericum ).—Small yellow pol¬ 
len flowers; common; attractive to bees after pol¬ 
len. 

Sedges (Cyperaceae). — A large family of grass¬ 
like plants; flowers small, green, wind-pollinated. 
The so-called “tule honey” has been reported to be 
gathered from species of Scirpus growing along the 
Sacramento River, California; but this is undoubt¬ 
edly a mistake. 

Sorghum (Sorghum vulgare ).—Pollen very abun¬ 
dant ; a grass. 

Tick-trefoil (Desmodium). ■ — Flowers resemble 
those of the field-pea, or vetch; many species are 
nectarless, and do not appear to be visited by hon¬ 
eybees, tho the pollen is gathered by bumblebees. 
Sometimes listed as honey plants. 

Walnut ( Juglans ).—'Large trees with small wind- 
pollinated flowers. Valuable for stimulating early 
brood-rearing in the spring. 

Many handsome garden exotics, as pelargonium 
and hybrid petunias, are nectarless. 

PLANTS THAT YIELD NECTAR. 

A honey plant may be defined as a plant 
which secretes nectar, accessible to honey¬ 


bees, in quantities sufficiently large to be 
of practical importance to beekeepers. 
This, of course, implies that in some lo¬ 
cality it is a common plant. If a list of all 
plants secreting nectar were desired, it 
would be easy to enumerate thousands of 
species; but very few of them are of prac¬ 
tical importance in bee culture. Many are 
rare, others grow in the deep recesses of 
forests and swamps, while still others yield 
so little nectar that the larger bees pass 
them by unheeded. The bunchberry ( Cor - 
nus canadensis) is very common in open 
woodlands; but the small flowers contain 
so little nectar that bumblebees ignore 
them entirely, and honeybees visit 
them only occasionally. They are left to 
flies, beetles, and the smaller bees. Then 
there are many flowers adapted to moths, 
butterflies, bumblebees, and humming birds, 
which have the nectar so deeply concealed 
that it cannot be reached by honeybees. 
Many a beginner in beekeeping has fondly 
imagined that his flower garden would sup¬ 
ply his bees with a rich harvest, wholly un¬ 
conscious that the gaudy exotics of cultiva¬ 
tion are often nearly or quite nectarless. 
In the following list the more important 
honey plants in North America, so far as 
known at present, either wild or cultivated, 
have been briefly described. 

Acacia.—There are about 300 species of Acacia 
in Australia and 150 in other parts of the world. 
Some 60 species have been introduced in Califor¬ 
nia. Half a million trees have been planted in 
Golden Gate Park, San Francisco. The species 
consist of herbs, shrubs, vines, and stately trees, 
and are well adapted to semiarid regions. In Texas 
catsclaw and huajilla yield a large surplus of ex¬ 
cellent White honey, but many, of the species are 
chiefly valuable for pollen which is produced .in 
great quantities. The small yellow or white flowers 
are in globular heads or oblong clusters. The Aca¬ 
cias are often called wattles. See Catsclaw, Hua¬ 
jilla, Huisache, and Silver Wattle. 

Agave.—A large genus of over 100 species found 
chiefly in Mexico. The plant consists of a rosette 
of fleshy leaves from the center of which there 
grows a stalk bearing many densely clustered flow¬ 
ers. See Century Plant. 

Agarita (Berberis trifoliata ).—The trifoliate bar¬ 
bary is valuable in southeast Texas for both nectar 
and pollen. The bright yellow flowers open in Feb¬ 
ruary. Common in waste places and in open 
woodlands. 

Alfalfa (Medicago sativa ).—A very valuable honey 
plant in irrigated sections west of the Missouri 
River. Honey white to light amber, heavy, with a 
pleasant slightly minty flavor; granulates in a few 
months. See Alfalfa. 

Alfilerilla (Erodium cicutarium ).—Maine to Texas 
and California, but most common in the West. Hon¬ 
ey of good quality and flavor. Blooms early, valu- 


512 


HONEY PLANTS 


able also for pollen. E. moschatum is also an im¬ 
portant honey plant; honey similar to that of the 
preceding species. 

Algaroba.—See Mesquite. 

Almond ( Prunus Amydalus) .—Extensively cul¬ 
tivated in the warm temperate regions of Europe 
and Asia. Succeeds well in California. The large 
pink flowers open before the leaves appear and yield 
both nectar and pollen. Apiaries are often placed in 
almond groves. 

Alsike Clover ( Trifolium hybridum) .—One of the 
most important honey plants of the United States. 
Its cultivation is restricted largely to the northeast¬ 
ern State,s but it is also widely grown in Idaho, 
Washington, and Oregon. The honey is excellent, 
similar to that of white clover. As a honey plant 
it is more reliable than white clover. It requires 
less lime in the soil than red clover. See Alsike 
Clover. 

Andromeda.—Shrubs in northern Florida, yielding 
a reddish yellow pungent honey. 

Anaqua ( Ehretia elliptica) .-—A small tree or often 
a shrub, with white flowers, growing along the Rio 
Grande River. 

Apple ( Pyrus Malus) . —Often yields a small sur¬ 
plus; honey light in color and of good quality, 
rather rank-flavored when newly gathered but becom¬ 
ing milder and aromatic. Crab apple (P. coronaria) 
is also of value. 

Apricot ( Prunus armeniaca). —Blooms very early 
in the spring, helpful for brood-rearing. Flowers 
have the odor of honey; nectar concealed in a little 
cup. Temperate regions. 

Arizona Acacia ( Acacia constricta) .—A spiny 
shrub, 3 feet tall, on dry hills, in Arizona. Valuable 
chiefly for pollen. 

Arizona Mesquite ( Prosopis velutina ).—In the hot 
dry valleys of Arizona, southern California, and So¬ 
nora. The largest of the mesquites. Blooms from 
April to middle June. Honey white, excellent, crys¬ 
tallizes quickly after extracting. 

Arrowweed ( Pluchea sericea) . —Grows along the 
ditches of southern California and southern Arizona 
and yields a fine flavored honey. 

Artichoke, Globe ( Cynara Scolymus). —Freely vis¬ 
ited by bees, but honey unknown. 

Artichoke, Jerusalem ( Helianthus tuberosa) . —A 
good honey plant, cultivated for its tubers. 

Asparagus ( Asparagus officinalis) .—Widely culti¬ 
vated. Yields an amber-colored honey, which loses 
its peculiar flavor when ripened. Wild, it is very 
abundant on the waste steppes of Russia, where it is 
eaten by cattle. 

Aster (Aster). —Common fall flowers, most abund¬ 
ant in the middle States. Honey white, strong-fla¬ 
vored when first gathered, but later acquires a pleas¬ 
ant aromatic flavor; granulates with a finer grain 
than goldenrod. See Aster. 

Bachelor’s Button ( Oentaurea cyanus.) —Blue bot¬ 
tle. Corn flower. French pink. Yields in Oregon a 
dark amber honey with a peculiar greenish reflection. 
The body is moderately heavy and the flavor rather 
strong with a bitter aftertwang. 

Banana (Musa Sapientum and Musa Ensete). — 
The flowers produce large quantities of pollen and 
nectar. Cultivated in Florida. 

Barberry (Berberis vulgaris, eastern States; B. 
pinnata, California; B. trifoliata, Texas).—Shrubs 
yielding both pollen and nectar. Sometimes a small 
surplus, honey amber-colored. 

Basil ( Pycnanthemim virginianum) .■—Mountain 
mint. Bees visit it freely. Minnesota to Georgia 
and Alabama. 

Basswood (Tilia americana and T. heterophylla). 
—Fine trees with greenish white fragrant flowers. 
Yield a large surplus, but not reliable. Honey 


white with an aromatic flavor. The European bass¬ 
wood, or linden, is equally valuable, and is widely 
planted as an avenue tree. See Basswood. 
Bearberry.—See Manzanita. 

Bee-balm (Melissa officinalis) .—In gardens, spar¬ 
ingly wild. 

Bitterweed ( Helenium tenuifolium) . —A canary- 
yellow honey of heavy body and attractive appearance, 
but as bitter as gall. It granulates quickly after ex¬ 
tracting. Virginia to Kansas and southward to Flor¬ 
ida and Texas. Plant 1 to 2 feet tall, with thread¬ 
like leaves and yellow flowers. See Sneezeweed. 

Blackberry (Rubus.) —Numerous closely allied 
species, Rubus allegheniensis being the most com¬ 
mon in the northern States. In northeastern North 
America the blackberry, either wild or cultivated, 
yields very little nectar, and is more frequently 
visited by wild bees than honeybees. In north 
Georgia wild blackberries yield in April about 25 
pounds per colony of thick amber-colored honey, 
which does not granulate readily. In California 
from Rubus baileyanus and R. vitifolius surplus 
crop of light-amber honey of fine flavor are obtained. 

Black Brush (Acacia amentacea) .—A shrub con¬ 
stituting 70 per cent of the vegetation on many thou¬ 
sand acres in southeast Texas. Of value chiefly for 
pollen. 

Black Gum.—See Tupelo. 

Black Haw (Viburnum prunifolivm). —Of value 
for early brood-rearing. 

Blackheart—So called from a dark triangular 
spot on the center of each leaf. See Heartsease. 

Black Mangrove (Avicennia nitida). —Tide-water 
marshes on the east and west coasts of southern 
Florida and on the Keys; extracted honey amber- 
colored, not very sweet, with a slight brackish or 
salty flavor due to the trees growing on sand flats, 
which are often flooded with salt water by the tide. 
It is very largely used in the manufacture of sweet 
cakes. A remarkable yielder of honey. 

Blueberry (Vacciniurn corymbosum) . —In southern 
New England blueberry honey comes from species of 
the bush type. The flow comes in May or in early 
June and lasts for about 10 days. The honey is am¬ 
ber-colored and the quality is good. 

Blue Curls (Trichostema lanceolatum) .—Yields a 
milk-white honey that granulates very quickly with 
a very fine grain, often before it is sealed. Tons 
of honey are stored from this plant in Fresno Coun¬ 
ty, Calif. Blooms in August and September when 
it gives the dry fields and hills a soft purple tinge. 
Vinegar Weed. Camphor Weed. Turpentine Weed. 

Blueweed (Echium vulgare). —Viper’s bugloss. 
Blue thistle. Formerly very abundant in the Shen¬ 
andoah Valley, Virginia, but it has rapidly de¬ 
creased as the result of extensive cultivation of the 
land. The honey is light amber, and has a good 
flavor and body. The plant is 2 feet tall, with 
bright blue flowers and blooms in August and Sep¬ 
tember. 

Bokhara.—See Sweet Clover. 

Boneset (Eupatorium) . —Thoroughwort. Common 
in Tennessee and Kentucky, where it yields a sur¬ 
plus. Valuable also in Alabama and Texas. Honey 
a dark amber, thick and heavy, with an unpleasant 
herby flavor and odor. There are many species, 
E. perfoliatum being the most common. 

Boston Ivy (Ampelopsis Veitchii) . —Climbing vine 
introduced from Japan, covering acres of wall in 
northern cities. Blooms in July; honey strong arid 
unpleasantly scented. 

Borage (Borago officinalis) .—Cultivated from 
Europe, an excellent honey plant. It has spread to 
some extent in southern Australia. 

Box Elder (Acer Negundo). —A small tree on 
which the flowers appear before the leaves. Yields 
nectar, also honeydew in the fall. 



HONEY PLANTS 


513 


Brazilwood ( Condalia obovata). —A small tree, or 
only a spiny shrub, forming dense thickets in south¬ 
ern Texas. Blooms in spring. The honey is dark 
amber and does not granulate readily. 

Broomweed ( Gutierrezia texana). —Plains of 
Texas and Arkansas: Honey dark amber and 
strong flavored, but good for winter. September to 
October. 

Brunnichia ( Brunnichia cirrhosa). —A perennial 
vine of the buckwheat family. The greenish flowers 
are in clusters of two to five, and appear from May 
to June. In the Yazoo Delta in western Mississippi 
it produces great sheets of bloom and probably 
yields a surplus. It is also- reported to yield a small 
surplus in southeast Texas. 

Buckbush ( Symphoricarpos occidentalis). —Com¬ 
mon in the northwestern States. The extracted 
honey is white with a pleasant flavor and after three 
years had not granulated. A shrub with white 
bell-shaped flowers. 

Buckeye ( Aesculus glabra). —Ohio to Kansas and 
southward. Considerable honey is obtained from 
the California buckeye ( Aesculus californica). 

Buckthorn (Rhamnus cathartica). —This species 
is found in the middle States. Cascara sagrada ( R. 
purshiuna) is the main honey plant at Sonora, Calif. 
Comb honey from this plant is so dark that it sells 
poorly where it is known, but is highly valued for 
its medicinal properties; does not granulate. A 
profusion of flowers on which bees work for about 
25 days. The coffee-berry (R. calif ornica) yields a 
heavy amber honey. 

Buckwheat ( Fagopyrum escvlentum). —A dark- 
purplish honey, of heavy body, with a more or less 
sickish taste to those unaccustomed to it. Exten¬ 
sively cultivated thruout the temperate regions of 
Europe, Asia, and North America; thousands of 
acres are grown in New York and Pennsylvania. 
Yields nectar only during the forenoon. See Buck¬ 
wheat. 

Bur Clover ( Medicago hispida). —Common on the 
hills and plains of California. Occasionally yields 
a surplus, but of more value for stimulating brood¬ 
rearing. Belongs to the same genus as alfalfa. 

Buttonbush ( Cephalanthus occidentalis). —Impor¬ 
tant on the overflowed land of the Mississippi, and 
in swamps in many States. A mild light-colored 
honey. 

Buttonweed ( Senecio glabellus). —Several species 
of Senecio, or groundsel, appear to be of value as 
honey plants. 

Cabbage Palmetto ( Sabal Palmetto). —North 
Carolina to Florida and in the Bahamas and Cuba. 
Honey nearly white, mild, and so thin that it runs 
almost like water. The flavor is not equal to the 
honey of the scrub palmetto. A great drooping 
flower cluster bearing hundreds of small white flow¬ 
ers. See Palmetto. 

Cabbage ( Brassica oleracea) .■ —Cabbage, rape, 
turnip, radish, cress, horseradish, mustard, and 
many other species of the mustard family (Cruci- 
ferae) are of value. See Mustard. 

Cachinella ( Berthelotia sericea). —-A shrub about 
3 feet tall, with pink flowers and silky leaves. In 
New Mexico yields a light colored honey. 

Cactus or Prickly Pear ( Opuntia Engelmannii). — 
Southwestern Texas, southward and westward. 
Sometimes a surplus of honey of light-amber color; 
body heavy and stringy, of rank flavor. Flowers 
yellow inside, red outside. The prickly pear intro¬ 
duced from Rio de Janeiro into Australia in 1789 
as food for the cochineal insect now badly infests 
an area of 30,000,000 acres, to which about 1,000,- 
000 acres are being added annually by natural in¬ 
crease. 

Campanilla ( Ipomoea sidaefolia and I. triloba) .— 

17 


Christmas bells, Christmas pop. Honey pearly white, 
equal to alfalfa in flavor. Mexico, Cuba, and Ja¬ 
maica. See Campanilla. 

Canada Thistle ( Cirsium arvense). —A common 
weed from Europe; honey light-colored, of fine 
flavor and quality. Common in Canada, the cen¬ 
tral States and westward. 

Carpet-grass ( Lippia nodiflora). —One of the 
principal honey plants of central California, also 
valuable in the West Indies. Honey light-colored, of 
mild flavor. L. lanceolata and L. repens are like¬ 
wise visited by bees, but less important. See Car¬ 
pet-grass. 

Carrot ( Daucus Carota). —This weed is often 
very abundant in the fields and by the roadsides. 
In the East it does not often give a surplus, but in 
the Sacramento Valley, California, it yields a white 
honey with the flavor of the foliage, which granu¬ 
lates in a few months. 

Cascara sagrada.—See Buckthorn. 

Cassia.—The species of Cassia bear pollen flow¬ 
ers. The partridge pea (C. Chamaeclirista) , how¬ 
ever, lias extra-floral nectaries on the leaf stems, 
which yield large quantities of nectar for more 
than 100 days. This species is common in the 
sonthqrn States, and in northern Florida; the 
woods for miles are yellow with the blossoms; honey 
light amber, very clear and thin, but with a strong 
flavor. Wild senna ( C. marylandica) also has extra- 
floral nectaries. 

Catnip ( Nepeta Cataria). —Secretes nectar freely 
under cultivation, but quality of honey unknown. 
See Catnip. 

Cat’s-ear ( Hypochaeris radicata) .■ —California 
dandelion. A weed naturalized from Europe, and 
common in California from Marin County to Hum¬ 
boldt County; also abundant in Oregon and Wash¬ 
ington west of the Cascades. An amber-colored 
honey, which darkens the honey from willow-herb. 

Catsclaw ( Acacia Greggii). —From the Rio 
Grande Plain to southern California. A bushy 
shrub or small tree, 15 to 20 feet tall, armed with 
curved spines. Blooms early in May. Honey 
white and of the finest quality. Paradise flower. 
Devil's Claws. See Catsclaw'. 

Celery ( Apium graveolens). —Yields a surplus in 
the truck gardens along the lower Sacramento Riv¬ 
er, California. The honey at first has the odor of 
the plant. 

Century Plant ( Agave americana). —Extensively 
cultivated in Mexico under the name of maguey. 
The immense flower-clusters yield nectar copiously 
and are visited by hundreds of bees. It thrives on 
semiarid land, and blooms after 10 or more years. 

Chapman’s Honey Plant.—See Globe Thistle. 

Chamise ( Adenostoma fascicvlatum). —Grease- 
wood. An evergreen spreading bush, 10 feet tall, 
forming dense thickets on the foothills of the Coast 
Ranges. Honey light-colored, of good body, with a 
rank flavor. An unreliable honey plant. 

Cherry (Prunus). —The cherries, of which there 
are many species, are nectariferous. In Florida the 
black cherry ( Prunus serotina) is the source of a 
dark-red, bitter honey with the flavor of the cherry 
pit; a very little of it spoils the first orange honey. 
In Sacramento County, Calif., one of the most 
valuable honey-producers among cultivated fruit 
trees is P. cerasus. 

China-berry.—See Soapberry. 

Chinaquapin (Castanea pumila and C. nana) .■—- 
Reported to yield a thick dark honey resembling 
molasses in color and suggestive of it in flavor. 
Blooms in early spring. Florida to Louisiana. 

Clethra.—See Pepperbush. 

Clover.—The genus Trifolium contains about 250 
species, of which some 65 occur in North America. 


514 


HONEY PLANTS 


White clover (T. repens) is the most important hon¬ 
ey plant in the eastern and central States; honey 
white, of the finest quality. A part of the nectar 
of red clover (I. pratense) is available in dry sea¬ 
sons; the honey is similar to that of white clover, 
but is a little nearer water-white. The honey of 
alsike clover (T. hybridum) and of crimson clover 
( T. incarnation) differ little, if at all, from that of 
white clover. The yellow clovers are of no impor¬ 
tance. Sour clover (T. furcatum) is the source of 
considerable honey in the alkaline regions of central 
California. See Clover. 

Clover.—See Sweet Clover, Sainfoin Clover, 
and Bur clover. 

Colima ( Xanthoxylum Fagara). —A thorny shrub 
or small tree, growing in Florida and southern 
Texas. The honey has a good flavor and body. 

Coma ( Bumelia lycioides) .—A small tree, or in 
Texas often a shrub, growing along streams from 
Florida to Texas. A good honey plant in the Rio 
G-rande Plain, Texas. Bloom from December to 
April. Honey light amber, of fair flavor with a 
twang suggestive of buckwheat. A thorny rough 
shrub covering hundreds of acres. 

Coralberry ( Symphoricarpos orbiculatus) —In, 
dian currant. Grows on rocky soil from New York 
to Texas. Secretes nectar freely. The snowberry 
( S. racemosus) yields a large amount of honey in 
Iowa. The wolfberry (S. occidentals) is common 
in the Missouri River basin and in Idaho. See 
BUCKBUSH. 

Coral Sumac ( Rhus Metopium).- —Poison wood. 
Doctor gum. A tree 40 to 50 feet tall, growing in 
the extreme southern part of Florida. The foliage 
is poisonous to the touch, and it exhales a volatile 
oil that is poisonous to some persons at a dis¬ 
tance. It yields a large amount of nectar, but the 
honey is always blended with other honeys. 

Cotton ( Qossypium herbaceum). —The cotton 
plant possesses both floral and extra-floral nectar¬ 
ies; most of the nectar is gathered from the nec¬ 
taries on the under side of the leaves. In Texas 
and some other parts of the South it yields well, 
but in some localities no honey is obtained from it. 
Nectar secretion is greatly influenced by the weath¬ 
er. The quality of the honey varies greatly in dif¬ 
ferent localities; in the southeastern States it is 
likely to be thin and of poor quality, but on the 
Black Prairie of Texas it is nearly white, very 
heavy, and mild in flavor. It granulates early. The 
flow lasts from June until frost. See Cotton. 

Cowitch ( Cissus incisa). —A fleshy vine, 30 feet 
long, growing on sandy shores from Florida to Texas. 
A surplus has been reported from Gunnison, Mis¬ 
sissippi and from Texas. The black berries are very 
sweet and the juice is attractive to bees in the fall. 

Cowpea ( Yigna sinensis). —From China, widely 
cultivated in the southern States for forage. In 
Georgia it is grown in all parts of the State, bloom¬ 
ing from June to September. The nectar is se¬ 
creted not by the flowers, but by extra-floral nec¬ 
taries situated near the ends of the long flower-stems, 
which bear two or three flowers. The honey is 
light-colored, but inferior in quality. 

Creosote Bush ( Govillea tridentata). —A spread¬ 
ing evergreen shrub with small bright yellow flow¬ 
ers. Dry plains and mesas of the southeastern des¬ 
erts. Near Tucson, Arizona, blooms for three 
months. Yields sufficient nectar to stimulate brood¬ 
rearing and to furnish a small amount of yellowish 
honey. 

Crimson Clover ( Trifolium incarnation). —Ital¬ 
ian clover. Carnation clover. Widely cultivated 


for hay. In Delaware, North Carolina, Ohio, and 

several other States it in some seasons yields a 
surplus. Honey very similar to that of white clo¬ 
ver. 

Crownbeard ( Verbesina virginica). —Pennsylvania 
to Texas. The white flowers bloom in the fall, and 
yield a honey of fine quality. The yellow-flowered 
V. occidentals is valuable in Tennessee. 

Cucumber ( Cucumis sativus). —In the vicinity of 
pickle factories there are hundreds of acres of cu¬ 
cumbers, which yield a small surplus of honey 
after clover is over. The honey is pale yellow and 
at first has a strong flavor suggestive of the fruit. 

Currant ( Ribes ).—The many species of currants 
and gooseberries, both wild and cultivated, are 
widely distributed. They bloom early and yield both 
pollen and nectar. The Missouri gooseberry (B. 
gracile) is a fair honey plant in the middle States. 

Dandelion ( Taraxicum officinale).- —Eurasia, North 
America, and many other parts of the world. Valu¬ 
able in spring for both pollen and nectar. Honey 
golden yellow, thick, strong flavored, crystallizing 
in a few weeks. 

Dogwood ( Cornus ).—Cornel. Shrubs with many 
flat-topped clusters of small white flowers. Usually 
unimportant, but where very abundant bees have 
been seen on the bloom in large numbers. 

Eryngo (Eryngium articulatum). —A dark hon¬ 
ey of good flavor. California. 

Eucalyptus.—Abundant in Australia, and more 
rarely found in New Guinea, Timor, and the Mo¬ 
luccas. There are about 150 species, of which not 
far from 100 have been introduced into Califor¬ 
nia. The flow of nectar is surpassed in quantity 
by no other plant. The honey varies in color from 
dark brown to amber, yellow and nearly white; 
and in flavor from a most agreeable to a peculiar 
acid taste in blue gum ( E. globulus), which ren¬ 
ders it unsalable at retail. The blooming time 
varies so greatly that there are species in flower 
during every month of the year. The future of 
Eucalyptus in California promises to be of vast im¬ 
portance to bee culture in that State. See Euca¬ 
lyptus. 

False Indigo ( Amorpha fruticosa).- —In Iowa and 
Nebraska this tall shrub is a valued honey plant. 
Bees in great numbers gather nectar and pollen 
from the bloom in early spring. 

Figwort (Scrophularia). —The figworts would 
be excellent honey plants if they were more com¬ 
mon. In S. marilandica (Simpson honey plant) 
the nectar is secreted in two large drops by the 
base of the ovary. Honeybees are constant visit¬ 
ors. Massachusetts to Kansas and Louisiana. In 
southern California S. calif ornica is a valuable 
honey plant. 

Forget-me-not ( Myosotis macrosperma).- —In Ore¬ 
gon yields a thin light amber honey with the aroma 
of the blossom. 

Gallberry ( Ilex glabra).- —A very important hon¬ 
ey plant in eastern North Carolina and southeastern 
Georgia. Also valuable in Florida, Alabama, and 
Mississippi. A reliable yielder in earlv spring. 
Honey white, superior in quality. An objection to 
a part of the gallberry region is the absence of 
later sources of honey. See Gallberry and Holly. 

Gaura ( Gaura filiformis). —In sandy soil in 
Texas, occasionally yields a surplus. Pink-purple 
flowers, in summer. 

Germander (Teucrium canadense). ■—Central 
States. Honeybees common on the flowers sucking 
nectar. 

Giant Hyssop ( Agastache nepetoides). —Ver¬ 
mont to Nebraska and southward. In bloom about 
six weeks, many honeybees. 

Gilia ( Gilia floccosa). —Common everywhere in 


HONEY PLANTS 


515 


southern Arizona.* There are many species of 
Gilia in the western States. The bloom is visited 
by honeybees in large numbers. 

Globe Thistle ( Echinops spherocephalus) .-—This¬ 
tle-like herb from Europe, 3 to 6 feet tall, with 
spinose leaves. At one time it was believed to be 
a most promising honey plant. Three acres of it 
were planted by Herman Chapman of Versailles, 
New York, whence it was known as Chapman’s 
honey plant. It proved unsatisfactory and today 
is almost unknown to beekeepers. 

Goldenrod (Solidago). —Numerous species. Sur¬ 
plus in New England; honey golden or dark am¬ 
ber; thick, of fine flavor. See Goldenrod. 

Gooseberry.—See Currant. 

Granjeno ( Mormisia pallida). —A thorny shrub 
in southern Texas, growing on sandy soil and con¬ 
sidered a good honey plant. (Syn. Celtis pallida.) 

Gum Plant ( Grindelia squarrosa). —Many acres 
of the dry plains of Manitoba and Minnesota are 
covered with its yellow flowers which are very at¬ 
tractive to bees. 

Hackberry (Celtis). —Sugarberry. Nettle-tree. 
Shrubs or small trees on which the greenish flow¬ 
ers unfold before the leaves. From the common 
hackberry ( C. occidentali.s) in Illinois and Mis¬ 
souri in some years the bees gather a large amount 
of nectar. There are more species in the South 
than in the North. 

Hawthorn ( Crataegus ).—A great number of 
closely allied species, blooming in May; valuable 
■for both nectar and pollen. 

Heather ( Calluna vulgaris). —In northern and 
western Europe heather or ling covers vast areas 
called moors. Honey amber-colored, with an aro¬ 
matic flavor, and a pungent aroma, but so viscous 
that it is difficult to extract. On an estate in South 
Lancaster, Mass., there have been planted two or 
three acres of heather. The plant is hardy and 
seeds itself. 

Heartsease (Polygonum Persicaria). —Natural¬ 
ized from Europe thruout a large part of North 
America; honey varies from light to dark amber; 
flavor very good. Water smartweed (P. puncta- 
tum) occurs in wet lands thruout North America; 
honey dark and of poor quality. Many other 
smart-weeds are of more or less value; about Vo 
species in North America. See Heartsease. 

Hedge Nettle ( Stachys ).—Many species secrete 
nectar freely, and attract a large number of bees. 

Holly (Ilex opaca). —American holly. White holly. 
A small evergreen tree which in the southern 
States blooms in April. In western Mississippi and 
southern Arkansas it is an important honey plant 
yielding a large surplus. Honey nearly white, 
heavy, excellent, and when pure will not candy. 
See Holly. 

Hollyhock (Sidalcea malvaeflora). ■ —Checker- 
bloom. Grows in profusion along the roadsides 
and irrigating ditches of southern California and 
southern Arizona. A good source of nectar in win¬ 
ter, sometimes yields a small extracting. Stimu¬ 
lates brood-rearing. 

Honey Locust (Gleditsia triacanthos). —A large 
thdrny tree bearing small greenish flowers. Rich 
woods from New York to Texas. The bloom secretes 
nectar freely, but the tree is too rare to yield a 
surplus. 

Honeysuckle (Lonicera). —Honeybees are able to 
gather the nectar of several species of bush-honey¬ 
suckle ; but the nectar of the climbing garden hon¬ 
eysuckle (L. Periclymenum) , adapted to moths, and 
of the trumpet honeysuckle (L. sempervirens ), 
adapted to humming birds, is beyond their reach. 

Horse-chestnut (Aesculus Hippocaatanum). —A 


bumblebee flower, but honeybees obtain both nectar 
and pollen. 

Horsemint (Monarda punctata). —New York to 
Florida and Texas. One of the main yielders in 
Texas; honey of good quality, but rather strong- 
flavored. M. clinopodioides is likewise very valu¬ 
able ; honey has been compared to that of bass¬ 
wood. See Horsemint. 

Hop-tree (Ptelea trifoliata). —A small tree with 
greenish white flowers, which have a disagreeable 
odor. In rich woodlands from Minnesota to Flor¬ 
ida and Texas. Blooms in June. Very frequently 
visited by honeybees. Valuable when abundant. 
Also called whahoo and wafer ash. 

Horehound (Marrubium vulgare). —Good yields 
of dark honey, but it is so bitter as to be almost 
worthless except for medicine. See Horehound. 

Huajilla (Acacia Berlandieri). —A shrub form¬ 
ing dense thickets in the Rio Grande Plain. Honey 
white with a fine flavor and pronounced aroma. It 
granulates quickly with a coarse grain. See Hua¬ 
jilla. • 

Huisache (Yachellia farnesiana). —Yellow opa- 
nax. Cassie. Florida to southern California. A 
shrub or small tree. Chiefly valuable for pollen. 
(Syn. Acacia farnesiana). 

Jackass Clover.—See Stinkweed. 

Knotweed. — -See Heartsease. ' 

Lavender (Lavandula officinalis). —A garden 
herb cultivated for the strong aromatic foliage. The 
honey is very thick and difficult to extract. 

Lemon (Citrus Limonium). —Valuable for honey 
in southern California. Honey light-colored, of ex¬ 
cellent flavor with none of the tartness of the 
lemon. 

Lima Bean (Phaseolus lunatus). —More than 
one-half of the commercial crop of lima beans is 
grown in southern California in a narrow belt, 20 
miles wide; within reach of the ocean fogs. In 
Ventura County 50 pounds of honey per colony is 
often secured from the bean fields. Lima bean hon¬ 
ey is a heavy white honey with an excellent flavor. 
A bush variety is planted by the thousand acres 
and is yielding nectar better than the old variety. 

Linden. — Bee Basswood. 

Locust, Black (Robinia Pseudo-Acacia) .-—Com¬ 
mon in the mountains of the central and southern 
States. Widely cultivated. The cream-white flow¬ 
ers open in May. Honey white, mild-flavored, 
heavy and slow to granulate. A colony of bees has 
been known to store 15 pounds in one day. See 
Locust. 

Logwood (Haematoxylon campechianum) .-—Com¬ 
mon in the States bordering on the Bay of Cam¬ 
peche; introduced into Florida, Jamaica, and in the 
West Indies; honey nearly water-white, of good 
body, and unexcelled in flavor and aroma. See 
Logwood. 

Loquat (Eriobotrya japonica). —Sometimes wrong¬ 
ly named Japan plum; South and in California; 
valuable because it flowers late. 

Lucerne.—See- Alfalfa. 

Madron a (Arbutus Menziesii). —An evergreen 
tree common in the Coast Ranges of Oregon and 
California. The honey is light amber, with a good 
body and flavor. A reliable honey plant, but it 
blooms before settled weather. 

Mayweed (Anthemis Cotula.) —Honey light yel¬ 
low and very bitter. 

Mallow (Malva). —The flowers of several species 
are very frequently visited by honeybees for nectar 
and pollen, but not important except perhaps lo¬ 
cally. 

Manchineel ( Hippomane Mancinella). —Southeast 
Florida and on the Keys. Nectar very abundant. 
Small trees with apetalous, greenish flowers. 


516 


HONEY PLANTS 


Manzanita ( Arctostaphylos manzanita). —Valu¬ 
able in California for both nectar and pollen. Hon¬ 
ey white to amber-colored, with a fine flavor sug¬ 
gestive of the berry. A surplus of more than 20 
pounds may be obtained. Blooms in December, and 
honey is used by bees for spring breeding. A 
branching bush, about 12 feet tall, covering large 
areas of the Coast Range slopes. White to pink 
urn-shaped flowers. Manzanita is Spanish for “lit¬ 
tle apples,” so called from the form of the berries, 
Bearberry. 

Maples (Acer). —The different species are of 
much value, yielding both nectar and pollen for 
early brood-rearing. The sugar maple ( Acer sac- 
charum Marsh) produces a profusion of flowers. 

Marigold ( GaiUardia pulchella) One of the 
main honey-producing plants of Texas. Honey rich 
golden, and of good quality. See Marigold. 

Marjoram (Origanum vulgare). — Introduced 
from Europe; in gardens, and sparingly escaped. 
A favorite of honeybees, but not common enough to 
be of much value. 

Melilot.—See Sweet Clover. 

Melons (Cucumis Melo). —Melons of all kinds 
are valuable to apiarists. 

Mesquite (Prosopis glandulosa). —Southwest in 
semiarid regions. Main source of honey in Texas. 
In the Hawaiian Islands the mesquite is not only 
the chief, but almost the only source of floral 
honey. The honey is water-white, about as thick 
as that of white clover, and has an agreeable altho 
peculiar flavor. See Mesquite. 

Milkweed (Asclepias). —In northern Michigan S. 
syriaca is very common, and may yield a surplus 
of 50 pounds per colony. Honey nearly water- 
white, thick, fruity in flavor with a slight tang. 
Milkweed is also valuable in California. The pollen- 
masses become attached by dry membranous clips 
to the claws and tongues of honeybees; if they are 
unable to extract them, they finally perish—dead 
bees are sometimes found on the flowers. See 
Milkweed. 

Milk-vetch (Astragalus) .-—The various species 
are visited by honeybees, and the more common are 
valuable in favorable sections. 

Mint (Mentha spicata) .-—In Sacramento County, 
Calif., yields in the fall a large amount of amber- 
colored honey. Peppermint. 

Mountain Laurel (Ealmia latifolia). —Bee-flow¬ 
ers. Common in sandy soil from Ohio to Florida 
and Louisiana. Reported to yield a poisonous hon¬ 
ey but this is doubtful. See Poisonous Honey. 

Mustard (Brassica). —Honey light, of mild fla¬ 
vor ; not as heavy as alfalfa; candies quickly; a 
large surplus in Lompoc Valley, Calif. See Mus¬ 
tard. 

Napa Thistle (Centaurea melitensis) .—Tocalote. 
Common in grain fields in California. The yellow 
flowers open in May and yield a light amber honey 
of good quality. 

Onion (Allium Cepa). —Surplus yields of honey 
are obtained from fields of onions cultivated for 
seed; the peculiar onion odor and flavor disappear 
as the honey ripens. 

Orange (Citrus Aurantium). —Yields a surplus 
in Florida and California. Honey nearly transpar¬ 
ent, of delicious flavor, with the aroma of the blos¬ 
som ; candies after a few months. See Orange. 

Palo Verde (Cercidium torreyanum) .■ —-A small 
tree with green bark growing in the deserts of Cali¬ 
fornia, Arizona, and Sonora. The yellow flowers 
open in May. They yield less nectar than mesquite 
bloom, and the honey is inferior in quality. The 
leaves appear in March and April, but soon drop 
off. (Syn. Parkinsonia torreyana). 


Parsnip (Pastinaca sativa). —A surplus is gath¬ 
ered from the big parsnip fields along the Sacra¬ 
mento River, California. 

Partridge Pea (Cassia Chamaechrista) .■ —-Nectar- 
less flowers pollinated by bumblebees. The nectar 
is secreted by sessile glands on the upper side of 
the leaf-stalk. Nectar is secreted abundantly, but it 
is mostly water. In dry soil, New Engalnd to 
Florida and Texas. The honey is light amber, ex¬ 
ceptionally thin, and has only a fair flavor. 

Peach (Pruns persica). — Sometimes a small 
surplus. 

Peanut (Arachis hypogea) .-—-Extensively culti¬ 
vated in the southern States, Virginia, Tennessee, 
the Carolinas, Georgia, and Florida. A surplus is 
obtained, in Florida. The honey is very light amber 
colored, thick, and has a mild characteristic flavor, 
which differs from that of peanut butter. There 
are three months of bloom. It is not a reliable 
source of honey. 

Pear (Pyrus communis). —In some localities 
yields nectar so freely that it drips upon the ground, 
in others of little value. Less important than the 
apple. In California a surplus is usually obtained 
if the weather is warm during the bloom. 

Pennyroyal, Florida (Satureja rigida). —A shrub¬ 
by, perennial plant growing on pine lands and 
sandy barrens in southern Florida. It is of little 
value to the beekeeper north of Lake Apopka. 
Blooms in January and yields a white honey with a 
minty odor and flavor.' Bees build up rapidly dur¬ 
ing the honey flow, and 50 pounds per colony has 
been secured. Important in Lee County. (Syn. 
Pycnothymus rigidvs.) 

Pepperbush (Clethra alnifolia). —White alder. On 
the coastal plain of Georgia and in northern Flor¬ 
ida it yields a surplus; honey white and of supe¬ 
rior quality; blooms from June to October. Maine 
to Florida near the coast. 

Pepperidge.—See Tupelo. 

Pepper-tree (Schinus molle). —-California and 
Florida; honey amber-colored, and of pronounced 
flavor. See Pepper Tree. 

Pepper vine.—See Snowvine. 

Persimmon (Diospyros virginiana). —Connecticut 
to Florida and Texas; a large tree; blooms in 
spring; valuable. 

Phacelia.—At Ventura, Calif., a water-white 
honey is obtained from Phacelia hispida; it has a 
fine flavor, but candies soon after extracting. In 
central California P. tanacetifolia yields a mild 
light-amber honey. See Phacelia. 

Pigeon cherry (Prunus pennsylvanica). —Consid¬ 
erable nectar is obtained from the flowers. 

Pink Vine ( Antigonon leptopus). —Mexican vine. 
Cultivated in the South for ornament. Yields nectar 
abundantly. 

Plums and Prunes (Prunus). —All kinds of 
plums yield nectar. 

Poison Ivy (Rhus Toxicodendron) .-—Poison Oak. 
Bushy, or a vine climbing by rootlets. Poisonous to 
the touch. Yields a light-colored honey which is 
reported to be mild and good. This honey should 
be thoroughly ripened before using. 

Prairie Clover (Petalostemum candidum). — Be¬ 
longs to the pea or pulse family; reported as valu¬ 
able. 

Prickly Ash (Xanthoxylum americanum). —A 
small tree blooming in spring, and much visited by 
bees for nectar. Canada to Virginia. 

Pumpkin (C ucurbita Pepo). —Cultivated; honey 
amber-colored ; candies quickly. 

Purple-flowered Mint (Mesophaerum spicatum). 
—Very valuable in Alachua, Polk, DeSoto, Pinellas, 
Hillsboro and several other counties in Florida. The 
honey is medium amber, mild, and does not. crys¬ 
tallize. Blooms from March, when the plant is only 


HONEY PLANTS 


517 


eight inches tall, to November, when it is 8 Or 10 
feet high. The small flowers are purple. Belongs 
to the mint family, or Labiatae. 

Rabbitbrush (Chrysothamnus nauseosus). - — The 
small yellow flowers are in ample flat-topped clus¬ 
ters. In Inyo County, California, it yields a dark 
honey which has an odor and taste so nauseous 
that even the Indians will not eat it. There are 
many species of rabbitbrush in the western States. 
The honey is dark yellow, poor in quality, and 
granulates quickly. The flowers appear in the 
fall. t 

Raspberry ( Rubus idaeus, variety aculeatissi- 
mtis.) —Very common in northern Michigan; a 
white honey of the finest flavor. See Raspberry. 

Rattan ( Berchemia scandens).- —In Texas, in fa¬ 
vorable seasons, yields a surplus of dark-amber 
honey used for manufacturing purposes. 

Red Bay ( Persea Borbonia). —In swamps along 
streams near the coast, from Virginia to Florida 
westward to Texas. The yellowish flowers open 
from March to May. The honey is dark and strong. 
Tisswood. Sweet bay. Laurel-tree. Florida ma¬ 
hogany. 

Red Bud ( Cercis canadensis). — Judas-tree. The 
pink purple flowers appear from March to May be¬ 
fore the leaves and are valuable for early brood- 
rearing. Of wide occurrence in rich soil east of 
the Mississippi River. The Texas red bud and the. 
California red bud are of minor importance in 
Texas and California. 

Red Clover ( Trifolium pratense). —A bumblebee 
flower. In dry seasons the corolla-tubes are so 
short that honeybees secure a surplus from the 
bloom, and sometimes in wet seasons. 

Red gum (Eucalyptus rostrata ).—Nectar abund¬ 
ant; a promising species. See Eucalyptus. 

Retama ( Parkinsonia aculeata) . — Horse bean. A 
small tree or shrub. The fragrant light yellow flow¬ 
ers open in spring, but may appear at any time. 
Does not yield a surplus, but the bloom is attract¬ 
ive to bees. 

Rockbrush ( Eysenhardtia amorphoides). — A 
branching shrub growing on the dry plains of 
southern Texas and northern Mexico. Blooms in 
spring and yields a good crop of fine honey. 

Rhododendron.-—'Bumblebee flowers. The flame- 
colored azalea (R. calendulaceum) is very abund¬ 
ant on the mountain slopes of North Carolina. The 
honey is reported to cause nausea and dizziness. At 
Divide, West Virginia, great quantities of nectar 
in large drops have been observed dropping from 
the flowers, but not a single bee was observed gath¬ 
ering it. The nectar was very sweet and pleasant 
to the taste. See Poisonous Honey. 

Rocky Mountain Bee Plant ( Cleome serrulata) .■— 
Grows widely over the plains east of the Rocky 
Mountains. It was formerly of great value in 
Colorado, but is at present much less abundant. 
The honey is light colored and has a fair flavor. 

Royal Palm ( Oreodoxa regia). — 'Honey light am¬ 
ber, very thin, and a strong unpleasant flavor. 
Florida, Cuba, and Porto Rico. 

Sage (Salvia).- —Black or button sage (S. melli- 
fera) is one of the chief honey plants in California; 
honey, thick, white, of delicious flavor, not inclined 
to candy. Purple or white-leaved sage ( Salvia leu- 
cnphylla) yields a similar honey, but is less abund¬ 
ant. White sage (S. apiana), tho one of the com¬ 
monest, does not yield nectar as freely as the two 
above-named species, but the honey is equally good. 
Creeping sage (S. sonomensis) is common in the 
mountains and S'ierra foothills. The honey is of 
about the same quality as black sage. Annual 
sage (S. rnlvmbariae) yields a surplus of excellent 
honey in Monterey County, Calif. The lance-leaved 
gage (S, lanceo\ata) is listed as a honey plant in 


Nebraska, and the blue sage (S. azurea) in Texas. 
Many species of sage are adapted to bumblebees, 
or in South America to honey-sucking birds, and 
the nectar cannot be obtained by honeybees. See 
Sage. 

Sainfoin ( Onobrychis sativa). — Cultivated for 
hay or fodder. Honey similar to that of white 
clover. See Sainfoin. 

Saw Palmetto (Serenoa serrulata).- — This species 
closely resembles scrub palmetto. The two species 
usually bloom at the same time and the honey is 
generally mixed. North Carolina to Florida and 
Texas. 

Sea Grape ( Coccolobis uvifera). — A small tree 
or shrub with twisted branches. Common in south¬ 
ern Florida. At Sarasota it is reported to yield 
much nectar. Buckwheat family. 

Scrub Palmetto ( Sabal megacarpa) .- — Honey lem¬ 
on yelloVv, thick and heavy, with an aromatic flavor 
and odor. Granulates quickly. Common on sandy 
soil over the southern two-thirds of Florida. Flow¬ 
ers small, white, in a branched drooping cluster 3 
feet long. 

Silver Wattle (Acacia dealbata). — Silver wattle 
and black wattle (A. decurrens) are planted exten¬ 
sively for ornament in California. They furnish 
much pollen in January and February. 

Simpson’s Honey Plant.—See Figwort. 

Smartweed.—See Heartsease. 

Sneezeweed (Helenium autumnale). — Swamp 
sunflower; in wet land and thruout the eastern 
States. Honeybees gather both nectar and pollen. 
In Texas, bitterweed (H. tenuifolium) yields a 
golden-yellow honey of heavy body, but very bitter, 
“as if 50 per cent quinine and some pepper were 
added.’’ 

Snowberry (Symphoricarpus racemosus).- —A 
northern shrub, Nova Scotia to Alaska and south¬ 
ward to Pennsylvania. A large amount of fine 
honey is obtained from the bloom in Iowa. 

Snow-vine (Gissus arborea). — Pepper-vine. In 
wet land from Virginia to Florida and Texas. A 
bushy vine with pinnate leaves. At Doctortown, 
Georgia, yields a dark amber honey of fair quality 
for 6 weeks. Bees prefer the bloom to that of cot¬ 
ton. 

Soapberry (Sapindus Drummondii). —Wild China. 
China-berry. A tree common along creeks in Lou¬ 
isiana, Texas, and New Mexico. Yields nectar 
freely. Two other species of soapberry are found 
in Florida. 

Soapbush (Porliera angustifolia). —In Uvalde 
County, Texas, bees store honey from this shrub in 
very dry .seasons. The large purple flowers open 
in April. Honey white, and has a good flavor, but 
granulates quickly. 

Sourwood (Oxydendron arboreum). —A splendid 
honey-producer. The nectar is so abundant that, it 
can be shaken from the blossoms; a white honey, 
with an aromatic flavor, that does not candy readily. 
See Sourwood. 

Spanish Needles (Bidens aristosa). — Marshy 
lands of Mississippi and Illinois Rivers. Honey 
golden-yellow, of fine flavor and good body. See 
Spanish Needles. 

Spider-plant (Cleome spinosa, formerly called C. 
pungens). —Introduced from tropical America; cul¬ 
tivated ; escaped in waste places from Illinois to 
Louisiana. Thirteen flowers have yielded a spoon¬ 
ful of nectar. “Under favorable conditions one of 
the most remarkable honey plants in the world.” 
The Rocky Mountain bee plant (G. serrulata, for¬ 
merly called C. integrifolia) grows in dry saline soil 
from Minnesota to Kansas, and westward among 
the mountains. 

Spikeweed (Centromadia pvngens). — "On the al¬ 
kaline plains of the upper San Joaquin (Calif.) this 


518 


HONEY PLANTS 


species covers tens of thousands of acres; honey 
amber, of good quality, but granulates quickly.” 

Squash (Cucurbita maxima). —Nectar abundant 
in a little reservoir at the bottom of the flower. 

Star Thistle ( Centaur ea solstitialis). — Very, 
abundant in grain fields in S'onoma, Napa, and 
Solano Counties and northward in the Sacramento 
Valley. Rapidly spreading. Blooming from early 
summer until frost. Honey white, very mild in 
flavor, and heavy bodied. The plant is well adapted 
to arid soils. Napa thistle or tocalote (C. meliten- 
sis) , first introduced at Napa, yields a light amber 
honey in Sacramento County. 

Stinkweed (Wislizenia refracta) .■—A rank-scent¬ 
ed annual, abundant in the San Joaquin Valley, 
Calif. A mild water-white honey, becoming paste¬ 
like after granulation. Blooms heavily every other 
year, from August to October. A large surplus is 
sometimes obtained. A most promising honey plant, 
called by local beekeepers “Jackass Clover.” 

Sumac (Rhus glabra). —New England and south- 
westward. A surplus in Connecticut; honey bright 
amber; very heavy, but at first has a bitter odor 
and flavor which disappear as it ripens; waxes in¬ 
stead of granulating. Mountain sumac (R. copallina) 
yields a surplus in Georgia and Texas. R. diversi- 
loba is common tbruout California. See Sumac. 

Sunflower (Helianthus annuus). —Common, wild 
in the West; yields a surplus of amber-colored 
honey with a characteristic flavor. 

Sweet Clover ( Melilotus alba and M. officinalis). 
—Introduced from Europe; white and yellow sweet 
clover are spreading thruout the entire country. 
Honey white, with a slight greenish cast hardly 
equal to white clover honey. See Sweet Clover. 

Sweet Fennel ( Foeniculum vulgare). —Cultivated 
from Europe, and escaped in waste land. Honey 
light amber. 

Tarweed (Hemizonia fasciculata). —Along the 
coast of southern California. Honey dark amber, 
with a strong tarweed odor; granulates in a few 
months; said to be used in the manufacture of 
chewing tobacco. Yellow tarweed (H. virgata) 
yields in central California a heavy light-yellow 
honey of good flavor. 

Teasel ( Dipsaeus fullonum) .—The honey is very 
thin and white, in fact one of the whitest honeys, 
but the flavor is not as good as that of clover or 
basswood. Of minor importance. 

Teneza ( Leucacna pulverulenta). —A large tree 
growing on the rich bottomlands of the Rio Grande 
River, Texas. Valuable at Brownville; yields nec 
tar from April to September. (Syn. Acacia pulver 
ulenta.) 

Texan Ebony (Siderocarpos flexicaulis) .■— A small 
evergreen tree of southern Texas. Blooms in June, 
and yields a small surplus of good honey. If there 
is much rain it blossoms several times. (Syn. Aca¬ 
cia flexicaulis.) 

Thistle.—See Canada Thistle. 

Thyme (Thymus vulgaris). —The classical honey 
from Mount Hymettus was from this species. Nec¬ 
tar very abundant, with an - aromatic flavor. 

Thyme (Thymus Serpyllum). —There are many 
acres in the Berkshire Hills, Mass. Yields a sur¬ 
plus. Honey good, with an aromatic flavor. 

Tie Vine (Ipomoea trifida). —A common honev 
plant in southeast Texas. Grows only on black 
land. Blooms in September. At Victoria yields an 
amber-colored honey, with a mild flavor. 

Titi, Black (Cliftonia monophylla). —Spring titi. 
Buckwheat-tree. An evergreen shrub or small tree 
growing in swamps from South Carolina to Florida 
and Louisiana. It blooms in March and April, and 
yields an amber-colored honey of medium quality, 
which injures the honey from gallberry and tupelo. 


The small white flowers are in terminal racemes. It 
often forms dense thickets known as titi swamps. 

Titi, White (Cyrilla racemiflora). —Red titi. Ivory 
bush. Leather-wood. Summer titi. Like the black 
titi this species belongs to the titi family or Cyrilla- 
ceae. An evergreen shrub, or small tree found in 
swamps from Virginia to Florida and Texas. It 
blooms in June, and while it yields less nectar than 
spring titi it is valuable for maintaining brood¬ 
rearing and may yield a small surplus. The honey 
is dark amber and has a decided flavor which be¬ 
comes milder with age. 

Tobacco (Nicotiana Tabacum). —In Connecticut 
the plants are permitted to flower and seed. From 
the first of August to frost there are hundreds of 
acres to tobacco flowers covered with bees. The 
honey is reported to be of fair qualify. 

Tornillo (Strombocarpa odorata). —Screw bean. 
A small tree growing from western Texas to Cali¬ 
fornia. Common in the river valleys of New Mex¬ 
ico. Spikes of yellow flowers in April. Valuable 
for brood-rearing. (Syn. Prosopis pubescens.) 

Tulip tree (Liriodendron Tulipifera). —White 
poplar, Whitewood. Common in the southern 
States, blooms in April and May; honey bright am¬ 
ber when new, but becomes darker with "age and 
very thick, of fair quality. See Tulip Tree. 

Tupelo (Nyssa ).—There are 5 species in North 
America, 4 are trees and one a shrub. The flowers 
are small and greenish and appear with the leaves. 
White tupelo (Nyssa aquatica) is also called white 
gum and water tupelo. In river swamps from Vir¬ 
ginia to Florida and Texas. A nearly white honey, 
very heavy in body, and mild in flavor, -which does 
not granulate. Black tupelo (N. biflora) is also 
known as black gum. In swamps from Virginia to 
Florida and Louisiana. The honey is similar to 
that of white tupelo. Ogeche plum (N. Ogeche) is 
peculiar to the swamps of South Carolina, Georgia, 
and Florida. Ogeche lime. Black tupelo. A white 
honey like that of the other tupelos. Highland tu¬ 
pelo or sour gum (N. sylvatica) is a large forest 
tree growing in moist upland woods from Maine to 
Florida and Texas. The largest of the tupelos. Bee¬ 
keepers often fail to distinguish between this spe¬ 
cies and black tupelo. Bush tupelo (N. acuminata) 
is peculiar to the swamps near the coast of Georgia. 

Turkey Mullein (Eremocarpus setigerus.) — 
“Woolly white drought weed.” Abundant in the 
fall in dry grain fields of the Sacramento and San 
Joaquin Valleys. Honey amber-colored. 

Varnish Tree (Ailanthus glandulosa). —Tree of 
heaven, Chinese sumac. Small greenish flowers; 
the staminate are ill scented, and the honey has a 
bad flavor. 

Velvet Bean (Mucuna utilis). —There are about 
five million acres of this legume grown in the 
southeastern States. A light amber honey of mild 
flavor. 

Verbena or Vervain (Verbena ).—Once or twice 
in 30 years at Center Point, Iowa, purple vervain 
(Verbena hastata) has been so abundant as to give 
the landscape a bluish tinge. The honey is white, 
mild-flavored, resembling white clover honey; it 
does not granulate quickly. The purple pollen gives 
the comb a bluish tinge. In California V. prostrata 
is of value along the coast. 

Vetch (Vicia sativa). —Sand or winter vetch is 
a hardv forage plant. The flowers have a corolla- 
tube 12 mm. long and are adapted to bumblebees. 
Many species of Vicia have extra-floral nectaries on 
the under side of the leaf-stems, which secrete nectar 
in sunny weather. In Oregon these extra-floral nec¬ 
taries yield a large amount of a white heavy honey 
difficult to extract. 

Vine Maple (Acer cercinatum) ,—Mainly west of 


HOREHOUND 


519 


the Cascades in Oregon and Washington. The honey 
has a fine flavor and is amber color with a faint 
pinkish tinge. 

Viper’s Bugloss.—See Blueweed. 

Water Moody (Baccharis glutinosa). —Bottom- 
willow. A bush from 4 to 6 feet tall. In southern 
Arizona blooms in spring and yields a surplus of 
white honey of excellent quality. Most common on 
land that is inundated in the river valleys. 

White Clover (Trifolium repenu ).—White Dutch 
clover. The most widelj' known and possibly the 
most important honey plant. Secretes nectar most 
freely on limestone soils, where the mean summer 
temperature does not exceed 77 degrees F. Honey 
white, excellent, the standard with which all other 
honeys are compared. 

Wild Alfalfa (Lotus glaber ).—An important 
honey plant in the Coast Ranges of California; 
honey white to amber; the yield is very variable 
in different years and in different localities. 

Wild Buckwheat (Eriogonum fasciculatum ).—A 
bushy shrub common on the plains and mountain 
slopes of southern California. The honey is light 
amber, with a fine flavor and granulates early. The 
honey flow comes in July and August. Usually' the 
honey is mixed with that of the sages, but in Ante¬ 
lope Valley, Ventura County, it has been obtained 
pure. 

Wild Cherry.—See Cherry. 

Wild China.—See Soapberry. 

Wild Senna.—See Cassia.' 

Willow ( Salix ).—Valuable in early spring for 
both nectar and pollen. In New York the honey 
resembles that of apple bloom, and has a pleasant 
aromatic taste; but in California it is described as 
bitter-flavored and amber-colored. See Willow. 

Willow-herb (Epilobium angustifolium.) —Can¬ 
ada, the northern States, especially Michigan; con¬ 
fined chiefly to regions where there have been for¬ 
est fires. Flowers red-purple; honey clear, limpid, 
literally water-white; very sweet; aromatic. 

Woodbine (Psedera quinqvefolia ).—A woody 
climbing vine with' small green flowers in clusters. 
Yields nectar abundantly. Common in thickets and 
often cultivated. 

HOREHOUND (Marrubium vulgare). 
-—A woolly herb with small white flowers 
in whorls. Naturalized from Europe, 
horehound is widely distributed thruout 
the United States. In Texas it yields nec¬ 
tar freely from February to July. The 
honey is very sweet with a peculiar, rather 
nauseating' flavor. It is common in the 
foothills of the Coast Ranges and Sierra 
Nevada, in the Sacramento and San Joa¬ 
quin valleys, and in southern California, 
where it yields a dark amber honey, too 
strong for table use, but largely used in 
medicine. Horehound is a pest on a sage 
range, for, if only a small quantity of its 
nectar is gathered, the color and flavor of 
the sage honey are impaired. Horehound 
is very common in Australia, where it was 
introduced by the early settlers. The hon¬ 
ey is valued for its medicinal qualities. 

HORSEMINT ( Monarda punctata ).—- 
The genus Monarda, which was named for 


Nicolas Monardes, a Spanish physician 
and botanist who lived in the 16th century, 
contains about 15 species, all natives of 
North America. The most valuable species 
to the beekeeper is the common horsemint 
M. punctata. It is a perennial herb with 
lance-shaped leaves, and two-lipped yel¬ 
lowish flowers spotted with purple, which 
grows in sandy fields and prairies from 
New York to Wisconsin and southward to 
Florida and Texas. In western Wisconsin 
and eastern Minnesota it is common on the 
sandy jackpine lands and oak barrens, 
where it yields nectar abundantly and is 
very attractive to honeybees. In Iowa it 
occurs only in the sandy sections along 
the Mississippi, Wapsipinicon, Cedar, and 
Iowa rivers. It is likewise listed as a 
honey plant in western Mississippi and 
northwestern Louisiana. In Texas it is 
an important source of surplus. 

Horsemint was first brought into notice 
a few years ago, when it was highly recom¬ 
mended to beekeepers and the seeds sold 
quite extensively. Subsequently it was al¬ 
most forgotten until large crops of honey 
from this source obtained on the low alluv¬ 
ial lands bordering on the Mississippi 
River attracted attention. Afterwards 
wonderful reports came from different 
parts of Texas. While horsemint is found 
in nearly every county in eastern Texas 
it is most abundant on the Black and 
Grand Prairies. According to the reports 
of hundreds of Texan beekeepers it ranks 
second in importance among the honey 
plants of that State, and it is estimated 
that 19 per cent of the total surplus comes 
from this source. Beginning in June or a 
little earlier it blooms from four to six 
weeks, or, if there is much rainy weather, 
for a much longer time. The surplus in 
the cotton belt is largely dependent on the 
horsemints, and the average per colony in 
commercial apiaries ranges from 20 to 100 
pounds. But it is not reliable every year, 
and in hot dry seasons the flow greatly de¬ 
creases. The extracted honey is clear light 
amber in color, a little darker than the 
comb, and of good body. It has a pro¬ 
nounced flavor, and has been compared 
with the basswood honey of the North. 
Horsemint honey is preferred to white clo¬ 
ver honey by many persons, but it is the 


520 


HORSEMINT 



Texas horsemint. 


general opinion that it has a little too 
strong a flavor. 

Since horsemint yields an essential oil, 
from which thymol, a powerful antiseptic 
used in dressing unhealthy wounds can be 
obtained, it became economically important 
during the Great War. In Texas it has 
been cultivated in several localities for six 
or seven years, but the surplus of honey 
obtained did not pay expenses. The foliage 
was usually attacked by a purple rust 
which killed the plants. It is the practice 
to break up the soil of an old field with a 
disc harrow and sow the seed about the 
middle of August. If there are a few fall 
rains there will be an abundant growth of 
horsemint the following year. After the 
seed has ripened, if the soil is again har¬ 
rowed, another crop will be assured. 

In the Black Prairie region of Texas 
lemon mint ( Monarda citriodora), an an¬ 


nual with pink or nearly white flowers, is 
abundant. In localities, where there is 
much lime in the soil, the flowers are bright 
red. The corolla-tube is about the same 
length as that of the preceding species 
and the nectar is readily reached by honey¬ 
bees. M. clinopodioides is also very com¬ 
mon on the dry plains of Texas. The 
form of the flower and the time of bloom¬ 
ing are nearly the same as in M. punctata. 
There are also several other species of 
horsemint growing in Texas the nectar of 
which can be easily gathered by honey¬ 
bees. 

But a part of the species of this genus 
have long corolla-tubes and are adapted 
to insects with a much longer tongue than 
the honeybee, so that even if common they 
are of little value to the apiarist. Brad¬ 
bury’s Monarda (M. bradburiana ) occurs 
on dry hills in Illinois, Missouri, and Kan- 









HUAJILLA 


521 


sas. The pink flowers have a tube 18 mm. 
long and are adapted to female bumble¬ 
bees, but butterflies and humming birds 
also are common visitors. The tube at 
times fills Avith nectar for more than half 
of its length, and, as its mouth flares suf¬ 
ficiently to admit the head of the honey¬ 
bee for 5mm., worker bees in large num¬ 
bers have been seen gathering the nectar. 
Wild bergamot (M. fistulosa ) is another 
bumblebee 'flower. It is found abundantly 
by the roadside and on dry hills from 
Maine and Minnesota to Florida and Lou¬ 
isiana. The corolla-tube is 18 mm. long, 
or a little less than three-quarters of an 
inch. The pink flowers attract many but¬ 
terflies. Wasps bite holes in the base of 
the tubes in order' to obtain the nectar, and 
honeybees very often make use of these 
perforations to gain a part of the SAveet 
spoil. Bee balm or Oswego tea (M. didy- 
ma), Avith scarlet floAvers and very long 
corolla-tubes, seems to be adapted to hum¬ 
ming birds. The horsemints belong to the 
mint family or Labiatae. 

HOUSE-APIARY.— See Apiary. 

HUAJILLA (Acacia Berlandieri ).—The 
Rio Grande Plain includes that portion of 
southeastern Texas lying between the Gulf 
of Mexico and the San Antonio River on 
the east and the Rio Grande on the south 
and west. Its northern boundary is the es¬ 
carpment north of San Antonio. It is a 
semiarid country Avith many days of in- 
ense sunshine and an average annual rain¬ 
fall, which ranges from 16 to 26 inches ac¬ 
cording to the locality. The soil is sandy, 
gravelly or rocky, and the surface is part¬ 
ly level and partly broken by ridges and 
hills. The dry uplands are about one-half 
covered Avith a scrubby, thorny growth, 2 
to 12 feet tall, often forming impenetrable 
thickets. Mesquite, white brush, prickly 
pear, Texas ebony, catsclaw, retama, and 
huajilla are abundant and yield a large 
surplus of honey. There are nearly 80 
species of small trees and shrubs in the 
Rio Grande Plain, not one of which ap¬ 
pears in the Atlantic forests of east Texas. 
The three main honey plants are mesquite, 
catsclaw, and huajilla, but huajilla is the 
most important of the three. Huajilla oc¬ 
cupies the rocky ridges and hills in the 
northern part of this section extending 



Huajilla. 


from the Nueces River to the Rio Grande. 
It is not found in Cameron County in the 
extreme south, but is common in Uvalde 
and other northern counties. It is a nearly 
unarmed shrub with pinnate leaves, and 
small yelloAv flowers in globular clusters. 
It blooms in April and yields nectar for 
about 15 days in such abundance that it is 
impossible for the bees to gather it in 
favorable seasons. The honey is white or 
a very light amber, and is probably the 
lightest-colored honey produced in the 
State. It has a very mild flavor and is 
famous for its excellent quality and pleas¬ 
ing aroma. It granulates early with a 
coarser grain than catsclaw honey. The 
flow is not reliable every year. Huajilla 
honey unmixed in commercial quantities is 
difficult to get, as this species and catsclaw 
usually bloom at the same time. 

HUBER, FRANCOIS. —More perhaps 
than any other branch of agriculture, bee¬ 
keeping has a generous list of great and 
beloved names folded down in its chronicles. 







522 


HUBER 


Even after laying aside the thought of lit¬ 
erary sideliners like Virgil of old and Mae¬ 
terlinck of today and others like them (are 
there any others like them, tho?—will 
there ever be?), men who have immortal¬ 
ized the charm of the bee, there are still 
practical apiculturists, experimenters and 
scientific investigators whose names are 
dear to the entire beekeeping fraternity. 

From among them all, could only one be 
selected for a sketch w T ho would not choose 
the great Swiss naturalist—blind Francois 
Huber? It is good to renew, in even the 
small measure of such an article as this, 
our acquaintance with this dauntless soul. 

He was horn in Geneva, Switzerland, in 
1750. What a city and what a time for a 
scientist to be born in! Horace Benedict 
de Saussure, the eminent Swiss physicist 
and geologist, who at 22 years of age ac¬ 
cepted the chair of physics and natural 
philosophy at the University of Geneva, 
was a romping boy of 10 years when Hu¬ 
ber, his future famous pupil, was born. 
Charles Bonnet, another great Swiss nat¬ 
uralist and philosopher, was 30, but he 
guessed no more than the boy De Saussure 
how great and dear a friend was born in 
his own native city that day. This was the 
same Charles Bonnet who had startled the 
scientific world 10 years before, when only 
20, with a paper on aphids, in which par- 
thenogenetie reproduction was first de¬ 
scribed. No wonder this achievement made 
him, young tho he was, a corresponding 
member of the French Academy of 
Sciences. This was a full century before 
Johann Dzierzon, the pastor of Karls- 
markt, grew from a sideline beekeeper into 
a. special student of apiculture and with 
the aid of his detachable cells discovered 
the partlienogenetic origin of drones. 

Huber’s own family was well known and 
wealthy. He probably never remembered 
his great-aunt, Marie Huber, for she died 
when he was only three years old; but she 
was a literary woman of wide interests, not 
only a tireless writer on religious and theo¬ 
logical subjects, but also the translator of 
the Spectator. Then there was another rel¬ 
ative with a fine chemical laboratory, who, 
alas, could not, even in the modern, pro¬ 
gressive, scientific spirit of the Geneva of 
the mid-eighteenth century, lay aside his 
stubborn belief in alchemy. How long and 


patiently they labored, those old alchem¬ 
ists! And there was the boy’s own father, 
Jean Huber, from whom he inherited his 
deep love of nature and keen powers of 
observation. 

What a brilliant, gay, light-hearted, 
charming and likable gentleman this Jean 
Huber must have been. Known as a wit, 
he had also many and varied talents—he 
was a poet and a musician, a painter and 
a sculptor, and he served for many years 
as a soldier. But he took life lightly, toss¬ 
ing the hours about like bright-colored balls 
to be played with, and so made no lasting 
mark in any line, tho his “Observations on 
the Flights of Birds of Prey” won him con¬ 
siderable reputation. However, he was 
doubtless a delightfully entertaining daddy. 
What music he could make! How he loved 
the out-of-doors and what fascinating 
things he could discover there and what se¬ 
crets he could then tell about them! What 
strange and splendid specimens he had col¬ 
lected ! And what miracles he could per¬ 
form with a piece of paper and a pair of 
shears! Indeed, the cutting out of land¬ 
scapes and silhouettes from paper became 
such an art in his hands, that he may fairly 
be called its originator. How he must have 
amazed and delighted grown-ups as well 
as children that time he tore a profile of 
Voltaire from a card with his hands behind 
his back—and that other time when he 
broke his own record by so skillfully guid¬ 
ing and turning a flat piece of cheese that 
his cat ate out therefrom another profile 
of Voltaire! Fortunately only his bril¬ 
liance and talent descended to his son, and 
not the undue levity that undoubtedly 
marred his own career. 

This father’s library, his cabinets of spec¬ 
imens and his rich observations roused in 
the boy an early and unceasing love of 
nature, which was well developed into 
methodical observations at an age when few 
children have learned to observe at all. 
Then there were also the usual social activ¬ 
ities of the children of such families, and 
young Francois was sent to dancing school. 
So, too, was little Marie Lullin, whose fa¬ 
ther was one of the Magistrates of the 
Swiss Republic. They became childish 
sweethearts, these two. But oh, how little 
their child hearts guessed, as they followed 


HUBER 


523 


the steps of their dancing master, the great¬ 
ness of the tragic days to come. 

From early childhood Francois attended 
lectures at Genevan College. Before he was 
15, he had completed a course in physics 
under I)e Saussure. He had familiarized 
himself with chemical manipulations in the 
laboratory of the old alchemist. But a too 
intense and steady application to his 
studies and the habit of constantly reading 
late into the night by dim lamplight or 
dimmer moonlight seriously injured his 
health. At fifteen, he broke down, utterly 
prostrated and threatened with blindness. 
His terrified father—all gayety forgot— 
rushed him to a famous doctor in Paris 
who ordered him to the country. Near 
Paris is the quaint little village of Santi, 
and here the boy Huber ploughed and 
sowed and milked and lived the life of an 
ordinary peasant lad. His youthful strength 
rebounded swiftly and he returned to the 
city with vigor completely restored. But 
there another doctor, a celebrated oculist, 
broke to them the solemn news that his 
eyesight could not be saved. Slowly but 
surely he was to become totally blind. One 
eye had the same disease that had 
“quenched the orbs” of Milton—amauro¬ 
sis; the other had cataract, which the doc¬ 
tors were unable to cure. Francois and 
his father went back to Geneva. And the 
boy went bravely on. 

The childish love between Francois and 
Marie was deepening with the years, and 
now his only fear was that his affliction 
might alienate her. So he constantly mini¬ 
mized its seriousness, even to himself, 
scarcely admitting its steady desolating de¬ 
velopment. He talked always as tho he 
could see perfectly, and so formed the hab¬ 
it, later carried so noticeably into his writ¬ 
ings, of speaking about seeing with perfect 
clearness what he saw only with the inner 
eye—altho there certainly with perfect 
clearness. But he need not have worried 
about Marie. Her affection was so deeply 
rooted that not even her father’s' bitter op¬ 
position, which at times amounted to per¬ 
secution, could turn her from this great- 
souled young man who was so soon to pass 
into complete outer darkness, but who held 
so bravely and steadily to the stronger light 
within. As soon as she reached her major¬ 
ity she married him, shortly before he be¬ 


came totally blind. The tender devotion 
that brought her to that shadowed altar 
made beautiful 40 years of married life. 
She was at different times her husband’s 
reader 1 , his secretary, his observer; and was 
always closely absorbed in the work that 
absorbed his attention. When he was an 
old man he once said, “As long as she lived 
I was not sensible of the misfortune of be¬ 
ing blind.” 

Another close personal association came 
to Huber thru Francois Burnens, whom he 
first employed as a servant. Soon, how¬ 
ever, the keen inner sight of the master 
had discovered in the man those rare tal¬ 
ents that make the skillful observer. So 
Bumens became his invaluable and highly 
trained assistant in working out his one life 
purpose, research into the life and habits 
of the honeybee, displaying remarkable pa¬ 
tience and skill thru countless experiments 
and under literally thousands of questions, 
by which Huber guided, directed, sifted, 
and tested his efforts. In one experiment 
to learn something about laying woi’kers, 
Bumens caught one by one every bee in 
two hives which were suspected of having 
laying workers. This required 11 days of 
steady work, during which time he stopped 
only long enough to rest his eyes (the 
pathos of the master’s insistence upon 
this!). Huber gave public testimony to his 
worth, insisting upon sharing his own hon¬ 
ors with one who “counted pain and fatigue 
nothing compared with the great desire he 
felt to know the result.” 

The results of Huber’s observations and 
his long extensive investigations were writ¬ 
ten as letters to his famous naturalist 
friend, Bonnet, whose own sight was failing 
so that he had given up his active scientific 
investigations and was devoting his later 
years to philosophy. When these letters 
appeared later in book form as “New Ob¬ 
servations on the Honeybee,” some scholars 
at first raised mental eyebrows and smiled 
doubtfully at observations conducted by a 
blind man assisted by a peasant. But that 
attitude could not last. Scientists are nec¬ 
essarily just and honest, and these swiftly 
threw aside their first prejudice and ac¬ 
corded to Huber’s book the great place it 
stills holds after the passing of all these 
years. 

He wrote in a wonderfully lucid style 


524 


HUBER 


with lively picturesqueness — clearness of 
phrase growing out of clearness of vision, 
inner vision. His work is marvelous in its 
accuracy and fullness. Boundless patience 
and infinite skill unearthed hidden truths 
for him that had been searched for in vain 
for generations, from the seekers of ancient 
days on down to his own eminent friend 
Bonnet. 

He built the first observation hives- 
one for a single comb and others for sev¬ 
eral combs, opening like books with hinged 
leaves, each leaf containing a comb. Among 
his important discoveries are the impregna¬ 
tion of the queen in mid-air and the fact of 
one fertilization being sufficient; the de¬ 
velopment of eggs of an unmated queen 
into drones; the fact that a queen appar¬ 
ently knows what kind of egg she is about 
to lay and always deposits it in the right 
cell (tho he acknowledged and clearly stated 
a mystery in this matter of eggs and sex —- 
a mystery that later was largely cleared up 
by Dzierzon’s great discovery of the par- 
then ogenetic origin of drones) ; the rivalry 
of queens; the fact that queens can be 
reared from worker larvas; that if bees are 
given worker-cells containing worker eggs 
or larvae, and also royal jelly, they will 
never raise workers, but queens—and if 
queens are not desired, they will destroy 
the worker brood and devour the royal 
jelly; that eggs are true eggs — the em¬ 
bryonic development and emergence having 
been watched; that some workers sometimes 
become layers; that drone eggs will pro¬ 
duce drones even when reared in worker- 
cells — tho they may be small; and that 
worker eggs will produce workers even 
when reared in drone-cells—and they will 
not be larger. 

He aided in the discovery of ovaries in 
workers, thus doing away with the age-old 
idea of neuters. He ascertained that the 
slaughter of the drones never takes place 
in a colony lacking a fertile queen, or in 
one still fostering swarming ambitions. By 
placing eggs in cells of blown-glass, and 
thru these walls observing the spinning of 
cocoons, he concluded that drones and 
workers spin complete cocoons, while 
queens spin imperfect ones, which, envel¬ 
oping the head and thorax, extend only to 
the second segment of the abdomen, and 
inferred that if these cocoons were com¬ 


plete the queens could not destroy rival 
pupm. He observed that the laying of 
drone eggs is either coincident with swarm¬ 
ing preparations, or precedes them, and 
established many facts about swarming. He 
demonstrated by many experiments that 
bees, eggs, and larvas all absorb oxygen 
and give oft carbonic acid. In studying 
the air of the hive in this connection, he 
discovered the fact and the details of sys¬ 
tematic ventilation, and the renewal of air 
in the hive by wing work. He studied 
thoroly the Sphinx atropos (death’s head 
moth) and its ravages in the hive. He 
learned that the odor of the poison of the 
sting rouses other bees to stinging. He dis¬ 
covered the origin of propolis. 

Huber discovered that wax comes from 
the under side of the abdomen of the work¬ 
ers. He also proved it to be produced by 
the digestion and conversion of honey, tho 
it had long been supposed to come from the 
conversion of pollen. He confined one 
swarm of bees on honey only and another 
on pollen only. New comb was built in the 
first hive, and removed, seven times; while 
^none at all was made in the second. But 
why, then, he promptly wondered, do bees 
gather pollen? Not for the sustenance of 
the adult bee, he concluded after further 
study (in which he proved honey to be es¬ 
sential), but for larval food. After close 
scrutiny he decided that workers swallow 
pollen and later regurgitate it as food for 
the larva?. Marked bees were seen to eat 
pollen, go to the brood and plunge their 
heads into cells containing larvas. After 
they left, these cells were examined and 
found to contain a supply of larval food. 
Another thing that he discovered was that 
flowers do not always contain nectar, as 
had been supposed—and that nectar secre¬ 
tion is influenced by variations in atmo¬ 
spheric conditions. 

The entire process of comb construction 
was observed and recorded in all its detail. 
Bees were watched removing wax scales 
from the under side of the abdomen and 
passing them forward to the mandibles, 
whence, later, the plastic and cohesive wax 
issued and was attached to the top of the 
hive. One bee alone, he reported, starts 
the comb-building. When her supply of 
wax is exhausted, another follows, proceed¬ 
ing the same way, guided by the work of 


HYBRIDS 


525 


her predecessor. When this waxen wall is 
about one inch long and about two-thirds 
as high as one cell, they begin excavating it 
into cells one on one side, two on the other, 
the joining of the two being exactly oppo¬ 
site the center of the one. Only these first 
cells, however, are so excavated, all the 
others being built in their regular cell form. 

Huber’s work has been the foundation 
on which modern investigation has rested. 
Not only did he make countless valuable 
discoveries of his own, but by many patient 
and skillful experiments he verified and es¬ 
tablished beyond disproof many theories 
that had been advanced by others. And 
while a few minor errors have been cor¬ 
rected by the higher efficiency of later re¬ 
search, yet to an astonishing degree mod¬ 
ern investigators (outside of Dzierzon) 
have merely verified the work of the great 
blind master. 

Huber’s mind was strong and active. 
Like his father, he loved music. He had 
mastered counterpoint, and could build the 
harmonies of a musical composition when 
the bass was dictated to him. After one 
repetition it was his own. He invented 
a printing machine on which he corre¬ 
sponded with his friends. He loved to 
walk in the open air, and arranged to 
have knotted cords strung along the rural 
walks around his home, so that he could 
follow these paths without other assistance, 
and know his whereabouts by the knots. 

While he had every advantage that in¬ 
genuity and wealth could bring, coupled 
with the tenderest devotion and quickest 
sympathy with his work, all of which help¬ 
ed to bring light into the dark days, yet the 
real source of his serenity lay in his own 
strong unshrinking soul. To old age he re¬ 
tained a deep affection for his friends, 
boyish ardor, steady delight in nature, no¬ 
ble enthusiasm, and that sure sympathy 
for youth which keeps age young. His 
mental faculties remained strong and alert 
to the end of his long active life. One 
day in his eighty-second year, he wrote a 
letter to a friend and two days later, in 
the arms of his daughter, dropped quietly 
off in the last sleep—“the immortal in¬ 
communicable dream.” 

HUB AM. —See Sweet Clover, White 
Annual. 


HUMBLEBEES. —See Bumblebees. 

HYBRIDS. — A hybrid may be a cross 
between species or between varieties of a 
species. Bees mentioned under this head 
belong to the class last mentioned—a cross 
between varieties, and usually between 
Italian and common black bees. Every¬ 
body who has had Italians very long prob¬ 
ably knows what hybrids (a cross between 
Italians and common black bees) are ; es¬ 
pecially if he had kept bees when the 
honey crop was very suddenly cut short 
during a long and severe drouth in the fall. 
They are very much crosser than pure Ital¬ 
ians or blacks. Many of the old veterans 
in the business have concluded, even tho 
the hybrids will secure as much honey, and 
sometimes even more, that it pays to Ital¬ 
ianize. A good strain of leather-colored 
Italians* will be almost as gentle as flies, 
and will gather fully as much honey as 
hybrids. Generally the half-bloods can be 
handled, when weather conditions are 
right, nearly as easily as Italians; but as 
a rule they require more time in that the 
operator must proceed much more cau¬ 
tiously in order not to stir them up. 

While hybrids are by no means as hard 
to handle as pure Cyprian and Holy Land 
bees, they are bad enough. The very fact 
that hybrid queens, if sold at all, bring 
only about one-fourth the price of pure 
Italians, gives one some idea of their rela¬ 
tive value in the open market. 

But the most serious objections to hybrids 
and blacks is the fact that they are an easy 
prey to the ravages of European foul 
brood (see Foul Brood, sub-head “Euro¬ 
pean Foul Brood”). While hybrids are 
more immune than the blacks, the average 
pure Italians seem to be able to resist the 
disease much better than the average 
crosses. In some parts of the country the 
hybrids and the blacks are dying off for 
the simple reason that they cannot stand 
the ravages of European foul brood'as do 
the Italians. 

Not all Italians are immune; but good 
vigorous strains will resist the disease pro¬ 
vided other curative measures are applied. 

In many large apiaries thruout the coun¬ 
try hybrids are tolerated simply because 

* For test as to what constitutes a hybrid, see 
Italian Bees. 



526 


HYBRIDS 


their owners do not take the time to Ital¬ 
ianize. Where one owns a series of out- 
yards, comprising from 500 to 1000 colo¬ 
nies, it would be rather expensive to buy 
Italian queens; but if he will follow direc¬ 
tions given under Queen-rearing in this 
work he can rear his own queens; and this 
brings up the question whether the blacks 
and the hybrids in a locality will not make 
it impossible to rear pure stock. If one 
will use drone-traps on all colonies where 
there are black or hybrid drones, and then 
insert a drone comb in the center of the 
brood-nest of the best Italian colonies, he 
will soon have a great preponderance of 
pure Italian drones. The result will be 
that .the most of the young virgins will 
meet drones of their own race. See 
Drones; also Queen-rearing. 

Another plan to insure pure mating, is 
to wait till after the main honey flow when 
all colonies unless fed will kill off their 
drones. If two or three colonies, having 
select or pure drones, are fed a little every 
day, these drones will be kept while all 
others will be killed off. If a batch of pure 
Italian virgins of the right mating age are 
let loose at this time, they will meet only 
the select drones of the fed colonies. In 
this way pure matings can be secured even 
where hybrid and black colonies greatly 
predominate. It is important, however, to 
feed the colonies of select drones if not 
queenless a little every day until all the 
queens are mated. If even one day is 
skipped, the drones will be killed off. 

A beginner should never open a hive of 
hybrids without smoke. A little should be 
blown in at the entrance, and each move¬ 
ment should be preceded by a light puff of 
smoke. If the beginner is a little timid it 
would be well to have an attendant operate 
the smoker, while he, with a pair of gloves, 
proceeds to manipulate the colony. See 


Manipulation of Colonies; Smoke and 
Smokers; also Stings. 

HYBRIDS OF CARNIOLANS AND CYPRIANS 
WITH ITALIANS. 

In this country at least, very little has 
been done to determine with accuracy the 
value of different crosses which can be made 
very easily. A cross between Italians and 
Caucasians has been spoken of very favor¬ 
ably by J. J. Wilder of Waycross, Ga., one 
of the most extensive beekeepers of the 
country. Mr. Wilder says this cross will 
rear brood under conditions and at seasons 
of the year when pure Italians will do prac¬ 
tically nothing. In some parts of the South 
it is very desirable to have a strain that 
will rear brood in and out of season, because 
of certain honey flows that may follow 
shortly after. A pure Italian stock has a 
tendency to stop brood-rearing almost en¬ 
tirely after the main honey flow. If there 
be another flow two or three weeks later, 
without brood-rearing in the meantime, 
the force will be greatly reduced, and the 
bees that are left will be of little value. 

In the same way a eross between Carnio- 
lans and Italians has been found to be 
equally profitable. 

Other hybrids may be considered by the 
beekeeper who has in mind to produce a 
superior strain of bees for some particular 
purpose. It is well known that crossing, 
as a rule, increases the size, courage, and 
stamina of our domestic animals; and it is 
probably so in bees, yet beekeepers have 
made but little progress along this line, 
because it is so difficult to distinguish be¬ 
tween the crosses and pure breeds in many 
cases. 

See Drones; Parthenogenesis; Dzier- 
zon Theory, subhead “Recent Evidence in 
Support of Dzierzon Theory.” 


I 


INCREASE. — Under the head of Nu¬ 
cleus several methods of forming nuclei 
are explained; but under this head the sub¬ 
ject will be dealt with more from the 
standpoint of the honey-producer who 
actually desires to increase and at the same 
time to produce some honey. One can di¬ 
vide up a strong colony into three or four 
nuclei; but in so doing he would probably 
destroy all his chances of securing a crop 
of honey, and at the same time would be 
almost sure to cause brood to die. It 
should always be borne in mind that the 
field bees will go back to the old stand. 
The nucleus left will necessarily have more 
than its proper proportion of bees on ac¬ 
count of old bees returning, while those 
moved to the other locations may have too 
few bees to take care of young brood. The 
loss of brood may be minimized to a great 
extent, if not entirely, by making only one 
division—that is, splitting the old colony 
into two parts. Most of the sealed brood 
and two-thirds of the bees are put into a 
hive on a new stand. The old hive is left 
with most of the unsealed brood, and one- 
third of the bees on the old stand. If the 
division is made in the morning on a warm 
day, all the old bees will go back to the 
old stand before night. This will leave 
the division of bees nearly equal. Each 
part should be left with a queen or a queen¬ 
cell. When both of the divisions have built 
up to full colonies the operation can be re¬ 
peated if the season is not too far ad¬ 
vanced. Other plans are described under 
Nucleus. 

The following is also a good plan that 
enables one to make a moderate increase 
as well as to secure a honey crop, provided 
there is a fall flow. It was practiced and 
recommended by one of the most extensile 
beekeepers in the United States, the late 
E. W. Alexander, who was recognized as an 
authority on general practical apiculture, 
for indeed his crops of honey went up into 


the carloads. He first made the plan pub¬ 
lic in 1905, after having tested it many 
years. So many favorable comments were 
received from beekeepers who had tried it 
and found it to be a success that it is given 
here with some slight modifications. 

When a colony is nearly full enough to 
swarm naturally, and it is desired to make 
two from it, lift it from its stand and put 
in its place a hive containing frames of 
comb or foundation the same as a hive for 
a swarm would be prepared. Remove the 
center comb from this new hive, and put in 
its place a frame of brood from the old hive, 
and be sure to find the queen and put her 
on this frame of brood in the new hive; also 
look it over carefully to see that it con¬ 
tains no eggs nor larvae in any queen-cells. 
If it does, destroy them. Put a queen-ex¬ 
cluding honey-board on top of this new hive 
that contains the queen and frame of brood 
with their empty combs, then set the full 
queenless colony over the excluder; next 
put in the empty comb or frame of founda¬ 
tion taken from the new hive and close the 
new hive except the entrance they have 
thru the excluder into the hive below. 
Leave them in this way about five days, 
then look over the combs carefully, and 
destroy any larvae in the queen-cells un¬ 
less they are of a good strain of bees, for 
they frequently start the rearing of queens 
above the excluder very soon after their 
queen was placed below the excluder. If 
so, they had better be separated at once; 
but if they have not started any queen- 
cells above then leave them together 10 
or 11 days, during which time the queen 
will get a fine lot of brood started in the 
lower hive, and every egg and particle of 
larva that was in the old hive on top will 
have matured, so it will be capped over and 
saved. Next separate them, putting the old 
hive on a new stand. It will then be full of 
young bees mostly, and capped brood, and 
in about 24 hours they will accept a ripe 
cell, a virgin, or laying queen, as they will 
then realize that they are hopelessly queen¬ 
less. I would advise giving them a laying 
queen, as I never like to keep mv full colo¬ 
nies without a laying queen for even a day 
longer than I can help. 

In this way it is possible to secure two 
strong colonies from one, without losing a 


528 


INCREASE 


particle of brood or checking the laying of 
this queen; and with me it almost wholly 
prevents swarming. This is the way we 
have made our increase for several years, 
and we like it much better than any other 
method we ever tried. In doing so we keep 
all our colonies strong during the whole 
summer, and it is the strong colonies that 
count in giving us our surplus. 

The mere fact of having a large number 
of colonies does not amount to much unless 
they are strong in bees and are well cared 
for at all times. This is a fact that many 
have sadly overlooked; and when the sea¬ 
son comes to a close, giving them a small 
surplus, they feel disappointed and lay the 
fault on many things that have had but lit¬ 
tle to do with their failure. 

In making increase in the above way the 
new swarm on the old stand is in line shape 
for a super of sections, as it has a large 
working force backed up by having its hive 
nearly full of brood, and but little honey, as 
the bees have been in the habit of storing 
their honey in the old hive that was on top, 
so they will soon go to work in the sections 
with no notion of swarming. Then the old 
hive that has been set away can usually 
spare 15 or 20 lbs. of honey, which can be 
taken with the extractor, giving its new 
queen plenty of room to lay, and in a short 
time will be one of your best colonies, and 
also have no desire to swarm. 

If directions are followed as I have rec¬ 
ommended in the above, keeping them-snug 
and warm, and feeding them a little thin 
warm syrup nearly every day for the first 
30 days after they have commenced to fly, 
you can ha>ve two good strong colonies in 
the- place of one ready to commence work 
on the clover harvest, which here com¬ 
mences about June 15. 

From an extensive experience along this 
line I find I can get nearly twice the amount 
of surplus by dividing as above stated over 
what I was able to acquire either by letting 
them go undivided or dividing in a way that 
caused the loss of a greater part of their 
brood. This losing of brood we must guard 
against at all times if we expect to secure a 
fine surplus. It costs both time and honey 
to produce it, and it is the principal factor 
in obtaining those strong colonies that give 
us tons of honey. 

I find that nearly all who have made a 
failure of the method have taken colonies 
that had already made some preparation for 
swarming by having eggs or larvae in their 
queen-cells. 

During the summer I received a few let¬ 
ters from parties who had made a failure 
of this method in about the same way. Some 
had taken colonies that had capped queen- 
cells in their hives at the time they put the 
queen in the under hive, and, of course, they 
swarmed in a day or two. I cannot see that 
these failures are any proof of fault in the 
method. When we work with our bees we 


must always use some discretion in such 
matters. If a colony is very strong in bees 
it certainly requires different management 
from one rather weak. 

Several years ago one of my sons bought 
nine colonies of bees in common box hives, 
about the first of June. He brought them 
home and transferred them at once to mov¬ 
able-frame hives, and in about three weeks 
divided them, making 20 colonies of the 9 
he bought, using some queen-cells I had on 
hand for his surplus colonies. He then at¬ 
tended to those 20 colonies so they w r ere all 
strong at the commencement of our buck¬ 
wheat harvest. I then lent him 20 hives 
of empty combs to put on top of his colo¬ 
nies to extract from. He took 2849 lbs. of 
extracted honey from those 9 colonies and 
their increase, and left them in good condi¬ 
tion so every one came out the next spring 
in fine order. 

Another son, the same season, took one 
colony, divided into three, and received 347 
lbs. of extracted honey. They also came 
thru the following winter in good condition. 
I speak of these cases simply to show that it 
is not necessary to keep hundreds of colo¬ 
nies in order to get a little honey. If you 
will keep only strong colonies and give them 
the best of care you will soon find both 
pleasure and profit in beekeeping. 

Perhaps no one article that was ever 
published' in Gleanings in Bee Culture 
called forth more discussion than this. A 
few did not succeed with it to their entire 
satisfaction; but the great majority made 
a success of it. Large numbers of some 
of the best beekeepers in the country prac¬ 
tice the method, believing that there is no 
other equal to it. It is evident, however, 
that the article must be read with some 
poetic license. That is to say, it should be 
modified to suit peculiar conditions. Mr. 
Alexander had a remarkable locality. He 
had a fair clover flow in June, and this 
was followed in August by a heavy flow 
from buckwheat, goldenrod, and aster. The 
locality was so exceptional that for years 
he maintained 500 colonies in one location. 
Usually it is not practicable to have more 
than 100 in one place. 

The basic principle of placing the brood 
into a upper story for a few days over an 
excluder before making the division is ac¬ 
knowledged by all to be good. The saving 
of all the brood and conserving the heat 
are factors that make this superior to any 
other method of dividing. 

I)r. C. C. Miller, to whom reference is 
made in various portions of this book, how- 


INSPECTORS 


529 


ever, said that if he were to divide his 
colonies before the clover flow as recom¬ 
mended at the close of Alexander’s sixth 
paragraph it would be only at a loss of the 
honey crop. It can generally be set down 
as an axiom in beekeeping that it is not 
practicable, ordinarily, to secure increase 
and a full honey crop at the same time; 
and therefore Mr. Alexander’s statement 
that he can secure by this plant “two good 
strong colonies in the place of one, ready 
to commence work on the clover harvest,” 
seems impossible of accomplishment if it 
is taken with the other statement in the 
next sentence that he secured nearly twice 
as much of clover as he would have secured 
without dividing. 

The trouble seems to hinge on the point 
of having two good colonies in place of 
one at the opening of the clover harvest by 
June 15. If the reader will turn to the 
article, fifth paragraph, he will see that 
Mr. Alexander recommends that the direc¬ 
tions be followed exactly—that bees must 
be kept snug and warm, and that they 
must be fed a little thin syrup nearly every 
day. The two colonies must be given every 
help possible. 

Note that he did not say that he secured 
by this method “nearly twice the amount 
of surplus” from clover as might be in¬ 
ferred from* the last sentence of the pre¬ 
ceding paragraph. To one who knows his 
locality it is clearly evident that he meant 
of all honey—buckwheat, goldenrod, and 
aster as w r ell as clover. He could have 
meant nothing else. 

It will be noticed that Mr. Alexander 
began his work of increase about April 15 
with queens not over ten months old. He 
does not claim that both colonies will be 
equal in strength, nor that one colony will 
gather as much as the other. 

Many beekeepers will have to substitute 
the world “alfalfa” for “clover,” or “buck¬ 
wheat” for “clover.” 

This method of making increase, if the 
testimony of some of the best beekeepers 
in the country is to be believed, gives the 
largest returns, because all the brood is 
saved. The expert beekeeper will be able 
to make his own modifications; but the 
beginner will do well to follow Mr. Alex¬ 
ander, not forgetting the importance of 
young queens, daily feeding, and keeping 


bees in a warm hive, preferably double- 
walled, or single-walled hives in packing- 
cases. 

INSPECTORS. -— Under the head of 
“Laws Relating to Foul Brood” will be 
found references to bee inspectors, whose 
duties are to discover and eradicate bee 
diseases. Under this head an attempt will 
be made to give the qualifications of a bee 
inspector. First of all, he should be an 
experienced beekeeper; second, he should 
have a theoretical and practical knowledge 
of all bee diseases, particularly those re¬ 
lating to brood; third, he should be intel¬ 
ligent, broad-minded, and tactful. 

Taking up the first requirement, a bee 
inspector will be very seriously handi¬ 
capped if he does not have both a theoreti¬ 
cal and a practical knowledge of bees. One 
of the most important factors in the elim¬ 
ination of disease is the instruction given 
the beekeeper in the first place on how to 
keep bees, on the principle that preven¬ 
tion is better than cure. The inspector 
should explain the normal conditions in a 
hive so that the owner of the bees will be 
able to recognize at once those that are 
irregular and abnormal. A large number 
of those who keep bees have but little 
knowledge of the business. In many cases 
swarms alighted on the premises and were 
hived. In other cases the bees were bought 
at auction because they were cheap; in 
still others, some of the family may have 
gotten the bee fever, and, after building up 
the apiary to four or five colonies, left 
home. The rest of the family have but 
little or no interest in the bees, but are 
glad to get the honey if there is any. These 
little yards of bees, no matter how ac¬ 
quired, are left to shift for themselves, 
and the result is they afford favorable 
places for the attack of bee disease. Their 
owners are not apt to read bee books, but 
will receive personally any amount of in¬ 
struction on how to take care of them. A 
good bee inspector, one who thoroly un¬ 
derstands his job, can be the indirect means 
of putting in nice condition all these little 
yards that would otherwise be neglected. 
The owners will be getting a revenue; and 
if bee disease does make a start they will 
be able to arrest it in time. 

The second requirement implies a theo- 


530 


INSPECTORS 




Too frequently inspectors meet conditions like this. 


retical and practical knowledge of bee dis¬ 
eases. If the owner of the bees discovers 
that a man sent out by the State does not 
thoroly know disease when he sees it, the 
inspector is under a handicap. If the bee¬ 
keeper himself is a practical man, he will 
probably do just as he pleases, thinking he 
knows more than the representative of the 
State. As a general rule the bee inspectors 
are thoroly informed in regard to bee dis¬ 
eases before they are sent out. 

The third requirement is sometimes hard 
to meet. It is not difficult to get a man 
who understands bees and bee diseases; 
but it is not so easy to add to those quali¬ 
fications the third one 
— intelligence and 
tactfulness. An in¬ 
spector who goes out 
on tours of inspection 
meets all kinds of 
people. He should be 
able to size up his 
man at a glance. If 
he should approach 
the beekeeper and 
say, “I am the State 
inspector, and I re¬ 
quire to see your 
bees,” he might meet 
with some opposition; 
but if, on the other 
hand, he approaches 
his man with smiles 
and a handshake, and 


bee disease in the 
country, and if . any is 
present in the hives he will be glad to tell 
how to eradicate it. If he is tactful, he will 
not put forth any show of “authority,” nor 
invade the premises without finding some 
member of the family. If the owner is 
not present he can ask permission from 
some one in the house to see the bees, ex¬ 
plaining the matter in a tactful way. Usu¬ 
ally the good housewife is perfectly will¬ 
ing to tell him where the bees are. 

pay op inspector^. 

At this day and age a good inspector can 
hardly be secured for less than $5.00 a day 
and expenses. In some cases it may some- 


But what can the poor inspector do? 


asks him if he has any 
bees, and how they are 
doing, he will usually 
meet with a pleasant 
response. The inspec¬ 
tor can then say that 
he is sent by the State 
to give instructions on 
how to keep bees, and 
that if he can be of 
any help he is free to 
command, etc. Then 
the beekeeper will be 
interested. Mr. In¬ 
spector can very 
gracefully volunteer 
the statement that 
there is considerable 














INDIAN WHEAT 


531 


times be necessary to pay as high as $8.00, 
because a competent beeman can hardly 
leave his own bees and work for three 
months for the State at $5.00 a day and 
then find his own bed and board for the 
remaining nine months of the year. But a 
good man can usually be secured for $5.00 
a day provided the State can give employ¬ 
ment the year round. If he is a good bee¬ 
keeper and a good talker he can be used to 
give lectures and demonstrations at farm¬ 
ers’ institutes during winter, and he can be 
used to assist in various ways in the gen¬ 
eral state work outside of bee culture pro¬ 
vided he is a man of some education and of 
ordinary ability. 

Students from apieultural schools that 
are scattered over various parts of the 
country can usually be secured for a very 
moderate sum. These men, after having 
taken on an apieultural and agricultural 
course, have a theoretical and practical 
knowledge of general farm problems, such 
as soils, fertilizers, fruit-growing, and the 
like. When it is not possible to use an 
inspector in the line of beework, his talent 
can be turned to very profitable account 
along other agricultural lines. It is de¬ 
sirable to have a bee inspector who not 
only understands bee culture but agricul¬ 
ture in general. 

The nursery inspectors who are sent out 
over the country are rendering excellent 
aid by telling farmers how to handle their 
fruit trees in order to keep down blight, 
San Jose scale, and, in general, how to se¬ 
cure a large amount of fruit. These men 
are rendering their respective States most 
valuable service, because there is nothing 
like a practical demonstration in the or¬ 
chard of how to treat the trees and how to 
trim them so as to secure the maximum 
results. This kind of actual field demon¬ 
stration work is invaluable, not only in 
orchard work but in actual beekeeping. If 1 
possible, a bee inspector should be one who 
understands both orchard and bee woik, as 
they naturally go hand in hand. 

Under head of laws relating to foul 
brood, it will be seen that the better plan 
is for the inspector to keep in the back¬ 
ground all show of authority and law, and 
put emphasis on general extension work. 
For other particulars see Laws Relating 
to Foul Brood. 


INDIAN WHEAT (Plcintagn ignota ). — 
This species is abundant over vast areas of 
sandy and gravelly mesas in Arizona. The 
silvery hairy leaves have a grayish appear¬ 
ance, so that it is difficult to determine at 
a glance whether the plants are alive or 
dead. The flowers are entirely nectarless 
and are visited by bees for pollen only. On 
the slopes another plantain ( P. aristata ) is 
also very common. 

The plaintains, of which there are about 
200 species in the world, are most fre¬ 
quently pollinated by the wind. None of 
the species yield nectar, altho several of 
them have sweet-scented flowers. Honey¬ 
bees often visit the bloom for the purpose 
of gathering pollen. Hovering in the air 
the bee moistens the pollen with nectar 
gathered elsewhere, and then brushes it off 
the anther with the tarsal brushes of the 
forefeet. At the same instant a little cloud 
of pollen rises from the shaken anther. 
The pollen is then packed in the pollen 
baskets in the usual way. In windy weath¬ 
er it behaves differently, according to Muel¬ 
ler, brushing its legs over the anthers, and 
thus securing a part of the loosely held 
pollen. A large amount of pollen is de¬ 
voured by flies, which are very frequent 
visitors. 

The stemless flowers of the plaintains 
are usually in long spikes and green-col- 
ored; but in some cases there is more or 
less red or purple coloring. Only one 
whorl of flowers opens at a time. Several 
species of plaintain are very abundant in 
southern Arizona, and as they are often 
visited by honeybees many beekeepers sup¬ 
pose that they contain a little nectar; but, 
as has been shown, they supply only pol¬ 
len. As sources of pollen they are no 
doubt of much importance in this arid 
country. Indian wheat seldom grows on 
the Arizona deserts more than 5 to 6 inches 
tall. It is one of the principal forms of 
vegetation, and affords a valuable pastur¬ 
age for cattle. 

INTRODUCING. —Under normal condi¬ 
tions only one queen will be tolerated in a 
colony at a time. Should there by accident 
be two, there is likely to be a royal battle, 
when they meet, until one of them is killed. 
Queens are, as a rule,jealous rivals; but 
there are exceptions. Under certain con- 


532 


INTRODUCING 


ditions, as when an old queen is about to 
be superseded, the young daughter may be 
tolerated in the hive along with her mother 
—both laying side by side; but in the 
course of a few days or weeks the mother 
will be missing. Whether she dies of old 
age or the daughter kills her is not known. 
There are other conditions where two and 
sometimes a dozen laying queens will be 
found in the hive, but under circumstances 
which seem to be abnormal. 

Again, it may be stated that a normal 
colony of bees will not readily accept a 
strange queen, even tho they have no 
mother of their own, much less will they 
accept an interloper when there is already 
a queen in the hive. It may, therefore, be 
set down as a rule that has exceptions,* * 
that it is not safe to liberate any queen, 
young or old, in a colony that already has 
one. Likewise, bees that are queenless 
will not, under ordinary conditions, accept 
another, no matter how much they may 
need one, until she has been “introduced.” 
It follows that, in the process of requeen¬ 
ing, the apiarist is compelled to put a new 
queen in a wire cloth cage and confine her 
there (where the other bees cannot attack 
her) until she has acquired the same colony 
odor or individual scent as the bees them¬ 
selves. This usually takes two or three 
days, at the end of which time the queen 
may be released when they will treat her 
as their own royal mother. It is not known 
how bees recognize each other, or how they 
can tell a strange queen from their own, 
except) by the scent factor. 

It is a fact well recognized that a dog 
can pick out his master from hundreds of 
others thru the agency of scent. He can 
also track his master, if he loses sight of 
him, by catching the scent where he has 
walked, in spite of the fact that hundreds 
of other people may have gone over the 
same ground. This scent that is so acute 
in a dog is undoubtedly highly developed 
in the bee, otherwise it would be difficult 
to account for some of the phenomena in 
the domestic economy of the hive. See 
Odor op Laying Queens under Queens. 

*'If a virgin oueen. on returning from a matine- 

• trip .enters by mistake a hive where there is an old 
laying queen st>e mar, and very 'often does, supplant 
the old queen. The virgin is young .and vigorous, and 
more than a match for the old queen full of eggs. 
Even tho the colony odor he lacking, the bees in 
this case accept the supplanter. 


From what has been stated it is natural 
to conclude that, by the sense of smell, 
bees distinguish their own queen from a 
new or strange one. 

Again, it is learned that, if two queens 
have exactly the same colony odor after 
being caged for two or three days in a 
queenless hive, either one may be liberated, 
and the bees will accept one just as readily 
as the other. If both be liberated at the 
same time, one in one corner of the hive 
and the other in the opposite corner, both 
will be tolerated by the bees; but once the 
queens come together themselves there is 
danger of a royal battle* resulting in the 
death of one. From this fact it is inferred 
that the bees, provided a queen or queens 
have the requisite colony odor, will accept 
at any time one or more such queens under 
many conditions; that, further, when two 
queens have the same colony odor, if they 
can be kept apart by means of perforated 
zinc both will continue to lay eggs in the 
same hive without interference. This con¬ 
dition will be allowed so long as the colony 
prospers, or until a dearth of honey comes, 
when the bees shows a disposition to rob. 
They may then destroy one of the queens. 

Bees that have been thrown into a box 
or pan, and then shaken or bumped again 
and again until they are demoralized or 
frightened, are much more tractable than 
those not so disturbed. Such bees if made 
queenless just prior to the shaking, and 
confined without combs or brood in a cool 
place for a few hours, will usually accept 
a queen at once. The factor of colony odor 
then apparently does not operate, for the 
bees are put out of their normal condition. 

Very often the queens of two colonies 
may be made to exchange places. Two 
hives can be opened, and before either col¬ 
ony can discover that it is queenless, the 
queens may often be exchanged; but when 
this exchange is made, the precaution must 
be taken to open the hives very quietly, us¬ 
ing but little smoke. The idea seems to be to 
disturb the colony as little as possible, so 
that their normal condition may continue. 
Not suspecting any change in queens, the 

* We say “danger” of a battle. Queens will not • 
always fight when so put together. The relative ages 
of the queens makes a great difference. If one queen 
be an old one there probably will be no fight, and 
even if there is, the young queen will be more than 
a match for the old one. 




INTRODUCING 


533 


bees are not looking for any, and allow the 
new mother to go on where the previous 
queen left off. On the other hand, if 
either colony is queenless long enough so 
that it sets up a loud buzzing or a cry of 
distress, it will be pretty sure to ball any 
queen that may be given it. 

Young bees just emerged will at any time 
accept any queen. Therefore, it comes 
about that, when one desires to introduce a 
valuable breeder on which he desires to 
take no chances whatsoever, he causes her 
to be released on a frame of very young 
or emerging bees; but consideration will 
be given to this later. 

Virgin queens, if just emerged, will usu¬ 
ally be accepted by a colony, if not too 
long queenless, without the process of in¬ 
troducing or even of caging; but when one 
of these queens comes to be four or five 
days old she is very much more difficult to 
introduce than a normal laying queen. 

When a little honey is coming in, it is 
much easier to introduce and unite bees 
than during a dearth. 

A queen in the height of her egg-laying 
will be accepted far more readily than one 
that has been deprived of egg-laying, as in 
the case of one that has been four or five 
days in the mails. 

Some colonies are more nervous than 
others. To open a hive of such on an un¬ 
favorable day might arouse the inmates to 
a stinging fury. Indeed, such colonies will 
often ball and sting their own queen when 
the hive is opened if the day is unfavor¬ 
able. 

It is easier to introduce toward night, or 
after dark, than during the day. The rea¬ 
son of this is that after dark the excite¬ 
ment of the day has subsided. There is no 
chance for robbing and no reason for vigil. 
In short, bees are not expecting trouble 
and are not inclined to make any. 

A fasting queen, or, rather, a queen that 
is hungry, will usually ask for food, and 
hence will generally be treated more con¬ 
siderately than one that shows fear or fight. 

A colony queenless long enough to have 
ripe queen-cells, or. long enough to have 
laying workers, will not accept a queen as 
readily as one that has been without a 
mother for only a few hours. Reference 
to this will be made later. 

Having stated, therefore, the basic prin¬ 


ciples governing the relation of the queen 
to the bees the reader can now more intel¬ 
ligently proceed to the methods of intro¬ 
duction, most of which are based on the 
theory that the queen to be introduced 
must first have acquired the colony odor of 
her new subjects. 

The cages that are sent thru the mails 
are supplied with soft bee candy (see 
Candy), so that, in case the bees do not 
feed the queen, she will not starve. In 
some cages the bees release the queen by 
eating away the candy and letting her out. 
Other cages are so constructed that bees 
outside the cage must tunnel under the 
cage by tearing away the comb, in order to 
release her. In still other cases the apiarist 
himself liberates her after she has been 
confined the requisite length of time or 
until such time as she has acquired the 
colony odor. 

Most of the cages are sent out by queen- 
breeders with directions how to perform 
this operation; and it is usually safer for 
the beginner to follow these directions im¬ 
plicitly. 

mailing and introducing cage. 

The mailing and introducing cage that 
has been used over the country is called the 
Benton, and is shown in the accompanying 
illustration. It consists of an oblong block 



of wood with three holes bored nearly 
thru, one of the end holes being filled with 
soft candy (see Candy), and the other 
two left for occupancy by the bees and 
queen. On the back of the cover are 
printed full directions for introducing, and 
at each end of the cage is a small hole 






















534 


INTRODUCING 


bored thru lengthwise the grain of the 
wood. One hole (next to the bees) is cov¬ 
ered with a piece of perforated metal, 
secured in place with two small wire nails 
driven thru the perforations. The other 
hole (that is at the candy end) is covered 
over with a piece of pasteboard slightly 
narrower than the hole. In this way the 
bees have an opportunity to taste the 
candy at the edges, and finally pull away 
the pasteboard entirely. 

Oftentimes, after the cage has been thru 
the mails, and been on the journey for 
several days, the bees in the cage will have 
consumed two-thirds or three-fourths of 
the candy. If those in the hive to which 
the queen is to be introduced gain access to 
the candy direct they would eat out what 
little there is of it in five or six hours, lib¬ 
erate the queen,' and probably kill her. In 
order to accomplish introduction safely the 
cage should be on the frames (where the 
bees can get acquainted with the queen) 
for at least 24 hours, and longer wherever 
practicable. As it takes generally from 12 
to 24 hours for the bees to gnaw away the 
pasteboard before they can get at the 
candy, and from 6 to 24 hours to eat out 
the candy, at least 18 hours is assured be¬ 
fore the bees can release the queen; and 
generally the time is longer—all the way 
from 24 to 48 hours. The pasteboard has 
another advantage, in that it makes the 
introduction entirely automatic. The one 
who receives the queen pr es off the cover 
protecting the wire cloth, and then by the 
directions which he reads on the reverse 
side of this cover he learns that all he 
has to do is to lay the cage wire cloth down 
over the space between two brood-frames 
of the queenless colony, and the bees do the 
rest. It. is not even necessary for him to 
open the hive to release the queen; indeed, 
he should let the colony entirely alone for 
three or four days, as opening the hive 
disturbs and annoys the bees to such an ex¬ 
tent that often they will ball the queen, 
seeming to lay to her door what must be to 
them a great disturbance in having their 
home torn to pieces. 

There are some who object to the use of 
the pasteboard on the ground that the bees 
may gnaw it away too soon, and, so re¬ 
lease the queen, before the bees will treat 
her kindly. These objectors tack a piece of 


tin over the candy. At the end of two or 
three days the tin is removed or revolved 
to one side, exposing the candy. As soon 
as the bees eat thru, the queen is released. 
The use of the piece of tin makes sure 
that the queen will be confined long enough 



How bees and queens are put up in a mailing-cage. 


for the bees to get well acquainted with 
her before they get to her. 

The manner of filling a cage with bees 
and queen for mailing is to pick it up with 
the left hand in such a way that the thumb 
covers the hole over which the perforated 
metal has been nailed, but which, before the 
time of filling, should be revolved around 
on one side or taken off entirely. The 
queen is first to be picked up by the wings, 
and her head is pushed into the hole as far 
as possible. After she runs in, the thumb 




INTRODUCING 


535 


is placed over the hole. Worker bees are 
next picked up in a similar manner, and 
poked in, selecting bees that are not too 
young or too old, preferably those that are 
filling with honey from open cells. For 
the small cage there should be about a 
dozen attendants. If the cage is larger, 
two dozen may be used; and if it is extra 
large, four or five dozen. When cages are 
mailed during cold weather there should be 
more bees put in, to help keep up the ani¬ 
mal heat. 

There are several sizes of these Benton 
cages—the larger ones being used for 
longer distances. The one on p. 533 is good 
for 1000 miles thru the mails, altho very 
often used for twice that distance. This 
may be called a combination mailing and 
introducing cage. Ordinarily, if one has 
much introducing to do it is better to use 
something especially adapted to the latter 
purpose alone. The Miller introducing- 
cage, mentioned next, has been used very 
largely. 

MILLER INTRODUCING CAGE. 

It is very convenient to have in the 
apiary small special cages for introducing 
and holding queens that come out with 
swarms until they can be introduced or 
disposed of. The one illustrated here is 


an excellent one. It is especially handy 
for introducing young virgins. The cage is 
so flat it can slide in at the entrance with¬ 
out even removing the cover of the hive, 
and the bees will release the queen by the 



C. C. Miller’s introducing-cage. 

candy method. Yet for introducing fertile 
or valuable queens it should be inserted 
between two combs which are then drawn 
together until they hold the cage. The 
queen thus acquires the scent of the combs, 
brood, and the cluster, and hence when re¬ 
leased will be more likely to be accepted. 

This cage, like the Benton, will give very 
much better results if a piece of paste¬ 
board is nailed over the end. This the bees 
will gnaw away, gaining access to the 
candy, which they eat out. As already 
mentioned under the Benton cage, a double 
thickness of pasteboard or a piece of tin 
will keep the queen confined longer, and 
the author would advise “playing safe” 
even in introducing. 

Another feature of this cage, of great 
importance to beginners, is as a queen- 
catcher. It can be put down over the 
queen after the wooden slide is removed, 



Introducing-cages with the Thomas Chantry principle applied. Letter a shows the cage with 
a long channel on the left side to receive candy. The other side has a piece of perforated queen-excluder 
nailed over the hole that communicates with the interior cage. The space back of the perforated zinc is 
filled with candy, as also the entire space on the left side of the cage. In operation the tees will go thru 
the perforated zinc and eat out the candy in about 24 hours; but it will take them two or three days to eat 
out the candy on the left side before the queen is released. In the mean time the bees in the hive have 
been going in and out thru the perforated zinc, giving the queen the colony odor, b, c, d, e are different 
applications of the same principle. 












536 


INTRODUCING 


and when she crawls upward the plug' may 
be replaced. 

THE CHANTRY PRINCIPLE OF INTRODUCING. 

Introducing' cages have been constructed 
to permit the bees to have access to the 
queen, thru a single opening of perforated 
zinc, a day or two after inserting the intro¬ 
ducing cage. This permits workers to pass 



Benton Introducing-cage with the Thomas Chan¬ 
try feature added. The U-shaped piece of tin slides 
over the perforation as shown in the next cut. The 
queen is caged in the hive in the regular way. At 
the end of 24 to 48 hours the U-shaped piece of tin 
is removed, when the bees enter thru the perforated 
zinc opening. On a day or two later the apiarist 
releases the queen. 

in and out of the cage for about two days 
before she is released, carrying with them 
the odor of the laying queen. Since the 
bees do not attack a queen while she is in 
the cage, the perforated metal prevents 
any danger of the queen’s being balled or 
killed. The bees on entering the cage be¬ 
gin to feed the queen, and since these bees 



porarily closed to prevent the bees from getting at 
the queen. 

afterward go outside and mingle with the 
bees of the colony, the queen is really in¬ 
troduced before she is released from the 
cage. By having two plugs of candy in 
the cage, a short one covered with the per¬ 
forated metal that the bees will eat out in 


about two days and a long one which re¬ 
quires about four days for the bees to eat 
thru, such a cage automatically gives the 
bees access to the queen thru the perfor¬ 
ated metal after two days, then releases her 
after four days. Some object to this ar¬ 
rangement and prefer to use a stopper of 
some sort over the perforation. This is re¬ 
moved at the end of the second day when 
the bees enter the perforation. 

PUSH-INTO-COMB-CAGE PLAN OF 
INTRODUCING. 

During 1911 and ’12, and again in 1919, 
there was considerable discussion in the 
bee journals concerning the method of in¬ 
troducing known as the push-into-comb- 
cage plan—that is to say, a plan which 
permits a queen being caged over a few 
cells of honey and brood. This is aceom- 



Wire-cloth corners cut out before folding to make the 
introduction cage that telescopes over the 
. wooden part. 


plished by taking a square of wire cloth of 
suitable size and cutting a small square out 
of each of the four corners. The project- 
ings ends are then folded down so as to 
make a wire-cloth box without bottom. 
This is pushed into a brood-comb with the 



The manner of folding the cage. 
































































































































































































INTRODUCING 


537 


queen under it. If it is not pushed in too 
deep, the bees will usually release her in 
36 to 48 hours by gnawing under or tun¬ 
neling under the wire cloth. Reports of 
this method of introducing have been uni¬ 
formly favorable, and one reason for this 
is due to the fact that the queen has imme¬ 
diate access to cells of honey; and if she 
should lay a few eggs in the comb before 
she is released she will have the odor of a 
laying queen, and this odor is one of the 
elements that go to make up successful 
introduction. 

Some years ago a prominent queen- 
breeder offered to replace all queens that 
he sent thru the mails, provided this plan 
of introduction were followed. He report- 
that it was so successful that he scarcely 
ever had to replace a queen; and he be- 



Cage pushed into the comb, showing the manner of 
introducing the confined queen. 


lievecl that these replacements were due 
mainly to the fact that the recipient failed 
to carry out his instructions. 

But one difficulty with a plan like this 
is that not every one will have on hand the 
proper material nor have the necessary 
skill for making up a cage of this sort. 
Another and more serious difficulty is the 
problem of getting the queen transferred 
from the mailing-cage to the introdueing- 
cage pushed in the comb, without injuring 
her or allowing her to get away during the 
process. Another difficulty is that some 
push the cage into the comb so far that the 
bees fail to release her, altho in such cases 
no harm results, because the apiarist can 
remove the cage and release her. 


THE SMITH INTRODUCING CAGE. 

This cage is a great improvement over 
the one just described, without its objec¬ 
tions. As devised by Jay Smith of Vin¬ 
cennes, Ind., it consists of a framework of 
wood about 3x4 inches, covered on one 
side with wire cloth, the other side or edge 
having a series of teeth. The two side 



pieces project a short distance beyond the 
cross-piece in the end. In operation the 
teeth are pushed clear down into a piece of 
old comb containing some empty cells, cells 
of honey, and perhaps a little sealed brood, 
the two prongs or projections pointing up¬ 
ward. (If a new comb is used the cage 
will have to be held with a rubber band.) 
The mailing-cage containing the queen to 
be introduced is slipped down between the 
prongs in such a way that the hole of the 



Method of crowding the Smith cage on the comb. 


cage matches the hole of the other, as shown 
in the illustration. This overcomes the dif¬ 
ficulty of getting the queen caged on the 
comb. 












































538 


INTRODUCING 


The queen can then pass into the lower 
cage, where she will find cells of honey and 
empty cells where she can lay. In the mean 
time some of the brood may emerge, giving 
her more cells. As soon as she lays she 
will have the egg-laying odor, which is al¬ 
ways an important factor in introducing. 



Smith cage in place with mailing cage in the top. 

A laying queen, or, rather, one that has 
just been laying, is much more readily ac¬ 
cepted than one just from the mail-bag, 
and that has not been laying for perhaps a 
week. 

After the queen has been confined three 
or four days, but not until she has laid a 
few eggs, she is released. If she is treated 
kindly the hive is closed up with as little 
disturbance as possible. If the bees seem 
a little hostile she is caught and caged 
again, and held confined until such time 
as the bees will treat her as their mother. 



Smith cage with reception cage in the top. 


The foregoing was the plan that Mr. 
Smith originally used; but he later found 
that it was advisable to apply the Chantry 
feature as follows: He first runs the queen 
into a reception cage that is inserted be¬ 
tween the two prongs in place of the 
mailing-cage. From this, after a few 
hours, she is allowed to run into the Smith 
cage and on to the comb. At the end of 
two days the reception cage is removed 
and a piece of perforated zinc is placed 
over the hole or exit. The bees of the hive 
go thru the metal, and at no time will there 
be in the cage more than a few bees. They 
will feed her, and at the same time give 
her the colony odor. Thus the queen is 
gradually introduced to her subjects. After 
she has been laying the perforated zinc is 
slid over, when she has the full liberty of 
the hive. The scheme outlined is the 
Thomas Chantry method already described; 
and those who have tried it, particularly 
Mr. Smith, say it is good. The latter now 
feels that the combination of the Chantry 
and his principle affords a sure method of 
introduction. 

A simpler application of the Chantry 
principle is to use the mailing cage as first 
described—run the queen with smoke into 
the lower or Smith cage; close the hole thru 
which she went, and keep her confined two 
or three days. At the end of this time 
slide a piece of perforated zinc over the 
opening to hold her and allow the bees of 
the hive to go in where she is. They will 
not ball her, but feed her; and after two 
daj^s the metal can be removed, allowing the 
queen to have the liberty of the hive, when 
she will be accepted. 

Objection has been made to the Smith 
cage that it involves a lot of work, and also 
disfigures the comb; “but,” says Mr. Smith, 
“if it provides a safe method of introduc¬ 
ing a valuable queen, or any queen, in fact, 
it is worth it.” 

THE MILLER SMOKE OR DISTRESS METHOD OF 
INTRODUCING. 

In 1913 Arthur C. Miller of Providence, 
R. I. (who wrote the article on Bee Be¬ 
havior and Nucleus in this work), intro¬ 
duced to the beekeeping world a. new meth¬ 
od of introducing queens. While one fea¬ 
ture of it was old, the general procedure 
was original with Mr. Miller. Many years 











INTRODUCING 


539 


ago Henry Alley introduced queens by 
smudging the colony and queen with to¬ 
bacco smoke. The plan was successful in 
many instances, but it was too often a fail¬ 
ure and for that reason it seems to have 
been dropped. A. C. Miller’s method, 
while similar only in the use of smoke, is 
enough different to make it practically new, 
and fairly reliable when directions are fol¬ 
lowed. There are conditions under which 
it is superior to any other plan of introduc¬ 
ing queens, unless it be the Smith-Chantry 
method just described. 

The plan has been used for requeening 
box hives with a considerable degree of 
success, and that, too, without finding or 
removing the old queen. But the success 
of this method of requeening without de- 
queening will depend on the superiority of' 
the alien over the old queen; for by the 
smoke method both queens will be equally 
acceptable to the colony; and so far as the 
colony is concerned it appears to be a 
choice between the two, resulting in favor 
of the better queen. 

HOW TO INTRODUCE BY THE MILLER SMOKE 
METHOD. 

The colony to receive a queen has its 
entrance reduced to about one square inch. 
Strips of wood, entrance cleats, or even 
grass or weeds, may be used for the pur¬ 
pose. The smoker bellows is worked until 
a white smoke is blown out—not a hot 
transparent smoke, as that would be de¬ 
structive. Three or four long puffs are 
then blown in at the entrance. The amount 
may vary according to the size of the 
colony, the condition of the fuel, and the 
fuel itself. At all events, enough smoke is 
blown in at the entrance until the colony 
sets up a roar, which will take place in 10 
or 20 seconds. If the roar does not take 
place it shows not enough smoke has been 
used. The queen to be introduced is now 
run in, either from the fingers or from a 
queen-cage, and followed by a gentle puff 
of smoke, when the entrance is entirely 
closed, and left so for 10 or 15 minutes. 
At the expiration of that time it is re¬ 
opened and the bees allowed to ventilate 
and quiet down, but the opening should not 
be wider than the original contraction of 
one inch, as the idea is to let the colony 
quiet down slowly from its distress. A full 


entrance is not given for an hour or more, 
and better not till the next day. Where 
grass or leaves are used they may be left 
to wilt and be pushed out by the bees. 
They are handy at outyards. 

In order to make the plan work success¬ 
fully there is one very important require¬ 
ment. The colony should not be larger than 
one story and the frames and bees should 
occupy the whole of the story. It has been 
found impracticable to use this plan of 
introduction when only a third or a half 
of the hive is occupied with bees and combs, 
for the simple reason that the bees and 
queen may get out of the smoke and thus 
be remote from the smoke that induces the 
necessary condition—distress. 

The theory of this method is based on 
the principle that bees in distress know no 
enemy or alien. Each is looking to the 
other for help or food. The colony spirit 
is entirely broken up, and every bee that 
comes under the influence of the uproar is 
seized with the same emotion, to be relieved 
of her distress. It is important, also, that 
the queen be under the same spell or in¬ 
fluence; hence the directions to follow her 
up, after she goes into the hive, with a 
puff of smoke. 

This method can be used for introducing 
virgin queens five or six days old. Such 
queens are usually rejected by a colony, 
or even by a nucleus. These six-day-old 
queens after introduction by this plan have 
been known to take a flight the very next 
day, and to be laying shortly after. 

The question might be raised here, why 
the smoke or distress method is not used in 
the directions for introducing sent out by 
queen-breeders in the mailing-cages con¬ 
taining queens. The reason of it is, there 
are some very nice points in introducing by 
the distress method, and the average begin¬ 
ner will succeed better by the cage plan. 
As a general thing, queen-breeders use the 
cage plan for introducing virgins, which 
are usually quite young, because it takes 
less time to go thru the procedure of in¬ 
troduction. An introducing cage is in¬ 
serted between the frames and left there. 
That is all there is to it. The smoke 
method of introducing requires considera¬ 
ble time and a great exactness of proced¬ 
ure, or the plan will fail. 

The question has been raised whether so 


540 


INTRODUCING 


much smoke inducing distress is not hard 
on the bees and the queen. The author be¬ 
lieves that when queen is valuable one of 
the other methods should be used. 

A SURE WAY OF INTRODUCING. 

There is one perfectly sure way of intro¬ 
ducing a very valuable queen, such as an 
imported one, if the conditions are ob¬ 
served carefully. Two or three frames of 
emerging brood are removed from several 
hives; every bee is shaken off, and the 
brood put into an empty hive contracted 
to a small space; and unless the weather 
is very warm, the whole is placed in a 
warm room, or over the hive of a strong 
colony with screen wire cloth between the 
two. The queen and her attendants are let 
loose in this hive, and the young bees, as 
they emerge, will soon make a colony. 
As several who have tried this plan have 
been so careless as to leave the entrance 
open and let the queen get out, the begin¬ 
ner is warned especially to have the hive 
closed, so that no bee can by any possibil¬ 
ity get out.* If the frames selected con¬ 
tain no unsealed brood, there will be very 
little loss; but otherwise the larvae, having 
no bees to feed them, will mostly starve. 
As soon as a few hundred bees emerge, 
the queen will be found with them, and 
they will soon make a cluster. When the 
combs have been taken from strong colo¬ 
nies, where the queen is laying hundreds of 
eggs in a day, the colony will become 
strong in a week or two. Three frames 
will do very well at first, and one or two 
more may be added in the course of a week 
or two. No live bee is to be given to the 
queen, and the hive must be kept in a 
warm place—the nearer 90 degrees F. the 
better. 

THE CALIFORNIA PLAN OF INTRODUCING. 

This makes use of the principle just de¬ 
scribed of putting the queen on emerging 
brood, only in this case the frame, brood, 
queen, and all are put in a large wire cage 
which is then set down in the center of the 
upper story of a strong colony. The brood 
is thus kept warm, until it emerges. When 
the young bees are all out, the cage is 
removed and taken to a separate hive. The 

* The entrance can be opened in four or five days. 


frame, bees, and queen are then removed 
and set in the hive. A comb of honey or 
a division-board is put next when the hive 
is closed and the entrance is contracted. In 
cool weather this is the only way a queen 
can be introduced to emerging bees. 



The California Introducing Cage. 


This same method can be used for intro¬ 
ducing to a strong colony. But in that case 
the cage is left in the hive for five days, at 
the end of which time it is lifted up high 
enough to slide off the cover when it is set 
back, and the queen will mingle with the 
bees. The cage, not at this time but later, 
is removed. This plan will not work, of 
course, if there is a possibility of a virgin 
or a cell in the hive. 

INTRODUCING TO YOUNG BEES. 

There is another way that has proved to 
be good. In order to describe it an extract 
is made from an editorial in Gleanings in 
Bee Culture, page 539, Vol. XXI.: 

We have just received a consignment of 
30 imported Italian queens, direct from 
Italy, by express. Every queen came thru 
in good order, and they are now introduced 
into the apiary without the loss of one. Our 
method of introducing with this lot was 
something we had not tried before on so 
large a number of queens. We took four or 
five strong colonies, and divided them up 
into 30 one-frame nuclei. This was done in 
the forenoon. In the afternoon we trans¬ 
ferred the imported queens, without any at¬ 
tendants, to Miller introducing-cages, placr 
ing one in every nucleus above mentioned. 
Most of the queens were out at the expira¬ 
tion of two days, in good order, and they 
are now all out. 

You see, the point is here: These newly 
divided nuclei will have old and young bees, 
and more or less emerging brood. Before 
the imported queen is released, the old bees 
will have returned to the old stand, and it 
is these old bees that always make trouble 
in introducing. By the time the queen is 
released, there are none but young bees, in¬ 
cluding those that were brought to the nu- 






INTRODUCING 


541 


cleus-stancl and those that have emerged 
in the interim. These, of course, all being 
young, will accept their new mother, with¬ 
out any trouble.* 

DIRECT METHOD OF INTRODUCTION. 

Where it is desired to introduce a queen 
from a nucleus to a queenless colony, both 
in the same yard, the operation can usually 
be performed with safety and with very 
little labor, as follows: The colony to re¬ 
ceive the queen should be made broodless a 
few hours in advance. Go to the nucleus 
and lift out two frames, bees and all, with 
the queen in between. Put these down in 
the center of the queenless colony; close up 
the hive and don’t go near it for several 
days. The bees that have been queenless 
and broodless are crying for a mother. 
When she is given them with a large force 
of her own subjects, she seems to be pro¬ 
tected, even if she does not have the odor 
of the new colony which, by the way, has 
been modified by the bees and brood given 
them from the other hive. 

This is a modification of the Simmins 
direct method of introducing. It could not 
be used in the case of a queen sent thru 
the mails. 

THE SIMMINS FASTING METHOD. 

While this has been discussed to a great¬ 
er or less extent in the bee journals, the 
plan, while very simple, is not one that the 
author would recommend in the case of a 
valuable queen, or in any event to a begin¬ 
ner. It is as follows.: The queen to be 
introduced should be fmt in a cage at night 
without attendants and without food. She 
should thus be confined for 30 minutes 
when she must be released at dusk over 
the frames of the queenless colony. The 
hive is not to be opened again for 48 hours, 

DUAL PLAN OF INTRODUCING. 

Another plan is to introduce two virgins 
or laying queens at one operation to save 
the necessary time it takes for the bees to 
get acquainted with the queen. This is 
described in detail under the head of 
Queen-rearing, to which the reader is 
directed. 

* I've used the same plan with a full colons'. Set 
the colony on a new stand, leaving on the old stand 
a hive with a frame of brood to catch the fielders. 
After introduction the hive may be returned. C. C. 
Mili.er. 


HOW SOON WILL AN INTRODUCED QUEEN 
BEGIN TO LAY. 

As a general thing, she may be expected 
to begin laying in two days; but some¬ 
times, if the queen has been a long time 
prevented from laying, as in the case of an 
imported queen, she may not lay for three 
or four days, or even a week. If intro¬ 
duced in the fall, she may not commence 
laying until early spring, unless the colony 
is fed regularly every day for a week or 
more. This will usually start a queen that 
is good for anything if the weather is 
warm enough. 

HOW TO TELL WHETHER A COLONY IS 
QUEENLESS OR NOT. 

Having discussed mailing and introduc¬ 
ing cages, it may be pertinent at this point 
to give one of the prime essentials in suc¬ 
cessful introducing. The very first thing 
to be determined before an attempt to in¬ 
troduce is made, is to determine that the 
colony is certainly queenless. The fact that 
there may be no eggs nor larvae in the hive, 
and that the queen cannot be found, is not 
sufficient evidence that she is absent, altho 
such a condition points that way. But 
during the earlier part of the summer 
there should be either brood or eggs of 
some kind if a queen is present. Yes, there 
should be eggs or brood clear up until the 
latter part of summer. In the fall in the 
northern States, or after the main honey 
flow is over, old queens generally stop lay¬ 
ing, and shrivel up in size so that a begin¬ 
ner might conclude that the colony is queen¬ 
less,, and therefore he must buy a queen. 
In attempting to introduce the new queen, 
of course he meets with failure, as she is 
stung to death, in all probability, and car¬ 
ried out at the hive-entrance. If eggs or 
larvae cannot be found at any season of 
the year when other stocks are breeding, 
and the supposedly queenless colony builds 
cells on a frame of unsealed larvae given 
them, it may be concluded as a general rule 
that the colony is probably queenless, and 
it will be safe to introduce a new queen. 
But when eggs, larvae, and sealed worker 
brood are found, the presence of queen- 
cells simply indicates that the bees are 
either preparing to supersede their queen 
or making ready to swarm. See Swarm¬ 
ing. 



542 


INTRODUCING 


The statement was made that old queens 
would stop laying in the fall if no honey 
was coming in. It should be noted that 
young queens will lay, flow or no flow, if 
there are sufficient bees and stores. 

HOW LONG SHALL A COLONY BE QUEENLESS 
BEFORE ATTEMPTING TO INTRODUCE ? 

Colonies that have not been queenless 
more than two days are to be preferred — 
just long enough to determine whether 
cells are started, and just long enough so 
the bees begin to recognize their loss, but 
not long enough for them to get cells under 
way. Cells nicely started or capped over 
are quite apt to make the colony act as if 
it wanted something of its own; and when 
a laying queen is introduced to them they 
take a notion sometimes that they won’t 
have anything but their own raising. 

The worst colony to introduce a laying 
queen to is one that has been queenless 
long enough so that there is a possibility 
of one or more virgin queens being in the 
hive. It is hard to decide definitely in all 
cases when such colonies are queenless. 
Most virgins, after they are three or four 
days old, are very apt to be mistaken for 
workers, especially by a beginner. 

what to do if bees ball the queen. 

Very often when the bees decide they 
will not accept the queen let loose among 
them they will begin to pull at her, pile on 
her in such numbers that they form a ball 
around her. Every bee in the ball will seem 
intent on pulling her limb from limb. Un¬ 
less the owner comes to her rescue she may 
be stung to death or be suffocated. 

When queens were introduced in the old- 
fashioned way — that is, before cages were 
constructed so as to release queens auto¬ 
matically—much trouble was encountered 
by bees balling queens. If they were not 
ready to accept her when she was released 
by the apiarist, they were pretty sure to 
ball her. Right here is a point that it is 
well to observe: When the bees let out the 
queen they very rarely ball her. But when 
it is necessary for the apiarist to perform 
the work of opening the hive, and making a 
general disturbance, there is danger of ball¬ 
ing. Suppose she is balled. The ball should 
be lifted out of the hive and smoke blown 
on it until the bees come off one by one; 


but hot smoke must not be blown on the 
queen. When the queen is found, get hold 
of her wings and pull the rest of the bees 
off from her by their wings. Cage her 
again as at first, and give her another trial. 
The advice has been given to drop the 
queen, when she is balled, into a vessel of 
lukewarm water. The angry bees will im¬ 
mediately desert the queen, when she can 
be easily taken out of the water, and re¬ 
caged. 

Another way of saving the queen with¬ 
out having to recage her is to carry a small 
oil can with a spring bottom, such as is 
used on a sewing machine, filled with thin 
syrup. When the bees are found balling 
her, saturate the ball thoroly by pressing 
hard upon the bottom of the can, causing 
the syrup to penetrate thru the ball. Close 
the hive and the bees will turn their atten¬ 
tion to cleaning themselves and the queen, 
when she will be a'ccepted without further 
trouble. 

WHAT TO DO WHEN THE QUEEN FLIES 
AWAY. 

Sometimes a beginner is very nervous, 
and by a few bungling motions may man¬ 
age to let the queen escape from the hive 
where he expects to introduce her. Or this 
may happen: The queen may become a 
little alarmed because there are no bees 
about her, take wing direct from the frame 
and fly. In either case, one should step 
back immediately after opening the hive, 
and in 15 or 20 minutes she will be like¬ 
ly to return to the same spot and enter 
the hive. If she is not discovered in the 
hive in about half an hour, she may be 
found in one of the other hives near by. 
If a ball of bees somewhere down among 
the frames is found, it may be surmised 
that here is the queen that flew away, and 
that she has made a mistake, and entered 
the wrong hive. 

INTRODUCING VIRGIN QUEENS. 

As previously explained, a young virgin 
just emerged, generally weak and feeble, 
can usually be let loose in a queenless col¬ 
ony without caging, and be favorably re¬ 
ceived; but one from two to six days old 
is, as a rule, much more difficult to intro¬ 
duce than a laying queen; and one ten 
days old, more than old enough to be fer- 


INTRODUCING 


543 


t.ilized, is most difficult. Such queens can 
be introduced to a strong colony by using 
the Miller smoke method or the Smith- 
Chantry plan. Better give them a cell or 
a virgin just hatched, thus saving time and 
vexation; for even should the old virgin be 
accepted, she may be deprived of a leg, or 
be so deformed from rough treatment as to 
become in a large measure impaired for 
usefulness. Under head of Queen-rearing 
are described “baby nuclei;” and, as al¬ 
ready stated, it is much easier to introduce 
any queen, either virgin or laying, to a 
nucleus or weak force of bees than to a 
strong, vigorous colony; so if one would 
attempt to introduce four or five day-old 
virgins, give them to nuclei—the smaller 
and weaker the better. 

INVENTIONS RELATING TO BEE 
CULTURE. —It would be quite impossible 
in the limits of an article in this work to 
record all the inventions relating to bee 
culture; but it is perfectly feasible to in¬ 
clude those that have been adopted, and 
which are in use more or less by the pro¬ 
gressive beekeepers of the country. 

There are four inventions that revolu¬ 
tionized the methods of work with bees, 
and which really form the basis of all mod¬ 
ern methods of management today. First 
and foremost was the invention of movable 
frames by L. L. Langstroth in 1851. No 
one today, either in Europe or this coun¬ 
try, questions Mr. Langstroth’s right to 
the honor of this great invention, for prac¬ 
tically all hives and frames in use today are 
Langstroth. See Frames, Hives and Hive¬ 
making. 

Next followed the invention of comb 
foundation by J. Mehring in 1857. But 
the foundation he made had no side walls, 
and so it remained for Samuel Wagner, 
A. I. Root, and A. Washburn to develop 
the product that is now used with side 
walls. 

The next was the invention of the honey- 
extractor, by Major Francisco Hruschka, 
in 1865. The fourth was the invention of 
a bellows bee-smoker by Moses Quinby. 

There have been a large number of im¬ 
provements that have made the inventions 
of Langstroth, Mehring, Hruschka, and 
Quinby much more workable than they 
were originally. However, it is but fair to 


say that Langstroth came very near mak¬ 
ing his hive and frame almost perfect at 
the very, start; and there are possibly a 
few of the readers of this who would con¬ 
sider the later improvements made in the 
Langstroth frame and hive of doubtful 
value. It is, nevertheless, a fact that the 
old movable frame, as first made by Mr. 
Langstroth, both as regards dimensions and 
style, is still in use all over the world. 
For extracting purposes some of the large 
honey producers will have no other. They 
regard anything in the way of a self¬ 
spacing attachment, as part either of the 
hive or frame, as unnecessary, and a back¬ 
ward step. See Frames, Self-spacing. 

The original comb foundation by Mehr¬ 
ing was a very crude product; and it may 
be questioned whether or not Wagner 
should not share equal honor in the inven¬ 
tion. The great improvements that were 
made in this article had more to do with 
the machinery for making the product than 
the thing itself. A. I. Root did more to 
perfect comb foundation than perhaps any 
other man unless it was his colaborer and 
mechanic, Alva Washburn. He certainly 
introduced it to the beekeeping public. The 
first foundation was turned out on plates, 
and was, therefore, a very crude article; 
but A. I. Root conceived the idea of having 
it made by means of a pair of rolls. This 
suggestion came to him when noticing the 
wet clothes as they came out from a com¬ 
mon wringer in his own home. After con¬ 
sulting his friend and mechanic, Mr. Wash¬ 
burn, a pair of rolls were made, the prod¬ 
uct of which was nearly the equal of any 
comb foundation made on modem ma¬ 
chines. To Mr. Washburn belongs the 
credit of making perfect foundation on 
rolls that were mechanically correct. The 
only improvement made on the Washburn 
mills was in the method of making them, 
by which they could be duplicated, and 
manufactured not by hand but by ma¬ 
chinery, in such a way that every roll is 
perfect. Later improvements were made 
by E. B. Weed, H. B. Blanchard, and H. 
H. Root. 

As regards the invention of Hruschka, 
several machines were made and put on the 
market. The one made by J. L. Peabody 
consisted of a can that revolved without 
gearing. The limitations of this were such 


544 


INVENTIONS RELATING TO BEE CULTURE 


that very few of them were ever sold. To 
A. I. Root belongs the credit of making 
some of the first all-metal extractors that 
use gearing, a stationary can, and a reel 
with baskets to hold the combs, the reel 
connected to the gearing, and mounted to 
1 evolve independently of the can. Thou¬ 
sands and thousands of these machines 
were sold, and very little in the way of 
improvement was made until the reversible 
extractor was put on the market. The 
Cowan principle was applied to the two- 
frame machines, and later came the Root 
principle of a series of baskets geared to¬ 
gether in such a way that the reversing of 
one pocket reversed all at the same time. 
A few years later came the invention of 
Frank G. Marback, by means of which the 
pockets could be reversed automatically by 
simply applying a brake and slowing down 
the speed of the machine. This was fol¬ 
lowed by a slip gear and better mechan¬ 
ism, by whicli the extractor of today has 
from two to ten times the capacity of the 
earlier machines. 

In later years another type of machine 
has been developed, that employs the prin¬ 
ciple of reversing the individual pockets 
for holding the combs on a central pivot, 
as is shown under the head of Extract¬ 
ors. This plan of reversing is much easier 
on the combs, providing for a higher speed 
and thus doing cleaner work. The central- 
pivot principle also makes it possible to 
reverse the combs when the extractor is go¬ 
ing at full speed. The detail of this last 
machine 'was worked out by H. H. Root 
and G. L. Howk. 

Mention should be made of the honey- 
pump that is now being used successfully 
on the large-sized extractors to deliver the 
honey from the extractors to a tank at one 
side or in an adjoining room. 

The fourth important invention is the 
bee-smoker. Quinby, was the inventor of 
the bellows bee-smoker, which he brought 
out in 1875. This was further improved 
by T. F. Bingham, L. C. Root and H. H. 
Root, younger son of A. I. Root. The 
modern bee-smoker is almost as indispens¬ 
able as an extractor and movable frames; 
for without smoke, applied by means of a 
convenient instrument, the work of han¬ 
dling bees would be disagreeable if not 
impossible at times. The invention of Mr. 


Quinby forms the basis of all the modern 
smokers. But to T. F. Bingham belongs 
the credit of devising a smoker that blows 
air into the fire-cup without sucking any 
smoke into the bellows. Mr. Bingham’s 
invention consisted in leaving out the tube 
connecting the two parts of the instrument. 
While that at first thought might seem to 
be no invention, yet it made all the differ¬ 
ence in the world between a workable tool 
and an unworkable one. The latter would 
go out and clog up with creosote, while the 
former would continue burning, bum any 
kind of fuel, and not clog up. 

E. B. Weed, formerly of Medina, was 
the inventor of what is known as the 
“Weed New Process” for making comb 
foundation of a very superior kind in large 
quantities. His automatic machinery, with 
Washburn’s and Howk’s improvements for 
turning out the product, is now used in 
nearly all civilized countries of the world. 

A little later on H. H. Root and H. B. 
Blanchard made some great improvements 
in comb foundation machines. Rolls of 
these machines instead of having cut or en¬ 
graved die faces use a harder metal cast at 
a type foundry. This makes it possible 
to use individual type that are fastened to 
rings surrounding the rolls. The shape of 
the type faces is more nearly accurate than 
those that are engraved on soft metal and 
for that reason will wear longer. The 
shape of the type heads conforms more 
nearly to the bottoms of the cells of the 
natural combs. See Comb Foundation. 

At the same time that this invention was 
brought out Prof. Holmes of Oberlin, 
Ohio, developed a process for a refining 
wax, a product that is much superior to 
anything that has hitherto been put on the 
market. 

An invention which is now in almost 
universal use, in this country at least, is 
that of Julius Hoffman, in what is known 
as the Hoffman self-spacing frame. While 
the old-style Langstroth non-spacing frame 
was once the leader, yet during late years 
the Hoffman-Langstroth is one that is list¬ 
ed by large and small manufacturers and 
dealers all over the country. The present 
Hoffman frame is not the same as the orig¬ 
inal ; or, to, put it in another way, the mod¬ 
ern Hoffman retains only the self-spacing 


INVENTIONS RELATING TO BEE CULTURE 


545 


end-bars of the original, and not the Hoff¬ 
man top-bar. 

Another improvement was suggested by 
Francis Danzenbaker—namely, the lock 
cornering on hives. This feature has now 
come to be adopted by all modern hive- 
makers thruout the United States, and, to 
a great extent, thruout the world. 

The invention of the sectional honey-box 
is not attributable to any one person; how¬ 
ever, A. I. Root was the first to make one 
holding one pound. His first pound sec¬ 
tions were dovetailed all around. Later on 
came the invention of the one-piece section, 
on which J. H. Forncrook secured a pat¬ 
ent; but after long litigation from one 
court to another, the Supreme Court finally 
declared it “null and void for want of 
novelty.” It. was shown that one J. Fiddes 
and a number of others had made and used 
sections of this kind; so in the matter of 
one-piece sections the honor will have to be 
divided among four or five different people. 
The late James G. Gray of Medina made 
the first practical machine for making one- 
piece sections in quantity. Later, machines 
for turning out section honey-boxei in lots 
of one hundred thousand a day were the 
invention of George L. Howk. 

The Porter bee-escape is one of the best 
little inventions that have been brought 
out. It is one of the few patented inven¬ 
tions that survived and is now used very 
largely. 

Queen-excluders in the form of perfor¬ 
ated zinc and spaced wires are inventions 
of merit. In connection with these will be 
found entrance-guards and Alley ' traps 
that are useful. The Alley trap is another 
patented invention that survived. 

T. F. Bingham and Mr. Hetherington 
were really the inventors of the modern un¬ 
capping-knife popularly known as the 
Bingham. The Bingham-Hetherington shape 
is now used in all uncapping-knives, wheth¬ 
er steam-heated or plain. 

The steam uncapping-knife (see Ex¬ 
tracting) is an invention that is coming 
more and more into use. The capping- 
melter for melting cappings as fast as they 
come from the knife gives promise of being 
one of the inventions that will last. It en¬ 
ables a competent man who follows direc¬ 
tions to melt his cappings and separate the 
honey from the cappings immediately, so 
18 


that when the day’s work is done he will 
have his honey free from cappings, and the 
cappings converted into wax ready for use. 

Arthur C. Miller was the discoverer or 
inventor of the principle that is now used 
in all modern foundation-fasteners using a 
hot plate; yet, strangely enough, not one 
of these fasteners bears his name. Mr. 
Miller was also the inventor of two or three 
different uncapping-machines, and of the 
steam-heated uncapping-knife. If he had 
applied for letters-patent on this kind of 
knife it would have been granted him, and 
he would be today considered the inventor, 
as he really is, of the steam-heated uncap¬ 
ping-knife. 

No one seems to have invented the 
double-walled packed hive for outdoor win¬ 
tering ; but A. I. Root was, perhaps, in con¬ 
nection with J. H. Townley, the first to 
apply the principle of chaff packing in 
double walls. As chaff is not now obtain¬ 
able, other packing material is used. Lang- 
stroth in the early ’50’s used double hives 
but not packed. 

In the early ’80’s there was a score of 
inventions relating to feeders, foundation- 
fasteners, and reversing attachments for 
movable frames, nearly all of which died a 
natural death because they were imprac¬ 
ticable and only increased the cost of man¬ 
agement. 

Among the later hive inventions that 
have merit is the Aspinwall hive, based on 
the principle designed to prevent swarm¬ 
ing. (See Swarming.) But its cost of 
construction and the large number of extra 
parts that must be manipulated at inter¬ 
vals have prevented this hive from dis¬ 
placing the present standard hives to any 
great extent. The swarming problem is 
not a serious one in the production of ex¬ 
tracted honey; and while probably three- 
fourths if not four-fifths of all the honey 
produced in the world is extracted, it will 
be seen that there will be a very limited 
demand at best for non-swarming hives. 

In the way of minor inventions or im¬ 
provements mention should be made of the 
omission of porticos on hives, and of bevel 
edges between the parts of the hives. A 
hive plain and simple, with a detachable 
bottom-board and a plain simple cover, is 
much more workable than some of the com- 


546 


INVERT SUGAR 


plicated domiciles of the early days with 
moth-traps, porticos, and the like. 

It is another improvement to have the 
hive-body and supers of the same dimen¬ 
sions and the same depth, except in the 
case of half-depth supers. In a word, the 
modern hive is made up of multiples of 
parts that will fit each other in any com¬ 
bination, permitting of any degree of ex¬ 
pansion and contraction to accommodate a 
large or small colony. This feature of in¬ 
terchangeability is prized almost as much 
as any one single invention, barring only 
the four great inventions first mentioned. 

It might be interesting and perhaps en¬ 
lightening to some would-be inventors to 
record here a list of the inventions that 
have died a natural death. Some of these 
at the time were heralded as revolutionary; 
yet they never “revolutionized,” but, on 
the contrary, sickened and died, as thou¬ 
sands of others had done. It is well that 
they did. 

As an example of this may be cited 
the case of the Heddon divisible brood- 
chamber hive that was exploited by Jas. 
Heddon from 1884 to 1890. He believed 
that it was possible to handle hives in 
smaller sections in place of frames. The 
idea was so alluring and .the principle so 
successfully pushed that large numbers of 
beekeepers adopted it; but in practically 
every case those same beekeepers latei 
complained of poor seasons and of small 
crops. Mr. Heddon apparently lost sight 
of the importance of large hives, and for a 
period of from 1885 to 1890 his followers 
were almost compelled to go out of busi¬ 
ness, because of what they believed was a 
failure 'due to the peculiar seasons, but for 
what is now known to have been due to tbe 
brood-nest being too small, resulting in too 
small a force of bees. As will be seen un¬ 
der the general discussion of Hives a good 
queen will occupy about double the capac¬ 
ity of what Mr. Heddon thought would be 
the correct size of his double brood-cham¬ 
ber. 

It is but fair to say to inventors that a 
patent or patents on any invention or im¬ 
provement relating to bee-feeders, methods 
of wiring frames, or foundation-fasteners, 
are generally a waste of time, and can only 
lead to disappointment. There is a large 
list of patents in the Patent Office covering 


all forms of bee-feeders, not one of which 
is equal to any of the unpatented feeders 
described under the head of Feeders. In 
the same way it is a waste of time to try to 
invent a beehive, something new and better 
than those that are generally accepted by 
the fraternity at large. Every conceivable 
form of hive has been made the subject of 
a patent. With perhaps a dozen import¬ 
ant exceptions there is hardly a patent on 
bee-fixtures that is worth the paper on 
which it is printed: and the beginner, at 
least, will be very wise if he accepts the 
standard hive and appliances which are de¬ 
scribed in this or any standard work on 
bees. It is true, patents will be granted on 
almost anything; but any one who is famil¬ 
iar with patent claims knows that they can 
be and usually are so loosely drawn that 
they are worthless. The poor inventor sup¬ 
poses that because he has been granted a 
government parchment a fortune awaits 
him. But he is doomed to disappointment 
as sure as fate. See Patents, elsewhere. 

INVERTING.— See Reversing. 

INVERT SUGAR.— Chemically consid¬ 
ered, this is a mixture of equal parts of the 
two sugars, dextrose and levulose, coming 
from the inversion or breaking down of 
sucrose. In common terms, sucrose is the 
ordinary white sugar of commerce, such as 
beet sugar or cane sugar. This breaking 
down of sucrose occurs when it is dissolved 
in water and boiled. The action then is 
very slow; but by the addition of a very 
small percentage of any acid the action 
is made more rapid. Hence, in the com¬ 
mercial preparation of this product white 
sugar is dissolved in water, then tartaric, 
acetic, phosphoric, or hydrochloric .(muri¬ 
atic) acid is added and the whole boiled. 
Of the two sugars of invert sugar, dextrose 
is easily crvstallizable, while levulose re¬ 
mains a liquid under most conditions, but 
on long standing and under concentration 
the dextrose will crystallize out. As re¬ 
gards sweetness, dextrose is not so sweet 
as sucrose, while levulose is much sweeter; 
hence invert sugar is generally said to be 
sweeter than sucrose. 

The preparation of invert sugar from 
sucrose by using water and tartaric acid 
was patented a number of years ago by 
Herzfeld in Germany. The proportion he 


ITALIAN BEES 


547 


uses is approximately as follows: cane 
sugar, 25 lbs.; tartaric acid, y 2 oz. (avoir¬ 
dupois) ; water, 1 gallon. Bring to a boil 
and keep at that temperature for y 2 to % 
hour. 

When prepared as above the product is 
liable to be yellow or brown in color, but 
it is perfectly possible by concentrating in 
vacuum or under reduced pressure to pro¬ 
duce an invert sugar water-white. It can 
be made to appear like a high-grade clover 
honey. Its analysis is very similar to that 
of a clover honey. 

During the preparation of this sugar, a 
small amount of the levulose is broken 
down into furfurol or methylfurfurol. This 
product even in very small quantities gives 
strong color reactions with some reagents 
as resorcin—aniline acetete which forms a 
partial test for invert sugar. 

Attempts have been made to make invert 
sugar which would not give these color re¬ 
actions, but on a commercial scale they 
have not been altogether successful. The 
enzyme, invertase (from yeast), will break 
down sucrose into dextrose and levulose 
without the formation of these furfurol 
bodies, but on concentration these bodies 
are formed. Other ways have been tried. 
It is true, tho, that invert sugar can be 
made commercially that gives only slight 
color reactions, and improvements in man¬ 
ufacture of late years have yielded a prod¬ 
uct which has very much less of these fur¬ 
furol bodies present, but the chemist does 
not need these color reactions altogether to 
prove the presence of commercial invert 
sugar in honey. 

Commercial invert sugar is generally put 
on the market as a water-white liquid at 
the same price as granulated sugar. It 
has anywhere from 50 per cent to 75 per 
cent invert sugar, from 1.5 per cent to 30 
per cent of sucrose, and from 18 per cent 
to 30 per cent of water. If a mineral acid 
as phosphoric, muriatic, or sulphuric is 
used for the inversion, this is generally 
partially neutralized with soda, and hence 
the product will have from 0.5 to 3.08 per 
cent of ash. Where acetic acid or phos¬ 
phoric acid unneutralized is used, or where 
tartaric acid is used, there is practically no 
ash unless the sucrose carried some. For 
the detection of commercial invert sugar 
see Honey Analysis and Adulteration. 


ISLE OF WIGHT DISEASE.— See 

Diseases op Bees. 

ITALIAN BEES. —At present the Ital¬ 
ians, and even hybrids, have shown them¬ 
selves so far ahead of the blacks that all 
■ discussion of the matter is at an end. Many 
times colonies of hybrids will be found 
that go ahead of pure stock; but, as a gen¬ 
eral thing (taking one season with an¬ 
other), pure Italians, where they have not 
been enfeebled by choosing light-colored 
bees to breed from, are ahead of any mix¬ 
ture. There has been a great tendency in 
the case of bees, as well as other stock, to 
pay more attention to looks than to real 
intrinsic worth, such as honey-gathering, 
prolificness of the queens, and hardiness. 

Even if it were true that hybrids pro¬ 
duce more honey than pure Italians, each 
beekeeper would want at least one queen 
of absolute and known purity. Altho a 
first cross might do very well, unless he had 
'this one pure queen to furnish queen-cells 
he would soon have bees of every possible 
grade, from the faintest trace of Italian 
blood, all the way up. The objection to 
this course is that these blacks, with about 
one band (with the exception of the East¬ 
ern blood), are much crosser than Italians; 
they also have a very disagreeable way of 
tumbling off the combs in a perfectly de¬ 
moralized state whenever the hive is 
opened. Neither will they repel bee disease 
like pure Italians. See Foul Brood, sub¬ 
head, “European Foul Brood;” also “Hy¬ 
brids.” If for no other reason, one can 
well afford to Italianize because in no other 
way can European foul brood be con¬ 
trolled. This disease, in some sections of 
the country, is cleaning out the blacks and 
hybrids, while the good Italians are nearly 
immune to it if kept strong. 

The pure Italian stocks can be opened at 
any time and their queens removed, scarce¬ 
ly disturbing tEe cluster, and, as is some¬ 
times the case, without the use of any 
smoke, by one who is fully conversant with 
the habits of bees. Hybrids are generally 
cross and will not repel the moth as do the 
pure Italians. 

The queens, and drones from queens ob¬ 
tained direct from Italy, vary greatly in 
their markings, but the normal worker bee 
shows three yellow y bands. 


548 


ITALIAN BEES 


While the presence of three yellow bands 
has for many years been supposed to be an 
absolute test of purity, a recent work by 
Prof. Wilmon Newell, then of College Sta¬ 
tion, Texas, shows that this may not be 
entirely correct. But reference to this is 
made under head of Dzierzon Theory, sub¬ 
head “Recent Evidence in Proof of Dzier¬ 
zon Theory.” 

Every worker bee, whether black or 
Italian, has a body composed of six tubes, 
or segments, one sliding into the other, 
telescope fashion. When the bee is full of 
honey these segments slide out, and the 
abdomen is elongated considerably beyond 


colored down, J, K, L, M, one on each of 
the four middle rings of the body but none 
on the first and none on the last. These 
bands of down are very bright on young 
bees, but may be so worn oft as to be 
almost or entirely wanting on an old bee, 
especially on those that have been in the 
habit of robbing very much. This is the 
explanation of the glossy blackness of rob¬ 
bers often seen dodging about the hives. 
Perhaps squeezing thru small crevices has 
thus worn oft the down, or it may be that 
pushing thru dense masses of bees has 
something to do with it. Such shiny black 
bees are often seen in great numbers, in 



the tips of the wings, which are ordinarily 
about the length of the body. Sometimes 
one sees bees swollen with dysentery 
spreading the rings to their fullest extent, 
and in that condition they sometimes would 
be called queens by an inexperienced per¬ 
son. 

On the contrary, in the fall when the bee 
is preparing for its winter nap, its abdo¬ 
men is so much drawn up that it scarcely 
seems like the same insect. 

The engraving shows the abdomen of the 
bee detached from the body, that one may 
get a full view of the bands or markings 
that distinguish the Italians from our black 
bees. It is important to observg par¬ 
ticularly that all honeybees, black as 
well as Italian, have four bands of bright- 


stocks that have been nearly suffocated by 
being confined to their hives in shipping, or 
at other times. 

These bands of down differ in shades of 
color from nearly pure white to a rich 
orange or to a brown, many times, and this 
is the case with the black bees as well as 
with the Italian. Under a common lens 
the bands are simply fine soft hair, or fur, 
and it is this principally which gives the 
light-colored Italians their handsome ap¬ 
pearance. One may have noticed the pro¬ 
geny of some particular queen when they 
first came out to play, and pronounced 
them the handsomest bees he ever saw; but 
a few weeks after they would be no better 
looking than the rest of the b6 ! es. This is 
simply because they had worn off their 





ITALIAN BEES 


549 


handsome plumage in the “stern realities” 
of hard work in the fields. Occasionally 
will be found a queen whose bees have 
bands nearly white instead of yellow, and 
that is what has led to the so-called albino 
bees. When the plumage is gone, they are 
just like other Italians. These bands of 
down have nothing to do with the yellow 
bands that are characteristic of the Ital¬ 
ians; for, after this has worn off, the yel¬ 
low bands are much plainer than before. 
A, B, C are the normal yellow bands of 
which so much has been said, and they are 
neither down, plumage, nor any thing of 
that sort, as will be seen by taking a care¬ 
ful look at an Italian on the window. The 
scale, or horny substance of which the 
body is composed, is yellow, and almost 
transparent, not black and opaque, as are 
the rings of the common bee or the lower 
rings of the same insect. 

The first yellow band, A, is down next 
the waist. It is very plain, when one 
knows what to look for, and no child need 
ever be mistaken about it. 

At the lower edge of this first yellow 
band is the first black band; this is often 
only a thin sharp streak of black. 

The second, B, is the plainest of all the 
yellow bands, and can usually be seen in 
even the very poorest hybrids. The first 
band of down is seen where the black and 
yellow join, but it is so faint one will hard¬ 
ly notice it at first in some specimens. 

A‘t the lower edge of the scale there is 
a narrow line of black; when the down 
wears off, this shows nearly as broad as the 
yellow band. 

In hybrids are found a greater diversity; 
for while the bees from one queen are all 
pretty uniformly marked with two bands, 
another’s will be of all sorts, some beauti¬ 
fully marked Italians, some pure black, 
others one or two-banded. Some will sting 
with great venom, while others with only 
one or two bands will be as peaceable as 
the best Italians. Without a doubt, many 
queens have been sent out as pure that pro¬ 
duced only hybrids; but since the author’s 
recent studies in the matter he is quite well 
satisfied that several queens have been sold 
as hybrids that were really pure. 

In the matter of rearing queen-cells, 
either the Cyprians or Holy Lands will 
rear more queens than any Italians, Car- 


niolans, blacks, or hybrids. As many as 
100 natural cells have been frequently 
found on one frame. One instance is re¬ 
corded where 25 virgins from a Holy Land 
queen emerged within a few minutes of 
each other; and so vigorous were they that 
some of them actually flew the moment 
they popped out of their inclosures. 

The recent craze for five-banded bees, 
golden bees, and yellow-all-over bees, has 
complicated the marking problem some¬ 
what. For instance, a colony that produces 
four or five banded bees, when crossed 
with a black or Carniolan drone, may pro¬ 
duce the same kind of bees; but the second 
cross, at least, will show three-banded bees 
that are in reality hybrids but still showing 
the typical three yellow bands. 

Under the Dzierzon Theory, subhead 
“Recent Evidence in Support of the The¬ 
ory,” it will be found that the first cross 
between an Italian queen and a Carniolan 
drone may have generally the markings of 
the yellow bees. The second cross will 
make one, two, or three banded Italians, 
and the bees will be distinctly hybrjid, 
showing characteristics of the two races. 

While the presence of three yellow bands 
does not necessarily prove the purity of 
Italian stocks, the test is fairly reliable in 
an Italian apiary that has not been run to 
color to get four and five bands, or in a 
yard where there have not been raised 
Carniolan, Caucasian, or black drones for 
several years previously. 

FOUR AND FIVE BANDED ITALIANS. 

Reference has already been made to the 
extra-yellow bees. For a good many years 
back there has been a demand for beautiful 
bees, and in all probability there always 
will be such a demand. A few queen- 
breeders in the country have been endeav¬ 
oring to meet it. The time was when breed¬ 
ers guaranteed to furnish queens that 
would furnish “yellow-all-over bees” and 
“five-banded bees.” While an occasional 
queen may produce a majority of such 
bees, it should be said that the most of the 
extra yellow stock does not show more than 
four bands; and the yellow-all-over bee is 
a “rare bird” indeed. It may be said that 
there is no such thing as a five-banded Ital¬ 
ian or yellow-all-over Italian. The nearest 
approach to it is the very yellow three- 


550 


ITALIAN BEES 


banded bees and four-banded—perhaps the 
fourth band showing a predominance. As 
to the real practical value of these bees 
there is considerable discussion. While it 
is true that some of these very yellow bees 
are also good workers and good bees to 
winter, the facts are that many of them, 
at least, are worth very little in the field, 
and die early in the winter. Many breeders, 
in their efforts to get color, have lost sight 
of other desirable qualities; and it is, there¬ 
fore, coming to pass that many extra-yel¬ 
low bees are poor workers, cross, and lack¬ 
ing in hardiness. On the other hand, it is 
only fair to say that there are some very 
yellow bees that combine to a remarkable 
degree other desirable qualities. 

A good many readers of this will prefer 
good hees and those that are gentle. Usu¬ 
ally the typical Italians that have been 
bred for business will be found to have not 
more than three yellow bands, often not 
more than two showing distinctly. These 
are usually called “leather-colored” Ital¬ 
ians because they are typical of the native 
bees in Italy. These two-banded Italians, 
however, will show a third band if full of 
honey and placed on the window. These 
may often be confused with the ordinary 
two-banded hybrids. There is, however, a 
very marked difference in their general de¬ 
portment and general behavior. 

HOLY LAND AND CYPRIAN BEES. 

In 1882 considerable excitement arose 
over two new races of bees brought over 
from the Old World by D. A. Jones of 
Beeton, Ontario, Canada, who was then the 
leading beekeeper of his country. They 
were called Cyprian and Holy Land bees, 
from the places where he found them. The 
former, from the Isle of Cyprus, seem to 
have been for many years isolated, and are 
a distinct and uniform race. 

While they look like bright Italians, and 
might be classed as such by beekeepers not 
familiar with their peculiarities, they have 
a few distinguishing characteristics. Holy 
Land bees show whiter fuzz-rings, and the 
bodies are slimmer than those of the or¬ 
dinary Italians. They are more like the 
ordinary albinos. In fact, most of the 
albinos formerly sold were of Holy Land 
extraction. The Cyprians look very numb 
like the four and five banded Italians. The 


yellow bands are of a deeper orange than 
those of the Italians, slightly wider, and 
sometimes more than three in number. Just 
at the base of the thorax, and betweeen the 
wings, there is a little yellow spot that is 
quite distinct and prominent, called the 
“shield.” This is seen on some Italians, 
but less distinctly. 

When Italians are crossed with Cyprians 
or Holy Lands it is a little difficult to see 
the difference except by their nervousness. 

TEMPERAMENT OF EASTERN BEES. 

Eastern bees are more nervous, especial¬ 
ly the Cyprians. Sometimes smoke seems 
to have no power over them. They will fly 
up 20 or 30 at a time without warning, 
and sting the moment they touch the apia¬ 
rist. The more they are smoked, the more 
enraged they become. Cyprians especially 
are the crossest bees ever brought into this 
country—so cross, indeed, there is not a 
breeder in the United States who has them 
for sale.' The same objection, tho to a less 
extent, applies to the Holy Lands. 

The author once sold an imported 
Cyprian queen; and the customer, after 
he had kept her for a while, returned her, 
saying that her bees were so vicious that 
on one occasion they stung everything in 
sight, and drove the family down cellar. 
After she had been back a few weeks and 
her bees had begun to emerge, it was found 
that it would be hardly safe to keep them 
in the yard. They would become so en¬ 
raged at times that the whole colony would 
rush out in battle array. While the prog¬ 
eny of this queen was exceptionally cross, 
the general run, both of Cyprians and 
Holy Lands, is so disagreeable to handle 
that they are now well nigh discarded in 
the United States . 

The only possible redeeming feature is 
that they are good brood-rearers; but they 
breed to excess after the honey flow, using 
up all their available stores in raising bees, 
when Italians would conserve their energies 
and leave enough honey for winter. 

ITALIANIZING.— “How shall I Italian¬ 
ize 1 ?” and “When shall I do it?” There 
is generally a loss in removing a queen and 
Substituting another, even where one has 
laying queens on hand; and where he is 
to use the saine colony for rearing the 


ITALIANIZING 


551 


queen, there is still greater loss. Under the 
heads of Nucleus and Queen-rearing these 
points will be found fully discussed. 

The average beginner at least can bet¬ 
ter afford to buy untested Italian queens 
rather than to rear his own on account of 
the inferior or black drones in his locality. 
Unless he uses drone-traps or unless he 
waits till the blacks and hybrids begin to 
kill off their drones before he attempts to 
mate his queens to select Italian drones of 
a colony that is queenless or one he is feed¬ 
ing, he will have impure matings. (See 
Hybrids.) Young Italian queens can 
be bought during late summer and early 
fall at low prices, so low indeed that it 
would hardly pay those who have only a 
few colonies to rear their own. 

Probably a large majority of the exten¬ 
sive honey-producers likewise buy their 
queens because they argue that they can 
make more money producing honey than 
raising queens. As a general thing they 
will buy them in lots of a hundred at a 
time, when they are the cheapest and at 
prices usually from 40 to 50 per cent lower 
than retail prices. 

Not every honey-producer has a locality 
that is free from inferior drones, and by 
buying these queens from some reputable 
breeder he will improve his stock rather 
than have it revert backward. 

Where one has plenty of time and would 
like the fun of raising his own queens the 
article on Queen-rearing should be read. 
He can purchase three or four choice tested 
queens, and rear his own queens from them 
after the honey flow. He should then put 
drone-traps on all his black and hybrid 
colonies, leaving only the Italian drones 
the freedom of the air. (See Drones.) Or, 
better yet, he should wait, till the blacks and 
hybrids begin to kill off their drones, at 
which time he can secure pure matings if 


he feeds the colonies of Italians. (See Hy¬ 
brids.) If the breeders are bought in the 
spring or summer months, the old queens 
should not be removed until near the close 
of the suipmer flow of honey. Instead of al¬ 
lowing natural swarming, two or three 
frames from each old stock may be taken 
about swarming time, making nuclei, and 
giving cells from the breeding stock. See 
Nucleus. 

When these queens begin to lay the nu¬ 
clei can be built up, with frames of brood 
given one at a time until they are full 
stocks. By such a course one will have the 
full benefit of old queens during the 
honey season, until the new ones are ready 
to take their places. After the honey yield 
the old queens can be removed, new ones 
introduced, and the now small colonies 
given queen-cells. This does the swarming 
for the season, and the Italianizing, at one 
and the same time. See Increase; also 
Nucleus. 

After the stocks have all been provided 
with Italian queens, by either of the plans 
given above, if one wishes the bees to be¬ 
come pure Italians he is to commence re¬ 
placing all queens that prove to be hybrids, 
as soon as the young bees have emerged in 
sufficient numbers to enable him to decide. 
(See Italian Bees.) If honey only is the 
object these hybrids should not be replaced 
until after the honey flow; for they will 
average nearly if not quite as good honey- 
gatherers, and will raise just as pure 
drones as pure Italians. If the bees of any 
particular queen are too cross to be endur¬ 
able she can be replaced. These hybrid 
colonies should not be allowed to swarm 
naturally; for if they raise a queen she 
will produce hybrid drones;* and this is 
something we wish most scrupulously to 
guard against. 

* To get rid of black drones, see Drones. 


L 


LABELS FOR HONEY. —The Federal 
Food and Drug Act has been amended by 
the “Gould Amendment,” which changes 
the wording of the original act regarding 
the labeling of net weight and makes it 
compulsory for food in package form to 
bear a statement of its net weight, etc. 
The section as amended reads: 

That, for the purpose of this Act, an ar¬ 
ticle shall be deemed to be misbranded: 

( 1 ) . 

( 2 ) . 

(3) If in package form, the quantity of 
the contents be not plainly and conspicu¬ 
ously marked on the outside of the package 
in terms of weight, measure, or numerical 
count. Provided, however, that reasonable 
variation shall be permitted, and tolerances 
and also exemptions as to small packages 
shall be established by rules and regulations 
made in accordance with the provisions of 
section three of this act. 

In the case of extracted honey, packages 
holding two ounces or less weight, or one 
fluid ounce or less by measure, do not have 
to have the contents stated on the label, but 
for larger ones the statement must be on 
the label in a conspicuous place. The net 
weight so placed must be the actual net 
weight, and the variations in individual 
packages must be as often above as below 
to relieve one of prosecution under this act. 

In the case of comb honey, “The net 
weight of the comb honey is considered to 
be the weight of the honey and comb, ex¬ 
clusive of the wooden section. As it is not 
practicable to mark the exact net weight on 
each, the sections are sorted into groups 
and on each section in the group should be 
marked its minimum net weight. (See 
Comb Honey, to Produce.) This may be 
marked in accordance with paragraph (h) 
of Food Inspection Decision No. 154. (A 
copy of this can be obtained by addressing 
the Bureau of Chemistry, United States 
Department of Agriculture, Washington, 
D. C.) 

“The individual units must be marked, 
and the shipping case may be if desired. 


The marking should be done before their 
introduction into interstate commerce. 

“While the regulations do not prescribe 
the manner of marking, as to whether a 
rubber stamp may be used, the law requires 
that the statement shall be plain and con¬ 
spicuous. Stamping by means of aniline 
ink is frequently illegible, owing to failure 
to print or to the running of the ink. If 
such a stamp is used, care should be taken 
to make the statement plain and conspicu¬ 
ous, as required by the act.” 

The above is a letter signed by the Sec¬ 
retary of the Committee on Regulations, 
Net Weight, and Volume Law, and repre¬ 
sents the committee’s views as to which 
weight be considered final. 

LARVAE. —Brood while in the worm 
state. See Brood and Brood-rearing; Be¬ 
havior of Bees; and Development of 
Bees. 

LANGSTROTH. — Lorenzo Lorraine 
Langstroth was born in Philadelphia, Pa., 
Dec. 25, 1810. He graduated at Yale Col¬ 
lege in 1831, in which college he was tutor 
of mathematics from 1834 to 1836. After 
his graduation he pursued a theological 
course of study, and in May, 1836, became 
pastor of the second Congregational Church 
in Andover, Mass., which position ill health 
compelled him to resign in 1838. He was 
principal of the Abbott Female Academy 
in Andover in 1838-’39, and in 1839 re¬ 
moved to Greenfield, Mass., where he was 
principal of the High School for Young 
Ladies, from 1839 to 1844. In 1844 he 
became the pastor of the Second Congre¬ 
gational Church in Greenfield, and after 
four years of labor here, ill health com¬ 
pelled his resignation. In 1848 he removed 
to Philadelphia, where he was principal of 
a school for young ladies from 1848 to 
1852. In 1852 he returned to Greenfield; 
removed to Oxford, 0., in 1858, and to 
Dayton, 0., in 1887. 

At at early age the boy Lorenzo showed 








LANGSTROTH 


554 

a fondness for the study of insect life; but 
“idle habits” in that direction were not 
encouraged by his matter-of-fact parents. 
In 1838 began his real interest in the 
honeybee, when he purchased two stocks. 
No such helps existed then as now, the first 
bee journal in America being issued more 
than 20 years later, and Mr. Langstroth at 
that time had never seen nor heard of a 
book on bee culture; but before the second 
year of his beekeeping he did meet with 
one, the author of which doubted the ex¬ 
istence of a queen! But the study of the 
bees fascinated him, and gave him the 
needed outdoor recreation while engaged in 
literary pursuits, and in the course of time 
he became possessed with the idea that it 
might be possible to construct a hive so 
that its contents in every part might be 
easily examined. He tried what had been 
invented in this direction, bars, slats, and 
the “leaf-hive” of Huber. None of these, 
however, was satisfactory, and at length 
he conceived the idea of surrounding each 
comb with a frame of wood entirely de¬ 
tached from the walls of the hive, leaving 
at all parts, except the points of support, 
space enough between the frame and the 
hive for the passage of the bees. In 1852 
the invention of the movable-comb hive 
was complete, and patented October 5 of 
that year. See Frames, Hives, and Bee- 
space. 

It is well known that, among the very 
many hives in use, no other make is more 
popular than the Langstroth; but it may 
not be so well known that, in a very im¬ 
portant sense, every hive in use among 
intelligent beekeepers is a Langstroth; that 
is, it contains the most important feature 
of the Langstroth—the movable comb. 
Those who have entered the field of api¬ 
culture within a few years may faintly 
imagine, but can hardly realize what bee¬ 
keeping would be today, if, thruout the 
world, in every beehive, the combs should 
suddenly become immovably fixed, never 
again to be taken out of the hive, only as 
they were broken or cut out. Yet practi¬ 
cally that condition of affairs existed thru 
all the centuries of beekeeping up to that 
time when to take out every comb and re¬ 
turn them to the hive without injury to the 
colony, was made possible by the inventive 
genius of Mr. Langstroth. It is no small 


compliment to the far-seeing inventive 
powers of Mr. Langstroth, that, altho 
frames of different sizes have been devised 
and tried, and improvements, so-called, 
upon his hive have been made by the hun¬ 
dreds, yet today his hive and frame still 
stand, and their use is almost universal 
thruout this country and over a large part 
of Europe. 

As a writer Langstroth takes a high 
place. “Langstroth on the Hive and Hon¬ 
eybee,” published in May, 1853, is consid¬ 
ered a classic; and any contribution from 
the pen of its author to the columns of the 
bee journals was read with eagerness. In¬ 
stead'of amassing the fortune one would 
think he so richly deserved, Mr. Langstroth 
at the time of his death was not worth a 
dollar. He sowed, others reaped. At the 
date of his invention be had about 20 colo¬ 
nies of bees, and never exceeded 125. 

In August, 1836, Mr. Langstroth was 
married to Miss Anna M. Tucker, who died 
in January, 1873. He had three children. 
The oldest, a son, died of consumption con¬ 
tracted in the army. Two daughters sur¬ 
vive. 

After his twentieth year, Mr. Langstroth 
suffered from attacks of “head trouble” 
of a strange and distressing character. 
During these attacks, which lasted from 
six months to more than a year (in one 
case two years) he was unable to write or 
even converse, and he viewed with aversion 
any reference to those subjects which par¬ 
ticularly delighted him at other times. Mr. 
Langstroth was a man of fine presence, 
simple and unostentatious in manner, 
cheerful, courteous, and a charming con¬ 
versationalist. 

In reply to a question, he wrote, under 
date of March 26, 1888: “I am now a 
minister in the Presbyterian Church. Al¬ 
tho not a settled pastor I preach occa¬ 
sionally, and delight in nothing so much as 
the Christian work. My parents were 
members of Mr. Barnes’ church, in Phila¬ 
delphia, the mother Presbyterian church in 
the United States.” 

Mr. Langstroth died Oct. 6, 1895, at the 
Wayne Avenue Presbyterian Church, Day- 
ton, Ohio, where he was preaching that day. 
Before he began, the pastor of the church, 
Rev. Amos 0. Raber, moved the pulpit to 
one side and placed a chair in front where 


LANGSTROTH 


555 


Mr. Langstroth could sit while speaking, 
for his enfeebled condition would not per¬ 
mit him to stand. After a few preliminary 
sentences, and requests for prayer on the 
part of the congregation, he said: “I am 
a firm believer in prayer. It is of the love 
of God that I wish to speak to you this 
morning — what it has been, what it is, what 
it means to us, and what we ought — ” 

His daughter, Anna L. Cowan, who was 
present, thus describes the last scene: 

“As he finished the last word he hesi¬ 
tated; his form straightened out convuls¬ 
ively ; his head fell backward, and in about 
three minutes he was absent from the body, 
at home with the Lord. 

“There was no scene of confusion in the 
church. Tears were running down every 
cheek, but there were no screams, no loud 
sobbing. As one person remarked, ‘Heaven 
never seemed so near before. It seemed 
but a step.’ ” 

Then, with no fiery throbbing pain, 

No slow gradations of decay, 

Death broke at once the vital chain 
And freed his soul the nearest way. 

Thus was finished the remarkable career 
of one of the great men of the country. 
He would have been great had he never 
known anything about bees; but his con¬ 
tributions to bee literature, and his basic 
invention that revolutionized beekeeping 
thruout the world, place him in the very 
front if not the greatest beekeeper who 
ever lived—not in the money he made, but 
what he did in making money for others 
who followed the directions given in his 
delightful book, “The Hive and the Honey¬ 
bee.’’ (The publishers of this work have 
published a reprint just as he wrote it — 
price $1.50.) 

For further particulars regarding his in¬ 
vention, see Frames, also Hives. 

The statement was made that Mr. Lang¬ 
stroth was a great man. Some interesting 
sidelights showing the greatness of his 
character are set forth in an article by his 
old friend A. I. Root in Gleanings in Bee 
Culture for Oct. 15, 1895, just after Mr. 
Langstroth’s death. 

a. i. root’s personal recollections op 

THE REV. L. L. LANGSTROTH. 

Tn the introduction to our ABC book you 
will find some mention of the incidents of 


my first acquaintance with the honeybee, 
and how I came into possession of Lang¬ 
stroth’s book. 

I made the acquaintance, by letter, of 
Samuel Wagner; got hold of Vol. I. of the 
American Bee Journal. I wonder whether 
there is anybody living now who will enjoy 
reading the first edition of Langstroth and 
the first volume of the American Bee Jour¬ 
nal as I enjoyed it then. Why, the very 
thought of those old days of enthusiasm 
makes the blood even now tingle to my fin¬ 
gers ’ ends. 

As soon as I found that Mr. Langstroth 
was living at Oxford, Butler Co., O., I com¬ 
menced correspondence. Then I wanted the 
best queen bee to start with that the world 
afforded. It was pretty well along in the 
fall, but I could not wait till spring, as some 
of my friends advised me to do. I soon 
learned to look up to friend Langstroth with 
such confidence and respect that I greedily 
read again and again every word I could find 
from his pen—even his advertisements and 
circular in regard to Italian bees. When the 
book was read thru once I read it again. 
Then I read certain chapters over and over; 
and when summer time came again, and I 
had little miniature hives or nuclei under al¬ 
most every fruit tree in our spacious door- 
yard, each little hive containing a daughter 
of that $20 queen, then I read Langstroth’s 
book with still more avidity and eagerness, 
finding new truths and suggestions in it 
each time. 

I think I met him first and heard him talk 
at a convention in Cincinnati. He .was a 
wonderful talker as well as writer—one of 
the most genial, good-natured, benevolent 
men the world has ever produced. He was a 
poet, a sage, a philosopher, and a humani¬ 
tarian, all in one, and, best of all, a most 
devoted and humble follower of the Lord 
Jesus Christ. His ' fund of anecdotes and 
pleasant memories and incidents was beyond 
that of any other man I ever met; and his 
rare education and scholarly accomplish¬ 
ments but added to it all. No one I ever 
saw could tell a story as he would tell it. A 
vein of humor and good-natured pleasantry 
seemed to run thru it all. I think he en¬ 
joyed telling stories—especially stories with 
good morals; and they all had to have a 
good moral or they could not come from L. L. 
Langstroth. Not only the play of his benev¬ 
olent face and the twinkle of his eye, but 
the motion of his hands as he gave empha¬ 
sis to the different points in his narration, 
showed how t.horoly he entered into his 
topic. 

It was my good fortune to listen to him 
one or more times from the pulpit. He 
preached to us once here in Medina. The 
church was full, but I hardly believe any 
one else in that large audience enjoyed his 
talk as I did. They did not know him as I 
did. 

You must not think from what I have said 


556 


LANGSTROTH 


that our good friend always agreed with 
every one else. He had opinions of his own, 
and he could be stubborn and almost con¬ 
trary when he got "hot” in a discussion. 
But the gentle spirit was back of it all. I 
remember once being out in his apiary, ex¬ 
plaining to him some wonderful improve¬ 
ment I had just been working out. He, 
however, did not see it as I did, and stoutly 
maintained that the old way—his way, in 
fact—was better. All at once I stopped and 
concluded we had better give up the sub¬ 
ject. Pretty soon he laid his hand on my 
arm, and said: 

"Friend Root, will you not forgive me? 

I was rude and uncourteous. You have 
practiced this thing, and are succeeding. 
Very likely you are right and I am wrong.” 

Mr. Langstroth paid us a visit. He told 
us a long story about his patent. This poor 
man had dwelt on it so long that even he, a 
minister of the gospel, and a successful one, 
had lost his peace of mind; and if he had 
not lost his faith in God it shook his faith 
in humanity. I called his attention to the 
hopeful text, "But I say unto you, Love ye 
your enemies; do good to them that hate 
you; bless them that curse you, and pray for 
thern that despitefully use you.” But even 
he did not catch on. I urged until he seemed 
annoyed, and I was afraid of a return of 
his malady. With a sad heart I gave it up. 
As it was getting to be late and toward bed¬ 
time I went with him to his room. He said 
very little, altho he was naturally exceed¬ 
ingly talkative, and I felt I had offended 
him by my importunity. In the morning, 
when breakfast was ready, as he had not 
put in an appearance Mrs. Root thought I 
had better go to his room. It was warm 
weather, and the door was wide open. The 
old gentleman was awake and partly sitting 
up, leaning on his elbow. As soon as he saw 
me he beckoned me to come up near him, 
with his finger. I was really afraid he was 
going into one of his "spells.” He took 
his watch out from under his pillow and 
asked me to listen. As I was a watch re¬ 
pairer I supposed there was something wrong 
with the beat; but when I told him that it 
seemed to be in perfect order, and that it 
beat clearly and regularly, what do you 
think he said? He asked me what the watch 
said to me. 1 replied that it did not "say” 
anything, and now felt sure that he was los¬ 
ing his mind. This is what he said: 

"Mr. Root, that watch has been saying 
‘Quinby; Quinby! Quinby! ’ all night long, 
and I can’t stand it any longer. I am going 
to start today. I am going to see Mr. Quin¬ 
by. I am not going to say a word about the 
patent or the hive. 1 am going to him as 
tho we had always been friends.” 

Friend Langstroth went to see Mr. Quin¬ 
by, as he declared he would do, and they 
had "the best time in the world.” 

His last public ta^ to beekeepers, if I am 
correct, was the one given at Toronto; and 


I felt anxious at the time that some short¬ 
hand reporter might be at hand who could 
give all his words and even his little stories 
just as he gave them to us. Perhaps others 
did not enjoy this talk as I did, because they 
did not know him as I did. Why, that his¬ 
tory of long ago, telling of the troubles, blun¬ 
ders and mistakes in introducing the Italian 
bees from Italy to America, should be hand¬ 
ed down to coming generations. It should 
be embodied in some of the standard works 
on bees, in order to secure its preservation. 

Langstroth and Quinby-—those two old 
pioneers—have now both passed away, but 
"their works do live after them,” and shall 
live for a thousand years or more. I feel 
anxious that the first edition of both Lang¬ 
stroth and Quinby should be preserved. 
There is something to me more interesting 
in their first efforts—Quinby’s book, for in¬ 
stance, telling how to keep bees with a box 
hive, and Langstroth telling his first experi¬ 
ments with the movable-frame hive. Those 
early editions should be preserved. 

When quite a child I was greatly interest¬ 
ed in reading the life of Benjamin Frank¬ 
lin. When I first became acquainted with 
Langstroth I could not resist the suggestion 
that he was much like Franklin. The max¬ 
ims of Poor Richard suggest the thought. 
Mr. Langstroth was remarkably well read 
in ancient literature. He was familiar with 
the writings of great men in all the ages. 
It rejoices my heart now to know that he 
has been remembered for many years at our 
national conventions, and to know that he 
was even present with his daughter at the 
one that occurred so short a time before his 
death. He never seemed to have a faculty 
for accumulating property, but what is mil¬ 
lions of money compared to the grateful re¬ 
membrance with which Langstroth’s name 
will be spoken in every civilized land on the 
face of the earth? 

LAUREL. —See Poisonous Honey. 

LAWS RELATING TO BEES. — The 

subject of bees takes up but little space in 
law. The old law writers, the men who 
really laid down the basic principles of 
our law during its formative pei’iod, classi¬ 
fied bees and defined the rights of the keep¬ 
ers of bees in a few brief paragraphs, yet 
they seem to have covered the subject as 
fully as was necessary at the time at which 
they wrote. 

As to legal opinions handed down in 
cases that have been adjudicated by a 
court of last resort, and which opinions 
form the bulk of our law of today, those 
pertaining to bees are very meager in vol¬ 
ume. There have been, no doubt, many 
cases in the minor courts, but the decisions 


LAWS RELATING TO BEES 


557 


in such cases are binding only on the courts 
that decided them, and then only where 
there is a lack of higher authority. It mat¬ 
ters not how much was involved in a case, 
nor how ably it was presented and argued, 
nor how learned and scholarly was the 
opinion handed down by the trial judge, 
nor what the verdict of the jury was, pro¬ 
vided it was a jury case; unless the ease 
was appealed to a court of last resort the 
decision is not available law. Usually it is 
only the decisions that have been handed 
down in cases that have been appealed to 
a court of last resort that are published, 
and available to the lawyers and the courts 
in general and can be considered as law 
by them. 

GENERAL PRINCIPLES OF LAW PERTAINING- 
TO BEES. 

But the fact that but little litigation 
concerning bees has reached the courts of 
last resort does not mean that the law 
governing bees and their keeping was in an 
undetermined state. Law deals primarily 
with principles; the subject matter is sec¬ 
ondary. To ascertain what the law is in a 
given instance, all that is really necessary 
to do is to apply an established principle 
of law to the facts in the case. For exam¬ 
ple, to steal the property of another person 
is larceny, and it matters not whether the 
subject matter stolen be an automobile, a 
caged lion, an aeroplane, or a hive of bees, 
as it is the act that constitutes the offense. 

The law as laid down by Blackstone and 
other law writers of his time and of times 
prior is briefly as follows: 

That bees are wild by nature; therefore, 
tho they swarm upon your tree they are not 
yours until you have hived them, any more 
than the birds that have their nests in your 
trees or the rabbits that run wild thru your 
fields. But when they have been hived by 
you they are your property • the same as 
any other wild animal that you may have 
reduced to possession. Animals that are 
wild by nature and have been captured by 
you, should they escape, you still have a 
right in them if you follow them with the 
idea of recovery. A swarm of bees that has 
left your hive continues to be yours so long 
as you can keep them in sight and under 
any probability of recovery; 2 Blackstone 
Com. 392; Coopers Justinian Inst. Lib. 2, 


tit. 1, No. 14; Wood’s Civil Law, bk. 2, 
chap. 3, p. 103; Domat’s Civil Law, vol. 1, 
bk. 3, pt. 1, Subd. 7, No. 2133; Puffen- 
dorf's Law of Nature, 4, chap. 6, No. 5; 
Code Napoleon No. 524; Bracton’s Law, 
2, chap. 1, No. 3; and see notes in 40 
L. R. A. 687; 62 L. R. A. 133. 

During the early development of our 
eastern States the general principle of 
law relative to ownership of bees was ad¬ 
judicated in a number of eases. The ques¬ 
tions raised and the decisions rendered are 
briefly as follows: Where bees have es¬ 
caped and so properly may be considered 
as wild bees and without any owner at the 
time of their discovery it has been held 
that such bees in a tree belong to the 
owner of the soil where the tree stands. 
Merrills vs. Goodwin, 1 Root 209; Fergu¬ 
son vs. Miller, 1 Cow. 243; 13 Am. Dee. 
519; Goff vs. Kilts, 15 Wend. 550. 

That bees are ferae naturae, that is, wild 
by nature, but when hived and reclaimed 
may be subject of ownership. State vs. 
Murphy, 8 Blackf. 498; Gillet vs. Mason, 
7 Johns. 16; Rexroth vs. Coon, 15 R. I. 
35; 23 Atl. 37. 

But the finding of a swarm of bees in a 
tree on the land of another, marking the 
tree and notifying the owner of the land 
does not give the finder such property in 
the honey as will entitle him to maintain 
trover for the honey. Fisher vs. Steward, 
Smith 60. 

Where one discovers wild bees in a tree, 
and obtains license from the owner of the 
land to take possession of them, and marks 
the tree with his initials, he gains no prop¬ 
erty in them until he takes them into his 
possession. Gillett vs. Mason, and Fergu¬ 
son vs. Miller, supra. 

Where bees take up their abode in a tree, 
they belong to the owner of the soil even 
tho they are reclaimed; but if they have 
been reclaimed and their owner is able to 
identify them as in a case where he fol¬ 
lowed the bees and saw them enter the tree, 
they do not belong to the owner of the soil, 
but to him who had former possession, 
altho he cannot enter upon the land of the 
owner of the tree and retake them without 
subjecting himself to an action for tres¬ 
pass. Goff vs. Kilts, 15 Wend. 550. 

In a case decided in 1898 and entitled 
State of Iowa vs. Victor Repp, 104 Iowa, 


558 


LAWS RELATING TO BEES 


305, 40 L. R. A. 687, it was held that the 
mere finding of bees in a tree oh the land 
of another did not give the finder any title 
to the bees or to the tree. The facts were, 
one Stevens who found the bees trespassed 
on the land and hived the bees in a gum 
belonging to another. The defendant Repp 
removed the bees from where they had been 
hived and was for that act arrested and 
tried for larceny, Stevens, the man who 
hived the bees, being the complaining' wit¬ 
ness. The trial court convicted Repp, and 
'the case was appealed to the Iowa Supreme 
Court. The court reversed the trial court, 
and in rendering the decision, Justice Ladd 
said: “The title to a thing ferae naturae 
cannot be created by the act of one who was 
at the moment a trespasser, and Stevens 
obtained no interest in the bees by the 
mere wrongful transfer of the bees from 
the tree to the gum. Having neither title 
nor possession he had no interest then in 
the subject of the larceny. As the infor¬ 
mation alleged ownership in Stevens, and 
the case was tried on that theory, we need 
make no inquiry as to any taking from 
Cody (the owner of the land).” 

WHERE BEES SHOULD BE LOCATED. 

Bees should be located by their owner so 
that in the natural course of events they 
will not molest others. If a keeper of bees 
locates his bees so that they will be prone 
to attack other people or their horses he is 
guilty of negligence. A case in point is 
Parsons vs. Manser, 119 Iowa 92, 62 L. 
R. A. 132, decided in 1903, the facts of 
the case being that the beekeeper had a 
hitching post in front of his house. This 
post was located in the public highway; 
about 25 feet from the post, but in the 
beekeeper’s yard, there were two bee-gums. 
The plaintiff, Parsons, was a medicine ped¬ 
dler. He called at Manser’s house and tied 
his horse to the hitching post. The bees 
attacked the horses and stung them to 
death.* The beekeeper was held liable for 
the death of the horses, as the evidence 
showed that he was aware of the fact that 
the bees would attack horses when hitched 
to the post, A beekeeper is not liable, 
however, unless he has been negligent. In 
other words, the beekeeper must have been 
at fault, and if thru no fault of the bee¬ 
keeper some other person is injured, the 


beekeeper is not liable. It was so held in a 
New York case, Earl vs. Van Alstine, 8 
Barb. 630, which was an action for dam¬ 
ages caused by plaintiff’s horses being 
stung, resulting in the death of one of the 
horses. 

EARL VS. VAN. ALSTINE. 

The facts in this case were: That Van 
Alstine was the owner of 15 hives of bees. 
The bees were kept in his yard, adjoining 
the public highway. Earl, the plaintiff in 
the case, was traveling along the highway 
with a team of horses, and when he passed 
Van Alstine’s place the bees attacked his 
horses and stung them so severely one died. 

Action was brought in the Justice’s 
Court and Earl secured judgment for the ^ 
sum of $7.25 and costs. The case was 
appealed to the County Court of Wayne 
County where the judgment was reversed. 
From the County Court the case was ap¬ 
pealed to the Supreme Court, Seventh Ju¬ 
dicial District, which court affirmed the de¬ 
cision of the County Court, the decision 
being of date June 4, 1850. 

The opinion was written by Justice Sel- 
den, and he discussed very thoroly the 
questions involved, the opinion being in 
part as follows: 

This case presents two questions: 

1. Is any one who keeps bees liable, at all 
events, for any injury they may do? 

• 2. Did the defendant keep those bees in an 
improper manner or place, so as to render 
him liable on that account? 

It is insisted by the plaintiff that, while 
the proprietor of animals of a tame or do¬ 
mestic nature (domitae naturae) is liable 
for injuries done by them (aside from tres¬ 
passes upon the soil) only after notice of 
some vicious habit or propensity of such 
animal; that one who keeps animals ferae 
naturae is, responsible at all events for any 
injury they may do, and that as bees belong 
to the latter class, it follows, of course, that 
the defendant is liable. 

In order to determine this question, upon 
which no direct or controlling authority ex¬ 
ists that I have been able to find, it becomes 
.necessary to look into the principles upon 
which one who owns or keeps animals is 
liable for their vicious acts. It will be found 
upon examination of the authorities upon 
this subject that this classification of ani¬ 
mals by the common law into animals ferae 
naturae and domitae naturae has reference 
mainly, if not exclusively, to right of prop¬ 
erty which may be acquired in them; those 
of the latter class being the subject of ab- 


LAWS RELATING TO BEES 


559 


solute and permanent ownership, while in 
regards to the former only a qualified prop¬ 
erty can exist, and the distinction is based 
upon the extent to which they can be domes¬ 
ticated or brought under the control and do¬ 
minion of man, and not at all upon, the fer¬ 
ocity of their disposition or their proneness 
to do mischief. For instance, the dog, some 
species of which are extremely savage and 
ferocious, is uniformly classed among ani¬ 
mals domitae naturae, while the hare, rab¬ 
bit, and dove are termed ferae naturae altho 
completely harmless. It would not be nat¬ 
ural to suppose that a classification adopted 
with exclusive reference to one quality of 
animals could be safely used to define and 
regulate the responsibilities growing out of 
other and different qualities; nor would it 
accord with that just analysis and logical 
accuracy which distinguishes the common 
law, that it should be resorted to for that 
purpose. 

Chitty, under the head of actions on the 
case for negligence, gives the following rule: 
‘ ‘ The owner of domestic or other animals, 
not naturally inclined to do mischief, as 
dogs, horses, and oxen, is not liable for any 
injury committed by them to the person or 
personal property unless it can be shown 
that he previously had notice of the ani¬ 
mal’s mischievous propensity;” Chitty 
Plead. 82. This accurate elementary writer 
did not fall into the error of applying the 
rule to the whole of the class of animals 
domitae, but adds the qualifications, “not 
naturally inclined to do mischief. ’ ’ By his 
arrangement of the subject, too, he con¬ 
firms the view of Peake that the liability 
is based upon negligence. 

These authorities seem to me to point to 
the following conclusions: 

1. That one who owns or keeps an animal 
of any kind becomes liable for any injury 
the animal may do, only on the ground of 
some actual or presumed negligence on his 
part. 

2. That it is essential to the proof of neg¬ 
ligence and sufficient evidence thereof that 
the owner be shown to have notice of the 
propensity of the animal to do mischief. 

3. That proof that the animal is of a sav¬ 
age and ferocious nature is equivalent to 
proof of express notice. In such cases no¬ 
tice is presumed. 

.Having shown then, I think 

clearly, that the liability does not depend 
upon the classification of the animal doing 
the injury, but upon its propensity to do 
mischief, it remains to be considered wheth¬ 
er bees are animals of so ferocious a disposi¬ 
tion that any one who keeps them, under 
any circumstances, does so at his peril. If 
it is necessary for the plaintiff to aver and 
prove the mischievous nature of the ani¬ 
mal, nothing of the kind has been done in 
this case; but if the courts are to take ju¬ 
dicial notice of the nature of things so fa¬ 
miliar to man as bees, which I suppose they 


would be justified in doing, then I would 
observe that however it may have been an¬ 
ciently, in modern days the bee has become 
as completely domesticated as the ox or 
cow. Its habits and instincts have been 
studied, and thru the knowledge thus ac¬ 
quired it can be controlled and managed 
with nearly as much certainty as any of the 
domesticated animals; and altho it may be 
proper still to classify it among those ferae 
naturae, it must nevertheless be regarded as 
coming very near the dividing line, and in 
regards to its propensities to do mischief, I 
apprehend that such a thing as a serious 
injury to person or property from its at¬ 
tacks is very rare, not occurring in ratio 
more frequent certainly than injuries aris¬ 
ing from the kick of a horse or a bite of a 
dog. 

There is one rule to be extracted from the 
authorities to which I have referred, not yet 
noticed, and that is that the law looks with 
more favor upon the keeping of animals use¬ 
ful to man than such as are noxious and use¬ 
less. And the keeping of the one, altho in 
some rare instances they may do injury, will 
be tolerated and encouraged, while there is 
nothing to excuse the keeping of the other. 
In the case of Vrooman vs. Lawyer, 13 John. 
Rep. 339, the court says: “If damage be 
done by any animal kept for use or conven¬ 
ience, the owner is not liable to an action 
without notice. ’ ’ The utility of bees no one 
will question ,and hence there is nothing to 
call for the application of a very stringent 
rule to the case. Upon the whole, therefore, 
I am clearly of the opinion that the owner 
of bees is not liable at all events for any 
accidental injury they may do. The question 
is still left whether the keeping of bees so 
near the highway subjects the defendant to 
a responsibility which would not otherwise 
rest upon him. I consider this question sub¬ 
stantially disposed of by the evidence in the 
case. It appears that the bees had been kept 
in the same situation for eight or nine years, 
and no proof was offered of the slightest in¬ 
jury having ever been done by them. On the 
contrary, some of the witnesses testified 
that they had lived in the neighborhood and 
had been in the habit of passing and re¬ 
passing frequently with teams and other¬ 
wise without ever having been molested. 
This rebuts the idea of notice to the de¬ 
fendant, either from the nature of the bees 
or otherwise, that it would be dangerous to 
keep them in that situation, and of course, 
upon the principles already settled, he could 
not be held liable. 

The judgment of the county court must be 
affirmed. 

The two cases last mentioned (Parsons 
vs. Manser and Earl vs. Van Alstine) are 
in perfect harmony. In the first case the 
evidence showed the beekeeper was at 
■fault; in the second, no negligence of the 


560 


LAWS RELATING TO BEES 


beekeeper was proven. From these cases 
it can be seen that the law governing the 
location of bees is very simple. For a bee¬ 
keeper not be liable for any injury that 
his bees may inflict on some other person 
who is acting within his rights the bees 
should be located in such a way that the 
beekeeper knows or should ordinary know 
that they will not be troublesome, for if he 
has knowledge that in the course of ordi¬ 
nary events the bees in the position where 
they are located are liable to molest others, 
he can be held to answer for whatever dam¬ 
ages they may commit, and that means not 
only actual but punitive damages should 
the facts warrant. 

BEES NOT A NUISANCE. 

The liability of a beekeeper for any in¬ 
jury done by the bees to another person or 
the property of another rests on the doc¬ 
trine of negligence, and not on the doctrine 
or theory that bees are a nuisance per se; 
that is, in themselves a nuisance. In the 
case of Petey Manufacturing Co. vs. Dry- 
den (Del.) 5 Pen. 166; 62 Atl. 1056, the 
court used the following language: “The 
keeping of bees is recognized as proper 
and beneficial, and it seems to us that the 
liability of the owner as keeper thereof for 
any injury done by them to the person or 
property of another rests on the doctrine 
of negligence.” Also see Cooley on Torts, 
349. 

CITY ORDINANCES DECLARING BEES A 
NUISANCE. 

The right to follow any of the ordinary 
callings of life, to pursue any lawful busi¬ 
ness vocation, is one of the privileges of 
citizens of this country; but it must be 
done in such a manner as is not incon¬ 
sistent with the equal rights of others. 
Butchers Union vs. Crescent City, etc. Ill 
U. S. 746; 28 L. Ed. 591. 

A city has a right under what is termed 
in law “Police Power” to pass ordinances 
for the public welfare, even tho the thing 
prohibited limits and restricts some person 
in the exercise of a constitutional right, if 
the act is for the public health and welfare. 
For example, laws prohibiting the main¬ 
taining of slaughter-houses in certain dis¬ 
tricts and the prohibiting of livery stables 
on certain streets have been held to be valid 


police legislation. But the act specified in 
the ordinance must, in the particular in¬ 
stance mentioned therein, be a nuisance. 
The mere fact that the city has passed an 
ordinance does not of itself make it so un¬ 
less the bees are in fact a nuisance. 

ARKADELPHIA VS. CLARK. 

Arkadelphia vs. Clark, 52 Ark. 23; 11 
S. W. 957, is a case in point. This particu¬ 
lar case was decided in 1889, and a report 
and history of it was published by Thomas 
G. Newman, then General Manager of the 
National Beekeepers’ Union, for free dis¬ 
tribution to the members. From the his¬ 
tory of the case as given by Newman it 
seems that Z. A. Clark, the defendant in 
the case, was not in political harmony with 
those in power. He was a beekeeper, and 
it was sought to punish him and get rid of 
his presence by prohibiting the keeping of 
bees within the corporate limits of the city 
of Arkadelphia. So in May, 1887, the 
Arkadelphia city council adopted an ordi¬ 
nance which read: 

Be it ordained by the Council of the City 
of Arkadelphia, That it shall be unlawful 
for any person or persons to own, keep, or 
raise bees in the City of Arkadelphia, the 
same having been declared a nuisance. 

That any person or persons keeping or 
owning bees in the City of Arkadelphia are 
hereby notified to remove the same from the 
corporate limits of Arkadelphia within 
thirty days from the date thereof. 

The ordinance also provided a penalty 
of not less than $5.00 nor more than 
$25.00 for violation of the ordinance. 

In June, 1887, Clark was given notice to 
remove his bees. This he did not do, and 
he was arrested on January 2, 1888, and 
fined day after day for ten successive days. 
He did not pay his fines, so was committed 
to jail by the order of the mayor of Arka¬ 
delphia. Being a member of the National 
Beekeepers’ Union, he appealed to it for 
protection; and as it was considered that 
Clark was in the right the National Bee¬ 
keepers’ Union engaged attorneys to de¬ 
fend the suit. 

The decision as handed down by the 
Supreme Court was that “Neither the 
keeping, owning, or raising of bees is, in 
itself, a nuisance. Bees may become a 
nuisance in a city, but whether they are so 
or not is a question to be judicially deter- 


LAWS RELATING TO BEES 


561 


mined in each case. The ordinance under 
consideration undertakes to make each of 
the acts named a nuisance without regard 
to the fact whether it is or not, or whether 
the bees in general have become a nuisance 
in the city. It is therefore too broad and 
is invalid.” 

Another instance where a city tried to 
prohibit beekeeping within the city oc¬ 
curred in 1901, when the city of Rochester, 
N. Y., enacted an ordinance similar to the 
one enacted by the city of Arkadelphia. It 
was repealed on the ground that it was 
unconstitutional. 

W. R. Taunton, a member of the Na¬ 
tional Beekeepers’ Association, was living 
in Rochester. The National Association 
had an investigation made, by which it was 
ascertained that Taunton was handling his 
bees in such a manner as not to annoy his 
neighbors, and that he ought to be pro¬ 
tected, so advised him not to remove his 
bees, and assured him that in case of trou¬ 
ble the association would defend him. 

Taunton was arrested for refusing to 
comply with the ordinance and was tried 
in police court. The defense was that the 
ordinance was unconstitutional and void, 
and it was so held by the court, and the 
defendant was discharged. 

A case where the bees were, from the 
evidence given at the trial, declared to be a 
nuisance, is that of Olmsted vs. Rich, 25 N. 
Y. S. R. 271; 6 N. Y. Supp. 826, which 
was an action for an injunction prohibit¬ 
ing the keeping of bees in a certain place 
and for $1500 damages. At the trial the 
evidence showed that the beekeeper had a 
large number of hives of bees on a village 
lot adjoining the man who desired the in¬ 
junction, and that during the spring and 
summer the bees interfered with the enjoy¬ 
ment of his premises. The bees drove him 
and his servants and guests from his gar¬ 
den and grounds, stinging them, and other¬ 
wise making his dwelling and premises un¬ 
fit and unsafe for habitation, constituting 
a nuisance., The verdict was against the 
beekeeper for six cents damages and a per¬ 
manent injunction was granted, which was 
affirmed on appeal. 

SHIPPING BEES BY RAIL. 

The general rule is, that it is the duty of 
a common carrier to carry all freight that 


is tendered to be carried. As to the right 
to refuse shipment, in Porcher vs. North¬ 
eastern R. R. Co. 14 Rich. L. 181, the court 
quoted with approval from Story, Bail¬ 
ments: “If he (the carrier) refuses to 
take charge of the goods because his coach 
is full or because they are of a nature 
which will at times expose them to extraor¬ 
dinary danger or to popular rage because 
he has no convenient means of carrying 
such goods with security, etc., these will 
furnish reasonable grounds for his refusal, 
and will, if true, be a sufficient legal de¬ 
fense to a suit for the non-carriage of 
goods.” In Boyd vs. Moses, 74 U. S. 7 
Wall 316; 19 L. Ed. 192, it was held that 
“A carrier may refuse to take lard which 
is packed in such a condition that it can¬ 
not be carried without injury to the rest of 
the cargo.” Also see note in 36 L. R. A. 
649. 

The law, therefore, appears to be that if 
bees are properly packed for shipment it 
is the duty of a common carrier of freight 
to take them, but should they be not prop¬ 
erly packed for shipment so that the car¬ 
rier could refuse the shipment on any of 
the previously stated grounds he could le¬ 
gally refuse to accept them. 

LIABILITY OP RAILROADS FOR LOSS IN 
SHIPMENT OF BEES. 

It is the duty of a railroad to furnish a 
proper car when they undertake the trans¬ 
portation of bees; and the railroad com¬ 
pany with which the contract for shipment 
is made is liable for injury caused by a de¬ 
fective car, even tho the ear has left the 
initial road and was in possession of a 
connecting railrpad. This was held to be 
the law in the case of International and 
G. N. R. R. Co. vs. Aten, a Texas case re¬ 
ported in 81 S. W. 346, in which case the 
station agent was informed that the car 
was desired for a shipment of bees. The 
car furnished was not suitable, and by rea¬ 
son of the car not being suitable the bees 
were injured on a connecting road. 

BEES INJURIOUS TO FRUIT. 

That bees are an essential agent in the 
pollination of fruit blossoms, and that they 
are never injurious to sound fruit, or in 
any way injure fruit trees are matters that 
are firmly established. 


562 


LAWS RELATING TO BEES 


That bees do not injure fruit or fruit 
trees has also been established in a court of 
justice to the satisfaction of a jury. It 
was in the case of Utter vs. Utter, tried at 
Goshen, N. Y., in 1901. As the case was 
not appealed from the trial court, the de¬ 
cision is not to be found in the reported 
cases. Iu the Utter case, like the Arka- 
delphia case, the bees were merely inciden¬ 
tal. The facts were, that there had been 
years of previous trouble between the par¬ 
ties, and the suit over the supposed or 
alleged injury caused by the bees was but 
the culmination of the long-continued quar¬ 
rels. 

It was claimed by the plaintiff that the 
bees of defendant ate and destroyed plain¬ 
tiff’s peaches, and the trial was to ascertain 
if such were the case. 

At the trial there appeared as witnesses 
for the defense A. I. Root and E. R. Root 
of Medina, Ohio; Frank Benton of Wash¬ 
ington, D. C., and several others promi¬ 
nent in the world of apiculture. Frank 
Benton, at that time Assistant Entomolo¬ 
gist of the Department of Agriculture, 
Washington, D. C., by reason of his stand¬ 
ing as a scientist and his general knowl¬ 
edge of matters pertaining to apiculture, 
was a very important witness. 

The testimony of Mr. Benton established 
the following facts: 

That the honeybee has a soft, pliable 
tongue, and could not puncture sound 
fruit; that the inner tongue of the bee is 
spoon-shaped and covered with hairs; that 
the tongue of the bee cannot become rigid; 
that the bee laps up the nectar; and that 
the feelers of the bee are soft and cannot 
pierce anything, being pnly organs of 
touch and smell. Mr. Benton’s further 
testimony was to the effect that birds and 
other insects do the puncturing, and that 
then the bees may suck the wasting juices. 

The jury found the bees not guilty of 
injuring the fruit and returned a verdict 
for the defendant, J. W. Utter. 

FRUIT DRYING. 

Where fruit is being dried is another 
matter, and there is no doubt but that 
damage is done by bees to drying fruit if 
they are allowed to work upon it. The 
sugar that bees carry away from the dry¬ 
ing fruit is deducting just that amount of 


weight from the fruit, besides injuring its 
appearance. Bees can also make themselves 
a nuisance to those at work where fruit is 
being dried. In one instance known to the 
writer a beekeeper in California by reason 
of there having been a poor season in the 
mountains brought his bees to the small 
town where he lived. The principal crop 
in and about this town was fruit, and when 
the apricot drying season came on the 
bees became so thick on the newly cut 
fruit that a large force of girls who were 
cutting the fruit had to be laid off and 
operations stopped for the day. That 
night the beekeeper removed his bees some 
three miles away, and the next day made a 
satisfactory settlement with the fruit- 
dryer, and so the trouble ended. 

LAWS RELATING TO FOUL BROOD. 

—In controlling bee diseases in a commu¬ 
nity, past experience has shown that it is 
necessary that every beekeeper do his part; 
otherwise the work done by individuals is 
largely nullified by the carelessness or neg¬ 
lect of a few. Where all the beekeepers 
are progressive, a simple plan of co-opera¬ 
tion would be enough; but, unfortunately, 
there are in almost all communities some 
beekeepers who are either ignorant, care¬ 
less, or willfully negligent. If any of these 
will not voluntarily care for their bees 
there must be some legal means of com¬ 
pelling them to abate a public nuisance 
when disease appears among their colonies. 

Laws providing for inspection of apia¬ 
ries with the object of controlling diseases 
are, therefore, drafted primarily for the 
beekeeper who does not voluntarily treat 
diseased colonies. The progressive bee¬ 
keeper needs so such law to compel him to 
do his duty. The inspector of apiaries, 
however, in actual practice, is much more 
than a police officer; in fact, his police 
duties are but a small part of his work. 
Hpwever the law may be worded, the good 
which an inspector does is due in the 
greater part to his work as an educator. 
It is the duty of the inspector, specified in 
the law in most cases, to instruct the bee¬ 
keepers how to know disease and how and 
when to treat. 

Hawaii and the following States now 
have laws of some kind providing for in¬ 
spection : Arizona, California, Colorado, 


LAWS RELATING TO BEES 


563 


Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, 
Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, 
L entucky, Maine, Maryland, Massachu¬ 
setts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, 
Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New 
Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Ohio, Ok¬ 
lahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode 
Island, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, 
Utah, Vermont, Washington, West Vir¬ 
ginia. Somewhat similar laws exist in New 
Zealand, some States in Australia, Ontario, 
Ireland, and parts of Europe. The bee¬ 
keepers in several other States are now agi¬ 
tating the passage of bee-disease laws. 

These laws may be divided into two 
groups—those in which the work is done 
by men employed by the State, and those 
in which the county authorities appoint in¬ 
spectors for the county only. Of these the 
work by the State officers has proven much 
more effective. In States where the coun¬ 
ties are small, as in the East, county in¬ 
spection is practically of no value. 

In California the county plan for in¬ 
spection has given fairly good results. The 
counties are very large, some of them as 
large as or larger than some States in the 
East. However, it has been felt that the 
State ought to have one general State Bee 
Inspector or State Bee Adviser, so that the 
work of the various counties would corre¬ 
late a little better than it does now. 

The chief weakness in county inspection 
is the lack of co-operation among the in¬ 
spectors in neighboring counties. The dif¬ 
ferences in the ordinances or laws neces¬ 
sarily make inspection in one county more 
rigid than in another. In some cases, there 
is not only a lack of co-operation, but too 
often a jealousy between the various bee 
inspectors. In California this could be 
remedied by having a State Apiarist who 
might have more or less of a supervision 
of the various inspectors or bee advisers of 
the various counties. Where the States are 
smaller and likewise the counties, the 
scheme of county inspection has proven to 
be a failure. 

Practically all laws in force, whether 
State or county, provide for inspection of 
apiaries; penalties for resisting the en¬ 
trance of the inspector on the premises; 
penalties for failing to comply with in¬ 
structions for treatment if the hives are 
found to be diseased, and penalties for 


selling or bartering bees, hives, or appli¬ 
ances before the apiary has been pro¬ 
nounced free of disease. Usually addi¬ 
tional provision is made for more than one 
inspection of queen-rearing yards. This is 
very wise as they might spread infection 
far and wide. 

The Minnesota foul-brood law, based on 
the one in Wisconsin, is one of the best, 
and is here given as one of the best in force. 

APIARY INSPECTION LAW OP MINNESOTA. 

47323. State Inspector — Deputies.—There 
shall be appointed by the governor a prac¬ 
tical apiarist to be the State inspector of 
apiaries, who shall hold office two years or 
until his successor qualities, and who shall 
have power within the limitations set out in 
section 12 [4734] of this act to appoint dep¬ 
uty inspectors as they may be required in 
the interest of time, economy or in emer¬ 
gency for inspection and treatment of api¬ 
aries in different parts of the State. The 
term inspector when used in this act in¬ 
cludes deputy inspector unless otherwise 
specified. Vacancies in the office of State 
inspector of apiaries shall be filled for the 
unexpired term in the manner above pre¬ 
scribed for original appointment. 

4724. Duty of Inspector.—It shall be the 
duty of the State inspector to aid the de¬ 
velopment of the bee and honey industry 
and to adopt proper measures for the pre¬ 
vention and suppression of contagious dis¬ 
eases and infectious diseases among bees. 

4725. Powers and Duties.—The State in¬ 
spector shall have authority at his discre¬ 
tion to visit and examine personally or by 
deputy any apiary for the purpose of ascer¬ 
taining the existence, or the treatment or 
destruction of any disease among bees or 
brood; and for this or any other purpose 
within the scope of this act he may enter 
upon private property. When notified of 
the probable existence of contagious or in¬ 
fectious disease of bees or brood in any 
apiary he shall visit and examine said api¬ 
ary personally or by deputy as he shall deem 
most expedient within thirty (30) days from 
receipt of said notice. Wherever any con¬ 
tagious or infectious disease of bees or 
brood shall be found the inspector shall in¬ 
spect all apiaries within a radius of three 
miles of said apiary of which he is able to 
learn by diligence. After inspecting any 
apiaries or appurtenances thereof of bees or 
brood in which contagious or infectious dis¬ 
ease has been found he shall thoroughly dis¬ 
infect every portion of his person and cloth¬ 
ing and every tool and appliance used by 
him that may have been in contact with in¬ 
fected material, and shall cause every assist¬ 
ant with him to do likewise. No person shall 
refuse to assist in the inspection and in the 


564 


LAWS RELATING TO FOUL BROOD 


necessary treatment or destruction of his 
infected brood, bees, honey or appurten¬ 
ances, nor shall any person impede, hinder or 
obstruct an inspector in any of liis duties. 
(As amended 1921, Chap. 517, Sec. 1.) 

4726. Diseased bees declared nuisance— 
Abatement.—All bees, brood, and apiary ap¬ 
purtenances, infected with any contagious 
or infectious diseases which, after inspection 
by an inspector, who is hereby made sole 
judge of the character thereof, shall have 
been declared by him to be incurable ac¬ 
cording to his best judgment, and which ap¬ 
purtenances cannot be successfully disinfect¬ 
ed, and ar§ liable to spread disease, are here¬ 
by declared and adjudged to be public nuis¬ 
ances, and subject to abatement as such ac¬ 
cording to law. The inspector or deputy 
shall also cause said bees or brood or apiary 
appurtenances to be immediately destroyed 
by fire under his personal supervision, and 
the owner thereof or the person in charge 
of the same is hereby required to assist him 
in said work and to carry out such destruc¬ 
tion according to his directions. 

4727. Treatment of disease.—Wherever 
in the judgment of the inspector or his dep¬ 
uty it shall be practicable to cure the dis¬ 
eases or any of them which shall be found 
in any apiary, by treatment, he may order 
the bees and apiary appurtenances affected 
therewith to be treated for twenty-one days 
or until cured. Whenever treatment shall 
be so ordered the owner and the person in 
charge of said bees or appurtenances shall 
carry out proper treatment as prescribed. 
The inspector shall also inspect such dis¬ 
eased apiaries a second time after twenty- 
one days when he shall cause all bees, brood, 
and appurtenances and honey in which the 
disease shall be found not to have been 
cured to be destroyed as in section 4 [4726] 
hereof so far as may be necessary to prevent 
the spread of the disease; and wherever said 
property shall be so destroyed the owner 
thereof shall receive no compensation there¬ 
for. 

4728. Transfer of bees.—The State in¬ 
spector or his deputies at his discretion may 
order the owner or the person in charge of 
bees dwelling in log gums, boxes or other re¬ 
ceptacles in which the combs are station¬ 
ary, to transfer said bees to hives wherein 
the combs shall be movable. In default of 
such transfer said bees and all the articles 
in which they are contained are declared to 
be a public nuisance, and shall be disposed 
of according to section 4726, General Stat¬ 
utes of Minnesota, 1913. (As amended 1921, 
Chap. 517, Sec. 2.) 

4729. Offenses—Penalties.—-(a) No per¬ 
son shall sell, barter, offer for sale or barter, 
move, transport, deliver, ship or offer for 
shipment, any apiary, bees, comb, or used 
beekeeping appliances without a permit 
from the inspector of apiaries; or in lieu 
thereof, if shipped or transported from with¬ 


out the State, a certificate duly issued by 
the official State inspector showing that said 
apiary, bees, comb or appliances have been 
inspected and found not infected with any 
contagious or infectious disease of bees. 
Such permit or copy of such certificate shall 
be affixed to the outside of every package, 
box, crate, or bundle containing bees, comb, 
or used beekeeping appliances. The inspec¬ 
tor may refuse such permit whenever such 
refusal is necessary, in his judgment, to 
prevent the dissemination of any contagi¬ 
ous or infectious disease of bees, or until 
after he finds by inspection that the said 
apiary, bees, comb, or appliances are not in¬ 
fected with any such disease. 

(b) No person shall accept for shipment, 
ship or transport, any such bees, comb or 
used beekeeping appliances unless such per¬ 
mit or certificate is affixed on the outside of 
the package, box, crate or bundle containing 
the same; and the inspector or any of his 
deputies may forthwith seize and destroy 
any such shipment found at any time or 
place without such permit or certificate af¬ 
fixed as aforesaid. 

(c) The use of any invalid or altered 
permit or certificate and the misuse of any 
valid permit or certificate are hereby pro¬ 
hibited. 

(d) No person shall expose in any place 
to which bees have access, any bee product, 
hive, or other apiary appliance in such man¬ 
ner that contagious or infectious diseases of 
bees could be disseminated therefrom. 

(e) Any person who knows that any bees 
owned, possessed or controlled by him are 
infected with any contagious or infectious 
disease shall at once report to the inspector 
of apiaries, stating all other facts known to 
him with reference to said contagion or in¬ 
fection. 

(f) The words "person” and "owner” 
as used in this act include natural persons, 
firms, associations, and corporations; and 
any person who, himself, or by his agent or 
employe or as agent or employe for another 
violates any provision of this act, or any 
regulation or order made in pursuance there¬ 
of shall be punished by a fine of not less 
than five dollars nor more than one hundred 
dollars. (As amended 1921, Chap. 517, Sec. 
3.) 

4730. Queen bees, etc.—Any person en¬ 
gaged in the rearing of queen bees shall 
have his queen-rearing apiary inspected at 
least three times each summer season; on 
the discovery of the existence of any con¬ 
tagious or infectious disease in the bees, 
brood, or appurtenances of said apiary he 
shall cease to sell or give away any queen 
bees from said apiary until it shall have 
been declared free from disease by an in¬ 
spector after inspection thereof. Candy 
used in mailing cages of queen bees shall be 
made from honey which has been boiled 
thirty minutes or more. Any person violat- 


LAYING WORKERS 


565 


ing this section shall be guilty and liable as 
prescribed in section 7 [4729] of this act. 

4731. (Repealed 1921, Chap. 517, Sec. 4.) 

4732. Affidavits.—Whenever destruction 
or treatment of any bees or apiary appurten¬ 
ances shall have been ordered the State in¬ 
spector may require the owner or person in 
charge. of said property to file an affidavit 
with him that the destruction or treatment 
has been carried out effectually. 

4733. Meaning of “apiaries.”—Apiaries 
within the meaning of this act shall mean 
any places where one or more hives or colo¬ 
nies of bees are kept. 

4734. Salaries.—The State inspector shall 
receive a salary of fifteen hundred dollars 
$1,500.00) per annum in equal monthly pay¬ 
ments, and shall be allowed the expenses 
necessarily incurred by him in the discharge 
of his duties. Deputy inspectors shall each 
receive six dollars ($6.00) per day for each 
day actually spent in the performance of 
his duties. The total expenses of the office, 
including salaries and compensation of all 
employes, shall not exceed the appropriation 
therefor. (As amended 1919, Chap. 100, 
Sec. 1.) 

4735. Biennial report. — Record. — The 
State inspector shall make a biennial report 
to the governor stating the number of api¬ 
aries inspected, and the number where dis¬ 
ease shall be found, the number of colonies 
treated, cured and destroyed, an itemized 
expense account of his deputies, and such in¬ 
formation as he may deem important to the 
State and of value to the art of apiculture. 
This report shall be printed by the State 
printer and copies thereof sent by the State 
inspector of apiaries to the members of the 
Minnesota beekeepers’ association and to 
all in the State who may apply for it. He 
shall also keep a record of all apiaries and 
the location thereof in which contagious or 
infectious diseases shall be found within 
the last year of his office and turn the same 
over to his successor. (As amended 1921, 
Chap. 511.) 

4736. Oath and bond.—The State inspec¬ 
tor of apiaries shall take the usual oath of 
office and give bonds in the sum of two 
thousand dollars for the faithful discharge 
of his duties. 

LAYING WORKERS. —These queer in¬ 
mates, or, rather, occasional inmates, of 
the hive are worker bees that lay eggs. 
The eggs they lay do hatch, too; but they 
hatch only drones, and never worker bees. 
The drones are rather smaller than the 
drones produced by a queen, but they are 
nevertheless drones, in every respect, so 
far as is known. It may be well to explain 
that ordinary worker bees are not neuters, 
as they are sometimes called, but undevel¬ 
oped females. Microscopic examination 


shows an undeveloped form of the special 
organs found in the queen, and these or¬ 
gans may become, at any time, sufficiently 
developed to allow the bee to lay eggs, but 
never to allow for fertilization by meeting 
the drone as the queen does. See Par¬ 
thenogenesis, Dzierzon Theory, and 
Queens. 

CAUSE OF LAYING WORKERS. 

It has been suggested that bees capable 
of this egg-laying duty are those reared in 
the vicinity of queen-cells, and that by 
some means they have received a small por¬ 
tion of the royal jelly necessary to their 
development as bee-mothers. This theory 
has been entirely disproved by many ex¬ 
periments; and it is now pretty generally 
conceded that laying workers may make 
their appearance in any colony or nucleus 
that has been many days queenless, and 
without the means of rearing a queen. In 
the case of Cyprians, Syrians, and their 
crosses the laying workers are common, 
even tho the colony has a good queen; and 
a case is known of a yearling queen in full 
vigor; a queen a few weeks old and reared 
in the same colony, and scores of laying 
workers, all busily laying on the same 
combs. The stock was Cyprian. 

Not only may one bee take these duties, 
but there may be many of them; and wher¬ 
ever the beekeeper has been so careless as 
to leave his bees destitute of either brood 
or- queen for two or three weeks, he is li¬ 
able to find evidences of their presence, in 
the shape of eggs scattered about promiscu¬ 
ously; sometimes one, but oftener half a 
dozen in a single cell. 

Sometimes the eggs will be found stuck 
on the sides of the cell. In that case it is 
evident the laying worker cannot reach the 
bottom of the cell. Very often there will 
be found several eggs in a queen-cell. 

If the matter has been going on for some 
time, one will see now and then a drone 
larva, and sometimes two or three crowding 
each other in their single cell; sometimes 
bees start queen-cells over this drone larva; 
the poor motherless orphans, seeming to 
feel that something is wrong, are disposed, 
like a drowning man, to catch any straw. 

HOW TO GET RID OF LAYING WORKERS. 

Prevention is better than cure. If a col- 


LAYING WORKERS 


566 

ony, from any cause, become queenless, be 
sure it has unsealed brood of the proper 
age to raise a queen; and when one is 
raised, see that she becomes fertile. It 
can never do any harm to give a queenless 
colony eggs and brood, and it may be the 
saving of it. But suppose one has been so 
careless as to allow a colony to become 
queenless and get weak, what is he to do"? 
If he attempts to give them a queen, and 
laying workers are present, she will be 
pretty sure to be killed; it is sometimes 
difficult to get them to accept even a queen¬ 
cell. The poor bees get into a habit of 
accepting the egg-laying workers as a 
queen, and they will have none other until 
they are removed; yet they can not be 
found, for they are just like any other 
bee; one may get hold of them, possibly,' 
by carefully noticing the way in which the 
other bees deport themselves toward them, 
or one may catch them in the act of egg- 
laying; but even this often fails, for there 
may be several such in the hive at once. 
A strip of comb containing eggs and brood 
may be given them, but they will seldom 
start a good queen-cell, if they start any 
at all; for, in the majority of cases, a col¬ 
ony having laying workers seems perfectly 
demoralized, so far as getting into regular 
work is concerned. 

It is difficult to introduce a laying queen 
to such colonies; for as soon as she is re¬ 
leased from the cage she may be stung to 
death. No better results would follow 
from introducing an ordinary virgin; but 
the giving of a queen-cell, or a just- 
emerged virgin, if the colony has not been 
too long harboring laying workers, will 
very often bring about a change for the 
better. In such cases the cell will be ac¬ 
cepted, and in due course of time there 
will be a laying queen in place of the laying 
worker or workers; but often cells will be 
destroyed as fast as they are given. Some 
have recommended to scatter brood and 
bees among several other colonies, perhaps 
one or two frames in each. From each of 
these same colonies take a frame or two of 
brood with adhering bees, and put them 
into the laying-worker hive. The bees of 
this hive, • which have been scattered into 
several hives, will for the most part return; 
but the laying worker or workers will re¬ 
main and in all probability be destroyed 


in the other hives. Of course, the colonies 
that have been robbed of good brood will 
suffer somewhat; but if it is after the hon¬ 
ey season, no great harm will have been 
done. They will proceed to clean up the 
combs; and if they do not need the drones 
they will destroy them. 

While it is difficult, as has just been 
stated, to introduce a queen to a colony that 
has laying workers it can be done, but no 
valuable queen should be used for the pur¬ 
pose. To introduce to laying workers use 
either the Miller smoke method or the 
Smith introducing cage as explained under 
Introducing. 

See that every hive contains at all times, 
during the spring and summer months at 
least, brood suitable for rearing a queen, 
and laying workers will not appear. 

HOW TO DETECT THE PRESENCE OF LAYING 
WORKERS. 

If no queen is found and eggs are scat¬ 
tered around promiscuously, some in drone 
and some in worker cells, some attached to 
the side of the cell, instead of the center of 
the bottom, where the queen lays them, 
several in one cell and none in the next, it 
may be assumed that laying workers are 
present. Still later, if the worker-brood 
is capped with the high convex cappings, 
it indicates clearly drone brood. Finding 
two or more eggs in a cell is never con¬ 
clusive, for the queen often so deposits 
them in a weak colony where there are not 
bees enough to cover the brood. The eggs 
deposited by a fertile queen are usually in 
regular order, as one would plant a field of 
corn; but those from laying workers, and 
usually from drone-laying queens, are ir¬ 
regularly scattered about. 

LEVTJLOSE. —See Honey. 

LIME.— See Alfalfa and Clover. 

LIMA BEAN (Pirn seolus lunatus.) — 
Seventy-five per cent of all the beans har¬ 
vested in the United States are grown in 
California, and more than 50 per cent of 
the entire crop comes from the southwest¬ 
ern counties of Ventura, Orange, Santa 
Barbara, and San Diego. In 1920 Ven¬ 
tura County reported 66,000 tons, Orange 
County 25,000 tons, Santa Barbara County 
13,000 tons and San Diego County 11,000 


LIMA BEANS 


tons. Of the various varieties of beans 
raised in California only the Lima bean is 
of value to the beekeeper, altho the black- 
eyed bean has been erroneously stated to 
yield an amber-colored honey. 

The crop of Lima beans in southern Cali¬ 
fornia in 1918 was 1,505,000 bags; in 1919, 
it was 810,000 bags; and in 1920 900,000 
bags. It is estimated that in 1920 there 
was under cultivation 149,837 acres. Cali¬ 
fornia produces 85 per cent of all the Lima 
beans grown in the world. The only other 
place where they are planted on a commer¬ 
cial scale is on the island of Madagascar. 
The Lima bean is adapted to a coastal strip 
20 miles in width, extending from Santa 
Barbara County southward to San Diego 
County, which is subject to heavy ocean 
fogs. Cool sea fogs and the absence of 
protracted hot spells are required for the 
maturing of the plant, otherwise it is apt 
to blight; but the dense fogs often retard 
the flight of bees. 

This species is a twin-ing vine with ra¬ 
cemes of small white flowers, and com¬ 
pound leaves of three-pointed, ovate, entire 
leaflets. The pod is scimitar-shaped with 
a few large flat seeds. A bush variety of 
the Lima bean has been very extensively 
planted during the past few years. It is 
grown a little farther away from the ocean 
and is irrigated. In 1920 thousands of 
acres of this bean were planted in the San 
Fernando Valley which was the haven of 
many a migratory beekeeper. Nectar was 
yielded in abundance. by irrigated bush- 
Lima bean fields, while bees dependent on 
the older variety of pole Limas were starv¬ 
ing. The vines bloom in July and August 
and yield a heavy, white, mild honey which 
has an agreeable flavor. Most of the honey 
is secured during the first two weeks of 
bloom. It granulates quickly. The honey 
crop from this source is rather uncertain 
as it is influenced by weather conditions. 
If there are many days of hot sunshine 
little nectar is secreted, and too much fog 
prevents the flight of the bees. 

Ventura County leads the world in the 
production of beans, the larger portion of 
the acreage being devoted to Lima beans. 
There are rows of Lima beans a mile in 
length. In this county the crop of bean 
honey is usually fairly reliable, and an av¬ 
erage of 50 pounds per colony is secured 


567 

in a good season. But as much as 150 
pounds per colony has been obtained. Twice 
the crop has been a failure. Some years 
ago a hot wind literally withered the bloom, 
and again in 1920 the bloom was reported 
as nectarless. After the honey flow from 
the sages is over many beekeepers move 
their colonies to the bean fields. There have 
been as many as 2,000 colonies in a radius 
of three miles, and it has been estimated 
that nearly 500 beekeepers migrate to the 
bean fields. 

As a rule the beans never receive a drop 
of rain from the time of planting to har¬ 
vesting. The ground water and the ocean 
fogs furnish all the moisture they receive. 
The beans are planted in drills about 3 
feet apart, and 10 inches apart in the row, 
by a machine planting three or four rows 
at a time. All weeds are destroyed by cul¬ 
tivation and hand-weeding. As there is no 
rain the vines do not require poles, but can 
lie on the ground without rotting. The 
beans are harvested by a machine with two 
knives, each knife cutting one row. After 
threshing the beans are sacked and trans¬ 
ported to great warehouses 300 feet long 
by 100 feet wide. The crop ranges from 
1,000 to 2,000 pounds per acre. After the 
bean crop is removed the fields are so bare 
that a sheep would starve on a hundred 
acres, and there is no pasturage for bees. 

Bean farming in California is conducted 
on a very extensive scale. On the Irving 
ranch in Orange County, which is one of 
the largest single tracts of land in the 
West, 25,000 acres of beans are planted 
each year. Between Los Angeles and the 
Palms there are several ranches which con¬ 
tain 2,000 to 3,500 acres. Probably not 
less than a dozen bean ranches in southern 
California contain 10,000 acres of land. 
The land is plowed and harrowed by trac¬ 
tors working day and night. Modern bean 
farmers are beginning to practice irriga¬ 
tion and intensive cultivation on tracts of 
40 to 300 acres in extent, as the result of 
the high rentals paid for the use of the 
land. 

LINDEN. — See Basswood. 

LIVE-BEE DEMONSTRATION. — See 

Honey Exhibits. 

LOCALITY. —No one should enter ex¬ 
tensively on the production of honey until 


568 


LOCALITY 


he has found a suitable location, for the 
foundation of success in beekeeping is the 
location. Many of the manipulations rec¬ 
ommended for one locality will not answer 
for another. The same hive under differ¬ 
ent conditions may give very different re¬ 
sults. The length of the flow and the time 
it begins must receive careful considera¬ 
tion. If the honey flow is short and rapid, 
as in the basswood regions where the honey 
is mainly white, it is, as a rule, more profit¬ 
able to produce comb honey than extracted 
honey. But a slow honey flow extending 
over three or four months may render the 
production of comb honey impracticable 
since the combs will be travel-stained and 
will not command the highest market price. 

Locality also exerts a great influence on 
the treatment the bees should receive. If 
no honey is stored after the middle of July, 
and the beekeeper lives in a State where 
snow falls in winter and cold weather pre¬ 
vails for five or six months, he will not en¬ 
courage brood-rearing till September when 
he will feed to stimulate and to provide 
sufficient winter stores. If, however, he 
has a fall flow he is fortunate to get the 
colonies in the best possible condition for 
winter. If the beekeeper is located in the 
South the bees will require a much lar¬ 
ger amount of stores than in the North, 
for in a warm climate the bees are more 
active and consume more honey in brood¬ 
rearing. The bees in the northern States 
are likely to perish from cold; in the south¬ 
ern States from starvation. 

Some localities are so cold that only cel¬ 
lar wintering is practicable. (See Winter¬ 
ing in Cellars.) South of these extreme¬ 
ly cold places outdoor wintering in double- 
walled hives or packing cases is prefer¬ 
able. 

Some regions of the country are favor¬ 
able for the propagation of European foul 
brood mainly for the want of early flows 
to build up the colonies in the spring. 

Many inquiries have been received as to 
the best locations for beekeeping. So many 
factors enter into this question that a sat¬ 
isfactory reply is difficult to give, and often 
the beekeeper can remain at home to ad¬ 
vantage. The value of a locality depends 
on the personality and methods of the bee¬ 
keeper, as well as on the honey flora. “The 
poor quality reported for many regions,” 


says Phillips, “is probably due to poor bee¬ 
keeping. In many sections adequate trials 
of commercial beekeeping have not been 
made. The prevalence of foul brood is not 
a serious drawback to a* genuine beekeeper 
and there are advantages in choosing a lo¬ 
cation where it has cleaned out competi¬ 
tion.” 

Beekeeping is only moderately successful 
in New England, but the bee pasturage of 
this section might be greatly improved by 
more commonly planting alsike clover in¬ 
stead of red clover. Excellent results have 
been obtained in the Champlain Valley, 
Vermont, where there are limestone soils 
and the surplus comes from white and al¬ 
sike clover. Other good locations are 
Aroostook County, Maine, the Berkshire 
Valley, Massachusetts, and portions of cen¬ 
tral Connecticut. 

In the production of honey New York 
leads the eastern States. On the glacial till 
soils of St. Lawrence and Jefferson Coun¬ 
ties the clovers yield an immense amount 
of white honey. A second white clover 
belt extends from Buffalo to the Hudson 
River, which includes a large number of 
apiaries located among the Finger Lakes, 
Cayuga County, and around Syracuse, 
Onondaga County. The southern portion 
of the State, especially the southwest cor¬ 
ner, is the great buckwheat country, where 
this plant is usually a reliable source of 
honey. Another important center for bee 
culture is found in the eastern part of the 
State in Schenectady County where the 
clovers, buckwheat, and basswood are abun¬ 
dant. 

Southeastern Pennsylvania is in a very 
high state of cultivation and few follow 
beekeeping as a vocation. Along the north- 
central border and in the northwest corner 
thousands of acres of buckwheat are 
grown. Within the mountains there are 
many fertile valleys with limestone floors, 
where the clovers flourish and yield well. 
Southwestern Pennsylvania in the region 
of the great steel mills and oil fields affords 
little pasturage for bees. New Jersey, 
Delaware, and Maryland are not consid¬ 
ered beekeeping States from a commercial 
point of view and the average surplus per 
colony is low. 

Thruout the southern States many of the 
colonies are still in “gums,” but beekeepers 


LOCALITY 


569 


are transferring into modern hives very 
rapidly. The number of colonies per 
square mile is greater here than else¬ 
where in the country, which indicates 
good beekeeping conditions.” The solu¬ 
tion of the problem in the South,” says 
Phillips, “lies in the development of a few 
extensive beekeepers relatively who will 
practice migratory beekeeping. If the dif¬ 
ficulties of transportation can be overcome 
the South can produce enormous crops of 
honey.” In the southeastern States the 
honey crop comes chiefly from the swamps 
or from the mountains, and in both loca¬ 
tions the honey plants are mostly shrubs 
and trees. Much of the soil is acid and 
white clover is found only to a limited ex¬ 
tent. 

The pine barrens of eastern Virginia 
offer little opportunity for bee culture. A 
good locality is the section of the Pied¬ 
mont Plateau east of the Blue Ridge. In 
the Great Limestone Valley west of this 
range of mountains and in the smaller lime¬ 
stone valleys in the southwest portion of 
the State the area of sweet clover and white 
clover is yearly increasing. There is, how¬ 
ever, little commercial honey production in 
Virginia. Beekeeping is most prosperous 
in Kentucky in the famous blue grass 
region or the Lexington Plain. It is a 
limestone area, and in Pendleton and 
Bracken Counties there is a great acreage 
of sweet clover. The Coastal Plain of 
North Carolina, with its vast area of swamp¬ 
land covered with gallberry, gum trees, 
huckleberry, and blackberry, offers, in the 
opinion of E. R. Root, great opportunities 
to the specialist. The cotton belt is the 
poorest part of the State for beekeeping. 
Sourwood and tulip tree yield a large sur¬ 
plus in the western highlands and moun¬ 
tains. Beekeeping is in a very undevel¬ 
oped condition in South Carolina. More 
than 10,000,000 acres of pine barrens are 
largely destitute of honey plants. Good 
opportunities may be found in Horry 
County on the coast, and in Pickens and 
Oconee Counties in the northwestern part 
of the State. 

In southeastern Georgia where the gall- 
berry and tupelos are abundant the honey 
crop is usually reliable, and a surplus of 
100 pounds per colony is often obtained. 
There is little commercial beekeeping in 


northern Georgia. About one-tliird of the 
honey crop of Florida comes from the 
black and white tupelos growing in the 
swamps of the Apalachicola River. 

A light crop of honey is often obtained 
in central and southern Florida from or¬ 
ange and palmetto, and black mangrove in 
some seasons yields well in the southwest¬ 
ern part of the State. Migratory beekeep¬ 
ing is found to be fairly profitable on the 
Keys. (See Migratory Beekeeping.) In 
general, beekeeping in Florida is not as 
profitable as in many northern States. The 
great advantage of the peninsula State is 
from the standpoint of health, and for this 
reason much of the available bee-territory 
is overstocked. 

In Alabama and Mississippi the best 
section for beekeeping is the Black Belt, 
or sweet clover belt, a tract of land 
which extends from Union Springs, Ala¬ 
bama, to Noxubee County, Mississippi, 
where it follows the State line northward 
to Tennessee. Thousands of acres of sweet 
clover flourish in this section, and the api¬ 
aries, which range from 50 to 200 colo¬ 
nies, are much larger than in other parts 
of the State. In the Yazoo Delta are the 
most fertile soils in Mississippi and a more 
dense acreage of cotton can not be found 
elsewhere in the South; but none of the 
honey plants are of great value except 
holly, without which, declares a beekeeper, 
it would not pay to keep bees. Fair op¬ 
portunities for beekeeping may be found 
near the swamps and in most of the river 
valleys of both Alabama and Mississippi. 

In Louisiana the alluvial tracts along the 
Red and Mississippi Rivers and the Atcha- 
falaya River Basin are as well adapted for 
honey production as any portion of the 
southern States. It is in these sections that 
white clover has taken such a strong hold. 
It grows iiere.more luxuriantly than in the 
North and yields a large amount of honey. 
Unfortunately only a few beekeepers are 
located in the territory as yet. The south¬ 
east half of Arkansas belongs to the Coast¬ 
al Plain, and, as the honey flora of the low¬ 
lands is dependable, it offers excellent op¬ 
portunities for engaging in beekeeping on 
a co mm ercial scale. A thorny chaparral 
of Mexican origin covers the Rio Grande 
Plain in southeastern Texas. Huajilla, 
catsclaw, mesquite, coma, and a score of 


570 


LOCALITY 


other shrubs yield nectar so copiously that 
in a favorable season it is almost impossi¬ 
ble to overstock this region with bees. On 
the Black Prairie, which extends from San 
Antonio to the north border line, cotton is 
a reliable honey plant, and seldom fails to 
yield a large surplus. West of the Pecos 
River agriculture is dependent upon irriga¬ 
tion, and alfalfa is the main dependence 
of several large honey producers. 

In most of the southern States the honey 
yields are lighter than in the North. As 
in California the queens from continual 
breeding wear out, leaving colonies weak 
when they should be strong. 

In no part of the United States are the 
soils and weather conditions better adapted 
for the growth of white clover than in 
northwestern Ohio, eastern Indiana, south¬ 
ern Michigan, southern Wisconsin, south¬ 
ern Minnesota, and in Louisiana along the 
rivers. In the Upper Peninsula of Michi¬ 
gan alsike clover is very abundant and 
thousands of acres of unoccupied territory 
invite the beekeeper. In southwestern In¬ 
diana large crops of honey are stored from 
climbing milkweed, and in the northwestern 
corner Spanish needles and boneset in the 
Kankakee swamps are valuable in the fall. 
White clover, sweet clover, and heartsease 
are so common in Stephenson County that 
no other portion of northwestern Illinois 
produces so large a surplus of honey. On 
the Mississippi River, where there is a wide 
valley, Spanish needles, heartsease, and 
boneset assure a dependable fall flow. 
Northern Wisconsin is at present only par¬ 
tially developed, but the pioneer beekeeper 
will find it one of the most promising sec¬ 
tions in the United States. Also in the 
cut-over region of northern Minnesota 
there is little competition and a profitable 
crop of honey may be expected annually. 

In Iowa there are two swept clover re¬ 
gions, one in the eastern part of the State, 
especially in Jackson County; and the 
other in the western part of the State 
along the Missouri River extending south¬ 
ward from Sioux City. Good results may 
be expected in almost every county in this 
State. The majority of successful bee¬ 
keepers in Missouri are located near the 
Missouri and Mississippi Rivers and their 
tributaries, but there are not many com¬ 
mercial beekeepers in this State. When 


white clover fails on the uplands, a crop 
may be obtained from the fall flowers 
along the rivers. 

Thruout the western States semiarid con¬ 
ditions prevail, except in the rain belt west 
of the Cascade Range, and commercial bee¬ 
keeping is dependent almost entirely on ir¬ 
rigated alfalfa and sweet clover. The bee 
pasturage of North Dakota is promising; 
but in South Dakota there is a large area 
of sweet clover in the southeastern coun¬ 
ties, and in the Black Hills there are thou¬ 
sands of acres of irrigated alfalfa. The 
Belle Fourche Valley is an ideal farming 
region. Where alfalfa is grown without 
irrigation in Nebraska the yield varies 
greatly in different sections and in different 
years. It is most reliable in the valley of 
the Platte River, which crosses the State 
from west to east.. In Kansas likewise al¬ 
falfa in many portions of the State is an 
uncertain honey plant, but it is most de¬ 
pendable on all streams west of Topeka. 
Good locations in Oklahoma' are found 
along the larger streams, as the Canadian 
and Washita Rivers. In Nebraska, Kan¬ 
sas, and Oklahoma the future of beekeep¬ 
ing will depend largely on the increase of 
the sweet clover acreage, which is now com¬ 
ing on very rapidly. 

The largest surplus of honey in Montana 
comes from the irrigated lands along the 
Yellowstone River and from Ravalli Coun¬ 
ty in the Rocky Mountains. Probably in 
no State in the Union are larger crops of 
honey produced than in northern and 
southeastern Wyoming. In the Great 
Plains of Colorado bee culture is profitable 
only in the valleys of the South Platte and 
Arkansas Rivers. There are few bees in 
the Rocky Mountains, but on the Western 
Slope irrigated alfalfa and sweet clover 
along the irrigating ditches seldom fail to 
yield a bountiful harvest. Bee culture in 
New Mexico is restricted mainly to the val¬ 
leys of the Rio Grande, Pecos, and San 
Juan Rivers. 

At Sandpoint in northern Idaho white 
clover, buckbush, and fireweed are excellent 
sources of honey. In southern Idaho the 
best locations are the irrigated alfalfa 
fields in the Boise Valley and in the vicin¬ 
ity of Twin Falls. Most of the beekeepers 
of Utah are found in the Uinta Basin and 
the mountainous tract extending thru the 


LOCUST 


571 


central portion of the State. Nevada is 
largely a desert, but the western counties 
produce the finest and whitest alfalfa hon¬ 
ey. The Salt River Valley of Arizona was 
for many years a famous country for bee¬ 
keeping, but during the World War, the 
great fields of alfalfa were ploughed, and 
seeded with long staple Egyptian cotton, 
which is largely used in the manufacture of 
automobile tires. The decline in the price 
of cotton has rendered its cultivation un¬ 
profitable, at least temporarily, and neither 
cotton nor alfalfa is likely to be exten¬ 
sively grown for a few years. 

Commercial beekeeping in Washington 
and Oregon is confined wholly to the irri¬ 
gated areas west of the Cascade Range. 
In the Yakima Valley, Washington, and in 
Umatilla County, Oregon, irrigated alfalfa 
is the chief honey plant. In the lumbered 
regions of the Coast Range, where there is 
a heavy rainfall, fireweed offers wonder¬ 
ful possibilities, but the colonies require 
special management and the nectar flow is 
not always reliable. Undoubtedly Califor¬ 
nia leads all the States of the Union in the 
total amount of honey produced. The most 
important honey plants are orange, the 
white, black, and purple sages, Lima bean, 
and alfalfa. The secretion of nectar is 
largely dependent on irrigation, rainfall, 
and fog. Alfalfa is the chief source of 
surplus in the Central Valley, but star 
thistle is very important northward. In 
the southwestern counties of Santa Bar¬ 
bara, Ventura, Los Angeles, Riverside, San 
Bernardino, Orange, and San Diego most of 
the commercial beekeepers are located. Mi¬ 
gratory beekeeping is extensively practiced. 
The home apiary is usually located in the 
foothills near the orange, groves. After 
the flow from orange bloom is over, it is 
moved to the sage ranges, then to the bean 
fields, and perhaps later to wild buckwheat. 
Within 150 miles of Los Angeles, says E. 
R. Root, there are more bees and beekeep¬ 
ers than in any other part of the United 
States, and full 50 per cent of them are 
located in the sage ranges. One difficulty in 
southern California is bee diseases, both the 
American and European foul brood. The 
bees breed almost every month in the year 
and of course the bi'ood diseases can con¬ 
tinue for ten or eleven months. It takes 
good beekeeping to overcome this and the 


tendency for the queens to wear out, leav¬ 
ing the colonies with insufficient brood at 
a time of the year when it is most needed 
to insure a force of bees for the orange. 
In the Imperial Valley the surplus flow 
comes almost wholly from irrigated alfalfa 
and cotton. A fair average is 75 pounds per 
colony and it is seldom that a crop is a fail¬ 
ure. Few bee ranges are unoccupied and 
no one should migrate to this section with¬ 
out first investigating. The valley was for¬ 
merly known as the Colorado Desert. 

In a general way it may be said that the 
yields per colony in the North are larger 
than in the South. Moreover the higher 
the altitude and the further north one goes, 
the better the quality of honey and the 
larger the average yields. 

LOCUST (Robinia Pseudo-Acacia ).— 
Variously called common locust, black lo¬ 
cust, white locust, yellow locust, false Aca¬ 
cia, pea flower, locust, post locust, and 
locust tree. This is one of the finest honey 
trees of the eastern and southern States. It 
belongs to the great family of the Legumi- 
nosae, which includes many of the best 
honey plants, as the clovers, sainfoin, red 
bud, honey locust, sweet clover, and hua- 
jilla. It is a native of the mountains from 
Pennsylvania to Georgia, and westward to 
Missouri and Arkansas; but has become ex¬ 
tensively naturalized in Canada, New Eng¬ 
land, and the eastern States. Large plan¬ 
tations of it have been made for timber. 
The wood is hard and very durable, and is 
much used for posts. There is a saying 
that stone will crumble before locust will 
rot. The tree grows to medium size, and 
is long-lived except when attacked by bor¬ 
ers. It spreads rapidly by, sprouts rising 
from the roots, which run under grourid 
for long distances near the surface. When 
the trees are cut or killed by borers the 
roots send up a great many sprouts, which 
grow very rapidly and flower within two 
or three years. 

The white, very fragrant flowers are simi¬ 
lar in form to the blossoms of the garden 
pea, but are in pendent clusters like those 
of wistaria. They appear in May or June, 
and the blooming period lasts for about 10 
days. Under favorable conditions a large 
amount of milk-white honey of heavy body 
and mild flavor is secured, but it is not a 


572 


LOCUST 



Common Locust. 


al Department of the State. In southeastern 
Indiana it is very common, and strong colo¬ 
nies of bees secure a surplus from the 
bloom. But the flowers appear so early 
and last for so short a time that weak 
colonies are able to gather only a part of 


listed as important. At Laurelsprings, 
N. C., a full super of honey is gathered 
from the locust bloom. There are thou¬ 
sands of trees in the pastures, for the far¬ 
mers never cut them except for fence posts. 
The honey is excellent, thick, and white 


the nectar. Black locust is common in the 
villages everywhere in Kentucky, but it is 
less abundant in the forests. It is one of 
the honey plants which help to carry the 
bees thru the first half of the season. In 
the eastern Tennessee Valley and in the 
Central Valley around Nashville locust is 


reliable honey plant and does not bloom 
every season. In Rhode Island locust seeds 
freely and new growths are appearing at 
points quite distant from the old planta¬ 
tions. In some parts of the State it tow- 
ei’s 50 to 60 feet tall with a diameter of 2 
feet. Its planting is urged by the Agricultur- 





LOGWOOD 


and does not granulate quickly. Unfor¬ 
tunately frost kills a part of the bloom in 
late seasons, but trees on the hills do not 
suffer as much as those in the valleys. 

Two other species of locust occur in 
eastern North America. The clammy locust, 
or R. viscosa, is similar to the above; but 
its flowers are tinged with pink and are in¬ 
odorous. It is a native of the mountains 
from Virginia to Georgia, but has been in¬ 
troduced in the North where it seems per¬ 
fect^ hardy. The other species, bristly 
locust or rose acacia ( R. hispida), is a 
shrub growing from three to ten feet high. 
The stems are covered with bristles, hence 
the name. The flowers are large, rose-col¬ 
ored, not fragrant, and few in a cluster. 
It is a native of the mountains from Vir¬ 
ginia to Georgia, but has also been intro¬ 
duced and become established in the North. 
While of no particular value as a honey, 
plant, it is very beautiful as a cultivated 
shrub. 

LOGWOOD (Haematoxylon campeachi- 
anum ).—A tree found in the West Indies 
and Central America, the heartwood of 
which furnishes one of the important 
vegetable dyes. In its early stages the 
heart is only a small colored core, but at 
maturity there is little sapwood between 
the heart and the bark. The dyewood is 
prepared for shipment by digging up the 
trees by the roots, and chipping away the 
outer sapwood; the colored core is then 
ready to be rendered into dye. 

There are large areas in the tropics, 
where this tree is the predominating 
growth. When in full bloom, many square 
miles of country are suffused with the mel¬ 
low beauty of its golden blossoms, and the 
air is everywhere filled with the pleasing 
and delicate perfume. The honey is almost 
white, very dense, and possesses a peculiar¬ 
ly pleasant flavor suggestive of the fra¬ 
grance of the bloom. But in American 
markets it does not sell as readily or com¬ 
mand as high a price as white clover honey. 

In Jamaica logwood is the principal 
source of honey. There are usually two 
main periods of bloom—one occurring in 
November and the other about Christmas 
time. The first bloom is not wholly de¬ 
pendable, as it is usually light. At the same 
time there are other plants in bloom, as 


573 

bitterbush, which yield an inferior honey, 
so that the finished combs held up to the 
light reveal a patchwork of various colors. 
But this mixed flow is valuable since it en¬ 
ables the bees to fill the brood-chambers, 
and thus later causes them to carry the 
main logwood flow into the supers. 

The second or main flow occurs about 
Christmas time, and may last thru Janu¬ 
ary. Here lies the hope of the apiarist. 
Two factors then contribute to his crop. 
The first is the condition of his colonies. 
They must be ready, or the finest honey of 
the year goes to brood and brood-combs. 
Even if barrels of sugar must be fed, a 
super should be on every hive, and bees in 
the supers by the middle of December. The 
second factor is rain. “We have watched,” 
says a Jamaican beekeeper, “the great 
strings of buds drooping heavily down¬ 
ward, and the forests beaded with folded 
blossoms all ready to burst—one factor 
was missing—rain. We have seen, while 
full apiaries waited, the untempered tor¬ 
rid sun burn the blossoms into ci’umbled 
dust. But let the rains fall at the proper 
juncture, and thousands of acres burst into 
fairyland. We have seen evenings when 
everything looked hopeless. That night a 
shower fell. At daybreak the apiary was 
a-roar, and the clear atmosphere was black 
with bees.” Of course, the duration of the 
principal bloom is also dependent upon light 
intermittent showers. There have been sea¬ 
sons when the main bloom lasted for six 
weeks, and individual colonies made as high 
as 500 pounds of honey. In four days 250 
colonies are reported to have gathered 6000 
pounds of honey. A rain at night abrupt¬ 
ly ended the flow and the blossoms the 
next morning had turned brown. 

Is there no danger of the logwood for¬ 
ests being destroyed? Hardly, unless the 
land is desired for agriculture. Logwood 
grows spontaneously in the forests and the 
growth is so extensive that there is no ne¬ 
cessity of planting young trees—the only 
attention required is the thinning out of 
the yearly natural propagation. Otherwise 
the logwood estate needs little attention. 
The main expense is to prepare the mature 
stock for market, and this consists in pay¬ 
ing laborers so much per ton for “chip¬ 
ping.” Owing, however, to the rapid in¬ 
troduction of aniline dyes, the logwood in- 


574 


MANGROVE, BLACK 


dustry is being- supplanted by others that nine log-wood estate can be found, the bee- 
are more profitable—such as cultivation of keeper can afford to establish an apiary of 
sugar cane, bananas, etc. But where a gen- ■ some 500 colonies. 


M 


MANGROVE, BLACK (Avicennia niti- 
da). —There are in southern Florida three 
different trees called mangrove, the red 
mangrove, the white mangrove, and the. 
black mangrove. The red mangrove ( Rliiz - 
ophora Mangle), an- evergreen shrub or 
tree, belongs to the mangrove family. 
Along the coast of southern Florida and 
the Keys it forms dense tidal swamps, ad¬ 
vancing into the water where the shores 
are flat and mucky. The seeds germinate, 
while still on the tree, and falling into the 
mud in an upright position immediately 
strike root. The trunk and branches send 
out aerial roots, which descending in an 
arched fashion give the tree the appear¬ 
ance of stepping forward. The flowers 
are small and yellowish. 

The white mangrove ( Laguncularia race - 
mosa) also called white buttonwood, is a 
member of the white mangrove family. It 
is common on the seashore of peninsular 
Florida and in the West Indies and tropi¬ 
cal America. In Florida it is usually a 
shrub with leathery oval leaves and small 
greenish flowers. Neither the red man¬ 
grove nor the white mangrove is of value 
to the beekeeper. 

The black njangrove ( Avicennia nitida ), 
also called blackwood and black tree, be¬ 
longs to the verbena family, most of the 
species of which in the North are herbace¬ 
ous plants. It grows on the seashore of 
southern Florida, the Keys, and eastern 
Texas, also in tropical America. In Flor¬ 
ida it is not found to much extent north of 
Ormond on the east coast. It usually grows 
back of the red mangrove, and in localities 
where both grow together the red mangrove 
fringes the shore and makes new land, 
while 'the black mangrove is a soil-former. 


Both are valuable in catching drift and 
lodging humus and gradually transforming 
the shallows into reefs and islands and fi¬ 
nally into solid land. But the black man¬ 
grove does not actually grow in the water. 

The black mangrove, when it grows to 
the size of a tree, resembles a scragly old 
oak with a rough brown bark. It may be 
25 to 50 feet tall, with a trunk diameter 
of four feet, or on the Keys it may attain 
even greater size. Northward it is seldom 
more than a shrub. The leaves are leath¬ 
ery, oblong, with very short stems, and 
when they unfold are somewhat hairy, but 
later become bright green and shining, 
above, paler or nearly white beneath. The 
flowers are small, inconspicuous, in ter¬ 
minal clusters, appearing at all seasons of 
the year. The wood is dark brown and 
very durable in contact with the soil. When 
used as fuel it burns with intense heat. 

As a source of honey the black mangrove 
has attracted more attention than any 
other tree in Florida. Up to the year of 
the “big freeze,” in 1894, phenomenal 
yields were reported. As much as 400 
pounds of honey from one hive in a single 
season have been recorded. In these ear¬ 
lier days migratory beekeeping was in 
practice, and many colonies of bees were 
moved to the vicinity of Hawks Park from 
points up and down the coast and from in¬ 
land localities 50 miles distant. It was 
hardly possible then to overstock a man¬ 
grove section in a favorable season. But 
the severe winter of 1894 froze and killed 
the mangrove to the ground. It did not 
recover from this check for 18 years, and 
not until 1909 did it again yield nectar, 
and then only in small quantities. Since 
that year the bushes have gradually grown 


MANGROVE, BLACK 


575 


in size and the yields have increased also, 
but as yet they can not even be compared 
with those preceding 1894. 

On the numerous small islands of Indian 
River and along the east shore of Florida 
southward from Ormond, there are thou¬ 
sands of acres of black mangrove from six 
to fifteen feet tall. There are a few bee¬ 
keepers located in the mangrove swamps 
of southwestern Florida, but not so many 
as on the east coast, as at Ariel and near 
New Smyrna. At Cocoanut Grove, Dade 
County, a mixture of mangrove and cocoa- 



Blaek mangrove on the right; red mangrove on the 
left. 


nut honey is secured, which is much lighter 
than the mangrove honey alone, owing to 
the cocoanut honey. There are also a few 
colonies of bees in the vicinity of Ever¬ 
glade, which is about 70 miles south 
of Fort Myers. This is a promising sec¬ 
tion, but it is wholly undeveloped, and the 
country is as wild as it was 40 years ago. 
It is the home of the Seminole Indians and 
few white people live there. 

At Punta Gorda on the west coast black 
mangrove begins to bloom from May 1 to 
15 according to the season, and remains in 
bloom until July 15 or a little later. When 
atmospheric conditions are favorable the 


nectar can be seen in large drops shining 
in the little cups, and a bee can obtain a 
load from a single blossom. According to 
Frank Stirling of the State Plant Board 
of Florida, the honey is dark colored and 
is used very largely in the manufacture of 
sweet cakes. On the east coast it is usually 
blended with the honey from cabbage palm¬ 
etto, which blooms at the same time, and 
is in consequence lighter colored. At Punta 
Gorda, says Ward Lamkin, when there is 
a heavy flow, the honey is light colored but 
thin and not very sweet, with a salty or 
brackish taste, as' the trees grow on the 
sand flats which are often flooded with salt 
water by the tide. 

The secretion of nectar is greatly influ¬ 
enced by the weather. In 1911 near New 
Smyrna it yielded well early in the sea¬ 
son, and the bees left their hives for the 
mangrove swamps almost before dawn hur¬ 
rying across the coves of salt water the en¬ 
tire day; but after two weeks the weather 
suddenly changed and hardly a bee was 
seen again on the blossoms, altho they still 
continued to open. At Punta Gorda in 
1919 the crop of mangrove was very small, 
but in 1918 it probably exceeded 100 
pounds per colony. In this same year a 
beekeeper below Ft. Myers reported the 
crop a failure. 

MANIPULATION OF COLONIES.— 

Success or failure in the bee business de¬ 
pends very largely on manipulation. Colo¬ 
nies can be so handled as to make the busi¬ 
ness an entire failure. Sometimes im¬ 
proper handling so disgusts the would-be 
beekeeper that he never becomes one. Tem¬ 
peramentally he may not be fitted for the 
business, or else mentally he may be inca¬ 
pable of acquiring the art of handling 
them. A great majority of persons, how¬ 
ever, who love honey and who enjoy out¬ 
door work, have no difficulty in learning to 
handle what perhaps a few erroneously 
regard as a “mighty dangerous proposi¬ 
tion.” Over and over the statement has 
been made, “Bees would sting me, even if 
I were half a mile away from them. The 
further I am away from them, the better I 
like it.” There is a sort of silly fear, on 
the part of a few at least, that bees are 
“mighty dangerous animals,” and that 
their disposition is to rule or ruin, and to 













576 


MANIPULATION OF COLONIES 


take possession of the field because they 
are possessed of that small but mighty 
weapon, the sting. Nothing could be fur¬ 
ther from the truth. 

There is probably not one person in a 
hundred who is not perfectly capable of 
handling bees. Whether he can make money 
or honey out of them is not a question so 
easy to answer, but that he can learn to 
handle them—that he can overcome all nat¬ 
ural fear and prejudice—has been demon¬ 
strated by thousands who have commenced 
beekeeping, and know no fear of them. 

Under the head of Anger op Bees and 
under Stings it is shown that bees are not 
the irascible little creatures that many 



people suppose; that they are, on the con¬ 
trary, when their nature is carefully stud¬ 
ied, as gentle as kittens; and when one 
goes about it in the right way, they can be 
handled almost as safely. (See A B C of 
Beekeeping at the beginning of this 
work.) But one cannot thoroly know this 
until he has actually opened a hive or seen 
it opened, and actually handled the combs 
for himself. This is not saying bees will 
not sting when handled improperly or at 
the wrong time. 

The beginner should understand that bees 
can be worked very much better when 
weather conditions are right. The day 
should be warm, the sun shining, and the 
time selected for the manipulation between 


ten in the morning and three in the after¬ 
noon. Experienced beekeepers can handle 
them at any time under practically all con¬ 
ditions; but even the veterans endeavor to 
do it when they can work to the best advan¬ 
tage. In early spring or late in the fall, 
or when the atmosphere is chilly, or at any 
time immediately following a rain, or after 
a sudden stoppage of the honey flow, bees 
are inclined to be cross. When it is cold, 
the bee glue in the hives is brittle. In order 
to open a hive at such times it is neces¬ 
sary to break this bee glue with a snap or 
jar. This always has a tendency to irritate 
the bees, even when weather conditions are 
favorable. The beginner at least should 
select his time, and of course will endeavor 
to make his movements very deliberate, 
avoiding quick jerky movements, all snaps 
or jars. There are times when one will be 
compelled to open hives when the bee glue 
snaps and when the bees sting; but he will 
then have the experience and proper appli¬ 
ances for doing the work. 

TOOLS FOR BEE WORK. 

Before details of manipulations are con¬ 
sidered, it will be necessary to take up 
tools and conveniences, without which the 
handling of colonies would be difficult or 
even impossible at times. There are sev¬ 
eral essentials which may be mentioned 
in the order of their importance: A bee- 
smoker (see Smokers) for quieting the 
bees; a bee-veil (see Veils), and suitable 
clothing for protection against stings, and 
some form of knife, screwdriver, or hive- 
tool to separate the frames and parts of 
the hive from each other that are usually 
stuck together with bee glue. Without the 
smoker and its intelligent use one would 
feel almost inclined to go back to the days 
of our forefathers when they hri m stoned 
their bees (see Box Hives). But with 
smoke properly applied, one can render 
bees tractable that would be otherwise ner¬ 
vous and hard to handle. Even when con¬ 
ditions are bad, weather chilly and pro¬ 
polis hard, they can generally be brought 
under control. The intelligent use of the 
smoker will often render the use of the 
veil unnecessary; and not a few experi¬ 
enced beekeepers do not use a veil constant¬ 
ly, but have it conveniently hanging from 




MANIPULATION OP COLONIES 


577 


the hat, whence it can be pulled down, 
whenever necessary. A bee-veil, however, 
is generally worn by veterans and beginners 
alike all the time while at work among bees. 
It is annoying and disconcerting to have 
cross bees buzzing around the face with 
the possibility of a sting in the eye, nose, 
or mouth. The beginner will always have 
a greater sense of security when his face 
is protected, and the old hand works with 
less interruption. 

Gloves (see Gloves) are recommended 
to the novice when he opens a hive for the 
first time. After he has learned the habits 
of bees he may dispense with them, because 
he will at most receive only an occasional 
sting on the hand. Very often' experienced 
beekeepers wear a long gauntlet that 
reaches from the elbow to the wrist. This 
should be made so. that no bees can get up 
the sleeve. It should fit tightly around the 
wrist, or, better yet, reach far enough to 
cover the hand, leaving the ends of the 
fingers exposed. 



If one is very timid, or is unusually sus¬ 
ceptible to stings, he can wear gloves that 
protect the fingers as well as the whole 
hand, wrists, and forearm. See Gloves. 

In the line of tools a common jackknife 
or a common screwdriver may often be 
used in lieu of something better. But' a 
hive-tool made for the purpose is far su¬ 
perior. 

The subjoined illustrations show a form 
of tool that has given general satisfaction 
among beekeepers. 

19 


It is something that any blacksmith can 
make out of an old buggy-spring or any 
good piece of spring steel. It must not be 
tempered too hard or it will break. Each 
end should be flattened out while hot, and 
brought to an edge. One end is bent to-a 
right angle, and the other is left straight. 
The tool is then finished on an emery wheel 
or grindstone, care being taken to have 
the edges straight and square. 

The hooked end is ordinarily used for 
scraping propolis or wax from the frames 
or bottom-boards, while the other end (also 
useful for scraping) is pushed between the 
two parts of the hive. The drawing (Fig. 
1) shows the tool held improperly. The 
bent or curved end should be placed direct¬ 
ly against the palm in order that sufficient 
pressure may be exerted to shove the other 
or straight end between the two hive parts. 

Either end of the tool may be used for 

separating Hoffman frames, or, in fact, 
any style of frame that one happens to 
use; but the author prefers the hook end. 
This is inserted between the frames to be 
separated, as shown in Fig. 2, when a side 
twist of the wrist will exert considerable 
leverage, forcing apart the frames very 
gently. However, there are some who pre¬ 
fer to use the straight end of the tool in 
the manner shown in Fig. 3; but the 
method given in Fig. 2 exerts more of a 
leverage, and, at the same time, is less 
liable to crush bees. 

Fig. 4 shows how the tool may be used 
for crowding all the frames over to one 
side in one block; or one can, if he pre¬ 
fers, use the plan shown in Fig. 2; but it 
will generally be found that the one shown 
in Fig. 4 is more convenient. In Fig. 5 
the curved end is used to good advantage 
in lifting the division-board out of the 
hive. See also, in this connection, Fig. 9. 

Some prefer a hive-tool having a nar¬ 
rowed end like a screwdriver; but the con¬ 
tinuous use of a tool like this abrases the 
edges of the hives so that, after a time, it 
leaves bruise marks and cracks, inviting 
winds and storms, and robbers when they 
are prowling about. For separating two 
hives heavy with honey there is nothing 
better than a wide thin blade made of good 
spring steel, tempered just enough to have 
the resilient qualities of a buggy-spring. 






















578 


MANIPULATION OF COLONIES 




Fig. 2.—A side twist of the tool affords a strong Fig. 3.—Another method of using a hive-tool when 
leverage hy .which the frames are separated prying the frames apart, 

easily and without jar. 


Fig. 4.—The proper way to pry all the frames over 
at one operation. 


Fig. 5. — How the hook end is useful in fishing out 
frames and division-boards. 


HOW TO WORK OVER HIVES. 

Many yard men prefer to work with a 
sort of stool and liive box combined; yet 
others wish to have nothing to lug around 
except the bee-smoker and the hive-tool. 
As most hives are placed on or near the 
ground, one must either sit down on some 
object or kneel in front of the hive, to 
bring himself to the proper working dis¬ 
tance. Many use a hive-cover as shown 
in Figs. 6, 7, 8, 9. It is always handy and 
has the further advantage of a milk-stool 
in that one can shift his body back and 
forth on the hive-cover in order to reach 
frames toward the near or far side of the 
hive, as the case may be. A seat that does 
not allow one to shift his body back and 
forth, necessarily requires more stooping 
or bending of the back. 

Occasionally it will be found desirable 
to turn the cover up lengthwise, and the 
author always uses it in that manner when 
he desires to place the weight of the body 
against the frame that is crowding over 
against its fellows. (See Fig. 8.) In pulling 
out a division-board, one has a little more 
leverage if he sits high rather than low. 


(See Fig. 9.) But if he merely wishes to 
separate the frames, then spend several 
minutes hunting for the queen or looking 
over the brood, as shown in Fig. 7, he 
should sit on the narrow side rather than on 
the end. In this the operator assumes a very 
natural, easy, and comfortable position. 
The left arm rests upon the knee, support¬ 
ing the weight of the frame, while the right 
arm holds it in a position for examination. 

A change of position is often restful. 
After one has been working over a number 
of hives, sitting down on the hive-cover, he 
finds it convenient to vary the position by 
resting on the knees close to the hive; and 
still again he may. find it comfortable to 
vary the monotony by standing upright, 
bending over only when it is necessary to 
remove a frame. 

Perhaps it may seem that the operator 
in Fig. 9 is taking things easy. There are 
times when only one hand can do good 
work. If one can assume a comfortable 
attitude, even tho it be only momentary, 
he ought to do so. 

Some of our apiarists will say they have 
no time to sit down, much less “loaf on the 






















MANIPULATION OF COLONIES 


579 




In looking 


Pig. 6. —Making a gap between the 
frames so that one can be 
easily removed. 

job,” as might appear in Fig. 

6. The more one can save his 
legs and arms the more he can 
actually accomplish in a day. 

In hunting for a queen one 
cannot afford to stand up on 
the job, but should get right 
down where the eyes can do 
their best work, as seen in 
Fig. 7, always holding the * 
frame in such a way that the 
sunlight will strike it squarely, 
for eggs this is very important, especially 
if the operator is getting old when eye¬ 
sight is not at its best. 

Where one is working over bees day 
after day, a special hive-seat is a great 
convenience. The adjoining illustration 
shows one used quite extensively. 

The top is made of % lumber, having 
two oblong holes in the center to provide 
a handle by which to carry the box. The 
legs are also of %, while the sides, ends, 
and bottom are of %. The compartment 
in the side, reached by the oval hole, is 
very handy for holding broken section 
pieces for record work, and other small 
articles, while the two compartments on 
the ends usually hold the smoker fuel, 
hive-tools, hammer, bee-brush, queen- 
cages, and other articles of like nature. 


ji IG 7 —a comfortable position for an all-day work. Note that the 
left arm that supports the weight of the frames 
rests comfortably on the knee. 


inches high by 22 long, outside measure¬ 
ment. 

HOW TO OPEN A HIVE. 

The prospective beekeeper should ap¬ 
proach the hive and blow smoke into the 
entrance. This is not always necessary, 
but it will be found to be a wise precaution 
for the beginner and for an experienced 


Handy seat and tool-box for yard work. 


The smoker has a hook on 
the bellows so that it can be 
carried in the manner shown. 
With this whole outfit one has 
practically all the tools he 
needs, including smoker fuel, 
for a day’s work. 

The exact dimensions of 
the seat are not important. 
The one here shown is 13 








580 


MANIPULATION OF COLONIES 



man on a bad day. After the 
beginner learns the individual 
temperament of his different 
colonies, and also discovers 
that on certain days, and cer¬ 
tain times of days, the bees 
can be handled much better 
than on others, he will of 
course use his judgment in 
the matter. If he has reason 


Fig. 9.—Pulling out a refractory division-board that resists removal. 


to believe that a colony would be irritable 
he should send two or three puffs of smoke 
into the entrance. He will now push the 
screwdriver, or special hive-tool already 
shown, under the cover. He should do 
this gently, working the thin edge of the 
blade between the two hive parts until the 
cover is raised about the thickness of the 
blade, but not wide enough to allow any 
bees to escape. Thru the gap thus made 
he should blow three or four puffs of 
smoke. He then shoves the tool a little 
further, increasing the gap, following it 
up with some more smoke. He now lifts 
or lowers the hand holding the tool so that 
the cover is raised an inch above the hive. 
The smoker is next set down upon the 
ground, when the cover is gently lifted off 
—gently, because this is important. 

Some times much more smoke will be re¬ 
quired than at others. If the atmosphere is 


Fig. 8 .—A higher seat is better 
when one wishes to place his 
weight against the frame to 
be shoved over. 

a little chilly, or if it be im¬ 
mediately after a rain during 
a honey flow, much more 
smoke will be needed than on 
a warm balmy day when bees 
are at work in the fields. If 
they are at all nervous the 
smoker should be brought into 
play again; indeed, at such 
times it should be put be¬ 
tween the knees. See Smoke and Smok¬ 
ers. 

This nervousness on the part of the bees 
may not immediately be recognized by a 
novice; but for his special benefit it should 
be said that, when bees are subdued and 
require no more smoke, they will be down 
between the frames almost out of sight; 
but if they are inclined to “resent the in¬ 
trusion,” dozens and dozens of them may 
have their heads sticking up; and as the 
apiarist proceeds to lift out a frame he 
may meet with a “warm reception.” A 
few bees may hop up two or three inches 
and then drop down again. This appar¬ 
ently is a warning or a bluff that some¬ 
thing worse will happen if the apiarist is 
not careful. But before this takes place 
he will usually see on the part of the bees 
a nervous, quick movement, their bodies 
twitching either to the right or to the left, 




MANIPULATION OP COLONIES 


581 


apparently ready to take wing. When 
they do so, it may be a hop of two or 
three inches or a quick sharp dart, with¬ 
out warning, for any exposed part of the 
beekeeper’s anatomy. But even if the bees 
do make a general onslaught, and grab as 
if about to strike, stings may be averted 
if the operator is quick enough to brush 
the bee or bees off. There is an interval 
of a fraction of a second, not very long, 
it is true, in which, after the bee shoves 
its claws into the flesh, it can be brushed 
off, just before the sting gets into action, 
for a bee, when it stings, must have a 
good strong hold, and it is while it is tak¬ 
ing this hold that the apiarist can often 
save himself many a wicked jab. 



Pig. 10.—Method of inserting the hive-tool under 
the cover; blowing smoke into the gap thus made. 


If, then, the bees seem inclined to fly up, 
they should be smoked just enough to keep 
them down. If an attendant is present, let 
him use the smoker. See Stings, subhead 
“How to Avoid Being' Stung.” 


HOW TO HANDLE UNSPACED FRAMES. 

To get at the center frame, crowd the 
frames adjacent to it, one at a time, toward 
the sides of the hive. This will give room 
to lift out the desired frame. Beginners 
are very apt to pull the frames out without 
spacing the frames apart. This rolls the 
bees over and over, enrages and maims 
them, and moreover runs a pretty good 
chance of killing the queen. Lift the frame 
out carefully, and be careful not to knock 
the end-bars against the sides of the hive. 
If it is one’s first experience he may be 
nervous, and do things a little hurriedly. 
As a reward, the bees will quite likely sting 
him and make him still more nervous. To 
avoid this, proceed very cautiously and 
make the movements deliberate. Having 
removed the frame, hold it up as shown in 
Pig. 1, .called the first positipn. 

HOW TO FIND THE QUEEN. 

Perhaps the queen is not to be seen on 
this side, so it may be necessary to turn it 
over and see the other side. If the comb is 
not heavy with honey, it can be turned 
right over with the bottom-bar resting hori¬ 
zontally. But a better way, and a good 
habit to fall into, and one that beekeepers 
usually adopt, is to raise the right hand un¬ 
til the top-bar is perpendicular, as in 
Pig. 2. 

Now revolve the frame like a swinging 
door, or the leaf of a book, so that the 
opposite side is exposed to view (see Pig. 
2). Lower the right hand as in Pig. 3 until 
it reaches the position as sliOAvn in Fig. 4. 
To examine the other side follow the exact 
reverse order. 

Having examined this frame, lean it up 
against the side of the hive, and remove 
another frame next to the one already tak¬ 
en. Examine this in like manner. Lean 
this also against one corner of the hive, or 
return it to its place; lift out another, and 
so on until all have been examined. Should 
the queen not yet have been found, look the 
frames all over again, being careful to ex¬ 
amine the bottom edge of the combs. See 
Plow to Manipulate Hoffman Frames. 

If the queen is not found on the second 
examination it may be advisable to g*o over 
the frames once more; but very often it is 
better to close the hive and wait an hour op 






582 


MANIPULATION OF COLONIES 


two, after which one can go back and 
search the frames as before. By this time 
the colony will have recovered itself, and 
the queen, in all probability, have shifted 
her position from the bottom or sides of 
the hive to one of the combs. Nine, times 
out of ten she will be found at the second 
going-over of the frames, without any 




F'G. 2.- — Second position. 
Arrows show direction 
in which the frame is 
now to be turned. 




Fig. 3.—Third position. 
Arrows show direction 
from which the frame 
has just been 
turned. 



trouble. When the queen cannot be found 
the second time going over, as a rule hunt¬ 
ing longer is not advisable because one is 
liable to waste a good deal of valuable 
time; and it is, therefore, better to wait 
till the queen comes out of her hiding- 
place back to the brood-frames themselves. 


If the bees are inclined to rob, use an emp¬ 
ty body to hang half of the frames in, 
placing them in pairs, and pair-off the 
rest in the hive being worked. 

In the case of black colonies, especially 
where very populous, it is sometimes nec¬ 
essary 7 to lift the hive off the stand and put 
it down to one side. On the old stand place 
an empty hive, affixing an entrance-guard. 
(See Drones.) Take the frames one by 
one out of the old hive, and shake them in 
front at the entrance of the empty hive on 
the old stand. Black bees fall off very 
readily; and as they crawl toward the hive 
the queen can be easily seen; but if she 
eludes scrutiny she will be barred by the 
perforated zinc where she may be readily 
discovered trying to make her way thru. 
After all the frames are shaken, if she 
cannot be found, take the old hive, now 
empty, and dump it, causing the bees to be 
thrown before the zinc. She will soon be 
seen trying to pass the guard. 

So far, details have been given on how 
to find the queen; but the reader must not 
imagine that it is going to be as difficult as 
this every time. She is usually to be found 
on the center frames; and, especially with 
Italians, is likely to be found on the first 
or second frame handled. 

When loose frames or frames Avithout 
spacing shoulders are put back in the hives 
they must be spaced carefully 1% inches 
from center to center as near as it is possi¬ 
ble. It is not practicable by the rule of 
thumb or finger to get them all exactly this 
distance so that there will be some combs a 
little thicker than others, even when the 
greatest of care is used. If one is a little 
careless (as most people are) there will be 
considerable valuation in the thickness of 
the combs, and the thicker ones will have to 
be shaved down with an uncapping-knife 
at the first extracting. If the combs are 
left thick and thin there will be danger of 
killing a good many bees in inserting and 
removing the frames, especially when the 
position of the frame is changed. All of 
this nuisance of irregularity in thickness of 
combs can be avoided by the use of self¬ 
spacing or Hoffman frames. 

There is no cut-and-try spacing as with 
unspaced frames, no big and little fingers 
to get the distances wide and narrow, and 
the beginner has no difficulty in determin- 












































MANIPULATION OF COLONIES 


583 


ing just how far to place the combs; for if 
he places the shoulders in contact they will 
always be the right distance apart. 

There is not much danger of killing bees 
provided one proceeds carefully, using a 
little smoke in blowing the bees away from 
the contact‘edges of the frames. When the 
hive is ready to close up, all that is neces¬ 
sary is to shove together the frames that 
are separated two and three inches apart, 
and crowd the whole together, finally put¬ 
ting on the cover. On the other hand, 
when unspaced frames are handled, each 
frame must be put back into position sep¬ 
arately. This takes a large amount of time 
whatever may be said of the time con¬ 
sumed in separating spaced frames apart. 
See Frames. Self-spacing; also Frames. 

Mr. Hoffman, the inventor of the frames, 
stated that the judicious use of a smoker 
would save time, avoid bee-killing, and, tak¬ 
ing it all in all, he could handle twice as 
many colonies on his spaced frames as he 
could on the ordinary old-style frames with¬ 
out spacing attachments. 

Much has been said by those who are not 
familiar with the Hoffman frames of how 
bees are killed by them. Those who have 
used them largely know that this need not 
be true. 

There are some localities where propolis, 
or bee glue, is much worse than others. In 
such places the Hoffman metal-spaced 
frame has the advantage. The illustrations 
will show their special features. They are 
somewhat more expensive, but they are 
stronger; and as they have only points of 
contact there is less danger of killing bees. 

PIOW TO MANIPULATE HOFFMAN FRAMES. 

The manner of opening hives containing 
Hoffman or any other self-spacing frames, 
is just the same as that for hives contain¬ 
ing loose or unspaced frames already de¬ 
scribed, but the manner of handling the 
combs is somewhat different. 

If there is a division-board in the hive 
this is first removed in order to give room 
for the handling of the frames themselves. 
If there is none the outside frame is pried 
over to the side of the hive and lifted out 
very carefully. This will then make room 
for the removal of any two, three, four, or 
five frames all in blocks. As an ordinary 
Hoffman or self-spacing frame will be 


somewhat glued together by propolis, it 
will be necessary to use the liive-tool to 
separate the frames. 

In removing self-spacing or Hoffman 
frames from a brood-nest, it is not neces¬ 
sary to scatter them all around the outside 




Metal-space Hoffman frame. 


of the hive, leaning them up against each 
other in such a way that it kills bees, but 
each group of frames, two, three, or four, 
as the case may be, can be left sticking 
together stationed on the outside of the 
hive. There is no danger then of killing 
the bees between the frames, and the neces¬ 
sary information can be secured from the 
one or two surfaces of combs examined. 
When the ordinary unspaced frames are 
used, it is necessary to handle each frame 
individually, because they cannot be picked 
up very well in groups of three or four like 
the Hoffman or any other good self-spacing 
frame. See Frames, Self-spacing. 

In ordinary practice it is not necessary 
to hunt up the queen. The examination of 
the surface of one or two combs will show 
whether eggs are being laid. If eggs and 
brood in various stages are found in regu¬ 
lar order it may be assumed that the queen 
was in the hive within three days at least. 

The location of the queen can be deter¬ 
mined somewhat by the manner in which 
the eggs are laid. If the examination of 
one comb shows no eggs and an examina¬ 
tion of another shows that there is young 
brood, the position of the queen can be 
traced by the age of the brood until eggs 
are found; the queen may at the time 
of the examination be at one side of the 
brood-nest rather than the other. After she 
goes clear across she is quite liable to jump 
from one side clear to the other, 

































584 


MANIPULATION OF COLONIES 



Dr. Miller’s method of jarring bees off the combs. 


Sometimes the behavior of the bees is 
such as to indicate where the queen is. Her 
location can generally be determined imme¬ 
diately after releasing the queen when in- 



Jfow to bump the bees off a coiffb. 


troducing, because the bees will have their 
heads pointing in one direction; and some¬ 
times by a hum of rejoicing the queen can 
be traced, especially if she has been well 
received. 

DISLODGING BEES FROM COMBS. 

For many manipulations like giving brood 
to another hive, or for the purpose of ex¬ 
tracting, it becomes necessary to dislodge 
the bees from the frames. This can be 
done by brushing them off as shown under 
Extracting, or they can be pounded off 
with a blow of the fist on the back of the 
hand, grasping the end-bar. Or one may 
grasp the end-bars solidly, and with a quick 
downward jerk remove all or nearly all of 
the bees. When more convenient one can 
swing the frame, pendulum fashion, with 
one arm, letting the corner drop violently 
against the ground while the other end is 
held in the hand, as shown above. 

HOW TO ASCERTAIN THE CONDITION OF THE 
HIVE WITHOUT HANDLING FRAMES. 

A good many, in working for extracted 
honey, operate on the tier-up principle, 





















Learning condition of hive without removing cover or pulling to pieces. 


Determining the filling of the supers and whether ready to come off. 














586 


MANIPULATION OF COLONIES 


leaving all the supers on the hives until the 
season is over. By that time it is important 
that robbers be given no opportunity to 
help themselves to sweets, when the honey 
is taken off; but before doing so the condi¬ 
tion of the supers should be determined in 
advance. In order to keep ahead of the 
bees it is necessary to make .an examination 
from time to time. Toward the early part 
of the season it is customary to place the 
empty supers under those partly filled. As 
the season begins to draw toward its close, 
the process is reversed—that is to say, the 
empties are put on top of those partly 
filled. 

In order to determine the amount of 
honey in any super, it is not necessary to 
take off the cover and pull the hive apart. 
If it is tiered up four and five stories high, 
it involves a large amount of labor and 
considerable lifting to pull the supers off 
one by one, inviting the attention of rob¬ 
bers in the operation. If one is supplied 
with a good strong steel hive-tool and a 
smoker, he can get a fair idea of the filling 
of any super, without even removing the 
cover from the hive. In the series of snap¬ 
shots on previous page, the reader will be 
able to gather, almost at a glance, the ex¬ 
act method to be used in determining what 
the bees are doing. 

Take an example. Let the operator start 
with the hive shown in Fig. 5, previous 
page. It has three supers. The middle one 
is the one on which the bees began work 
first, and at the time of this examination it 
should be completely filled. The bottom 
super was placed under after the middle 
one was about half filled. The colony was 
again crowded for room, but since there 
was only a week or so more of honey flow, 
the third super was put on top, so that the 
first two will be certain to be completely 
filled before the bees begin work on the 
third. 

At this time it is desired to know what 
the bees have actually done; so, without 
removing the telescope cover on top nor 
the super cover directly beneath, the thin 
blade of the hive-tool, broad end, is en¬ 
tered between the two lower supers, at the 
hack end of the hive; for one should al¬ 
ways endeavor to keep out of the flight of 
the bees. This is gradually shoved in un¬ 
til the blade has been pushed in anywhere 


from 3/2 to a full inch. A gap is now 
formed, of approximately 1-16 inch, just 
wide enough so that a little smoke will 
drive back the bees. A slight pressure 
downward separates the two* upper supers 
about an inch at the back end, when more 
smoke is blown in. The tool is pushed 
down a little further, making the gap a 
little wider. (See Fig. 6.) But the operator 
is not quite satisfied as to the condition of 
the supers, so he pushes the tool and su¬ 
pers upward, as shown in Fig. 7, until he 
has the hive-tool in position as shown in 
Fig. 8. Here it acts as a prop, when, with 
the intelligent use of the smoker, he can 
drive back the bees enough so that he can 
see the condition of the two supers, or 



Fig. 13.—How a smoker and a hive-tool will enable 
one to leani the condition of the 
supers at one glance. 

enough to determine whether the bees need 
more room. 

But suppose he is not quite satisfied 
yet. As shown in Fig. 9, he lifts the supers 
higher, disregarding the liive-tool falling on 
the ground. When doing this he slides 
the two supers about an inch backward so 
that the other end will fulcrum on a safe 
bearing. If the super is slipped forward, 
as shown in Fig. 7, it can be readily seen 
that it cannot be tilted up very high with¬ 
out sliding off in front. See Figs. 9, 10, 11. 

Usually an examination of this sort is 
quite sufficient. If the supers are not filled 









MANIPULATION OF COLONIES 


587 



Fig. 14.—Shaking bees out of a super. 


they are quietly let back into place, using 
sufficient smoke to drive the bees away so 
they will not be crushed as the hive parts 
come together again. The operation shown 
in Figs. 5, 6, 7 , 8, 9, 10, 11, is then repeated 
with other hives, taking from 30 to 60 sec¬ 
onds per hive. At no time has the opera¬ 
tor lifted but a part of the dead weight. 
When the supers are held at an angle the 
load is on the fulcrum point of contact- 
while the hand sustains only a small part 
of the weight. 

Fig. 12 shows the method employed 
when supers are apparently well filled and 
ready to come off. The top super is re¬ 
moved and leaned up against the leg of 
the operator. The middle super that has 
been filled can now be taken off; but be¬ 
fore doing so a second examination is 
made as shown. It is set off, when the bot¬ 
tom super may also be removed if ready. 
If so, the top super is put back, the idea 
being to confine the bees to as small a 
super capacity as possible as the season 
draws to a close, in order to make the bees 
finish their work. 


Fig. 13 shows a slightly different pose 
from that indicated in Fig. 8. While the 
position of the operator is somewhat 
cramped, it is true, yet it is much easier 
than tearing down the hive, super by super, 
and replacing. 

In Fig. 14 is a case where the season is 
closing abruptly. The bees have only par¬ 
tially begun work in the top super. To 
leave it on would mean that all the supers 
would have honey in, and none of them 
quite completed. Accordingly the bees are 
shaken out of the top super when it is. 
moved. If there should be some good rains 
and warm weather, the season may take 
another start. In that case a super cover 
temporarily placed between the top super 
and the two below is removed, when work 
will be resumed in the third super. If it 
could be known that the season was draw¬ 
ing to a close, the top super should be re¬ 
moved in the first place. 

HOW TO PUT ON ESCAPE-BOARDS. 

Some beekeepers have an awkward way 
of putting on escapes. They will pull the 




588 


MAPLE 


Live apart, super by super, place the escape 
on the brood-nest or on a super partly 
filled, then one by one put back the supers. 
If no honey is coming in, this will prob¬ 
ably mean that robbers will get started. 

There is no need of removing any super, 
nor a cover, for that matter. All that is 
necessary is to apply the principles illus¬ 
trated in Pigs. 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11. See 
also illustration under Comb Honey, to 
Produce, showing how to put on an escape- 
board. 

MANCHINEEL (Hippomane Mancin- 
ella). —An evergreen tree with smooth 
leaves resembling a pear tree, growing on 
sandy beaches in southeast Florida, on the 
Keys, in the West Indies, and tropical 
America. It has an acid milky juice, which 
is very poisonous and was used by the 
Caribs to poison their arrows. “Probably 
the most poisonous member of our arbores¬ 
cent flora. The juice and the smoke from 
the burning wood are very injurious to the 
eyes.” The yellow green flowers are very 
small and open from February to April; 
in certain years they are reported to yield 
nectar heavily. 

MANZANITA (Arctostaphylos manzan¬ 
ita ).—Manzanita is an evergreen shrub, 10 
to 15 feet tall, with wide-spreading crooked 
branches. Associated with scrub oak, cha- 
mise, and other spiny bushes it forms 
dense thickets, called chaparral, a charac¬ 
teristic feature of Californian scenery on 
the Coast Ranges and the Sierra Nevada. 
The flowers appear from November to 
March, often opening about Christmas 
time. Ordinary freezing nights do not .af¬ 
fect the bloom. It secretes nectar so free¬ 
ly that the hives are often filled with man¬ 
zanita honey. This early flow starts brood¬ 
rearing, but as there are no other nectar- 
yielding flowers at this season and the 
weather is often cold, the honey is speedily 
consumed by the bees. The honey is amber- 
colored Avith a fine flavor and the fragrance 
of the bloom. 

MAPLE (Ace?*)-—The maples bloom so 
early in the season that their value as honey 
plants is usually greatly underestimated. 
In early spring the colonies are so weak 
that a surplus from this source is seldom 
obtained, and the maples are regarded as 


important only for brood-rearing. There 
are about 100 species in the genus Acer , 
which are confined chiefly to the northern 
hemisphere. Many of the trees are very 
common and the rock maple forms exten¬ 
sive forests. In the States east of the 
Rocky Mountains a small surplus of maple 
honey has been reported in Iowa and Ala¬ 
bama. 

The red maple ( Acer rubrurn) is a Avell- 
known tree in the eastern United States 
extending from Canada to Georgia and 
westward to Missouri. The scarlet flowers 
appear in early spring before the leaves, 
and yield large quantities of pollen and 
considerable nectar; but the weather is 
often so cold and stormy that it prevents 
the bees from flying freely. In New Eng¬ 
land and in the region of the Great Lakes 
the forest in many sections is almost ex¬ 
clusively made up of the rock or sugar 
maple (A. saccharum). The trees are 
completely covered with yellowish green, 
pendulous flowers, which are attractive to 
great numbers of honeybees. Their con¬ 
tented hum is audible at a long distance. 
Strong colonies in many localities should 
store a surplus from this source. The flow¬ 
ers of the silver maple (A. saccharinum ) 
appear in earliest spring in advance of the 
leaves. As in red maple the stamens and 
pistils are in different flowers and usually 
on different trees. It is widely distributed 
thruout the eastern States. The box elder 
or ash-leaved maple (A. Negundo ) grows 
from Manitoba to Texas, but is not found 
near the coast. The small green flowers 
appear before the leaves and are a valuable 
source of nectar. 

In Washington and Oregon broadleaf or 
Oregon maple (A. macrophyllum ) is an 
important spring honey and pollen plant 
blooming in April and May. It is found 
mainly west of the Cascades, below an 
elevation of 3,500 feet. Vine maple (A. 
circinatum) is a much more important hon¬ 
ey plant than broadleaf maple. It grows 
below an altitude of 5,000 feet mainly west 
of the Cascades, and blooms a little later 
than the preceding species. The honey has 
a fine flavor and is amber-colored with a 
faint pinkish tinge. In both the Oregon 
trees the floAvers appear a little after the 
leaves. 


MARIGOLD 


589 



Marigold, great honey plant of Texas, but found all over the United States. 


MARIGOLD (Gaillardia pulchella ).— 
An annual, diffusely branched herbaceous 
plant, very common on the prairies and 
by the roadsides from Nebraska southward 
to Louisiana and Texas. It is a species of 
.Compositae, and the showy heads are 1 to 
3 inches broad with numerous yellow rays. 
The leaves are 2 or 3 inches long, toothed, 
and without stems. As a honey plant it 
is valuable chiefly on the Black Prairie of 
Texas and the neighboring limestone hills. 
It is not abundant on sandy or clay soils. 
It begins blooming in May, and at San 
Gabriel an average of 30 pounds of honey 
per colony was obtained in 1920. Large 
crops from this source are occasionally re¬ 
ported. The honey is amber-colored and 


inferior in quality, but finds a market. The 
comb honey is golden yellow, not white. 

MARKETING HONEY.—It is one 

thing to produce a crop of honey and quite 
another thing to sell it. During the period 
of the Great War when sugar could be ob¬ 
tained only in very limited quantities there 
was no difficulty about selling honey either 
in small lots or car lots at high prices. 
Shortly following the armistice there was 
a period where there was a buyers’ strike, 
when practically all commodities, includ¬ 
ing honey, were a drug on the market. The 
result was that producers all over the 
country were trying to sell in a retail, 
wholesale, or jobbing way. It was then 











590 


MARKETING HONEY 


that many a producer discovered lie was 
not a salesman. 

The question of selling at retail or in a 
small way will be discussed in detail fur¬ 
ther on. The problem of the beekeeper 
who has from 100 to 1,000 or more colo¬ 
nies will now be considered. These larger 
producers are usually not salesmen, and it 
therefore 'becomes necessary for them to 
dispose of their entire product to some 
large wholesaler, jobber, broker, or com¬ 
mission house. A beekeeper Avith a hun¬ 
dred colonies during normal times has no 
difficulty in gelling his entire product to 
the wholesale grocery and in some cases to 
the retail grocer. He may find it possible 
to sell to a dealer who handles dairy prod¬ 
ucts, for honey, butter, and milk, includ¬ 
ing ice cream, are often sold from the 
same counter. 

He may find it advisable to sell it in a 
retail way from his own door, provided he 
is located on some automobile highway, but 
this likewise will be discussed farther on. 

There are now large buyers of honey in 
nearly all the large cities of the United 
States. They will usually, during the sell¬ 
ing season at least, take honey at its mar¬ 
ket price in lots of a thousand pounds to 
a whole car load. Indeed they will some¬ 
times on a rising market buy ten cars. 
They will have their buyers located in 
various cities, and of course they will seek 
to get the honey at the lowest figure pos¬ 
sible. They are sometimes inclined to talk 
a “sluggish market” and “over-produc¬ 
tion;” in short, their policy is to “bear” 
the market. 

To offset this in some instances large 
producers are organized into exchanges 
thru which the products of its members are 
sold, because the individual beekeeper is 
sometimes at the mercy of the large buyer, 
and unless he is Avell informed Avith a 
knowledge of market conditions tliruout 
the United States he is liable to sell his 
honey at a sacrifice. He can protect him¬ 
self by taking one or more bee journals 
when he will be able to follow on their 
market pages general conditions relating 
to production and sale of honey and the 
price at which it is being sold in carlots in 
the various cities. The United States Bu¬ 
reau of Markets is sending out direct to 
beekeepers reports of sales for the various 


markets of the country. Information 
gleaned thru this source, thru the bee jour¬ 
nals and the local beekeeper societies and 
honey-producers’ exchanges where oi’gan- 
ized will usually give one a fairly accurate 
idea of prevailing conditions and whether 
he can afford to sell. 

On a rising market one can sometimes 
afford to hold his crop, but he should also 
remember it is Avise not to wait too long. 
Marketing in a car-load way usually begins 
to start in September. The price may rise 
during the months of October and Novem¬ 
ber. From the middle of November to 
about the first of December prices usually 
reach their maximum. Sometimes the mar¬ 
ket Avill hold strong after the holidays, but 
usually the demand is slow and irregular 
from that time on until the neAv crop is 
ready. 

During later years, however, it is encour¬ 
aging to note that the honey market in car- 
lots shows more and more an inclination to 
hold a general level tliruout the season. 

Producers should clearly understand 
that the amber or dark grades of honey 
usually bring in carlots from two to five 
cents less per pound than the light-colored 
or table honeys. It should generally be 
understood also that honeys of the North 
are usually superior in color and flavor to 
those of the South. As a general rule, the 
further one goes toward the equator, the 
darker will be the honey. There are some 
marked exceptions to this, hoAvever, as one 
Avill see by consulting the article, “Honey 
and Its Colors,” found elseAvhere in this 
work. 

Where possible one should always sell 
for cash. But before doing so it is neces¬ 
sary to knoAv the financial standing of the 
jobber or dealer making the offer. Many 
a beekeeper has sold his honey to a con¬ 
cern without a rating, only to find he has 
lost his honey and that the account is not 
collectable. Some of the representatives of 
these concerns are smooth, plausible talkers 
but are dishonest. They know enough 
about law to keep themselves safe from 
prosecution. No one should sell his honey 
to a stranger without inquiring first at the 
local bank of his standing. If he is not 
rated let him alone. If one cannot get 
satisfactory information from that source, 


MARKETING HONEY 


591 


he should write the publishers of one or 
more of the bee journals. It will take only 
a few T t|ays to get a report, and it may save 
for the producer his entire crop of honey. 

A great deal of honey is now shipped in 
carlots, a draft being attached to the bill 
of lading. The producer may feel that it 
is perfectly safe to ship in this way, and 
usually it is, as the money must be paid to 
the bank before the honey is delivered. If 
the concern is not reliable or dishonest it 
may seek a consignment in this way with 
the deliberate intention to reject the car, 
thus placing the producer at a great dis¬ 
advantage and making him feel he will 
have to accept the terms offered in order to 
dispose of the honey. If he does not ac¬ 
cept such terms it may be necessary for 
him to make a trip clear across the conti¬ 
nent, in the meantime paying demurrage 
to the railroad company while he is seeking 
a new customer. 

Taking everything into consideration 
the producer should deal only with well- 
known responsible concerns that can fur¬ 
nish good references as well as satisfactory 
rating in either Dun’s or Bradstreet’s com¬ 
mercial agency. In the case of a new com¬ 
pany, it will be well to learn what the bee 
journals think of them. 

It is sometimes not practicable to sell for 
cash. Perhaps no offering can be secured. 
In that event honey may sometimes be dis¬ 
posed of to good advantage to reliable 
commission houses. 

SENDING HONEY TO COMMISSION HOUSES. 

While commission houses thruout big 
cities are aids to beekeepers in disposing 
of their honey, yet a word of caution 
should be entered against being in too great 
haste to lump off one’s honey to these 
places. One may argue that he would not 
have time to dispose of his product in 
small amounts; but many a beekeeper has 
found to his sorrow the mistake he made 
in contributing to the flood of honey at a 
certain commission house. The consequence 
is, that at that place honey is a “glut on 
the market.” 

But it very often happens that one can 
get a higher price by sending to these com¬ 
mission men. The general trade looks to 
them for supply, and they make it their 
business to find a market. 


The temptations in the commission busi¬ 
ness are very great; and if the broker is 
not honest he may take advantage of the 
producer. Commission men charge all the 
way from 5 to 10 per cent commission; 
and in addition to this the shipper is re¬ 
quired to stand freight, drayage, and all 
breakage. 

Most commission houses will make ad¬ 
vances in cash on receiving the honey; and 
a few of them will make payments as fast 
as it is sold; but a majority make no re¬ 
mittance until all the honey is sold, and 
sometimes not even then until the beekeep¬ 
er writes complaining, and inquiring re¬ 
garding his honey or his money. 

At the time of making shipment, send 
bill of lading to the commission house, and 
name price below which the honey must not 
be sold. A commission house has no right 
to sell at a lower figure until it is given 
instructions. Before the honey is packed 
it should be carefully weighed so that one 
will know exactly how much honey he has 
sent. Large shipments should not be sent 
at first. If in. any case honey is sent, and 
the commission house fails to make returns, 
or refuses to do so, it is a criminal act. 
Such a house has no right to appropriate 
one’s honey without rendering some sort 
of returns. Never take a note in payment 
from an irresponsible firm or individual, 
for legally a note is a settlement. 

SELLING HONEY IN A RETAIL WAY. 

The beekeeper with four or five colonies 
of bees will have no difficulty in selling his 
honey to his neighbors. It soon becomes 
known that he has a few hives of bees, 
and the people in the vicinity, feeling that 
they can buy “real honey,” will go to the 
neighbor and pay good prices, furnishing 
their own utensils. If the honey is of first 
quality there is no trouble about selling 
from the doorway the entire crop. 

When one has from fifty to a hundred 
colonies his problem is not so easy. If lie 
is not a salesman, he should dispose of his 
honey in a wholesale way to his local gro¬ 
cer. If he is located in the country on a 
main highway where automobiles are pass¬ 
ing to and fro, he may be able to sell his 
entire crop from the roadside the same as 
ordinary farm products are sold. He 
should be careful to consult the market to 


592 


MARKETING HONEY 


learn what the retail prices are and sell it 
at retail. It is always a mistake to cut prices 
under the grocer, because if the beekeeper 
ever antagonizes that individual he may 
shut oft an important outlet for his honey 
some seasons when he can not sell his en¬ 
tire product from his home. In any event 
it is always wise to work with, and co¬ 
operate with, the local dealer as far as 
possible. 

Whether selling from the roadside or 
from the shelves of the grocer the bee¬ 
keeper should have his goods put up in 
neat, attractive form. Cheap labels or 
poor glassware have a tendency to give 
the honey a cheap look. The more at¬ 
tractive the package, the more readily will 
it sell. It is usually customary to put up 
the honey in tumblers, one-pound and two- 
pound glass jars, 2^2*. 5, and 10 pound 
self-sealing tin cans or pails. It is ad¬ 
visable to use a package that the housewife 
can use over again. Tumblers, Mason 
jars, and tin pails are always useful around 
the home. Glass packages should be of 
clear glass and not a pale green. 

Labels should not only be attractive but 
show \in pounds and ounces the exact 
amount of honey in the packages. They 
should be printed by some concern who 
makes a specialty of printing labels, and 
not by some local printer who puts neither 
art nor style on the label. 

In roadside selling the sign should be 
neatly lettered. Signs poorly lettered, es¬ 
pecially with the words misspelled, often 
do more harm than good in disposing of 
the honey. It is advisable to have about 
a dozen signs a foot or eighteen inches 
long containing the simple word “honey.” 
One of these signs should be placed about 
every hundred feet down the road each 
way toward the place where the honey is 
to be sold. There should then be one large 
sign calling particular attention to the 
goods and prices. Honey should be on dis¬ 
play in a neat little booth, showing both 
tin and glass packages. If a customer 
wishes to sample, give him a liberal taste. 

If one is a natural salesman he may be 
able to dispose of his entire crop by ped¬ 
dling; for particulars on how to do this 
see Peddling Honey. 

It should be emphasized that the honey 
sold should be of uniform quality and 


good flavor. The poorer or dark honeys 
should be disposed of to some jobber for 
manufacturing purposes. In large quan¬ 
tities such honey is used in the baking 
trade. This trade demands honey of pro¬ 
nounced flavor rather than the mild honey, 
the flavor of which would be obscured by 
the cake itself with its other ingredients. 

HOW TO BOOST LOCAL SALES OP HONEY. 

There will be times when honey, at the 
local groceries and perhaps along the road¬ 
side, will be moving slowly. When this 
occurs the beekeeper can do much to stimu¬ 
late the demand for his product. By turn¬ 
ing to Orservatory Hives, he will find an 
illustration of a single comb hive with glass 
sides, the upper part shoiving a series of 
four sections of honey. The purpose of 
this is to illustrate the exact relationship 
of the combs below to the sections above. 

When one of these glass hives is filled 
with bees and the comb shows brood in all 
stages, the queen, and the bees, it makes 
an exhibit that commands attention from 
the public. Obtain permission from the 
groceryman to put one of these glass hives 
containing live bees in his show window, 
place around this glass hive both comb and 
extracted honey in attractive packages; and 
a display card should explain something 
about the bees, how they work, calling par¬ 
ticular attention to the queen. On impor¬ 
tant days and Saturday afternoons the bee¬ 
keeper himself should get into the show 
window and explain how honey is pro¬ 
duced, at the same time telling something 
about the queen, bees, and drones. 

At such a time it is advisable to have 
an open can of honey. If the demon¬ 
strator is provided with short strips of 
wood, he can dip one of these into the 
honey and ask the prospective purchaser to 
taste it. If children are present, give them 
all a taste, and everyone else who would 
like to know how delicious good honey 
really is. As fast as these sticks have been 
used for tasting, they should be thrown 
into a box and afterwards burned. It is 
important to give every person who tastes 
a fresh clean stick. 

If the local beekeeper is not a good 
talker, let him emplo.y someone who is, 
and he will be surprised how his honey 
will sell. 


MESQUITE 


593 


Grocerymen are usually very willing to 
grant window space and otherwise get back 
of the whole proposition. They sometimes 
have a member of their selling force who 
can do the “demonstrating” better than 
the beekeeper himself, especially so if that 
beekeeper is not a natural talker or sales¬ 
man. 

This kind of demonstration work with 
live bees on display can be undertaken most 
profitably at county fairs, street fairs, or 
at food shows. Sometimes space can be 
secured in one of the buildings. At other 
times it may be advisable to have a special 
tent at some good location on the grounds, 
where honey can not only be sold but 
where a good demonstrator can help push 
the sales. 

It is sometimes a very great advantage to 
have a beekeeper open up a hive inside a 
wire cage. This cage is usually about six 
feet high, four or five feet wide, six feet 
long. Inside of this cage, an operator with¬ 
out bee-veil or gloves can show just how he 
handles bees. If it is advertised that bees 
are manipulated in this cage at certain 
hours during each day of the fair, large 
crowds will come to see the man bare¬ 
handed, bare-faced, handle the bees. With 
a good salesman or saleswoman at the tent, 
large quantities of honey can be sold. 

A large and important advantage se¬ 
cured from this demonstration before the 
public is its permanent advertising value. 
If these demonstrations are then followed 
up with appropriate window displays at 
the local groceries, there will be no trou¬ 
ble about the selling of the honey. 

No one will dispute the fact that “It 
pays to advertise,” especially so when it is 
done judiciously. It is advisable for the bee¬ 
keeper to do a little advertising in the local 
papers. If these announcements refer to 
certain groceries where beekeepers’ honey 
is sold the groceryman will very often be 
glad to pay half the expense. He should 
be moi’e than willing to do this, because 
when a customer comes in to buy honey he 
is more than likely to buy something else. 

MATING OF QUEEN AND DRONE.— 

See Drones. 

MESQUITE (Prosopis glandulosa ).— 
This genus includes about 15 species of 
trees or shrubs growing in the warm arid 


regions of both the Old and New Worlds, 
but most abundant in America. In the 
United States there are two species P. 
glandulosa and P. velutina. Texas mesquite 
( P • glandulosa ) is also called algaroba and 
honey-pod. In the lower Rio Grande Plain 
it is a large tree attaining a height of 40 
feet and a diameter of 2 feet; but on the 
dryer soil south and southwest of San An¬ 
tonio there is a vast mesquite forest con¬ 
sisting of trees 10 to 15 feet tall. On 
arid land the mesquite becomes a straggling 
shrub with crooked branches. It is found 
from Kansas to Texas and southward into 
Mexico, and westward to New Mexico and 
’southern Nevada. 

It is probable that the mesquite first in¬ 
vaded Texas from Mexico near Matamoras 
about 150 years ago. Until comparatively 
recently the Rio Grande Plain was a grass¬ 
land, but the mesquite and various shrubs 
have spread over it very rapidly. There 
are many who remember when hundreds of 
acres now brushland were in grassland. At 
present a scattered growth of mesquite is 
found over the larger part of Texas ex¬ 
cept in the northwest corner of the Pan¬ 
handle or Staked Plains, and that portion 
of eastern Texas east of the lower Brazos 
River, the Navasota River, and a line ex¬ 
tending northward to Hunt County, and 
then running westward to Montague 
County. The heaviest growth of mesquite 
is in the twelve counties of Atacosa, Bexar, 
Dimmit, Frio, La Salle, Live Oak, McMul¬ 
len, Medina, Nueces, San Patricio, Uvalde, 
and Zavala, embracing an area of 14,915 
square miles southwest of San Antonio. 
The annual rainfall averages between 20 
and 30 inches. The greater portion of this 
area is covered with a shrub-like growth of 
mesquite which stools out at the ground 
into a number of slender crooked stems. 
On the higher and dryer land huisache and 
catsclaw are associated with it. The mes¬ 
quite trees in Texas are about 10 feet tall, 
and average less than 4 inches in diameter. 
Along the streams it is crowded out by elm, 
ash, hickory, and live oak. Only about 
9,000 acres, located in San Patricio, Uvalde, 
and Live Oak Counties, are commercially 
valuable for logging. The logs average 
only 3 feet straight length and 3 to 4 
inches in diameter. 

Thruout the central denuded region from 


594 


MESQUITE 


Hardemen and Willbarger Counties on the 
Red River to Valverde County on the Rio 
Grande mesquite is generally distributed, 
but thruout' its northern range the trees 
become more dwarfed and the stands more 
scattering. Short, crooked trunks with 
long irregularly curved branches produce 
scragly trees, suggestive of long-neglected 
orchards. The trees have a large taproot 
which extends to a great depth, and it is 
not uncommon to find the*larger part of 
the tree under rather than above the 
ground. 

The rapid spread of mesquite is largely 
due to the abundance of seed and to its 
wide dissemination by live stock, but its 
distribution is determined chiefly by the 
character of the soil. It can not compete 
with the native trees, and is forced to oc¬ 
cupy low or level areas where the soil is 
fine and compact. It does not occur on 
very moist soils along the streams because 
it is crowded out by the native hardwood 
trees. It occupies the level areas with fine 
silty soils, which are less porous, known as 
“mesquite flats.” Large areas of the mes¬ 
quite prairies have been reclaimed for agri¬ 
cultural purposes, but fortunately the 
greater part of the land is planted with 
cotton, which is as valuable as mesquite as 
a source of honey. In parts of the Trans- 
Pecos region mesquite is one of the sur¬ 
plus honey plants, altho the main depend¬ 
ence of the beekeeper is irrigated alfalfa. 

The leaves are bipinnate, composed of 
two branches or pinnae, each of which 
bears from G to 25 pairs of narrow leaflets. 
At the point of union of the two branches 
of the leaf there is a gland. The small 
fragrant flowers are in yellowish cylindric 
spikes, 3 to 5 inches long. There are 5 
sepals, 5 petals, and 10 stamens. The fruit 
is a round pod 6 to 8 inches in length, 
which is greedily eaten by cattle. Even 
human beings find that the beans have a 
good flavor, and children particularly rel¬ 
ish them each season as they ripen. They 
vary, however, considerably in taste, some 
being so bitter that they cannot be eaten, 
while others are very sweet and agreeable 
in flavor. Their chief value is as food for 
cattle. 

The mesquite has usually two separate 
and distinct blooming periods during the 
year, altho in some seasons there is no in¬ 


terval. The first comes during April and 
the second during the last of June or in 
July. These periods are sometimes a week 
or more earlier or later according to the 
season, the occuri'ence of cold weather, and 
the rainfall of the preceding fall and win¬ 
ter. If rain has been abundant during the 
winter no matter how dry the following 
spring and summer, there will be a profu¬ 
sion of bloom and a heavy flow of nectar. 
The long taproot penetrates- the soil to a 
great depth and is thus able to obtain wa¬ 
ter, which is beyond the reach of many 
other shrubs and trees. 

Mesquite is one of the main honey plants 
of Texas and the source of a very large 
surplus. From 25 to 100 pounds of honey 
per colony are stored from the bloom ac¬ 
cording to the locality and weather condi¬ 
tions. The honey is light amber in color 
and of good quality. It is a better table 
honey than any other of the Texan honeys, 
since one never tires of it, as is apt to be 
the case with a honey having a more pro¬ 
nounced flavor. The honey, altho ranked 
very high in Texas, would in the North 
probably be classed with the amber hon¬ 
eys. Nectar secretion is more reliable on 
light sandy soils than on heavy land. 

In New Mexico in the valley of the Rio 
Grande River beekeepers formerly depend¬ 
ed on mesquite and other desert plants, but 
now pay attention only to alfalfa and 
sweet clover. At La Mesa in some seasons 
the mesquite flow is fine, but is often a 
failure. Mesquite is also valuable in Otero 
County. Texas mesquite is also found in 
southern Nevada. In Lincoln County there 
is a large acreage of mesquite, which with 
the mild winters and early springs should 
be very valuable for an early honey flow. 

Arizona Mesquite (Prosopis velutina). 
This tree is the largest of the mesquites 
often attaining a height of 45 feet or more. 
It grows in the hot dry deserts of southern 
Arizona, southern California, and Sonora. 
The leaves, flowers, and pods are very simi¬ 
lar to those of Texas mesquite. Arizona 
mesquite blooms for the first time in May 
and again in July. On the arid deserts it is 
often not over 15 feet tall. It yields boun¬ 
tifully in the Buckeye Valley west of Phoe¬ 
nix and at Sentinel, Maricopa County. In 
the latter locality there are no cultivated 
crops and the honey plants are willow, 


MESQUITE 


595 


mesquite, catsclaw, and arrowhead. At 
( Casa Grande mesquite and catsclaw are the 
chief dependence of the beekeeper. At 
Well ton also it is the most reliable honey 
plant for surplus. At Polonias in the east¬ 
ern part of Yuma County there is an api¬ 
ary of 65 colonies, which stores about a 
can of honey per colony from mesquite. 
In midsummer it becomes very hot and 
dry on the deserts; and, as there are no 
other honey plants and no honey flow of 
any kind, the bees must depend on the 
stores gathered earlier in the season or die 
of starvation. Along the Colorado River 
in the eastern portion of Imperial and Riv¬ 
erside Counties, California, there is an ex¬ 
tensive growth of mesquite which yields a 
large early honey flow. The Liguanea 
Plain on the south side of the Island of 
Jamaica is largely covered with a third 
species of mesquite (Prosopis juliflora). 

MESQUITE IN THE HAWAIIAN ISLANDS. 

In the Hawaiian Islands mesquite is not 
only the chief but almost the only source 
of floral honey. Here it is called algaroba, 
or in the native tongue, keawe. The his¬ 
tory of honey plants offers no more inter¬ 
esting chapter than that describing the in¬ 
troduction of this tree and its rapid in¬ 
crease, until today it yields annually more 
than 200 tons of algaroba honey, and has 
rendered beekeeping profitable in sections 
of the islands where previously little honey 
was stored. In earlier times the apiaries 
seldom exceeded 50 colonies, and they were 
located near forest trees growing in the 
mountains, which yielded comparatively 
little nectar. 

About 1828 the seed was brought from 
the Royal Gardens of Paris by Father 
Bachelot, founder of the Roman Catholic 
missions. Once introduced the mesquite in¬ 
creased with remarkable rapidity. It thrives 
from the level of the seacoast, where the 
spray of the waves falls on its foliage, up 
to an altitude of 2,000 feet, but succeeds 
best at a slight elevation in a semiarid cli¬ 
mate. As the Plawaiian Islands are of re¬ 
cent volcanic origin the kinds of soil here 
are limited. The algaroba forests are con¬ 
fined chiefly to the lee or western side of 
the islands. The reason for this is that the 
windward or eastern side is exposed to the 
trade winds, which blow, with few excep¬ 


tions, during the entire year. As the result 
of these winds the climate on one side of 
the islands is entirely different from that 
on the other side, even in the case of an 
island that is only a few miles across. On 
the windward side there is a heavy rain¬ 
fall, in some places in excess of 200 inches 
for the year, and it may exceed 400 inches. 
On the lee side there is much less rain, or 
the climate may be so arid that the land in 
places may be little better than a desert. 
Where there is much rain the mesquite is 
entirely absent or does not grow well. 

On the western side of the islands there 
are vast forests of algaroba trees covering 
thousands of acres. On the island of Oahu 
alone there are not far from 17,000 acres. 
Cattle are continually disseminating the 
seed, and the number of trees is also large¬ 
ly increased by systematic planting. Prior 
to October, 1916, there were planted over 
100,000 trees in Oahu. It has been esti¬ 
mated that a tree with a 30-foot spread of 
branches will produce 2^2 pounds of hon¬ 
ey in a normal year. One strip of algar¬ 
oba forest in Molokai supports nearly 2,000 
colonies. It will not average more than 
half a mile in width, and about 30 miles of 
it are used for bees. Of the 600, or more, 
tons of honey produced in the Hawaiian 
Islands more than 200 tons come from the 
flowers of algaroba. The trees begin to 
bloom when they are from four to six 
years old. There are two periods of bloom¬ 
ing. The first begins in March or later, 
according to the locality of the island, and 
lasts until August. In Hawaii the second 
period ends about the first of October. The 
long period of blooming adds greatly to 
the value of the tree to beekeepers. 

The honey is water-white, about as thick 
as that of white clover, and possesses an 
agreeable altho peculiar flavor. It is suit¬ 
able for table honey. Honey which has 
granulated in the combs is placed in huge 
solar extractors which will hold several 
hundred combs at a time. The sun’s heat 
liquefies the honey without darkening it, 
and also melts most of the wax, which is 
extracted from the “slumgum” by .the 
usual methods. 

The trees grow rapidly, and attain a 
height of 45 to 50 feet, with a diameter of 
2 feet or more—much larger than they 
grow in Texas except in the Rio Grande 


596 


MIGRATORY BEEKEEPING 


Valley. If necessary the roots will go 
down to a great depth for water. Owing 
to its irregular habit of branching, the tree 
does not present an attractive appearance. 
The spikes of sweet-scented, densely 
crowded small flowers are five or more 
inches long and produce an abundance of 
pollen. The yellow pods are sis to nine 
inches long, and are eagerly eaten by cat¬ 
tle. The annual crop of pods in the island 
of Oahu is estimated at 25,000 tons. 

METAMORPHOSIS OF BEES. — See 

Development of Bees. 

MIGRATORY BEEKEEPING.— Expe¬ 
rience has shown that the secretion of nec¬ 
tar in a given locality varies sometimes, 
even within a distance of only a few miles. 
It will occur sometimes that the home- 
yard bees will be gathering no honey when 
an outyard eight or ten miles away will be 
securing a good crop. This is due to the 
fact that the character of and moisture in 
the soil make possible the growth of some 
plants that will not take root in other lo¬ 
cations only a few miles away. For exam¬ 
ple, a beeyard may be situated in a val¬ 
ley close to a stream, along which there will 
be a heavy growth of honey-yielding plants. 
Within a few miles from there, perhaps on 
higher ground, and soil less productive, 
there will be nothing. 

Sometimes one finds conditions like this 
—in one locality a large amount of buck¬ 
wheat will be grown; ten miles away from 
there, there will be none whatever. The _ 
same is true of red clover, alsike, and a 
number of other artificial-pasturage crops. 

Again, it' will happen that in one year 
when there is an'excess of rainfall the loca¬ 
tion in the valley will be too wet for the 
proper growth of plants yielding nectar, 
while on the higher ground, a few miles 
away, conditions will be just right for a 
fine flow of honey. 

The knowledge of these varying condi¬ 
tions in localities only a few miles apart 
has led some beekeepers to practice what is 
known as migratory beekeeping. Eor ex¬ 
ample, in one yard it is evident that bees 
are not getting any honey, and there is no 
flora of any sort that gives any promise of 
any. On the other hand, there is another 
yard that is doing well, and there are still 
other locations without bees where there 


are immense quantities of alsike or red 
clover, or of buckwheat. Evidently it is a 
part of wisdom and business sense to move 
the yard that is yielding no returns to the 
location in which the honey can be secured. 

In California, for example, it is quite 
customary for the beekeeper to move from 
the orange district into one with an abun¬ 
dance of sage,/then from the sage into the 
bean fields, or into localities where alfalfa 
is being grown. Similarly, bees in the East 
are moved from the clover into the buck¬ 
wheat fields. For particulars on moving- 
bees, see Moving Bees. 

Migratory Beekeeping is being prac¬ 
ticed on a large scale in the extreme west¬ 
ern part of the United States. Bees are 
being moved in carlots from Texas, Idaho, 
Montana, and Nevada into California and 
back again. In many cases the large pro¬ 
ducers find that they can move the bees 
from Idaho, Montana, or Wyoming in one 
and two carlots in the fall to the citrus 
groves of California, build them up on 
eucalyptus during the winter, catch a crop 
of orange honey in the spring, then moun¬ 
tain sage, after which the bees are loaded 
on the cars and moved to the State whence 
they came where they catch a crop of al¬ 
falfa. In one case in particular one large 
producer says he cleaned up in this way 
$50,000 in one season; but this was during 
war-time prices when honey was up to 22c 
a pound in carlots. Some good beekeepers 
even during normal prices are making mi¬ 
gratory beekeeping pay handsome returns. 

Bees are also moved in package form 
without combs in lots of a thousand pounds 
at a time by express. (See Moving Bees.) 
One large producer in Nevada had 1,200 
two-pound packages of bees sent him by 
express from California after the orange 
and sage bloom. 

MILKWEED (Asclepias syriaca ).— 
There belong to the milkweed family, or 
Asclepiadaceae, some 1900 species, widely 
distributed in the temperate and tropical 
regions of both hemispheres. About 22 
species occur in eastern North America, 
and 25 more in the southern and western 
States. The common milkweed, or silkweed 
{A. syriaca ) is the most common species in 
the northern States. It is a stout plant, 
four or five feet tall, with oblong leaves 


MILKWEED 


597 



and purple flowers, growing in fields and 
waste land. In California A. mexicana and 
A. speciosa are of great value to beekeep¬ 
ers. 

Milkweed has been listed as a honey plant 
in many States, as Massachusetts, North 
Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Nebraska, Cali¬ 
fornia, and Michigan; but it is compara¬ 
tively rare in the prairie region. In Michi¬ 
gan, milkweed is very abundant in the 
northern part of the Lower Peninsula in 
Cheboygan, Emmet, Charlevoix, Antrim, 
and Grand Traverse Counties, where an av¬ 
erage of 50 pounds surplus per colony is 
sometimes obtained. When the weather is 
favorable the nectar is secreted very rapid¬ 
ly, and a large colony may gather 13 to 17 
pounds in a single day. A colony has been 
known to bring in an average of 11 pounds 


Common milkweed. 


per day for 10 successive days, and in 
one apiary a yield of 95 pounds per col¬ 
ony was obtained. The plants grow on 
every kind of soil, from a shore sand to 
heavy clay land, but it is chiefly from 
plants growing on heavy soil that the nec¬ 
tar is obtained. In special localities milk¬ 
weed is so abundant as to exclude largely 
all other vegetation. It is classed as a 
noxious weed, and farmers are required by 
law to mow it down and often try to eradi¬ 
cate it; but except on a small scale this is 
impossible. It appears to be spreading; 
and as the raspberry disappears it is yearly 
becomingtmore valuable as a honey plant. 

The common milkweed (A. syriaca) 

blooms from about July 15 to August 15. 

The honey is excellent and compares well 
with that obtained from raspberry. It is 
white, or tinged with 
yellow, and has a 
pleasant fruity fla¬ 
vor somewhat sug¬ 
gestive of quince, 
and with a slight 
tang. It is so .thick 
and heavy that it 
may be necessary to 
warm the combs be¬ 
fore extracting. The 
cappings of the 
comb honey is nearly 
always pearly white. 
It sells readily by 
reason of its fine fla¬ 
vor, and is in every 
way suitable for ta¬ 
ble use. 

The small flowers 
are in flat-topped 
clusters or umbels, 
and are green, white, 
yellow, red, or pur¬ 
ple, but never in our 
species blue. They 
are called pinch-trap 
flowers since they 
possess a remarkable 
clip -mechanism 
fdund in no other 
family of plants in 
the world. 

Many species of 
milkweed are prob¬ 
ably harmless to 






598 


MILKWEED 


honeybees — only A. syriaca and A. mexi- 
cana, indeed, have been reported as caus¬ 
ing much loss. In the case of these spe¬ 
cies the bees probably seldom perish ex¬ 
cept when several legs or other parts be¬ 
come entangled .at the same time. More 
often the activity of the bee is crippled by 
the many clips and pollinia attached to its 
tongue, legs, or antennae. Butterfly-weed 
{A. tuberosa ) and purple milkweed {A. 
purpurascens) are butterfly flowers. 

In South America Araugia albens, an¬ 
other member of the milkweed family, at¬ 
tracts hosts of moths to its sweet-scented 
flowers. The tongues of the moths are 
caught in the slit-like notches, and as they 
are unable to free themselves they die a 
lingering death. Some years ago it was 
seriously proposed by an economic entomol¬ 
ogist to employ this plant in the extermina¬ 
tion of the codling moth, so injurious to ap¬ 
ples. But this well-laid scheme went agley, 
as the moth would not visit the flowers. 

The way in which the pollen masses are 
clamped to the feet or legs of insects is 
of much interest to beekeepers, and every 
season there are many inquiries in regard 
to this queer phenomenon. The five an¬ 
thers stand close together, forming a 
sheath around the stigma. Each anther is 
provided with two lateral wings; and where 
the wings of two adjacent anthers touch, 
there is a nan-ow slit, larger at the base 
than at the top. The anther, it will be 
recalled, usually consists of two sacs con¬ 
taining the pollen. But in the milkweed 
the grains of pollen are not separate, but 
are bound together in waxy flattened masses 
called pollinia. Two of these pollinia, or 
club-shaped masses of pollen, belonging to 
two different anthers, are attached by flex¬ 
ible bands to a small dry membrane, or disc, 
midway between them. In this flat triangu¬ 
lar disc there is a wedge-shaped slit at one 
end. The disc stands directly back and 
above the slit between the two anther wings. 
This is the pinch-trap ready for action. 

Let us now observe what happens when 
a bee alights on the flower in search of 
nectar. In its efforts to obtain a foothold 
on these small smooth flowers it thrusts a 
claw or leg into one of the slits between the 
anther wings. Presently its leg is drawn 
upward into the wedge-shaped slit in the 
little membranous disc, which soon becomes 


firmly clamped to its leg, or in some cases 
to one of its antennae. The harder the bee 
pulls, the tighter does the little pinch-trap 
hold. When it flies away to another flower 
the pollen masses which, as described above, 
are joined to the little disc by straps, are 
forcibly torn from their pouches. Exposed 
to the air the strap-like stalks dry and 
draw the pollinia close together. Then as 
the bee alights on another flower they are 
easily thrust thru the slit between two of 
the anther wings; but once inserted, and 
the insect’s leg drawn upward, they can 
not again be withdrawn. The bee can ob¬ 
tain its liberty only by breaking the con¬ 
necting bands. If this happens, the pollen 
masses are left in a chamber near the stig¬ 
ma, and the bee bears away the membran- 



Pollen of the milkweed attached to a bee’s foot. 

ous disc with its empty stalks. Disc after 
disc may thus become attached to an insect 
until it is crippled or helpless. 

It is stated on the authority of Gibson 
that one season an English beekeeper lost 
thousands of bees from the effects of strings 
of these clips. It was at first supposed that 
they were being destroyed by a fungus. 
Many different explanations have been 
given of these curious structures by per¬ 
sons not familiar with the flowers of the 
milkweed. Some think them a parasite, 
others a protuberance growing on the bee’s 
foot, and others a winged insect enemy of 
the bee. We give here an engraving of this 
curiosity, magnified at a, and also a mass 
of them attached to the foot of a bee. If 
the insect is not strong enough to pull out 
the pollinia, or later to break the connect¬ 
ing bands, then it perishes slowly of star¬ 
vation, probably with little pain. These 
dry membranous discs are often described, 
even in botanical works, as glands, or as 
being glutinous or sticky, but this is not 
the case. 

Climbing Milkweed ( Gonolobus laevis). 


Milkweed 


599 


Also called sandvine, angle-pod from the 
angled fruit, blue vine from the. bluish 
color of the flowers, dry weather vine since 
it secretes nectar most freely in dry weath¬ 
er, and shoestring vine. A twining herba¬ 
ceous vine with a tough stem which may 
attain a length of 40 feet. The oval heart- 
shaped leaves resemble those of the morn¬ 
ing glory or sweet potato. The small blu¬ 
ish white’flowers are in numerous axillary 
clusters, and resemble the flowers of the 
milkweed. The pollen grains are in waxy 
masses. The pods are very lai'ge, thick, 
tapering to a point; the seeds bear a tuft 
of long silky hairs, and are carried for 
miles by the wind. 

Climbing milkweed, or blue vine, is 
widely distributed over the central and 
Gulf States from Iowa to eastern Texas, 
eastward to the Appalachian Ranges. As 
a honey plant it is important chiefly in 
southwestern Indiana and in central Mis¬ 
souri. It grows luxuriantly on the rich al¬ 
luvial soils of the river bottomlands, but 
does not thrive equally well on upland or 
thin clay soils. Commercially it is most 
valuable to the beekeeper in extreme south¬ 
west Indiana, along the lower portions of 
the Ohio, Wabash, and White Rivers. In 
this region it is the main source of sur¬ 
plus. At Bloomfield on the West Fork of 
the White River blue vine is reported to 
be spreading each year. As it is a peren¬ 
nial it dies down in the fall, but comes up 
again in the spring. In the wet season of 
1915 the bees neglected the bloom entirely 
and no honey was secured. It yields well 
only in dry seasons. In Daviess County, 
also on the White River, there are thou¬ 
sands of acres of riverbottom corn fields 
which give an unlimited pasturage of blue 
vine. Early in the season it is held in 
check by the cultivator. But as soon as 
cultivation stops blue vine climbs the corn¬ 
stalks, twining around the spindles, and 
reaching across from one row to another. 
It begins to bloom during the latter part 
of July and by August 15 the honey flow 
is at its best. The plant is killed by the 
first frost. Sixty to eighty pounds of 
honey per colony are not unfrequently ob¬ 
tained. A hive on scales recorded a daily 
gain of 4 pounds for 15 consecutive days. 
The honey is nearly white, or has a slight 
pinkish tinge, and an aromatic flavor. The 


flowers have a pleasing fragrance, which is 
very noticeable in the evening; and, when 
the sections of honey are removed, this de¬ 
lightful fragrance is at once apparent. It 
does not granulate readily even in cold 
weather. 

Climbing milkweed should prove a good 
honey plant along the Ohio River in south¬ 
ern Illinois. At Brunswick, Missouri, at 
the junction of the Grand River with the 
Missouri River, climbing milkweed is very 
abundant, and in a cornfield of 1,200 acres 
there was not a stalk on which there was 
not a vine. It blooms from July to about 
September 10 and in dry seasons yields 
well. The honey is described as having the 
color of Colorado alfalfa and a fine flavor. 

MOTH MILLER. —In the old box-hive 
days and the early days of the movable 
frame, the bee moth or wax worm was re¬ 
garded as the most serious enemy with 
which the bees had to deal. Many of the 
beekeepers of those times were driven out 
of the business because their bees were 
cleaned out by the pest. So serious was it 
regarded that numerous moth-traps and 
moth-proof hives were invented. These 
were worse than useless, as they had all 
kinds of “retreats,” cracks, and crevices 
for the very purpose of trapping moths. 
Instead of catching them they made the 
finest kind of breeding places for the pest. 

In this day and age the modern bee¬ 
keeper regards the bee moth as more of a 
joke than a pest. In fact, it is almost a 
disgrace for one to allow it to get a start 
among his colonies or among the combs. It 
has been practically eliminated from all 
modern apiculture, and it is only occasion¬ 
ally that it gets in its work among good 
combs; and when it does, the owner is or 
should be ashamed of his own careless¬ 
ness. 

The bee moth does not exist as a real bee- 
enemy anywhere in the United States ex¬ 
cept in some of the southern States where 
black bees are kept in box hives exactly as 
they were in the days of our forefathers 
(see Enemies of Bees). They are just as 
ignorant of modern principles; and so to¬ 
day the bee moths, or, rather, the larvae of 
the wax worm, eliminate all except the very 
strong colonies. See Box Hives. 

There are two species of wax moth—the 


(>00 


MOTH MILLER 


larger one, Galleria mellonella , and the 
lesser wax moth, Achroia grisella. The for¬ 
mer is much the more general, and, because 
of that, more destructive. Either species 
thrives among the ignorant and' supersti¬ 
tious beekeepers, and particularly in box 
hives of black bees. In some of the south¬ 
ern States the bee moth is a serious enemy 
in that it destroys all second, third, and 
fourth swarms, leaving only the first 
swarm. Even the parent colony goes down 
with the rest. If it were not for the bee 
moth these old-time beekeepers would prob¬ 
ably be keeping three times as many bees, 
and, of course, getting a proportionately 
larger amount of honey. Unfortunately, 
some of this class will not be the ones who 
read a work of this kind; and it is to be 
hoped that the extension wor’kers sent out 


HOW TO DETERMINE THE PRESENCE OF THE 
WAX WORMS. 

The eggs hatch, and soon the larvae begin 
their chank, chank, chan king! If one will 
listen he will be able to hear these loath¬ 
some worms eating their way thru the 
combs. Their presence can be easily deter¬ 
mined also by a sort of webwork spotted 
with their excreta just beneath the surface 
of the comb, where, evidently, they try to 
keep out of sight, and away from the bees. 
As they become more numerous they fill 
the space between the combs with web. In 
the earlier stages a few young Italians will 
keep out the worms and carry them out of 
the entrance; but black bees, unless the 
colony is a strong one, will let them go on 
.until all the spaces between the combs are 





A sample of liow the eggs and eo-coons of the hee moth are deposited on wood. Sometimes the wood is 
grooved or eaten out. The illustration fails to convey the real filthiness of the mass. 


by the United States Government will soon 
be able to teach them modern methods— - 
methods that will eliminate the bee moth 
and render possible a very fair living (see 
Box Hives). The statement was made at 
the outset that the bee moth is regarded as 
a joke bv the modern beekeeper, and so it 
is. Since the introduction of the Italian 
bee and the movable frame there is no ex¬ 
cuse for having the pest among colonies or 
combs. In the first place, the Italian bees 
themselves will eliminate it, whether it be 
in a nucleus or a strong colony. Even an 
admixture of Italian blood will keep it 
under control. A weak colony of black bees 
is easily destroyed by the bee moth. 


filled with the web and these ugly wrig¬ 
gling worms. Brood-rearing will be brought 
to a standstill, and the elimination of the 
colony will take place about the time the 
old bees begin to die off. A strong colony 
of black bees will prevent the wax worm 
from making any progress in the hive, but 
a weak one of blacks is an easy prey. Here 
comes in the advantage of movable combs, 
which the owner can inspect. When he finds 
unmistakable traces of the wax worm he can 
help out the bees by cutting out the webs 
and worm with a knife or a stick; but it will 
be very difficult for him to eliminate all the 
eggs of the moth which may be scattered 
all thru the hive in cracks and crevices be- 










MOTH MILLER 


601 


yond the reach of the bees. The old patent 
moth-proof (?) hives of early days were 
full of these cracks and crevices, and of 
course much worse for their propagation 
than the regular simple hives without moth 
“contraptions.” 

In modem apiculture the moth, or, more 
properly speaking, wax worm, can do no 
damage except among combs which are laid 
aside for the time being. Combs -from 
colonies of Italian bees will usually be safe 
when they are put away in bee-tight ex- 
tracting-supers for the season. 



How moths ruin combs that are not taken care of. 


In this connection combs in unspaced 
frames—that is, frames without shoulders 
—are much more subject to damage from 
the wax worm than those in spaced or 
Hoffman frames. The former when put 
away for the season are generally put into 
the super and laced together in close con¬ 
tact. Combs that are spaced like the Hoff¬ 
man, the ordinary distance apart—-1% 
inches from center to center—are much 
safer, because they cannot be placed in 
close contact. If they are set 2 inches 


apart, the damage, if any, will usually be 
confined to one comb. 

It is generally regarded as perfectly safe 
to take the combs out of the hive right 
after the season is over, and confine them 
in hive Supers stacked up. If these stacked 
supers are covered so as to make them bee- 
tight there will be practically no danger 
from a bee moth. All combs should be 
put into supers so that neither the moth 
miller nor robber bees can gain access to 
them. As a general thing, some combs will 
contain a little honey; and the first warm 
day during a dearth of honey these combs, 
unless put into bee-tight compartments;, 
will invite the worst kind of robbing. Not 
only this, there will always be danger of 
the bee moth. Combs confined in bee-tight 
hives or supers, if they have eggs of the 
moth in the first place, may develop the 
wax worm later; but in an Italian apiary 
this will rarely occur; and even when the 
moth-eggs are in the comb they will be 
killed by the first winter freezing. Right 
here is one explanation of why the bee 
moth is much more destructive in the South 
than in the North. All stray eggs or larvae 
are killed by ordinary freezing weather. 
Combs stored away in the fall in bee-tight 
supers will usually be safe if freezing 
weather follows shortly after. They can 
also be rendered safe from the depreda¬ 
tions of the moth worm by the use of car¬ 
bon bisulphide, mentioned further on. 

TWO OTHER SPECIES. 

The work of the lesser wax moth is some¬ 
what similar to that of the larger species; 
but the galleries are smaller, and the webs 
are finer and more on the surface of the 
comb. The photo, by G. W. Tebbs, shows 
the characteristic nest of the lesser wax 
moth. 

There is still a smaller species that in¬ 
fests combs, known as the Mediterranean 
flour moth. This is not really a wax worm, 
and its presence is due to the fact that it 
eats the pollen in the comb; but it leaves 
in its wake a lot of webs as shown in the 
illustration on next page. 

BEE MOTH IN HIGH ALTITUDES. 

In Colorado, at least in the region of 
Denver, where the elevation is fully a mile 
above the level of the sea, the ordinary wax 







602 


MOTH MILLER 



Combs infested by the lesser wax moth. This photograph was sent us by George W. Tebbs, Hespeler, 
Ontario, Canada, who wrote that the frame was taken frofri a hive which had originally contained an Italian 
colony, but which had been empty during the winter. 


moths are unknown. The great elevation 
seems to be more than they can stand. 
There is, however, a very small wax worm, 
but it is not the same that ordinarily trou¬ 
bles beekeepers. 

THE MOTH MILLER SOMETIMES A BLESSING 
IN DISGUISE. 

The moth miller is not altogether an un¬ 
mitigated nuisance. This pest, as already 
explained, seldom troubles the professional 
or up-to-date beekeeper. It is only the 


slipshod, careless, don't-read-the-papers- 
class that it visits. Their bees become 
weaker and weaker, and finally die in the 
winter, leaving combs more or less filled 
with honey, and smeared over with the 
dead matter from foul brood. Unfortu¬ 
nately, these “old gums” containing dis¬ 
eased honey are a constant source of infec¬ 
tion to all the bees in their vicinity. The 
healthy bees within range rob them out. 
In the mean time the moth millers, if pres¬ 
ent, get in their work. Their larvas de- 



Work of the Mediterranean flour moth. 




















MOTH MILLER 


603 


stroy the eombs so that no future swarm 
will find these old hives a suitable abiding- 
place. It is right here that the moth mil¬ 
ler proves to be a blessing in disguise. 
These old combs smeared with foul-brood 
scales would, unless destroyed by some 
agency, attract swarms; for experience 




Cluster of bee-moth larva? photographed exact size. 
—Texas Agricultural Bulletin No. 158. 


has shown that they are frequently occu¬ 
pied by stray swarms. The bees get nicely 
started in housekeeping, begin to fill the 
combs with honey and brood, when lo! bee 



Web and cocoons in the center of a brood-frame. 
—Texas Agricultural Bulletin No. 158. 


disease begins to make its appearance. The 
colony dwindles, of course, dies in the win¬ 
ter, and is again the source of infection to 
the neighboring bees. They rob it out once 
more; but if there are moth millers in the 
locality they soon destroy these old combs 
and leave in their place a mass of webs 
that is so repellent that no swarm of bees 
will make a home there. Said one of our 
Ohio bee inspectors, “The moth miller, 
after all, may be a friend to the progressive 
beekeeper in that it destroys one great 
source of infection—old diseased combs 
and ‘gums’ in his neighborhood that 
might otherwise remain in bee-trees and 
old hives for years and years, and for 
years and years spread the disease.” 

One of the most thoro treatises on the 
wax moth or wax worm is a bulletin issued 
by the Texas Agricultural Experiment Sta¬ 
tion, No. 158, June, 1913. Among other 
things it discusses the life-history of the 
bee moth or wax worm. The author, E. B. 
Paddock, made a very exhaustive study of 
the larger species, Galleria mellonella. As 



















\ 


lected frame alive with bee-moth larvae. 

























MOTH MILLER 


605 


this bulletin covers the development, life- 
history, and the control of this pest, it is 
reproduced here in part, including the en¬ 
gravings. 

ORIGIN AND DISTRIBUTION OP THE BEE MOTH. 

THE ADULT MOTH. 

There is some dispute and no little uncer¬ 
tainty about the origin of the bee moth. Dr. 
A. J. Cook has this to say in regard to its 
origin: “These moths were known to writ¬ 
ers of antiquity, as even Aristotle tells of 
their injury. They are wholly of Oriental 
origin, and are often referred" to by Euro¬ 
pean writers as a terrible pest.”* 

The bee' moth was introduced into Amer¬ 
ica about 1805, tho bees having been intro¬ 
duced some time prior to this. The time of 
the introduction of the bee moth into Texas 
is not known. The insect is now found in 
Italy, Germany, France, England, Ireland, 
India, Australia, and in most of the bee¬ 
keeping sections of the United States. This 
insect is distributed practically all over 
Texas. 


The larva (“web-worm”), upon reaching 
maturity, constructs a cocoon by means of 
silken threads which it is able to spin. After 
the cocoon is completed the larva changes to 
the pupal stage. This is the stage in which 
the form of the larva is reconstructed to 
make the moth which will emerge later from 
the cocoon. The moths mate and the females 
deposit the eggs which hatch into the larvae. 
This is called the “life cycle.” 

THE ADULT MOTH. 

The adult bee moth (Plate II, a) is about 
five-eights of an inch (15 millimeters) in 
length, with a wing expanse of about one 
and one-quarter inches (30 to 32 mm). The 
moth with its wings folded appears ashy- 
gray in color, but the back third of each 
front wing is bronze-colored, and this wing 
is thickly covered with fine scales which rub 
off easily when the moth is touched. On the 
outer and rear margins of the fore wing is a 
scanty row of short hairs. The hind wings 
are uniform in color, usually gray, with 
traces of a few black lines extending from 
the outer margin inward toward the base; 
on the outer and rear margins is a thick 
fringe of hairs on which is a dark line run¬ 
ning parallel with the border of the wing. 
The body is brown, the shade varying, with 
a covering of scales. These scales rub off 
easily and are not always present on the 
older moths. The male is slightly smaller 
than the female. A difference between the 
sexes is noticed in the fore wing, which, in 
the case of the male, is deeply scalloped on 
its outer margin. This scallop carries a 
heavy fringe of hairs, almost black in 

* “Manual of the Apiary,” A. J. Cook, page 485. 


color. Another difference is in the mouth 
parts, the palpi of the male being rudimen¬ 
tary. 

HABITS. 

The moths emerge entirely at night; and 
in the cases observed, ho moths emerged 
after 9 p. m. They at once seek some pro¬ 
tected place in which to expand their wings 
and dry, and by the next morning they are 
able to fly. During the day the moths seek 
a sheltered place away from light and ene¬ 
mies, where they apparently settle down and 
draw their wings around them, remaining 
very still and quiet. Usually they are well 
protected by their color, which resembles 
weather-beaten wood. If disturbed during 
the day, the moths will make a dart or short 
flight, acting as tho blinded by the light. 
When an object is met, the moth quickly 
settles down, and seems very anxious to 
avoid flight. That they are hard to disturb 
in the daytime is shown by the fact that in 
several of the cages used in the experiments 
small ants attacked the moths and killed 
them without any apparent struggle on the 
part of the moths. Only by close examina¬ 
tion could it be detected that the moths 
were dead and not resting in the usual man¬ 
ner. It is only during the latter part of the 
oviposition period' that the females are act¬ 
ive during the daytime. 

The male moths emerge a few days ear¬ 
lier than the females and are much longer 
lived. In several cages, closely observed, 
the males lived an average of 26 days, 
which was 14 days longer than the average 
life of the females. The male moths are 
very active tliruout their existence. Just 
how long the males are functional has not 
yet been determined. In some matings un¬ 
der artificial conditions one male fertilized 
two females at an interval of ten days. 
During the first part of the emergence pe¬ 
riod the males are in excess of the females, 
since the males emerge first as a general 
thing. Later on, the number of males and 
females reaching maturity at the same time 
is about equal. During the latter part of 
the emergence period the females predom¬ 
inate, However, for the brood as a whole, 
taking sometimes as long as a month for all 
of the individuals to reach maturity, the 
males and females are about equal in num¬ 
ber. 

The first and the last emerging individ¬ 
uals of the brood are smaller in size than 
the average, regardless of the sex. The 
quality of the food has a great deal to do 
with the size of the adults. The last larvae 
of the brood are undersized, but are almost 
always able to pupate and reach maturity. 
Several matings have been made with odd¬ 
sized individuals, such as large males and 
small females, and vice versa. The results 
of these matings indicate that those larvae 
which were forced into pupation premature¬ 
ly may transform to functional adults. 




606 


MOTH MILLER 



PLATE II—Life history of the bee-moth; moth; b, eggs on comb; c, larvae; cl, pupae.—Texas Agricultural Bulletin No. 158. 









MOTH MILLER 


607 


MATING AND OVIPOSITION. 

During the mating period the males are 
more active than the females; and at this 
time can be noticed “ drumming’’ with 
their wings, the vibrations of which are, at 
times, sufficient to produce a low hum. 

The moths probably mate very soon after 
emergence, tho no direct observations have 
been made upon this point. However, fe¬ 
males only one and one-half hours old were 
killed and their ovaries examined. It was 
found that, at this time, fully two-thirds of 
the eggs were of full size and well down in 
the oviducts, tho not packed closely, as was 
found to be the case in the older moths. The 
eggs had the appearance of being ready for 
deposition. 

Mating takes place at night, as would nat¬ 
urally be expected from the nocturnal hab¬ 
its of the species. In one cage a pair of 
moths were observed in coitu early in the 
morning, but this was no doubt an abnor¬ 
mal condition, as the female died in a short 
time. Another case was observed where 
the moths were in coitu from 7 p. m. till 
10:30 p. m. The next morning no eggs had 
been deposited, but the following night the 
female began ovipositing. This was an ex¬ 
ceptional case, as the female had been con¬ 
fined for a week after emergence before 
having the opportunity to mate. 

It would seem that the female commences 
to oviposit in a comparatively short time 
after emergence. However, in the cages, 
an average of six days elapsed between the 
time of emergence and the first egg-laying. 
This period varies with the different broods 
of the year. Oviposition usually takes 
place at night and the moths generally start 
laying the eggs soon after dark. In the 
cages they have been observed busily en¬ 
gaged in ovipositing as early as 7 p. m. 
While depositing eggs the female seems 
mindful only of the task she is performing, 
and is not easily disturbed, tho she is active, 
seemingly nervous, darting in and around the 
comb. While thus engaged the antennae 
vibrate continuously and perhaps are used 
to locate suitable crevices in which to place 
the eggs. The ovipositor is long, equal in 
length to the last two abdominal segments 
and is very slender. It is constantly mov¬ 
ing over the comb to detect a roughened 
spot wherein to deposit the egg. It thus 
has the appearance of being dragged after 
the female in her travels over the comb. 

Having found a suitable place for the 
egg, the ovipositor is spread at the tip, the 
female braces herself as tho pushing back¬ 
ward to force the ovipositor into the comb, 
and then, after a quick jerk of the abdomen, 
an egg is forced down the ovipositor to its 
destination. In many instances females have 
been observed depositing their eggs at the 
rate of one every minute for a period of 30 
minutes, and then, after a short rest, have 
continued again at the same rate. The eggs 


are always securely fastened to whatever 
object they are laid upon. The eggs are 
always laid in cavities. In the cage experi¬ 
ments this was on the side of the comb, 
often where the walls of a cell had been 
turned in. An example of this is shown 
at Plate II, b. Only one egg is deposited 
at a time, altho in working over the comb 
a female often places the eggs close to¬ 
gether. On the smaller pieces of comb, 
furnished to moths confined in cages, as 
many as seven eggs were found in a sin¬ 
gle cavity. The number of eggs actually 
deposited by one female has not been de¬ 
termined, but females which had not depos¬ 
ited eggs were killed and the eggs in their 
ovaries were counted. The largest number 
of eggs found in ovaries of a single female 
was 1,128, and the average number was 
1,014. 

In the cages, under artificial conditions, if 
comb was not supplied for the female, she 
would deposit her eggs in any rough place 
detected by her ovipositor. In many in¬ 
stances the females would refuse to oviposit 
on cappings which were furnished in some 
of the cages, but would go around the base 
of the lamp globe in which they were con¬ 
fined and fill every crevice with eggs. Some¬ 
times these eggs would be fastened on the 
outside of the glass, and in such cases the 
globe would be fastened to its resting place. 

The average time consumed in depositing 
the full quota of eggs varies with the brood 
In the first brood it is nine days, but in the 
second only seven days. During the last 
part of the egg-laying period the female 
appears to be in a great hurry, and during 
the last few days she oviposits during the 
day as well as during the night, at times 
stopping to rest. If disturbed during the 
resting periods, she vigorously resumes her 
egg-laying. The females usually die while 
ovipositing, and the last three or four eggs 
are barely extruded from the ovipositor. If 
a female is being killed or injured, she will 
attempt to oviposit even after she is unable 
to walk. 

The females will deposit their eggs even 
when they have not had the opportunity to 
mate. In all cases where the sexes were not 
properly paired, the females would finally 
oviposit, the period of oviposition being, 
however, much shorter than the natural one. 
Altho many females which did not mate 
were confined in cages, and altho they de¬ 
posited eggs, none of these unfertilized eggs 
ever hatched. It seems a fairly safe con¬ 
clusion that parthenogenesis does not occur 
with this species. 

TITE EGG. 

The egg (Plate II, b), is elliptical, meas¬ 
uring about one-fiftieth of an inch (.48 mm.) 
in length and .43 in width. The shell is 
pearly white in color and slightly rough¬ 
ened by wavy line^ running across it diag¬ 
onally at regular intervals. If the egg is 


608 


MOTH MILLER 



PLATE III.—Above, cages used in studying the development of the bee moth; at center,- 
work of wax worm, or laivu, on comb foundation; below, mass of cocoons, one of which 
shows larvaB repairing damaged cocoon.—Texas Agricultural Bulletin No. 158. 


















MOTH MILLER 



PLATE IY.—Characteristic work of the wax worm on empty comb.—Texas 
Agricultural Bulletin No. 158. 














610 


MOTH MILLER 


not deposited on dam comb it is very diffi¬ 
cult 'to see, and even then experience is 
necessary to detect all the eggs present. 

The embryonic development of the egg 
lias not been studied, but a few observations 
have been made upon the incubation period. 
During this period the egg gradually changes 
from a white to a yellow color. About four 
days before hatching, the developing larva 
becomes visible as a dark ring inside of the 
shell. The perfectly formed larva can be 
distinctly seen for at least 12 hours before 
the shell bursts. During this time the larva 
is engaged in cutting an opening in the shell 
and its final emergence from the egg is made 
thru a ragged hole in the top. After the 
larva is out of the shell it appears white 
and clear. 

The egg stage of the first brood averages 
twelve days and of the second only ten days. 

THE LARVAE. 

The larvae (“worms”) when first hatched 
are white in color and very small, only one- 
eighth of an inch (3 mm.) in length. After 
emerging from the shell they are quiet for a 
short time while they are apparently drying 
and stretching in preparation for their work 
of destruction. Soon they become very act¬ 
ive, but only upon close examination can 
they be seen hurrying over the comb in 
their attempt to gain an entrance before be¬ 
ing detected by the bees. During this short 
period of one or two hours they are at the 
mercy of their enemies. Within a short 
time after hatching, the first meal is taken, 
and this consists of scales of wax which 
they loosen from the comb in their attempts 
to gain an entrance. The entrance is made 
at the top of the cell-wall between the cells. 

The entrance is extended by the larvae 
into tunnels directed toward the bottom of 
the cells. Their presence is now noticeable, 
for in their work the bits of chewed wax 
not used for food are pushed back of them 
and out of the tunnel, making the surface 
of the comb appear rough and poorly kept. 
This tunnel affords protection and food for 
the larvae and also leads to their desired 
feeding place, the center of the comb. Usu¬ 
ally four days are consumed in reaching 
this point. 

When the center of the comb is reached, 
the larvae leave their tunnels and wander 
over the bottom of the cells or, in the ease 
of a comb containing honey, tunnel along the 
midrib from cell to cell. If disturbed, they 
seek their tunnels for protection. At first 
only small holes are eaten thru the bottoms 
of the cells, thus affording a passageway 
from cell to cell thru the center of the comb, 
so that, if disturbed, they can pass into pas¬ 
sages of silk spun by the larvae in their at¬ 
tempt to escape. In two or three days these 
openings are enlarged and outlined by 
threads of silk spun by the larvae in their 
travels from cell to cell. These threads 
soon become numerous enough to form a 


silken gallery, which gives almost complete 
protection from the bees or other enemies. 
From this central gallery the feeding is ex¬ 
tended out along the bottoms of the cells 
or the middle of the comb. The silk is spun 
wherever the larvae go, so that very soon 
the bottoms of the cells are replaced by 
a layer of silk thread covered with excre¬ 
ment of the larvae and particles of chewed 
wax. This condition is showen in Plate IV. 

After the midrib has been eaten, the lar¬ 
vae start on the walls of the cells, the ones 
furthest away from the light being the 
first that are destroyed. As this feeding 
continues out along the cell-walls, the 
threads of silk are extended to cover the 
new feeding-ground, and not only serve to 
protect the larvae, but also act as a scaffold 
to support the damaged cells. Soon the 
center of the comb appears as a mass of 
tangled refuse and discarded wax. This 
condition is also shown at Plate IV. Th^ 
feeding continues until the walls are en¬ 
tirely eaten, but the top of the cells is never 
eaten, perhaps because this would expose 
them to outside influence and enemies. An 
example of this is shown at Plate IV, lower 
photo. The area of feeding is gradually 
extended from the point of infestation to 
include finally the entire comb. If the comb 
does not furnish sufficient food for the larvae 
that are present, they will begin to feed in 
the refuse under the comb in which there 
is considerable wax in small pieces. In this 
they construct such a large amount of web 
that they are absolutely protected from ene¬ 
mies. 

The length of the larval period for the 
first brood is 45 days, or about six and one- 
half weeks. In the second brood this pe¬ 
riod is shortened to 35 days, or five weeks. 

The full-grown larva, shown at Plate II, 
c, is about three-fourths of an inch (18 
mm.) in length. The body is large and the 
head is small and pointed. The general 
color of the body is a dirty gray, with the 
first segment brown on top and a broad line 
across it. The head is brown in color, with 
a light V-shaped line on top, this “V” 
opening toward the front of the head. 

Having completed its growth, ,the larva 
seeks a place in which to pupate, tho some¬ 
times the end of the feeding gallery may be 
enlarged and closed to serve as a cocoon. 
Tire cocoon may also be spun in the refuse 
under the comb and this mass of webs af¬ 
fords an excellent protection to the pupa. 
The most common place is in some crack or 
corner about the hive, as shown in Plate V, 
below, or between the frames and the hive 
or in the "bee space” at the end of the top- 
bars. as is shown in Plate VI, right. The 
larva prefers to get into a place which it 
can chew in order that a cavity may be 
constructed and the cocoon thus be better 
protected. 

Having prepared for the location of the 
cocoon, the larva begins to spin the silk 


MOTH MILLER 


611 



PLATE V.—Above, comb and foundation destroyed by wax worm; below, characteristic 
appearance of cocoons inside of beehive.—Texas Agricultural Bulletin No. 158. 







612 


MOTH MILLER 


thread about itself, starting just above the 
head and working backwards more than the 
length of the body. A thin layer of silk 
is spun in the general shape of the cocoon; 
and this framework is covered with fine silk 
from the inside. The larva is able to reverse 
itself within the cocoon, which it does many 
times during its construction. The outer 
layer, upon hardening, becomes very tough 
and even like parchment, while the inner 
layer remains soft and fluffy. Cocoons, both 
whole and broken open, are shown at Plate 
III, below, and in Plate VI, left. The aver¬ 
age time consumed in the construction of the 
cocoon was two and one-fourth days in the 
case of the larvse observed in our cages. 

THE PUPA. 

As the cocoon nears completion, the larva 
becomes very sluggish and the body short¬ 
ens. The last act of the larva is to make 
an incision in the cocoon near the head end 
which provides for an easy emergence of 
the moth at maturity. The average time 
elapsing from the completion of the cOcoon 
to the formation of the pupa was three and 
three-fourths days in the cages of the ex¬ 
periments. 

The change to the pupa takes place during 
the night. The newly formed pupa is white. 
At the end of the first 24 hours it turns to 
a straw color, very light at first, deepening 
slowly. By the end of the fourth day the 
pupa is light brown and this color gradual¬ 
ly deepens, so that by the end of the pupal 
period the insect is a dark brown. (Plate II, 
d.) The male pup* average 14 millimeters 
(about two-thirds of an inch) in length and 
the female pup* are fully 16 millimeters in 
length. A row of spines arises just back of 
the head and extends to the fifth abdominal 
segment; the body line is somewhat curved 
downward. The time from the formation of 
the pupa to the emergence of the moth was 
seven and three-fourths days in the cage 
experiments. 

The total time from the starting of the • 
cocoon to the emergence of the moth aver¬ 
ages two weeks. 

LIFE HISTORY. 

Prom the work which we have done in 
trying to identify the different broods, or 
generations, of this insect, it appears that 
there are three broods in the extreme south¬ 
ern part of the United States. The third 
brood* is not nearly as large as the first two, 
due to the fact that some of the second 
brood of larv* do not pupate until late fall. 
There is a decided overlapping of the gen¬ 
erations, which makes it difficult to deter¬ 
mine the exact number of broods a year. At 
almost any time, from early spring until De¬ 
cember, examination of a colony of bees is 
likely to reveal this insect in all stages. It 
is often assumed that the life history is 
short and that there are several generations 
each year. • 


In well-protected hives the development 
may continue thruout the year without in¬ 
terruption. Usually the winter is passed 
with about one-third of the insects in the 
pupal stage and the remainder in the lar¬ 
val stage. Warm spells during the win¬ 
ter cause some of the moths to emerge from 
their cocoons; in the laboratory many moths 
emerged when the temperature was main¬ 
tained constantly at 60 degrees P. It is 
not unusual to see moths on the windows 
of the honey-house, trying to escape, during 
the warm spells in December and January. 
Their presence may be accounted for on the 
supposition that they have just emerged 
from their cocoons or they may have been 
in hibernation as adults and become active 
with the rise in temperature. Such moths 
do not reproduce in localities where freez¬ 
ing temperatures are frequent. Even the 
most vigorous moths cannot withstand a 
freezing temperature for more than three 
days. Moths in well-protected places can 
survive an outside temperature as low as 
26 degrees F. for as long as five days. The 
moths are never active during the day when 
the temperature is below 50 degrees F., so 
at such times reproduction does not take 
place. 

natural enemies. 

Of the natural enemies of the bee moth, 
the most important is the honeybee itself. 
It is a well-established fact that if the col¬ 
ony be kept strong, healthy, and with a vig¬ 
orous queen, it will defend itself against 
the bee moth. This is particularly true in 
the case of "Italian” bees. "In the Ohio 
Cultivator for 1849, page 185, Micajah T. 
Johnson says: ‘One thing is certain: if the 
bees, from any cause, should lose their 
queen, and not have means in their power 
of raising another, the miller and the worms 
soon take possession. I believe no hive is 
destroyed by worms while an efficient queen 
remains in it.’ This seems to be the earliest 
published notice of this important fact by 
an American observer.”* 

This fact is of vital importance in the 
fight against the bee moth, for if the pest 
can be kept from its favorite food, control 
measures are made much easier. The fact 
that the bees under natural conditions are 
able to defend themselves should leave the 
problem of control to such means as will de¬ 
stroy the pest in places other than the hives. 
Recently it has been found advantageous 
to introduce Italian blood into the colony, 
as the workers of this race seem to be more 
efficient fighters of the bee moth. In most 
cases this is sufficient for the control of the 
pest in the colonies, but it must be remem¬ 
bered that the colony cannot be kept under 
close observation and maintained at full 
strength unless domiciled in a frame hive. 


* “Langstroth on the Hive and Honeybee,” by 
Chas. Dadant, page 469. 



PLATE VI.—At left, cocoons of wax worm and interior of hive after destruction of a colony of hees by wax worm; at right, characteristic 

location of cocoon on the ends of brood-frames. 


MOTH MILLER 


613 



















614 


MOTH MILLER 


A small red ant, Solenopsis, sp.,t has been 
found to be an enemy of the bee moth, as 
many of our cage experiments were de¬ 
stroyed by this ant killing the moths and 
larvae. The attack is made on the moths 
during the day or when they are at rest. 
Usually the ants crawl under the wings of 
the moth and begin the attack upon the ab¬ 
domen. There is no apparent struggle on 
the part of the moth, for close examination 
is necessary to determine that the moth is 
dead and not resting. The abdomen seems 
to be all that is desired and this is carried 
away in small pieces to the nest of the ants. 
This same species of ant also destroyed 
moths which had recently been prepared for 
exhibits. . At such times only the abdomen 
was taken by the ants. In their attacks on 
the larvae the ants entered the cages and 
crawled over the comb and wax in search 
of their prey; and if any larvae were ex¬ 
posed they were attacked. The larger larvae 
are more frequently attacked, as they are 
less active and usually feed in more ex¬ 
posed places than do the smaller ones. Un¬ 
less the larvae were well protected by webs 
in the refuse, they were destroyed by the 
ants. Apparently there are days and even 
parts of days when the ants are most active 
in their destruction. Never were the ants 
present in sufficient numbers to attempt 
tracing them to their nests. No observa¬ 
tions have been made upon this ant in or 
about the apiary, and, while it proved very 
destructive under artificial conditions, the 
moths and larvae might be better able to 
protect themselves under natural conditions. 

Three hymenopterous parasites have been 
recorded from the bee moth. One is a chal- 
cid, Eupelmus cereanus, found by Roudani 
in Italy; another is Braeon brevicornis, 
which was found by Marshall in France, 
and a third species, Apenteles lateralis, was 
recently found by A. Conte in France.* * This 
last species was found near Lyons, where it 
spread very rapidly. It is apparently of 
considerable importance since it has also 
been reported to attack the larvae of several 
other moths in England and Germany. The 
adult parasite is about one-sixth of an 
inch (4 mm.) in length, very lively, and 
avoids light; the body is black and the 
wings are transparent, with black specks. 
The larvae of the bee moth are attacked 
while quite young and never attain a large 
size. A single parasite develops in each 
larva. The bees are said to pay no atten¬ 
tion to the presence of the parasite, so that 
it can easily enter the hive in search of the 
bee moth larvae. It was artificially intro¬ 
duced into hives by Conte with very satis¬ 
factory results. 

ARTIFICIAL CONTROL. 

Unfortunately, the only natural enemy of 

t Determined by Wilmon Newell 

* “A Hymenopterous Parasite of the Bee-moth.” 
a Conte ( Compt. Rend. Acad. Sci, Paris , 154 pp. 
41, 43), 


the bee moth that is present to any great 
extent is the honey bee itself. In the ab¬ 
sence of any other natural enemies of im¬ 
portance, the measures of artificial control 
must be made all the more effective if the 
beekeeper is to free his apiary of the pest. 
If the moths are driven from the hives by 
strong colonies of Italianized bees, they will 
surely seek scraps of comb and wax about 
the ground and stored comb and honey in 
the honey-house. It seems quite likely that 
in such cases the eggs are deposited as near 
to the comb as possible, as along the cracks 
between the supers, and the larvae, after 
hatching, find their way to the comb thru 
crevices much smaller than the moth could 
enter. 

One of the best methods of artificial con¬ 
trol, and one upon which many beekeepers 
depend, is fumigation of combs and honey. 
Gas is able to penetrate material that it is 
not possible to treat in any other manner. 
The fumigation process is not difficult, for, 
when once started, no further attention is 
necessary until the treatment is complete. It 
is not necessary to watch the entire process. 
Stored material, such as comb honey and 
empty combs, should be examined from time 
to time, and at the first evidence of the wax 
worm they should be fumigated. Stored ma¬ 
terial of this kind should be examined at 
least once every week during the summer 
and once every month during the winter 
season, so as to detect the infestation at 
the start. 

fumigation. 

In the present investigation two mate¬ 
rials have been used in the fumigating ex¬ 
periments. These were selected because al¬ 
most every beekeeper is acquainted with 
them and they can be obtained in practic¬ 
ally every locality at a reasonable price. 
They are sulphur and carbon bisulphide, or 
“high life.” 

SULPHUR. 

Dry powdered sulphur, or “flowers of sul¬ 
phur, ” is a light-yellowish powder, with 
which every one is familiar. When sulphur 
is burned it unites with the oxygen of the 
air and forms a poisonous gas known as 
“sulphur dioxide.” This gas is quite effect¬ 
ive in killing some kinds of insects, includ¬ 
ing the wax worm. A common method of 
burning the sulphur is to place it on a pan 
of red-hot coals and immediately tier up 
the infested supers over the burning sul¬ 
phur. The bottom super should not contain 
any infested material, and the pile should 
be covered as quickly as possible. A num¬ 
ber of experiments were made with sulphur 
for fumigating combs containing the wax 
worms. The results of these experiments 
are given in the following table: 

Table I.—Results of Fumigating Infested 
Gombs with Sulphur Dioxide. 



MOTH MILLER 


615 



PLATE YII_Appearance of infested hive with cover removed, showing cocoons broken 

open and the larvae inside of them.— Texas Agricultural Bulletin No. 158. 









MOTH MILLER 


616 

Larvae.14 oz.One hour.... .Killed 

Larvae. V 2 oz.One hour.Killed* 

Larvae. % oz.One hour.Killed* 

The larvae which were used for these ex¬ 
periments were ten to twenty days old, and 
in every case they were well protected by 
the webs and refuse. 

From the experiments with sulphur diox¬ 
ide it is evident that only extremely large 
doses will affect the eggs of the bee moth— 
so large, in fact, that such fumigation would 
not be practical. 

The larvae which were used in the experi¬ 
ments were of different ages and some were 
better protected than others. When the 
larvae are not very well protected they are 
quite susceptible to the gas, but the larger 
larvae, which are often enclosed in a mass 
of webs, are not killed except when ex¬ 
tremely large doses of sulphur are used. 

These results seem to indicate that the 
sulphur fumes are not ordinarily penetrat¬ 
ing enough to affect the eggs, and only 
when the larvae are young and not well pro¬ 
tected will the gas affect them. While the 
method is simple, there are minor details 
upon which the success of the operation de¬ 
pends. The sulphur must be burned at a 
high temperature in order to generate the 
most effective gas. While the method is 
generally effective under proper conditions, 
it cannot be recommended in preference to 
fumigation with carbon bisulphide. 

CARBON BISULPHIDE (“HIGH LIFE”) 

The commercial bisulphide is an oilv 
liquid, very volatile and exceedingly foul¬ 
smelling. It is cold to the touch; and be¬ 
cause of its rapid evaporation it produces 
a freezing sensation when dropped on the 
skin. When exposed to the air at ordinary 
temperatures the bisulphide changes to a 
gas quite rapidly, and this gas, or vapor, is 
a little more than two and one-half times 
as heavy as air. This is a point to be re¬ 
membered in its use, since it goes first to 
the bottom of whatever it is confined in. 
When mixed with air it becomes highly in¬ 
flammable and sometimes explosive. Such a 
mixture of air and bisulphide gas may be 
exploded by even a spark, such as might be 
made by hitting a. nail with a hammer. The 
liquid, on evaporation, leaves a residue of 
impurities. Its rate of evaporation is in 
proportion to the temperature and the area 
of the exposed surface. Its efficiency is 
greatest with rapid evaporation, and this is 
secured in relatively warm weather, but ar¬ 
tificial heat must never be used to hasten 
its change into gas. Carbon bisulphide is 
obtainable from practically every drug¬ 
gist. 

When carbon bisulphide is to be used for 
fumigation of infested material, the great- 

* Eejes which were present on these combs were 
not hilled by the sulphur dioxide, as larvse were 
found emerging' a few days after the fumigation, 


est precaution should be used to keep all 
fire, such as lights, cigarets, etc., away from 
the liquid and where it is being used. For 
this reason it is well to take the material 
that is to be fumigated to some place out 
of doors and at least a hundred feet away 
from any building. The infested material 
should be placed in supers or hive-bodies if 
possible. These are piled as high as is con¬ 
venient and all cracks between the supers 
made as nearly gas-proof as possible. Espe¬ 
cially should the bottom be tight. A good 
plan is to place an inverted hive cover on 
the ground, lay a piece of canvas over it, 
and then tier up the supers on this. After 
the pile has been completed, an empty super 
should be put on top. In this should be 
placed a large shallow pan into which the 
bisulphide is to be poured. When all is 
in readiness, pour the bisulphide into the 
pan and immediately put a hive cover on 
the top of the tier to confine the gas. This 
operation is best performed in the evening, 
and the pile of supers should be left intact 
until the following morning. When the 
supers are taken down the confined gas will 
escape from them immediately, even before 
they can be carried separately into a build¬ 
ing. 

MOVING BEES. —- Young bees, when 
they first start out, or old ones on the first 
flight of the season after a winter’s con¬ 
finement, hover in the air about the hive 
entrance, take a careful survey of sur¬ 
roundings, making wider and wider circles, 
each time taking in new objects by which 
they may familiarize themselves with the 
home. When the location is once carefully 
marked they will go back and forth with¬ 
out taking any note of distinguishing ob¬ 
jects. But when the hive is moved only a 
few feet there is apparent consternation 
and confusion. 

One cannot therefore, move his bees a 
few feet or a quarter of a mile without 
having the great majority of them go back 
to the old spot unless treated by the plans 
here described. Some strains of black bees 
when moved will find their hives. See 
“Black Bees,” under head of Races of 
Bees. The bees that do not get back per¬ 
ish or possibly get into some other hive 
near their old location, with the result that 
there is a fight, and many bees are killed. 

If one desires to move, his bees, and 
wishes to take them at least a mile and a 
half or two miles away, the problem is 
quite easy, for then they will stay wherever 
they are placed. As soon as they are lib¬ 
erated in their new position they will mark 














MOVING BEES 


(517 



Rack made in California, especially for hauling hees. 


the location as thoroly and carefully as 
when taking their first flight. After that 
they will go to and from the same spot as 
if it had always been their home. 

But to move bees from the front to the 
back yard, or from a fourth to half a mile, 
is not so easy. They are familiar with the 
whole range of flight within a mile of the 
old stand; and when they go over their 
old hunting-ground, so to speak, instead of 
returning to the hive from which they have 
just come they will return to the old loca¬ 
tion. How then, shall we make them stay 
where placed? One way, and the very best 
one, is to wait till fall or winter. After 
they have quit flying for the season, moVe 
them to the spot desired. If they are con¬ 
fined a week or two weeks by cold weather, 
pr longer, they will mark their new loca¬ 
tion and go back to it as their regular and 
permanent home. It will be better still if 
they can be confined for several months in 
the cellar; then when put out in the spring, 
they should be placed in the new location; 
for it is well known that cellared bees 
can be placed anywhere the following 
spring without reference to their old 
stands. Wherever they are' placed they 
will mark their location, and that must be 
their fixed position for the season. 


But suppose it is the midst of summer, 
and for some reason the bees must be 
moved a few rods from their old location. 
Perhaps complaint is made that the bees in 
the front yard are interfering with passers- 
by, and to avoid trouble it seems desirable 
to move them to the back yard. In- an 
emergency of this kind the following plan 
may be used: 

Tack wire cloth over the entrances, carry 
the hives down cellar, and keep them there 
for at least five days, and longer if they 
appear to be quiet. While the bees are in 
the cellar, change the surroundings in the 
front yard or in the old location as much 
as possible. After the bees have served 
out their allotted time of confinement, put 
them in the back yard in the same order as 
before it if can be done conveniently. While 
some of the bees may, perhaps, go back, 
the great majority will stay in their new 
location. Those that do return should be 
given a frame of brood in a hive; and when 
they have clustered on it they should be 
taken to the new location and dumped in 
front of the entrance to the hive. If the 
bees are confined during cool or rainy 
weather when they cannot fly, there will be 
no loss of honey that might be gathered 
from the field. While the bees are confined 













618 


MOVING BEES 



The auto truck \\ith bees or supplies runs right into the apiary. No danger of stings causing runaways. 


in the cellar a sharp watch should be kept 
on them to see that they do not suffocate; 
and, if practicable, the whole top of the 
hive should be covered with wire screen. 

There is still another method; and wher¬ 
ever it is practicable to carry it out it is 
better than carrying them into the cellar; 
that is, move the bees to a point a mile and 
a half or two miles from the old location. 
Let them stay there two or three weeks, 
then move them back. But this involves 
considerable labor, so that the average per¬ 
son would not think it practicable. 

Another plan that has been spoken of 
very favorably, and possibly may be better 
than any of the others mentioned hereto¬ 
fore except the plan of moving to an out- 
yard and then moving back again, is this: 
In the cool of the morning, at a time of 
year when no honey is or has been coming 
in, colonies may be moved a few feet or a 
few rods with very little trouble. The 
hives are put on a wheelbarrow early in 
the morning, and after smoking at the 
entrance are trundled as roughly as possi¬ 
ble clear over to the new location, for it is 
important that the bees get a general shak¬ 
ing-up in moving. If the frames are self- 
,spacing there will be no damage done to 
the combs nor to the bees. The hive is set 


down on its new stand, when it is given a 
little more smoke. Any number of colonies 
can be moved in this way; but the moving 
should be done at once, and the old location 
should be changed in appearance as much 
as possible. Very few bees will go back 
when so treated. The author has tried it 
in a limited way, and found that it works 
admirably. The bees should not be moved 
a short distance when a honey flow is on or 
has been on for two or three days. When 
they have been going regularly to the fields 
for a number of days they get their loca¬ 
tion well fixed, and it is almost impossible 
to move them short distances at such times 
without a general returning of field bees to 
the old stands. A correspondent reported 
that he attempted to move bees to a neigh¬ 
boring lot when the honey flow was on, 
and he says he never saw bees Grosser in 
his life. When, therefore, a neighbor com¬ 
plains that the bees are interfering with 
public traffic along the highway, and they 
must be moved at once, one must take into 
consideration whether there is a honey flow 
on. If so an explanation should be made 
that moving bees at such times will only 
make the trouble complained of much 
worse. See Bees as a Nuisance; also Api¬ 
ary. 







MOVING BENS 


019 



Moving bees by boat. 


Tlie author tried another plan that has 
given good results; but this, like the other, 
must not be attempted when a honey flow 
is on. Move the hive a few inches a day, 
and each time make a bigger jump than 
the one preceding. After the bees have 
been moved in this way from two to five 
times they learn to expect a change in loca¬ 
tion, and therefore will hunt out their 
hive wherever it may be. Sometimes in 
such moving it is advisable to put up a 
board against the entrance just after mov¬ 
ing, in order to arrest the attention of the 
bees when they come out. This forces 
them to mark their location anew. 

Ordinarily, as a matter of convenience, 
the bees should be moved in the cool of 
the morning, when no honey flow is on, 
giving the bees as much of a shake-up as 
possible, but of course not violent enough 
to break the combs. 

BOW TO MOVE BEES A DISTANCE 
OF SEVERAL MILES. 

The remarks that have been made here¬ 
tofore apply to moving bees only a short 
distance; but when they are to be carried 
a considerable distance, and jolted over 
rough roads, they require more ventilation 
than can usually be afforded by an ordi¬ 
nary entrance. If they are shut up during 
the middle of the day, those in the field are 
liable to be lost. Ordinarily they should be 


confined at night or in the early morning 
— better at night unless the weather is hot. 

If the bees must be moved during the 
middle of the day, a hive with a comb of 
brood should be left on the old stand, 
when the owner can start a nucleus very 
conveniently with the returning bees. 

Many beekeepers fasten the bottoms to 
their hives permanently, so all that is nec¬ 
essary in such cases is to secure the cover 
and put a wire-cloth screen over the -en¬ 
trance. If very warm a screen should also 
be used over the top. A very good plan 
during cool weather is shown in the next 
engraving, consisting of two cords or ropes. 


One rope is drawn around as tight as 
possible at one end, and the other is put on 
the other end. The cords are then drawn 
together at the top in such a way as to 
produce a strong tension. 

Another plan, somewhat similar, is to 
use one cord or rope. It is drawn around 
the hive, and tied loosely. A stick is then 



Fastening bottom-board and cover. 
















620 


MOVING BEES 



Under way. 


slipped into the cord and given a half¬ 
twist in such a way as to draw the loop up 
very tight. 

But by far the most satisfactory plan, 
certainly the safest, and one the authors 
adopt in their moving, is that of using a 
special staple (obtained at the hive fac¬ 
tories) shown in the accompanying illus¬ 
trations. One leg of the staple is driven 
into the bottom-board, and the other into 
the hive-body. Two staples on each side 
will be sufficient to hold the bottom-board. 
The cover is' fastened in the same way. 
The staples are very easily removed with a 
screwdriver at least a foot long, if they are 
not driven down too tight. The tool is 
shoved under one side, close to a leg of the 
staple, and given a quarter twist; then 
it is moved over to the other side, and 
twisted again. When the staple is raised 
high enough so the screwdriver can get 
under and give it a good pry it can be 
easily removed. 

PREVENTING BEES FROM SMOTHERING. 

In the early part of the season, in the 
spring or fall, or any time when the 
weather is cool, it is not necessary to have 
any more ventilation than will be secured 
with an ordinary entrance covered with 


wire cloth. As the weather warms up, ad¬ 
ditional air will have to be provided. Some¬ 
times this can be secured by taking pieces 
of section stuff Vs inch thick, and placing- 
one at each of the four corners between 
the hive and cover. The latter should be 
secured by ropes or staples, as previously 
shown. This makes a crack all around Vs 
inch wide, but not quite wide enough to let 
bees thru. 

A far safer and better arrangement is to 
use wire screen in place of the cover. A 
wooden frame IV2 or 2 inches deep should 
be made of % lumber, the same length and 
width as the hive. A piece of wire cloth 
large enough to cover it is tacked on, and 
over the marginal edges are nailed strips 
of wood %' inch wide and V2 of an inch 
thick. The purpose of the Vsninch strip is 
twofold—to help hold the wire cloth in 
place and raise the next hive that may 
be piled on top crosswise at least one-lialf 
inch above the ivire cloth. 

The screen frame is held on by the use 
of crate staples as shown below on this 



^ 

Removing the staples. 


page. They are quickly applied, and easily 
removed with a screwdriver. It is always 
advisable to use wire screens in moving 
bees during hot weather. It is hardly safe 
to depend on the ventilation at the en- 
















MOVING BEES 


621 


trance or thru narrow %-inch slots be¬ 
tween the covers and hives. 

When hives of bees are loaded on to a 
wagon or truck they should be placed in 
such a way that ventilation thru the top 
screen will not be shut off. In the case of 
an ordinary hayrack the hives may be 
spread out over a large surface in the 
bottom of the wagon and over the rack. 
In this way it will not be necessary to pile 
one hive on top of another. 

SACKING BEES. 

Where hives are old and full of cracks, 
putting screens on top and at the entrance 
would do little g v ood. In such cases, one 
can use second-hand burlap sacks of a size 
large enough to take in a whole hive. One 
of these can be slipped over a hive and tied, 
in much less time than it takes to put on 
screens. The mode of procedure is shown 
step by step in the accompaning engraving. 

Where one can secure a quantity of large 
burlap sacks without holes in the sides this 
method of shutting in bees can be used on 
good hives as well as old ones. The same 
sacks, of course, can be used over and over 
again. The author has helped move bees 
in sacks over rough roads without a single 
bee escaping. There is no danger o.f the 
bees suffocating, because they can crawl 
into the sack. 

LOADING AN AUTO TRUCK. 

When using an automobile truck, where 
hives have to be piled on top of each other, 
an open framework of 2 x 4’s should be 
placed between the several tiers of hives. 
Without some scheme of keeping the 
hives apart, the bees in all except the top 
tier of hives would smother. 

The most satisfactory entrance-closer is 
a piece of wire cloth, the length of which 
is the inside width of the hive, and bent 
in the form shown in cut on next page. 

This is easily placed in the entrance of 
the hive by tacking the upper right-angled 
piece against the upper part of the en¬ 
trance. 

The main feature of this is that it holds 
its place without any tacks, altho one or 
two are needed to prevent its jolting loose 
when on the automobile truck or wagon. 
Moreover, the angle that projects into the 



Above is shown stage by stage a method of sack¬ 
ing bees for moving. The exact mode of proced¬ 
ure is shown in the order of the pictures, reading 
from above down. Where the hives are old, espe¬ 
cially if they are full of cracks, or the cover does 
not fit tightly, this plan of moving bees is ideal. 
Even if the hives are good, it is probably cheaper 
than the entrance-closer and a hive screen over the 
top. To sack a colony is a matter of seconds only. 












622 


MOVING BEES 


entrance increases the amount of ventila¬ 
tion just in proportion as more wire cloth 
is used. 

MOVING BEES BY TRUCK OR WAGON WITHOUT 
SHUTTING THEM IN THE HIVE. 

This can be done very often without the 
necessity of using wire screens at the top, 
nor even entrance screens. Before the 
hives are loaded, smoke is blown into the 



Screens bent in this shape can be wedged into the 
entrance. No tacks are needed except for long hauls. 


entrances to prevent rushing out and 
stinging when the hive is disturbed. Just 
before the start is made, the entrances are 
smoked again. The subsequent jolting over 
the roads, so far from making the bees 
ugly, quiets them. If.the weather is ex¬ 
ceedingly warm the bees will crowd out 
and cluster round the front of the hive 
rather than smother to death. 

The objection to this plan is that some 
bees get out all over the hives. For this 
reason it should not be used with an ordi¬ 
nary horse-drawn wagon. It has the fur¬ 
ther disadvantage that there will be a lot 
of flying bees around the hives, some of 
which will be lost as the truck moves for¬ 
ward. But when one is not provided with 
screens of any sort he can very often pick 
the bees up, put them on the auto truck, 
and land them at the outyard without any 
further trouble. 

WHEN TO LOAD BEES. 

No bees should be loaded on a wagon or 
truck during the middle hours of the day, 
since many field bees would be lost. They 
should be loaded very late in the day or 
early in the morning while all the field 
bees are in. The hives may be made ready 
at night, and the bees may be moved 


any time the following day, altho on ac¬ 
count of rising temperature they should be 
started as soon as possible. In warm 
weather it is better to move at night after 
all the bees are in. 

AUTOMOBILE TRUCKS OR HORSE-DRAWN 
WAGONS. 

In this day and age, on account of the 
danger from stings the self-propelled wag¬ 
ons are to be preferred. They will make a 
trip to the outyard and back in about a 
fifth of the time; and when bees are re¬ 
moved to an outyard on a warm day quick 
moving is far better than slow moving with 
a team. Moreover, speed develops air cur¬ 
rents that are highly important in moving. 
Ordinarily it takes a team of horses nearly 
half a day to get to a yard four or five 
miles and back, and that spoils the whole 
forenoon or afternoon. A motor truck, on 
the other hand, in the same time can make 
three or four such trips. 

For the author’s apiaries a light Ford is 
used with a small wagon-box on the 
rear to make trips to the yards. This will 
easily carry two men and 12 hive-bodies 
with empty combs, or half that number 
when the combs are filled with honey. This 
wagon-box is just right to carry tools and 
appliances, including hives, so that for 
ordinary outyard work one can make quick 
trips and carry back and forth all he prac¬ 
tically needs. A light Ford truck will do 
general out-apiary work at about one- 
third the cost of a larger machine capable 
of carrying a ton and moving correspond¬ 
ingly slower. Experience shows that the 
small machine will make a run to outyards 
for from five to seven cents a mile, while 
the larger ones cannot do it for less than 
fifteen cents. This includes wear, tear, de¬ 
preciation, and interest. Where one is en¬ 
gaged extensively in the business he can 
afford a light motor truck and a large one 
besides. But as a general thing a small 
machine will do 95 per cent of the mov¬ 
ing, and the other 5 per cent can be moved 
on hired machines of large capacity. 

The illustration shows a light two-pas¬ 
senger Ford with a light wagon-box, which 
can be secured at one-third or one-half 
the price of a larger truck costing two or 
three times as much to operate per mile. 
Moreover, the Ford can be operated by 









MOVING BEES 


623 


‘ 1 



/>////// 7 /////// 


Ford runabout converted into a light truck. 


any one on account of its simple gear shift, 
while the large two-ton trucks requiring 
the use of sliding gears are complicated. 

SHIPPING BEES LONG DISTANCES BY EXPRESS. 

During warm weather it is advisable to 
have the shipping boxes or hives with wire 
screen at bottom as well as top. The ex¬ 
press agents are usually careless, and, in 
spite of instructions to the contrary, will 
leave bees out in the hot sun or in a small 
express room with all kinds of packages 
piled on top. For that reason additional 
ventilation should be provided. Provision 



The Dovetailed liive prepared for shipping bees. 


should be made to protect the bottom 
screen and insure ventilation at all times. 

The illustrations herewith show packages 
of bees in colonies and nuclei put up as 
they should be for shipment. If unspaced 



Empty three-frame nucleus shipping boxes. Note 
that the boxes are made of light thin stuff, and 
screened top and bottom. 


frames are used they should be secured by 
notched cleats as shown. 

On top of every shipment of bees there 
should be a label cautioning agents against 
leaving the bees out in the hot sun or piling 





















624 


MUSTARD 


anything on top of them, thus shutting off 
the ventilation; that bees are perishable 
property, and should be moved without de¬ 
lay, and that on arrival at destination the 



Three-frame nucleus shipping boxes filled with 
bees. The screen tops (with the convenient cross¬ 
rail for a handle) are secured to the nucleus box 
proper with two screws at each end. Such boxes 
are very handy for moving bees, either for ship¬ 
ping or carrying from one part of the yard to 
the other. They are also very handy for carrying 
combs. 

owner should be informed by telephone or 
messenger. For moving or shipping bees 
without combs, see Shipping Bees, also 
Beginning with Bees. 

MUSTARD (Brassica arvensis ).—Wild 
mustard, or charlock, belongs to the same 
family (Cruciferae) as the turnip, cab¬ 
bage, radish, and rape, all of which secrete 
nectar while in bloom. Introduced from 
Europe it has become naturalized over all 
the United. States, and is often very abund¬ 
ant in grain fields, where it sometimes pre¬ 
sents an almost unbroken expanse of yel¬ 
low. • Almost equally common is the black 
mustard (B. nigra), which flourishes every¬ 
where in waste places. 

Many species of the mustard family are 
extensively cultivated for seed, and in the 
vicinity of large acreages of any of these 
plants, it would doubtless be profitable to 
establish apiaries. But unless the crop of 
seed will pay the expense of cultivation, it 


would not be advisable for beekeepers to 
plant any of the mustards for honey alone. 

The seed should be sown very early in 
the spring, either in shallow drills so far 
apart that the cultivator can be used be¬ 
tween them, or broadcast. The former 
plan is, of course, the better one for nearly 
all honey plants, but it is more trouble. 
From 6 to 10 lbs. per acre will be needed, 
sown in drills, and from 15 to 20 when 
sown broadcast. If the seed is to be saved 
it should be sown not later than July 1. 

Two kinds of mustard—the English yel¬ 
low and the Trieste or red—are extensively 
cultivated in the Lompoc Valley, Califor¬ 
nia. The latter comes from Austria, and 
gets its name from a town in that country 
where it is grown on a large scale. From 
this crop alone in a single year the farmers 
of this valley have realized a quarter of a 
million dollars. The average yield per 
acre is from 800 to 1,000 pounds. The 
average price of seed is 3 cents per pound, 
tho as much as 8 cents has been obtained. 

The cultivation of mustard in the Lom¬ 
poc Valley, says E. A. Oates, is easy and 
inexpensive; but it must be grown in rota¬ 
tion with other crops, as it will not pro¬ 
duce bountifully two years in succession on 
the same land. When a majority of the 
pods are ripe it is ready for the reaper, 
and should be cut early in the morning or 
late in the afternoon, when there is mois¬ 
ture in the air to prevent the seed from 
shelling out of the pods. 

The bees work alike on both the yellow 
and red varieties, indicating there is no dif¬ 
ference in the amount of nectar secreted. 
The period of flowering lasts about a 
month; and where the sowings are made 
at different intervals it can be prolonged 
for a period of ten weeks. The honey is 
mild in flavor and light in color, and com¬ 
mands the same price as sage. Tho not as 
heavy-bodied as alfalfa, it has the same 
tendency to candy quickly. It may candy 
in the tank in four or five days, but this 
may be prevented by using a tank with a 
glass top, protected by a wooden shutter, 
which is removable at will, exposing the 
honey to the sunlight. 

When sage is in bloom, bees appear to 
prefer its nectar to that of mustard. When 
it is not necessary, it has been observed by 



MUSTARD 


625 


M. H. Mendleson that they will not gather 
from an inferior source. In 1884, he says, 
one colony out of 200 gathered exclusively 


from an abundance of mustard bloom; the 
199 gathered from the sages. This was an 
exceptional case. 



Black mustard. 




N 


NECTAR. —Strictly speaking nectar is 
a cane sugar ( sucrose ) gathered from flow¬ 
ers by bees. It is thickened and trans¬ 
formed by them into honey. (See Honey.) 
Many times has honey been analyzed by 
competent chemists, but very seldom has 
there been an attempt to analyze nectar, 
owing to the difficulty of securing a suf¬ 
ficient quantity for experimental purposes. 

The only satisfactory experiments of the 
kind which have yet appeared are those of 
Prof. Planta, of the University of Zurich, 
Switzerland, who was not only one of the 
best chemists in Europe, but also a com¬ 
petent beekeeper besides. 

It will be noted he experimented with 
the nectar of two American plants, Agave 
americana (century plant) and Bignonia 
radicans (trumpet creeper). The former 
is a prodigious yielder of honey, far ex¬ 
celling any plant we know of in the North, 
and excelled only by some tropical trees 
such as Protea millifera, Hakeas, and Leu- 
codedendron , and perhaps - others not yet 
known. It grows in the southwest part of 
the United States, and is common in Mex¬ 
ico. 

Several translations of Dr. Planta’s arti¬ 
cle on nectar analysis have appeared, and 
we give one which we deem best for our 
purpose. 

In the Zeitschrift fuer Physiologisclie 
Chemie, Band X., Heft 3, Hr. A. de Planta 
describes his researches on the chemical 
composition of some of the nectars in plants. 
He says it was a great pleasure for him 
during his. researches on the life of bees to 
have established the relation which exists 
betwen nectar and honey, nectar serving 
for the preparation of honey. There was a 
great difficulty in getting a sufficient quan¬ 
tity of nectar, as plants yield it usually in 
small quantities, but there are some excep¬ 
tions. Among these are Protea mellifera, 
Hoya carnosa and Taco a radicans, or 
trumpet creeper, which contains such large 
quantities of nectar that it is easily col¬ 
lected. Thunberg says in his ‘'Flora Car- 
“pensis ” of Protea mellifera (Zuykerbosches 
Zuykerboom, Tulpboom) that it flowers in 


autumn; that is to say, in March and the 
following months. The flowers are often 
half filled with watery honey which fur¬ 
nishes an excellent syrup after it has been 
filtered to rid it of insects and impurities, 
and slightly evaporated by gentle heat. 

This syrup is an article of commerce at 
Cape Town. Two bottles of it were pro¬ 
duced, the specific gravities being 1.375 and 
1.372. It has a slight acid reaction i but 
contained no albuminoids or nitrogenous 
matter. It contained 73.17 .per cent solids, 
10.08 being glucose and 1.31 per cent cane 
sugar. By glucose is meant a mixture of 
crystallizable grape sugar (dextrose) and 
uncrystallizable grape sugar (levulose), 
both having a similar chemical composi¬ 
tion. This glucose may already be formed 
in the nectar by the action of the ferments 
it contains upon the cane sugar, transform¬ 
ing it into glucose; and this inversion can 
be continued in new honeys, owing to the 
action (which he had already demonstrated 
in 1879) of the saliva of bees which also 
transforms cane sugar into glucose. 

Grape sugar from the syrup was also ob¬ 
tained in a crystallized form. No trace of 
formic acid could be detected in the syrup, 
tho quantities of pollen were found in sus¬ 
pension, determined by Professor C. Cramer 
to be that of Protea mellifera, testifying to 
its genuineness. 

Wishing to compare this with fresh nec¬ 
tar, he succeeded, after great difficulty, in 
getting three bottles. The specific gravity 
was 1.078, 1.079, and 1.077. These contained 
17.66 per cent of solids, of which 17.06 was 
grape sugar. They contained no cane sugar. 
There was not the least trace of formic acid. 
A comparison of the two shows that the dif¬ 
ference was due only to the extra quantity 
of water contained in the fresh nectar. 

Besides these he also examined the nec¬ 
tars of Hoya carnosa and Bignonia radicans, 
both in the fresh and evaporated states. The 
following table gives the results: 



Sugar 

Cane 

Grape 

Nectar of 


sugar 

sugar 

Protea mellifera, fresh 

17.06 


17.06 

Protea mellifera, dry 

96.60 


96.60 

Hoya carnosa, fresh 

40.64 

35.65 

4.99 

Hoya carnosa, dry 

99.68 

87.44 

12.24 

Bignonia radicans, fresh 15.27 

.43 

14.84 

Bignonia radicans, dry 

99.85 

2.85 

97.00 


Dr. de Planta has also made aqueous ex¬ 
tracts of various flowers, among others those 
of Rhododendron hirsutum and Onobrychis 


NECTAR 


627 


sativa. In order to obtain 1 gram of sugar 
(equal to 1.3 grams of honey) the bees must 
visit at least 2,120 flowers of Rhododendron 
hirsutum and 5,530 of sainfoin (Onobrychis 
sativa). 

As honey is almost entirely formed from 
nectar, he gives the following table, com¬ 
paring the quantity of water he has found 
in nectars and also in old and new honeys: 


• 


Water 

in—— 

Nectar 

Nectar 

Old 

New 



honey 

honey 

Protea mellifera, 

82.34 



Hoya carnosa, 

59.23 



Bignonia radicans 

84.70 



Fritillaria imperalis 
Honey from 
Department of Landes 

93.40 

19.09 


Senegal 


15.59 


Melipona 


18.84 


Canton Grisons (alt. 600m.) 

18.61 

21.74 

Sainfoin 


19.44 


Canton Grisons (alt. 1 395 m.) 

17.52 

20.41 

Canton Grisons (high 

Alps) 


21.68 

Buckwheat 



33.36 

Acacia from Ingoldstadt 


20.29 


Whereas the nectars vary between 59 and 
93 per cent, the quantity of water contained 
in old honey varies only between 17 and 21 
per cent, and that in new honeys 20 to 21 
per cent, with the sole exception of buck¬ 
wheat honey, in which he found 33 per cent. 

From these observations he thinks that 
the bees throw off a considerable quantity 
of the water while it is in their stomachs. 
He does not admit that it is evaporated en¬ 
tirely in the cells, for the analyses he has 
made of honey newly deposited in the cells 
show that it already reaches them consid¬ 
erably concentrated. The following table 
shows the relative proportions of sugar con¬ 
tained in different honeys: 

Quantity 

Present formed by 
inversion 
87.00 1.00 

85.40 3.70 

80.60 2.70 

88.70 0.00 

84.10 0.50 

81.60 10.60 

81.60 9.30 

87.20 0.80 


A—Old honeys from 

Department of Landes 
Senegal 

Canton Grisons 
(alt. 600 m.) 

Sainfoin 
Canton Grisons 
(alt. 1,395 m.) 

B—New honeys from 
(Alpine region) 

(alt. 600 m.) 

(Alpine region) 


Altho most of the nectars contain a con¬ 
siderable quantity of cane sugar it is found 
in very few of the honeys of the Alps. Some 
honeys contain a little, while in others it is 
entirely absent. It is clear that, during the 
formation of honey, the cane sugar in the 
nectar is converted into grape sugar by the 


saliva of the bees, which contains a ferment 
endowed with this property (see his re¬ 
searches on this subject in Deutsche Bienen- 
zeitung, 1879, No. 12). 

Another difference between honey and 
nectar consists in the former containing 
nitrogenous substances and formic acid. 
Mullenhof has shown how this last is de¬ 
posited in the honey, and E. Erlenmayer has 
proved its antiseptic properties.—British 
Bee Journal. 

Probably all nectars do not analyze 
alike; but Dr. Planta’s analysis will be 
found, until we get something better, suffi¬ 
ciently near an average to satisfy all prac¬ 
tical requirements. 

It will be observed Dr. Planta attributes 
the inversion of nectar to the saliva of the 
bees. It seems on the face of this to be 
only a “guess,” and yet it has been repeated 
ever since by many writers on the honey¬ 
bee. Inversion is known to take place 
even while the nectar is still in the corolla 
of the flower, and it occurs long after the 
honey has been made and deposited, for 
new honey contains quite a large per¬ 
centage of sucrose (sugar) whereas old 
honey contains little or none. This change 
is caused by enzymes. For this and other 
reasons the composition of honey is quite 
variable. Old honey is actually superior 
to new, for the process of inversion is usu¬ 
ally complete. If kept in a dry place it also 
contains less water. If exposed to the air 
it tends to lose the ethereal essential oils 
or essences of the flowers from which it 
was gathered; therefore nectar collected 
even from poisonous plants may become 
quite innocuous if allowed sufficient time 
to ripen. See Honey. 


NUCLEUS. —This word, when applied 
to bee culture, means just what the name 
signifies —-a small colony of bees. It may 
mean a hundred bees with a queen, and as 
such it is called a small baby nucleus; but, 
as shown in Queen-rearing, so small a 
number will not long survive without help. 
Reference will be made to this later. The 
term “baby nucleus” more properly means 
a larger force—anywhere from five hun¬ 
dred to a thousand bees with a queen—a 
force large enough to set up housekeeping 
in real earnest. Usually these babies are 
put on minature frames in miniature hives. 




628 


NUCLEUS 


See Baby Nuclei under the head of 
Queen-rearing. 

Generally speaking, the word “nucleus” 
signifies one or two full-sized frames of 
bees, either in a full-sized hive or one just 
large enough to hold two frames and no 
more. When it has five or six frames of 
bees and brood it is usually called a light 
or a weak colony. 

These small aggregations of bees must 
be built up to full-sized colonies in order 
to make them useful for honey produc¬ 
tion ; for it requires a fair colony of not 
less than eight or ten frames in size to pro¬ 
duce honey, and a two-story colony of bees 
and brood at the beginning of the flow is 
far better. While a two or three frame 
nucleus will furnish a little extracted hon¬ 
ey, the amount that it will produce in com¬ 
parison with a large colony is relatively 
small. Or, to put it another way, ten two- 
frame nuclei will produce only a fourth as 
much honey as one two-story ten-frame 
colony. How to build up these nuclei into 
colonies so they will be of some use is fully 
described under the head of Building up 
Colonies, and Increase. 

Nuclei are used for one of two purposes 
—for making increase and for the mating 
of queens. It is a waste of time and bee 
force to have virgins mate from a full col¬ 
ony.. While cells should be raised in such 
colonies, the queens should be mated in 
miniature hives having anywhere from five 
hundred up to one thousand bees. For 
particulars regarding this phase of the 
subject, see Queen-rearing. 

Nuclei may also be useful for the pur¬ 
pose of instruction. A beginner can handle 
a light force of bees much more freely than 
a big colony. The small babies or the two- 
frame nuclei can be manipulated by the 
average ABC scholar very rapidly. 
Queens can be introduced much more easily 
than to the large stocks. As the nucleus 
grows in size, the beginner, who is con¬ 
stantly watching them, grows in experi¬ 
ence; and by the time the colony reaches 
the full size he is perfectly capable of han¬ 
dling it, provided, of course, he has 
read articjes on A B C of Beekeeping, 
Manipulation op Colonies, Stings, and 
Robbing. 


BABY NUCLEI REQUIRE WATCHFUL CARE, 

At the very outset mention was made of 
the fact that baby nuclei of only a hundred 
bees are not practicable. Some years ago 
the late E. L. Pratt of Swarthmore, Pa., 
found he could mate queens from very 
small nuclei. Sometimes he used a single 
section of honey, placed in a little box, and 
gave it about a hundred bees and a cell or 
a virgin. He had a large number of these 
in use, and found it possible to mate his 
queens, using only a very small number of 
bees. While he succeeded, it has been found 
that these little babies of 100 bees are too 
fickle; that many times, when the virgin 
goes out to mate, all of her bees follow 
her. They are constantly swarming out—- 
so much so that it has been found to be 
much more practicable to use at least five 
hundred bees, and, better, a thousand. A 
hundred does not make up a strong house¬ 
hold, and the bees know it. They know 
that something is wrong, and so they swarm 
out on the least provocation. 

Moreover, it has been discovered that 
these little babies of a hundred bees are 
robbed out. The powerful colonies in the 
vicinity make their lives miserable. Even 
contracting the entrance to a passage large 
enough for only one bee has not been 
found sufficient; and the poor little chaps 
have to give way to the superior numbers 
of their enemies, with the result that their 
homes are despoiled, and the nucleus broken 
up. 

A pound of bees consisting of approxi¬ 
mately five thousand makes a very nice 
nucleus. As mentioned under Beginning 
with Bees and Moving Bees, the selling 
of bees in pound packages without combs 
is getting to be quite an industry. When 
bees die in the spring, a pound of bees will 
give a new lease of life to a nucleus that is 
all but gone, but having a good queen. A 
little later in the season, the beginner can 
take a pound of bees, and by feeding 
have a good colony at very small expense 
by fall. See Feeding and Feeders, In¬ 
crease, Building up Colonies, and Be¬ 
ginning with Bees. 

FORMING NUCLEI FOR INCREASE. 

As already explained, dividing colonies 
into nuclei for the sake of increasing the 


nucleus 


629 


number of hives containing bees is a mis¬ 
take if honey is the object. But after the 
main honey flow, increase can be made by 
splitting up the colonies into units of two 
and three frames, supplying each with a 
cell, virgin, or laying queen. The process 
appears to be much simpler than it really 
is. The question often comes up in the 
mind of a beginner, “What can be easier 
than to take a ten-frame colony and divide 
it into five two-frame nuclei on as many 
hive-stands?” If the bees moved from the 
parent stand would stay where placed, the 
problem would be very much easier. Un¬ 
fortunately the old field bees, especially 
right after a honey flow, will go back to the 
parent stand, leaving nothing but the young 
bees to take care of the brood, which, 
in a great many cases, is neglected and 
dies. This is not all. Robbers, during a 
dearth, will be ready to invade the entrances 
of these deserted nuclei with just a few 
young bees; and before Mr. Beginner 
knows it he has a perfect uproar, and the 
loss of some thousands of bees, and per¬ 
haps trouble with the neighbors on account 
of robbers smelling around the entire 
neighborhood after they have wrought 
havoc with the nuclei. See Robbing, sub¬ 
head “Robbing of Nuclei.” 

If the beginner buys a colony of bees 
from some farmer or beekeeper two' or 
three miles away he can bring it home and 
make the divisions before the bees mark 
their location, and the bees of each nucleus 
will stay where they are placed. This will 
effect an equal division, and everything will 
be easy, provided, of course, that the en¬ 
trances are contracted and the beginner 
uses ordinary caution. At the time the 
nuclei are formed, each should be supplied 
with a cell, virgin, or a laying queen. If 
it is desired to make increase rapidly, the 
nuclei will make greater progress when 
supplied with laying queens. If it is de : 
sired to let each nucleus raise its own 
queen, precaution should be taken to see 
that eggs or very young larva? are in each 
nucleus; but it should be understood that 
the progress will be very much slower, and 
that queens reared in nuclei are never the 
equal of those reared in strong colonies. 

In many cases the colony.or colonies to 
be divided have grown so strong the bee¬ 
keeper desires to make increase and to 


keep down swarming at the same time. 
How shall he do it and avoid having many 
bees going back? This can be accomplished 
after forming the nuclei by putting wire 
cloth over the entrances, and keeping them 
closed for three or four days. In the mean 
time, if the nuclei are not already shaded 
and the weather is hot it would be well to 
put a shade-board over the hives to prevent 
any danger of suffocation. At the end of 
the third or fourth day the wire cloth can 
be removed. This shutting-in practice for 
strong nuclei is not advised. 

Usually it is better not to make too great 
a division after the first of July or August. 
If the beginner splits his colonies up into 
halves, the problem will be very much sim¬ 
pler. In the morning he should remove 
about two-thirds of the bees, all sealed 
brood, or as much as possible, and the old 
queen, to the new location, leaving the un¬ 
sealed brood and about a third of the bees 
on the old stand. The latter should be given 
a cell or virgin. Most of the flying bees will 
return to the old home, making the divi¬ 
sion somewhere near equal, with the 
chances that the old hive will have the lar¬ 
ger force of bees in 24 hours. But the 
split-off, or nucleus, on the other stand, 
will have all the sealed brood and emerg¬ 
ing brood, and will soon be more than able 
to match forces with the other colony. The 
old queen, which will act as an attraction 
to hold the bees in the parent colony, will 
soon supply it with eggs and young larvae 
as fast as the bees can take care of it or 
as fast as the brood emerges. 

In a similar way three colonies can be 
made out of one; but most of the sealed 
brood and most of the bees should be given 
to the nuclei on new stands, always keeping 
in mind that most of the flying bees will 
return to the old stand. If, however, the 
entrances are kept closed for three or four 
days there will not be so much returning. 
Of course, the nucleus on the old stand will 
not need to have its entrance closed. If it 
is discovered that one of the nuclei, or both 
of them, are short of bees, a frame or two 
of bees from some other colony can be 
shaken at night in front of the entrances 
of the nuclei on new stands. When doing 
this, it may be advisable to cage the queen 
for a day or two. 

If the nuclei are formed immediately 


NUCLEUS 


630 


after the honey flow, all the old bees will go 
back to the old stand; but if two or three 
weeks or a month elapses, during which lit¬ 
tle or no honey has been gathered, there 
will be very much less returning. 

The beginner should take this fact into 
account when he forms his nuclei, and in a 
day or two afterward he should see that 
there are bees enough in each division so 
that the young brood at least is not neg¬ 
lected. This is the reason why the advice is 
given to put the sealed brood on the new 
stand and the unsealed brood on the old 
stand. For a few days, or until the brood 
emerges in the new stands some of the 
young brood may be neglected; and this is 
a point that should be carefully taken into 
account. 

The Alexander plan of increase, as given 
under Increase, explains how nuclei can 
be formed on another plan for the purpose 
of securing honey as well as increase. 

Under the head of Feeding and Feed< 
ers, subhead Feeding to Stimulate, will be 
found full particulars on how to feed up 
these nuclei if there is no nectar in the 
fields. The Boardman one-hole feeder 
should be used for the purpose, and the 
entrances should be kept contracted down 
to the space in which only .two or three bees 
can pass at a time. If the division is made 
on the basis of five nuclei out of one full 
colony, the respective entrances should be 
closed down to an opening that will permit 
only one bee to pass at a time. 

As soon as the nuclei begin to prosper, 
an extra comb may be added on the outside. 

In 1892, on the principles already out¬ 
lined, the writer, without any special effort, 
increased an apiary from ten colonies, some 
of which were almost nuclei, to 85 good 
colonies, and obtained about 2,000 lbs. of 
honey. These were not fed, but depended 
entirely on nectar gathered from the fields, 
for the season was a good one. Colonies 
were divided in the latter part of May, and 
given frames of foundation and laying 
queens. They were given every possible 
advantage, and by fall there were 85 nice 
colonies with plenty of winter stores gath¬ 
ered from fall bloom. 

SOMERFORD METHOD OP FORMING NUCLEI. 

W. W. Somerford described a method of 
forming nuclei that has worked very satis¬ 


factorily, especially when the work is done 
at outyards. While it involves some of the 
principles already described, it is enough 
different to warrant giving it a place here. 

To begin with, in all your fancy stock re¬ 
move the queens or cage them, after getting 
the brood-nest well filled with brood (the 
more brood the better—8 or 10 frames in a 
hive if possible). Wait ten days after re¬ 
moving the queen, when the bees will gener¬ 
ally have cells on every comb, and be in a 
broody or listless condition, waiting for 
cells to hatch. Divide and remove the 
frames quietly, giving each new hive two 
frames of brood and all adhering bees, and 
one good frame of honey, using it for a 
division-board (and, by the way, such divi¬ 
sion-boards are to my notion the best in the 
world); put the two frames of brood and 
bees next to the wall of the hive, and let 
the honey-frame be the third from the side 
of hive. Be sure to see that you have at 
least one good ripe-looking cell in each new 
hive, or division, and don’t forget the frame 
of honey. As soon as each division is made, 
stop the entrance of the hive by stuffing it 
full of green moss. If you haven’t any 
green moss, use green grass or leaves, and 
be sure to stuff them in tight—as tight as 
tho you never intended the bees should 
gnaw out, and be sure there are no cracks 
or holes that a single bee could get out at; 
for if there are, your division will be ruined 
by all, or nearly all, the bees that can fly 
leaving it. Each parent colony should make 
four or five good divisions that will make 
booming colonies in 40 or 50 days, and I 
have had them the best in the apiary in less 
time. Leave or loose the old queen (if not 
too old) on the old stand, and the bees from 
it will work straight ahead, as they don’t 
have to be confined to make them stay at 
home. 

Don’t be uneasy about the divisions that 
are stopped up, unless you failed to stuff the 
entrances well, for they will not smother, 
but busy themselves gnawing at the moss 
or grass for two or three days, possibly four 
or five, if you have done an extra good job 
at stuffing the entrance. At the end of that 
time you will find they have all gnawed out 
so as to secure egress and ingress. Then 
you can move enough of the grass or moss 
to give them a clean entrance, 1 y 2 to 2 
inches wide; and by looking into them you 
will be astonished at the quantity of bees 
you have in each hive (and they, too, well 
satisfied), having consumed so much time 
in gnawing out that the queen had time to 
hatch and kill off her rivals and be ready 
for the wedding trip by the time the en¬ 
trance is cleared. So, instead of, in a week’s 
time, having a worthless weak division with 
a chilled inferior queen, as is the case in 
the old-style way of dividing, where nine- 
tenths of the bees return to the old hive, you 


NUCLEUS 


631 


liave a strong- vigorous queen and a nice lit¬ 
tle satisfied swarm of bees, ready for busi¬ 
ness in the way of pulling foundation be¬ 
fore they are three weeks old. 

I have succeeded with 19 out of 20 divi¬ 
sions made in the above way, when I did not 
even see them until the third week, after 
dividing as above; and for the average bee¬ 
keeper who has out-apiaries I think there is 
no better way in the world to make in¬ 
crease. 

In the above method of increasing, you 
have no queens to buy, no robbers to bother 
with, and but little time lost, as an expert 
can make 20 divisions an hour. 

Navasota, Tex. 

In the first paragraph, Mr. Somerford 
mentions removing or caging the queen. It 
should be explained that usually any queen 


can be caged in her own hive for weeks at 
a time, and her bees will take care of her 
thru the wire cloth. If a queen is removed 
entirely it is implied that she is to be caged 
in another hive, or introduced. She may, 
however, be. put in a cage supplied with 
queen-cage candy, and kept for a week or 
ten days in a warm room. But there would 
be danger of losing her, as she might die, 
because, under artificial conditions, she can¬ 
not get the “balanced rations” that she 
needs to keep up her bodily functions. 

Another plan of making two colonies out 
of one is given under the head of Increase. 
For full consideration of the subject of 
Baby Nuclei, see Queen-rearing. 



A portion of Mr. Stewart’s apiary, Contra Costa County, Calif. 










o 



Ordinary observatory hive for showing a single comb and a set of sections as they 
appear in a regular hive. This form of glass hive is often on display in grocery win¬ 
dows where honey is for sale, or at fairs and expositions to illustrate the relation of 
combs to sections. 


OBSERVATORY HIVES.— The origin 
of hives with windows or transparent sides 
is lost in the mists of antiquity. In very 
ancient times pieces of transparent sub¬ 
stances such as horn, isinglass, mica, etc., 
were let into the sides of the hives that the 
work of the bees might be observed. Such 
windows, however, afforded but meager op¬ 
portunity for studying the behavior of the 
bees in the hive. The first approach to the 
modern type of observatory hive was in¬ 
vented by W. Mew of Easlington, Glouces¬ 
tershire, England, about 1650. This ap¬ 
pears to have been but little more than a 
hive with glass windows. At about the 
some time, John Thorley of Oxon, Eng¬ 
land, put bees in a bell glass and used bell 
glasses as surplus chambers on his hives. 


No practical advance was made from this 
until about 1730, when Reaumur the emi¬ 
nent French naturalist established a swarm 
between two panes of glass. These panes 
were so far apart that the bees could build 
two combs between them, hence much of 
the work of the bees and queen was hidden. 
Bonnet the Swiss naturalist recommended 
a hive with “doors” only so far apart as 
to permit. the bees to build one comb be¬ 
tween them; and Huber, about 1790, 
adopted this suggestion, and the result was 
the wonderful advance which he and his 
faithful assistants, his wife and his serv¬ 
ant Burnens, made in the knowledge of bee 
life. From that time until the present, lit¬ 
tle change has been made in observatory 
hives, except in so far as the use of mov- 


































OBSERVATORY HIVES 


633 


able-eomb hives changed the methods of 
stocking them. 

The usual type of observatory hive con¬ 
sists of a single-comb hive with glass pan¬ 
els. Sometimes there is a row of sections 
on top to show the relative position of the 
sections to the brood-nest while they are 
being filled by bees in the regular way. Of 
course it would not be possible to produce 
section honey in a single-frame nucleus; 
but when an observatory hive with sections 
is displayed in a window where honey is on 
sale, it not only attracts prospective buyers 
but it educates them, in that it shows a part 
of the brood-nest with the bees and the 
brood, and the sections of honey just as 
they are on the hive. It advertises honey 
as nothing else does. Great crowds congre¬ 
gate on the street watching the bees on the 
comb “making honey.” 

The bees are usually left in the window 
for two or three days. By that time they 
will need to be renewed or they will soon 
die; and by that time, also, the most of the 
people in the vicinity will have seen them. 

Experience shows that this display hive 
of bees will immediately increase the sales 
of honey, both comb and extracted, and 
grocers who have had it are loud in their 
requests to have bees put in their windows 
—especially if their neighbor across the 
street has them in his window. 

The single-comb hives can be studied to 
good advantage in the home or in the 
school. In either case they are placed on a 
shelf on a level with the window sill so that 
the entrance will pass under the window 
sash. The space on each side is closed with 
a stick. The bees will set up housekeeping, 
go to the fields, and enter upon their ordi¬ 
nary work as tho there were no one on 
hand to see why and how they do it. 

Sometimes an observatory hive can be 
placed some ten or twelve feet from the 
window or side of the building. In that 
case, a tube connects the hive to a hole thru 
the side of the building. Strange as it may 
seem, the bees will learn to go thru this 
long tube to the outside. At the San Fran¬ 
cisco Exposition in 1915, an observatory 
hive was arranged in this way, and the bees 
used this long tube entrance the entire 
season. This, of course, made it unneces¬ 
sary to replace the bees every so often. 

When nature study is being taught in 


schools these observatory hives are used to 
a considerable extent; and very often bee¬ 
keepers themselves who desire to become 
more intimately acquainted with the habits 
of the bee find pleasure and profit in keep¬ 
ing one of these hives up next to the win¬ 
dow of the living-room. 

When the bees come in with fresh loads 
of pollen or new honey, they show the 
usual signs of rejoicing by shaking their 
bodies, apparently to attract attention, and 
thus induce other bees to find the treasures 
that they have brought home. A great 
many other interesting things can be dis¬ 
covered with one of these hives where the 
comb is parallel with the glass panel. But 
what transpires in the cells and behind the 
cappings cannot be determined with this 
kind of glass hive. 

Arthur C. Miller of Providence, R. I., an 
ardent student of bee culture, and one who 
has watched the bees for many hours at a 
time, discovered a plan by which he can see 
the bees at work and the larvae spinning 
their cocoons as well as if he had X-ray 
eyes. 

It was his desire to see what the bees 
were doing in the cells; and one day when 
a small burr of comb was found built 
against the glass, and a bee seen at work in 
it the idea was conceived of fixing in an 
observatory hive a small comb or several of 
them, so that a whole row of cells was par¬ 
allel to the glass. It is not necessary to de¬ 
scribe the many and crude attempts before 
success was achieved, but at last a stage 
was reached where a row of combs was 
fixed between two panes of glass about 
four inches apart, and a small colony es¬ 
tablished therein. 

The hive was placed indoors before a 
window, the bees passing in and out be¬ 
neath the partly raised sash. The little 
colony started at work nicely, and soon 
honey and pollen were being stored in the 
cell against the glass. By accident the 
wooden shutters were left off the hive for 
two or three days, and when it was ob¬ 
served at the end of that time the bees were 
found at work in a perfectly normal man¬ 
ner and no running over the glass was 
noticeable. Obviously, the shutters were 
not necessary, and their abandonment 
seemed to mark a distinct advance. A cold 
storm which occurred shortly after nearly 


634 


OBSERVATORY HIVES 


destroyed the colony, and the shutters were 
again used. Matters improved, and the 
colony gained until another storm put them 
back again despite the shutters. Investiga¬ 
tion showed a sharp draft thru the hive 
from the entrance to the sundry ventilators. 
These were closed, but the entrance did not 
furnish sufficient air, and other troubles 



Miller’s observatory hive. 


appeared. Then followed long experiment¬ 
ing Avith ventilation until at last a relative¬ 
ly large area at the bottom of the sides of 
the hive was opened for ventilation, and 
screened to confine the bees. This was all 
below the combs, and the bees could have 
as much or as little air up among them as 
their instincts dictated. That was a suc¬ 
cess, but it developed another trouble, for 
every time the door of the room was 
opened or closed, or if the wind was strong 
toward the window, the bees were blown 
out of or into the entrance in a most 
troublesome way. A short passage or tun¬ 
nel considerably larger than the hive en¬ 
trance and having a wire-cloth top was put 
between the entrance and window opening, 
and that trouble stopped. 

This was not all done in one hive, or in 
one season, but extended over several years. 
The colony would seem thrifty for a time, 
then it would meet with some reverse, 
and it would often take a season or two to 
find the cause of the trouble. 

There came a day when eggs were seen 
in cells next to the glass, and in due time 
they hatched and the larvae were fed and 


greAV until they touched the glass, then the 
bees pulled them out. The shutters were 
tried but with not much advance. Then 
“storm sash” in the form of an extra pane 
of glass on each side were applied and the 
hive was a success. A quarter of an inch 
confined air space was left between the 
panes. 

From then on, the bees used the cells 
next to the glass as readily as the others. 
Almost every action was observable; the 
bees could be seen every way except face to 
face. Another hive Avas made and stocked 
and a piece of comb was put in which was 
less than half a comb, for it was only the 
cell walls from one surface of the comb. 
The glass Avail of the hive was to—and did 
—form its new base. The bees used it as 
readily as the other combs, and the queen 
laid in it and bees were raised in it. The 
book of nature had been opened at a new 
page. Thereafter the development of the 
hive was a matter of detail. As now made 
it has a base about six inches wide and 
deep enough for a grooved feeder block to 
be slid into it under the floor of the hive. 
Access to this feeder is obtained thru sev¬ 
eral holes bored in the floor and guarded 
with excluder metal to keep the queen from 



Miller’s observatory hive. 


wandering in. A similar guard is adjust¬ 
able at the hive entrance to prevent the 
loss of a swarm if the colony has to be left 
to itself for an extended period, for if 
thrifty it soon becomes overcrowded. The 
uprights are approximately three inches 
Avide and grooved for four panes of glass, 
the inner panes being about one inch apart 
and the outer ones a quarter of an inch 












OBSERVATORY HIVES 


635 



A close view of comb built against the glass of the Miller observatory hive. This form of hive en¬ 
ables the observer to see the bees at work in the cells, the hatching of the egg, and the development of 
the larvae. 


from the others. Panes fifteen inches long 
by ten inches wide have been found to be 
a very satisfactory size. The uprights are 
fastened to two horizontal pieces extending 
across the base. These latter pieces each 
have a groove one-half inch above the 
floor. Into these grooves are slid two strips 
of glass to close the space at the bottom 
between each pair of panes. Between these 
strips and the raised sides of the base, 
strips of wire cloth are put and furnish the 
ventilating area. Galvanized wire cloth of 
fine mesh has proved preferable to ordinary 
painted wire cloth. The woodwork of the 
hive and the wire cloth is painted a dead 
black, both inside and out. This gives a 
sharp contrast with the combs, and is ad¬ 
vantageous when taking photographs. The 
outside of the hive may be finished in nat¬ 
ural wood, but the inside of uprights and 
under side of top should be dull black. 


The distance between the inner panes 
has been varied from half an inch to three 
inches. The former is too close and the 
latter unnecessarily wide. An inch to an 
inch and a quarter is best, and then no bee 
can completely escape observation. 

To stock this type of observatory hive 
is a little troublesome. The two panes of 
one side of the hive are removed and the 
hive is laid on its side in a box prepared for 
the purpose, the “tunnel” of the hive con¬ 
necting with an entrance in the side of the 
box. If this box arrangement is not used, 
trouble will be experienced by bees cluster¬ 
ing on the outside of the ventilators. A 
sheet of new comb has previously been 
given to a colony; and as soon as it has 
larvm one to three days old it is ready for 
use. It is cut vertically into strips just a 
little narrower than the space between the 
inner panes. These strips are then laid 












636 


OBSERVATORY HIVES 


in the hive, spacing them about an inch 
and a half from center to center. It is de-' 
sirable that comb containing some honey 
be used also, and if there is not any honey 
in the upper part of the brood-comb, a 
strip or two of comb containing honey 
should be cut from some other sheet. If 
cells with the ends against the glass are also 
desired, a little more delicate work is nec¬ 
essary. 

From a new dry comb a strip somewhat 
wider than needed is cut, then with a hot 
knife, the cells are cut from the base. These 
baseless cells are very delicate and must be 
cut to the required dimensions with the hot 
knife. They are then lifted on a cool knife 
or piece of cardboard and slid into posi¬ 
tion in the hive. No gluing or waxing is 
needed, for the bees will do that perfectly. 

The other pair of panes are next care¬ 
fully slid into place. If any of the strips 
were cut too wide the glass will hit and 
move them and cause a lot of trouble, but 
otherwise the operation is easy. The en¬ 
trance guard is lifted, a queen put in and 
the guard replaced, and the cover put on 
the box. On a wide board in front of the 
entrance are now shaken the bees from two 
combs taken from any hive. The older bees 
will go home, the others will crawl into the 
hive. They go in better if the hive is dark; 
hence the putting of the cover on the box; 
but it may be opened from time to time to 
watch matters. If they are a little slow to 
enter they may be hurried by a gentle puff 
of smoke now and then, but on the whole 
it is better to let them take their time. 

This operation is preferably done near 
the close of the day, and at a time when 
nectar is being secured, then robbing is not 
troublesome. 

The hive is left in its horizontal position 
for a couple of days, the box being shaded 
from the direct rays of the sun. If it is 
found that not enough bees are in the hive 
to fill the spaces fairly between the strips 
of comb, more may be shaken in front at 
any time. In about two day's all of the 
combs will be seen to be attached to the 
upper one of the inner panes. By the time 
this is noted, it may be certain that the 
combs are likewise attached to the lower 
one of the inner panes. The hive may now 
be taken from the box, set in an upright 
position, and taken away. 


MAINTENANCE AND OPERATION. 

As soon as the hive is in its place syrup 
should be given in the feeder and feeding 
continued for several days, for .the little 
colony has virtually no field force, and will 
soon exhaust the honey in the combs. Also 
the feeding will stimulate wax production 
and enable the bees to complete the combs. 
During a heavy honey flow these little colo¬ 
nies will gain stores, but in a light flow 
their field force is too small and help may 
be needed in the shape of syrup or honey 
in the feeder. 

By coloring syrup (using a candy color) 
it is easy to see just where it is put first 
and more or less of it moved afterward. 
An ounce of deeply colored syrup is enough 
to use at a time for this experiment. 

If feeding is necessary in cold weather, 
use a hot syrup, nearly filling the feeder 
(a half-pint). It will warm the hive and 
arouse the bees, and as soon as the syrup 
cools sufficiently they will take it. Use for 
this purpose a syrup made of two parts 
sugar and one of water. If the weather is 
very cold, close the hive and remove it to 
a warm room, keeping it there until the 
bees have taken up all or most of the 
syrup. If, however, the combs were packed 
with stores before settled cold weather, and 
the room temperature keeps between 35 de¬ 
grees, and 60 degrees F. as the extremes, 
the bees will not need feeding until spring. 

If the hive becomes over-populous, it 
should be removed at night to some other 
window and in its place should be put any 
convenient box containing a piece of comb 
with unsealed brood, or a caged queen. The 
next morning the field force will start out 
as usual, but will return to the old location 
where the brood or queen will hold them. 
As soon as the population of the observa¬ 
tory hive seems to be reduced enough, its 
entrance should be closed to prevent the 
escape of more bees. Within two or three 
hours the box on the old location may be 
closed and taken away and the hive put 
back and the entrance opened. The re¬ 
moved bees may be destroyed or kept con¬ 
fined for a few days, and then at nightfall 
be dumped into some hive in the yard. 

If the colony in the observatory hive 
becomes weak, it is most easily strength¬ 
ened by turning in a lot of young bees. An 


ORANGE 


637 


easy way to do this is to shake into a box 
the bees from a comb from some thrifty 
colony in the apiary, and cover the box 
with a piece of wire cloth. Carry it to the 
observatory hive and fix it so the edge of 
the box is close to the opening to the tun¬ 
nel. Remove the wire cloth over the box 
and the bees will soon enter the hive. 

The same manner of weakening and 
strengthening may be followed with the 
prevailing types of observatory hives, but 
it is often easier with them to remove the 
comb and bees and restock the hives com¬ 
pletely. 

The new type of observatory hive is good 
for about two years without renewing the 
comb, but by that time the comb becomes 
dark and opaque and the glass more or less 
coated with wax lumps, propolis, cocoons, 
etc. Therefore it has proved more satisfac¬ 
tory to restock the hive every year. 

Bees Avinter nicely in these little hives 
provided the temperature of the room does 
not go to freezing nor stay below 40 de¬ 
grees E. very long at a time. A room tem¬ 
perature up to 65 degrees or even 70 de¬ 
grees does not cause trouble in the winter, 
provided the hive entrance is wide open. A 
few bees may venture to go out; but by the 
time they reach the outer end of the tunnel 
they meet the cold air and turn back. A 
window facing south is the best for winter; 
but any exposure will do for summer, tho 
one not facing the prevailing winds is to 
be preferred. 

All types of observatory hives should 
have the ventilating space solely at the 
bottom of sides or ends, and with double 
glasses with a confined air space between 
them. Extra space into which the bees 
may spread and yet not build comb is 
greatly to be desired, particularly in single¬ 
comb hives. This and ideal ventilating 
conditions are secured by having the floor 
wider than the hive and having such exten¬ 
sion covered by wire cloth spaced half an 
inch above it. 

ORANGE ( Citrus Aurantium) . —The or¬ 
ange is a native of southeastern Asja, 
whence its cultivation has extended since 
the tenth century thruout the warmer re¬ 
gions of both worlds. It is believed that 
the Arabs carried it into Africa and Spain, 
and that the early Spanish settlers intro¬ 


duced it into Florida. Later colonists 
found large groves of wild orange trees. 
There also belong to the genus Citrus the 
grapefruit ( C. Decumana ), the lemon (C. 
Limonium ), and the lime ( C. Limetta ) and 
the mandarin or tangerine ( C. nobilis). 
All the species are evergreen trees or 
shrubs. Most of them have fragrant 
white flowers, tho those of the lemon are 
purplish. 

The cultivation of the orange and other 
citrus fruits is confined in Florida chiefly 
to the southern half of the peninsula, altho 
when given special care and protection 
during cold winters, they will flourish as 
far north as Jacksonville. In northwest¬ 
ern Florida, west of the Suwanee River, 
and northeastern Florida north of St. Au¬ 
gustine only a very small area of citrus 
fruits is under cultivation. In the central 
lake region comprising the eight counties 
of Alachua, Marion, Putnam, St. John, 
Volusia, Orange, Lake and Sumter there 
are over a million and a half of trees. 
Along the west coast in Citrus, Hernando, 
Pasco, Hillsboro, and Manatee Counties 
there are also numerous orange groves, 
Hillsboro reporting a larger acreage than 
any other county in the State. Farther 
south} Polk, Brevard, and De Soto Coun¬ 
ties each contain over 200,000 trees. Lee 
County, the seat of the Big Cypress 
Swamp, commonly regarded as a wilder¬ 
ness, has also many orange groves. Lemons 
are produced principally in southern Cali¬ 
fornia ; but there is a small acreage in south¬ 
west Florida, chiefly in Monroe County. 
The grapefruit orchards are found largely 
in western Florida, in Lee, Manatee, and 
Hillsboro Counties. Limes are grown com¬ 
mercially only in the southern tip of Flor¬ 
ida (Monroe County) and the adjoining 
islands. It has been estimated that there 
are in this State 10,000 square miles adapt¬ 
ed to orange culture. 

The date of the beginning and the length 
of the period of blooming vary greatly ac¬ 
cording to the variety of the fruit, the ex¬ 
tent of cool weather in winter and early 
spring, and differences in rainfall and soil. 
For instance, in the middle of the State 
flowers have been seen on the round orange 
as early as Feb. 6; but in 1912 the first 
bloom did not appear until March 15. On 
an average Feb. 20 is the date on which 


638 


ORANGE 


blossoms begin to appear in this section. 
The spring of 1915 was unusually cold and 
rainy, and the flowers did not open until 
about the first of March, and did not yield 
nectar well until the end of the month, 
when the bloom became very abundant. 
Usually nectar is not gathered later than 
April 10; but this year a hive on scales 
showed a gain of three pounds on April 
20, and the flow did not cease entirely until 
a few days later. 

The trees remain in blossom for about 
four weeks, if the weather is not too hot 
and dry. As a rule the later the bloom 
appears, the shorter the time it lasts. Cool 



Orange blossom. 


and frosty weather will prolong it unless 
the frost is so severe, as in 1911, that it in¬ 
jures the blossoms, when it brings the flow 
speedily to a close. The average surplus 
in a good year is about 40 pounds. The 
best hive in an apiary at DeLand in 1914, 
.stored 200 pounds and, in 1915, 150 
pounds. At Plant City, about 100 miles 
south of DeLand, in 1915, there was an 
average of not more than 10 pounds per 
colony—the poorest record since 1904. 

An orange grove in full bloom, display¬ 
ing innumerable white blossoms among the 
dark-green leaves and exhaling a sweet fra¬ 
grance that can be perceived for a quarter 
of a mile in all directions, is beautiful be¬ 
yond description. The bloom is as sensi¬ 


tive to weather conditions as is that of the 
mangrove. Either very hot and dry 
weather, or sudden changes to cold and wet 
weather, will lessen the flow. In 1915 at 
DeLand the flow varied more, according to 
E. G. Baldwin, than he had ever noticed in 
any previous season. One day the scales 
would show a gain of 11 pounds, the next 
day it would drop to four or five, then rise 
to seven or eleven, then drop to four again. 
A warm damp day, with sun and cloud al¬ 
ternating, seems to be most favorable for 
the secretion of nectar. Then it can be 
seen in the early morning shining in the 
white blossoms, and the bees are heavily 
laden thruout the entire day. Because of 
the uncertainty of the secretion of nectar, 
orange trees can not be counted on for 
honey oftener, on an average, than one 
year fin three. 

The honey is light amber, < clear, and 
crystalline, without the thick opaque ap¬ 
pearance sometimes observed in even clear 
amber palmetto honey. It has a body 
heavier than cabbage palmetto, but not as 
heavy as scrub palmetto honey. The flavor 
and aroma, which preserve the fragrance 
of the blossom, are delightful, and can not 
be duplicated in any other honey. E. R. 
Root once said of this honey “We are in¬ 
clined to think the flavor is a little finer 
than anything of the kind we have ever 
tasted.” 

Pure orange honey in Florida is scarce 
and always will be. Altho shipped from 
California by the carload it is not easy to 
get in Florida for the reason that there is 
only a limited area where the trees are 
sufficiently abundant to yield a surplus 
unmixed with nectar from any other 
source. There must be thousands of trees 
within an area six miles in diameter, and 
little else in bloom at the same time. A 
little admixture of wild cherry or andro- 
meda will spoil the pure article and give it 
a dark tint and a pungent taste. While 
there are many orange groves in Florida 
they are so widely scattered that there are 
not many good orange-honey localities. 
Probably Volusia County has more sections 
where pure orange honey can be obtained 
than any other single county in Florida, 
unless possibly it be Manatee County on 
the west coast. There are also extensive 
groves which are attractive and promising 



ORANGE 


639 


at Wauchula, De Soto County, and Or¬ 
lando, Orange County. 

A large acreage of oranges, mostly of 
the Satsuma variety, has been planted 
along the coast of the Gulf of Mexico from 
Florida to Texas. The bloom does not 
yield much nectar. About 40 miles below 
New Orleans, La., in the Delta of the Mis¬ 
sissippi River in Plaquemines and Jeffer¬ 
son Counties there are many miles of al¬ 
most continuous orange groves. The first 
orange trees were planted in this section 
more than one hundred years ago. In 
Texas the orange orchards are largely re¬ 
stricted to Galveston and Brazoria Counties 
on the Gulf coast, but citrus-growing is in 
course of development in the Rio Grande 
Valley. 

In Arizona orange culture is an impor¬ 
tant industry in the Salt River Valley in 
Maricopa County where there are 2,500 
acres. The orchards are confined to the 
slopes, which are free from orange-killing 
frosts. The oranges in this section ripen 
early, and the first shipments often reach 
the eastern markets in time for the Thanks¬ 
giving trade. The culture of orange and 
grapefruit will expand considerably in 
those parts of the Salt River Valley where 
winter temperatures permit, and there is 
an average water supply. 

The orange was introduced into Califor¬ 
nia by the early Catholic misssionaries, but 
its cultivation on a commercial scale began 
about 45 years ago. Today the State has 
two-thirds of the trees and produces three- 
fourths of the crop, devoting 234,600 acres 
of its fertile soil to growing oranges and 
lemons. In 1920, 15,000 families received 
$81,000,000 for citrus fruits, or an average 
of $475 for every acre of bearing trees. 
The area of orange groves bearing fruit 
was 133,500 acres and of non-bearing or 
young groves 50,400 acres. Of bearing 
lemon trees there are 33,000 acres and 17,- 
000 acres of young trees. This is probably 
the largest area of citrus-bearing fruits in 
the world. 

While oranges are grown to some extent 
in many counties in California there are 
two well-defined dense areas of production. 
The smaller area is in the foothills of the 
Sierra Nevada in the San Joaquin Valley. 
In Tulare County there are over 800,000 
trees, and the crop of citrus fruits in 1910 


was valued at $4,000,000. In Fresno and 
Kern Counties the number of trees is much 
smaller, the total being about 200,000. The 
larger area of citrus fruits is located on 
the southern and western foothills of Los 
Angeles, Orange, San Bernardino, and 
Riverside Counties. In Los Angeles Coun¬ 
ty there are 34,000 acres of orange groves 
and 10,000 acres of lemon trees, in San 
Bernardino County 43,000 acres of oranges 
and 7,000 acres of lemons, while Riverside 
County has an acreage almost as large. 
There is also considerable commercial pro¬ 
duction in Santa Barbara, Ventura, and 
San Diego Counties. Northward in the 
Central Valley in Butte County many acres 
of orange trees are successful. Citrus 
fruits can indeed be grown in favorable 
localities from San Diego County to Shasta 
County. 

As with many other honey plants, the 
secretion of nectar varies in different locali¬ 
ties and is greatly influenced by weather 
conditions. In the cool regions near the 
coast there is little nectar. Fog also often 
interferes with the flight of the bees so that 
there may be very few days which are ideal 
for field work. In the foothills it is occa¬ 
sionally very cold; and an apiary at an 
elevation of a few hundred feet has been 
snowed under for a few hours, while in 
the valley below the orange trees were also 
white—but with flowers, not snow. At 
Redlands the weather is very warm and 
there is little fog with the result that, four 
years out of five, orange bloom yields a 
fair crop, in proof of which may be cited 
the experience of a beekeeper who states 
that he has shipped one or more carloads 
of pure orange honey every year except 
1904. Yet even here the weather is some¬ 
times so cool that tons of nectar are lost be¬ 
cause the bees are forced to remain in the 
hives. Even in fair weather the flowers 
have been known to yield only a scanty sup¬ 
ply of nectar. But when the conditions are 
suitable there is probably no other plant in 
the United States which secretes nectar more 
copiously. At times the clothing of pick¬ 
ers and pruners is wet by the dripping 
nectar, and the horses and harness require 
washing at the close of a day’s cultivation 
among the trees; while even the ground is 
dampened by the many falling drops. 

The very heavy water-white honey is un- 


640 


OUT-APIARIES 


surpassed in flavor; but as it usually crys¬ 
tallizes in a few months many dealers pre¬ 
fer to buy sage honey. It is very easy to 
obtain orange honey pure, for sage does 
not blossom until the weather is warmer. 
At Pomona the land for miles is entirely 
occupied by groves, and it is difficult to 
obtain room for an apiary. Here after the 
honey flow is over the bees bring in nothing 
for the rest of the season except a dribble 
of dark honey from pepper and hoarhound. 
Taking it all in all, the orange is the most 
dependable source in southern California. 

A large acreage in California is devoted 
to the cultivation of the lemon and grape 
fruit, but these trees do not yield nectar as 
freely as does the orange. The other citrus 
trees are not common. 

In the hope of maintaining a more even 
temperature in both summer and winter a 
six-acre lemon grove at Corona, Calif., was. 
covered with tobacco cloth, a strong kind 
of mosquito netting. This netting was 
stretched over wire, and was supported by 
posts about 16 feet tall. Two colonies of 
bees were placed in the grove and given 
sections of drawn comb; but they died out 
entirely in a few months from close con¬ 
finement and lack of pollen. The stronger 
in a short time filled 12 or 15 sections with 
lemon honey. The color of this honey was 
very light and the flavor excellent, with 
none of the tartness of the fruit. Under 
these conditions the manager estimated that 
the crop of lemons was increased fourfold. 
Unfortunately, a heavy wind wrecked the 
structure, and when removed the trees drop¬ 
ped to their previous rate of production. 

In southern California the trees are in 
bloom during the last of March and thru- 
out April, or about six weeks. The period 
of blooming varies greatly — sometimes be¬ 
ing much 'later than usual. It would be for 
the advantage of apiarists if the honey 
flow was later, for while it aids in building 
up the colonies, the latter are often not 
sufficiently strong to bring in all the nec¬ 
tar, or the cold compels them to remain in¬ 
active. With large colonies and clear warm 
weather the nectar comes in very rapidly. 
At Redlands a hive on scales showed a gain 
of 119 pounds in 17 days from April 7 
to 23. The honey was secured in about five 
hours of each day from 11 to 4 o’clock. 
During the morning the bees brought in 


pollen from various flowers, but before 
noon they were all at work on the orange 
bloom. A surplus of from 60 to 120 
pounds per colony is obtained. The nec¬ 
tar is frequently very thin when first gath¬ 
ered, and naturally after irrigation is 
thinner for a few days; but toward the end 
of the flow, if the weather is warm, it be¬ 
comes much thicker. 

OUT-APIARIES. — Within late years 
this term has been used to apply to a bee- 
yard remote or distant from the home yard 
by about two or three miles. It is a well- 
known fact, that only a limited number of 
colonies, comparatively, can be supported 
in any one locality, different places being 
able to support widely different numbers of 
colonies. 

NUMBER OF COLONIES IN AN APIARY. 

The number of colonies of bees that can 
be profitably kept in one locality is limited 
by the amount of pasturage. Of late years 
quite a number of beekeepers have estab¬ 
lished one or more out-apiaries, for the 
sake of keeping more bees than the home 
pasturage would support. Just how many 
bees can be supported in a single locality 
has probably never been ascertained, and 
it is just as probable that it never will be. 
One field may support five times as many 
as another, and the same field may support 
five times as many this year as last. Most 
beekeepers, however, think it inadvisable 
to keep more than 75 to 100 colonies in one 
apiary, while a few think their locations 
so good that 200 or more can be profitably 
kept together. As many as 500, and in one 
case even 700, have been kept in one yard. 
These cases are very rare, however, as it is 
seldom that the bee pasturage is strong 
enough to support so many. 

As a general thing, most localities will 
not support to the best advantage over 
fifty colonies to the yard. In a series of 
outyards owned by the authors it was 
found an advantage to have not more than 
50, altho there are some seasons when a 
larger number could be operated to advan¬ 
tage. 

The number of hives per apiary will de¬ 
pend very much on the amount of available 
forage for the bees. A locality that has a 
large acreage of alsike, some red clover, as 


OUT-APIARIES 


C41 


well as white clover, will support twice as 
many colonies as one where there is only 
white clover. The presence of considerable 
sweet clover will help materially. 

In western territory where alfalfa and 
white clover are grown, the number of 
stocks will depend on the number of acres 
grown as well as on the time when the al¬ 
falfa is cut. Some ranchmen cut their 
alfalfa earlier than others. Some grow 
alfalfa for seed. Where seed is raised, a 
much larger number of colonies can be 
handled to advantage. 

It is almost impossible to give a definite 
number per apiary. One may have to ex¬ 
periment to determine how many he can 
keep. In an eastern locality if there have 
been early spring rains and there is a con¬ 
siderable amount of alsike, sweet, and 
white clover, and especially if there is some 
basswood, 75 colonies to the yard could be 
operated to advantage. If there is only 
white clover available, probably not over 30 
could be placed. In that case the farmers 
should be urged to put in alsike. If they 
can be induced to give it a trial on the 
basis of the beekeeper’s furnishing the seed 
at half price, they will probably continue 
to use it year in and year out, with the re¬ 
sult that the locality will be measurably im¬ 
proved. (See “Alsike” under Clover.) 
As a rule it is better to have too few colo¬ 
nies than too many to the yard; and it 
should always be borne in mind that strong, 
powerful colonies will gather relatively 
more than the weak or medium. See Build¬ 
ing Up Colonies. 

In these days of automobiles, by which 
one can cover three or four yards in the 
afternoon, it is not so necessary as it was 
in the olden days of the slower horse and 
wagon to have so large a number of colo¬ 
nies per yard. For that reason, if for no 
other, it is safer to err on the smaller 
number. 

Some yards will show up much better 
than others year after year. In that case 
a larger number can be placed in such 
yards. 

DISTANCE BETWEEN APIARIES, AND LOCATION 
THEREOF. 

A location for an out-apiary must, of 
course, be far enough distant from the 
home apiary not to interfere much; but 
•21 


just how far is best, it is not easy to de¬ 
cide. Perhaps, all things considered, a 
good distance is from three to five miles 
apart. As the area of flight is a circle, the 
ideal plan of locating out-apiaries so as to 
occupy fully all adjoining territory is to 
put them in hexagonal form, in which case 
a circle of six will surround the home 
apiary. 



In the diagram, A represents the home 
apiary, and B, C, D, E, F, G, the out- 
apiaries, at equal distances from A and 
from each other. If more than seven are 
needed then a second series may be started, 
as at K, M, L, indicated by the letters. The 
circles representing the area of flight from 
each apiary are seen to overlap each other; 
but this is at the outer parts, where the 
ground is more sparsely occupied, and the 
doubling on the same ground is compen¬ 
sated by the convenience of the shorter dis¬ 
tance to go from one apiary to another. 
But this ideal plan, altlio a good thing to 
work from as a basis, is not likely ever to 
be fully carried out. Many reasons will 
make it desirable to vary. The roads may 
run in such directions as to make a differ¬ 
ence; no good place may be found for any 
apiary at some of thfi points. It may be 
remarked that the area of flight is not al¬ 
ways a circle. An apiary placed in a valley 
between two ranges of hills might have an 
oblong area, the bees perhaps flying twice 
as far along the line of the valley as in the 
other direction. When an apiary is on a 
hill overlooking a valley bees will fly fur¬ 
ther than when on a level. (See Flight 
of Bees.) If only a single out-apiary is 


642 


OUT-API ARIES 


to be planted, it is probably best to go in 
the direction of the best pasturage—a thing 
not always easy to determine. Sometimes 
one location proves to be better than an¬ 
other, year after year, altho no apparent 
reason for it can be seen. It may even be 
worth while to vary a location a mile or 
more for the sake of having it where pleas¬ 
ant people live. But one can do much 
toward making the people pleasant by be¬ 
ing pleasant himself. As little trouble as 
possible should be made, and one should be 
still more careful than at home to avoid 
everything that may invite robbing, for 
robbing begets cross bees on the place. 

Since the days of the automobile and the 
automobile truck it is feasible to locate 
beeyards much further apart than was 
practicable under the old plan of horse 
and buggy or team. While it is true that 
bees often do not fly more than a mile, and 
sometimes not over half a mile, it is equally 
true that some seasons they will go five 
miles in the same location. As already 
stated, the general lay of the land, the con¬ 
dition of the roads, etc., will determine to 
a great extent the location of the outyard. 
As far as possible, apiaries should be lo¬ 
cated remote from macadam, stone, or brick 
roads. They should also be placed in sight 
of some dwelling house. While this is not 
absolutely essential, yet the fact remains 
that thieves are less inclined to meddle with 
the bees when the apiary is in sight of some 
dwelling house. 

It is desirable to have the apiary located 
where there are suitable windbreaks. (See 
Apiary and Wintering.) This is especial¬ 
ly important if the bees are wintered on 
their summer stands; for good wintering 
cannot ordinarily be secured outdoors when 
the hives, no matter how well packed, are 
exposed to piercing winds. 

HAULING BEES AND BEE SUPPLIES TO 
OUTYARDS. 

Out-apiary management demands some 
sort of conveyance, not only to carry the 
beeman and his helpers to and from the 
outyards, but to haul the bees and the sup¬ 
plies. Formei’ly a horse and buggy or a 
team and wagon were used exclusively for 
the purpose; but the rate of travel was so 
very slow that the time lost on the road 


was considerable of an item. With a horse- 
driven vehicle it is not practicable to han¬ 
dle more than one or two outyards in one 
forenoon or afternoon, and generally about 
half the time is spent on the road. If a 
beeman’s time is worth in the height of 
the season one dollar an hour, and his 
helper half that, and if the time of the 
team is worth $5.00 a day, it makes the 
net cost $2.00 an hour. 

On the other hand, an automobile will 
make the trip to the yards in one-fifth or 
one-seventh of the time. A safe average 
running speed is about 15 miles an hour, 
altho on good roads one can run as high as 
20 or even 25 miles. It costs anywhere 
from 5 to 20 cents* a mile to operate an 
automobile if depreciation of the machine 
itself, wear and tear, tires, gasoline, and 
oil are included. But even on this basis the 
automobile is considerably cheaper, pro¬ 
vided, of course, there is a series of not less 
than three or four outyards, or, better, five 
or six. The self-propelled vehicle makes it 
possible to have yards further apart; and 
this makes it feasible to have a less num¬ 
ber of colonies to the yard, and a larger- 
average yield. If a yard is overstocked it 
will not, of course, give as large an average 
per colony. 

It is not necessary to buy an expensive 
truck. An ordinary light machine selling 
for less than $400 with a wagon-box on the 
back will handle practically 95 per cent of 
the out-apiary work provided there are not 
more than four or five yards. For very 
heavy hauling, a big truck can usually be 
hired at an expense of about 20 cents a 
mile, including driver; and this will be far 
cheaper than for the beekeeper to own the 
machine. Or a trailer can be hitched on 
the light machine and carry 750 lbs. in 
addition to 500 or 750 lbs. on the truck 
itself. The automobile without a trailer 
can carry 750 lbs. to the trip, and thus do 
practically all the work, even to hauling 
the bees home in the fall, altho there is an 
increasing tendency on the part of out- 
apiary beekeepers to winter their bees at 
outyards in large quadruple winter cases. 
(See Wintering Outdoors.) In that 
case the small machine can do all the haul¬ 
ing provided the owner manages to take a 

*A Ford willl run for from 3 to 5 cents as against 
a ton automobile truck at 15 to 20 cents per mile. 



OUT-APIARIES 


643 


light load at each trip, both going and 
coming. 

If there is a series of eight or ten yards 
one can well afford to have a light machine 
to cany the men to and from the yards, 
and a trailer capable of carrying 750 lbs. 
more,* altho it is surprising to see how 
much work can be accomplished with a 
Ford alone. 



Ford and trailer. 

A two-wheel trailer, if rightly designed, will carry 
from 700 to 1,000 pounds. In some places one can 
he rented for $1.50 a day. Its cost will run all the 
way from $50 to $150. It is a very common prac¬ 
tice in California for beekeepers to move their bees 
with a two-wheel trailer. 

The upkeep of an automobile costing less 
than $400 is about a third of the cost of 
operating the larger machines costing 
$1,200 or more. The fonner use small tires, 
and, what is of great importance, the first 
cost is much lower. Beekeepers should un¬ 
derstand that the main expense of operat¬ 
ing' an automobile is depreciation, which 
cannot be figured at less than 33 per cent 
the first year; 25 for the next, and 10 per 
cent for each succeeding year. The depre¬ 
ciation is the largest item; and as the cost 
of the low-priced machine is less than half 
the ordinary machines, the depreciation is 
accordingly less. 

But there is another item to be consid¬ 
ered. ' The little high-speed engine in the 
small machine will give about twice the 
mileage per gallon of gasoline of the heav¬ 
ier machines,- and this is no inconsiderable 
item. 

By lengthening the wagon-box a much 
larger bulk of hives can be carried at a 

*E. L. Hoffman, Zanesville, Minn., handles 1,000 
colonies with one assistant, a Ford, and a trailer. 
He secures big crops of honey, and with his Ford 
he sells and delivers his crop in his locality. The 
Ford with trailer is used very commonly in Cali¬ 
fornia and other States. 


load; and, generally speaking, the author 
would advise having the wagon-box stick 
out at the rear at least two feet or more, 
because a great deal of the stuff carried to 
the outyard is bulky but not heavy. But 
when the wagon-box is enlarged, precau¬ 
tion should be taken not to put on a load of 
more than 750 lbs. While the chassis of a 
light machine will carry 1,000 lbs., such a 
load is rather hard on the tires, and it is 
advisable to make an extra trip rather than 
trying to do the whole job in one load. 

Whatever the kind of hive used, some 
plan must be adopted for fastening in the 
bees, so that they may have abundance of 
ventilation while being hauled. As, how¬ 
ever, the hauling is done in spring and fall, 
less ventilation is needed than during hot 
weather. The ordinary entrance, say 14 
inches by % covered by wire cloth, will 
answer, as that gives a ventilating surface 
of about 12 inches, altho more would be 
much better. (See Moving Bees.) Of 
course, the bees should all be shut in when 
not flying, and in spring it is a good plan 
to shut up in the evening all that are to 
be hauled the next day. In the fall the 
weather may be such that bees will not fly 
at any time in the day, otherwise one must 
get to the out-apiary early enough in the 



This is a betfpr trailer and costs about $150. It 
will handle easily at one load 50 colonies, or one 
ton of weight. For moving bees it is always best 
to have a strongly built machine. 

morning to shut in all the bees he will haul 
that day. If one is to take bees to an out- 
apiary in the spring, the sooner it is done 
the better, as pasturage is then apt to be 
rather scarce at best. Where bees are to 
be brought home in the fall to be cellared, 
they may as well be brought just as soon 
as heavy frost occurs, or as soon as they 














044 


OUT-APIARIES 


stop gathering'; at least they should be 
brought early enough to have a good fly 
before going* into winter quarters. After 
being unloaded from the wagon the bees 
may be liberated by blowing a little smoke 
or dashing in some cold water at the en¬ 
trance; or, if loaded too late in the evening 
to fly, they may be quietly set down; and if 
carefully opened, no smoke need be used. 
For particulars on the difficulties in haul¬ 
ing bees see Moving Bees. 

RENT FOR. OUT-APIARIES. 

The agreement between the beekeeper 
and his landlord, for rent, is as varied as 
the cases that occur. Some pay a fixed 
sum, five to twenty-five dollars per year; 
some pay ten cents per colony; others 
agree to pay a per cent of the crop; some 
make a bargain to pay so much for every 
swarm hived by some one of the landlord’s 
family, and so on, while some cannot get 
the landlord to agree to take any rent 
whatever. In this latter case it is only 
right to make sure that the landlord has a 
good supply of honey for his family to use 
during the coming year. In any case, be 
sure to do a little better than expected. 

GENERAL MANAGEMENT OF OUT-APIARIES. 

The management of outyards will depend 
very largely on the man, the locality, and 
the general conditions. Sometimes up in 
the mountain country where the roads are 
very poor, and a very large number of 
colonies can be supported per apiary, it is 
more practicable to have a man at each 
yard who camps on the job night and day 
until the main honey flow is over. Of 
course, it is not necessary to have a man at 
the yard during the dormant season; but 
when warm weather sets in some one should 
be on hand to build up the colonies and put 
them in proper condition to catch the 
honey flow. 

As a rule, however, a man at each yard 
is too expensive, and it is, therefore, better 
to have one force operate all the yards, 
using an automobile, even if an occasional 
swarm does get away. This plan has the 
advantage that the owner of the bees can 
always be present with the men, directing 
the work, thereby securing efficiency and 
at the same time better service. The help¬ 
ers usually work better when the boss is 


around; and the boss who does not super¬ 
vise his own job will soon run himself out 
of business. One who is capable of operat¬ 
ing a series of outyards is capable of di¬ 
recting his men, and usually he is a man 
who has gradually grown into the business, 
increasing it from year to year as knowl¬ 
edge and experience permit. It folloivs, 
therefore, that when the owner can keep 
his eye on every colony at every outyard, 
and direct the individual treatment, he gets 
far better results than if he has a hired 
man out of his sight at each outyard. 

The owner of the bees, when he takes his 
helper or helpers, should make his plans 
well in advance before he starts for the 
yard. He should not only know what he is 
going* to do, but whether he has the proper 
equipment with him to work out the plans 
for the day or trip. He should go further 
and have his plans matured a week in ad¬ 
vance so that he can take care of each 
yard at a definite period. He should see 
to it that he has on hand sufficient supplies 
of every description; and if he does not 
have enough equipment at each yard he 
should so arrange his work that he can 
carry what is necessary at each trip; other¬ 
wise he will be working at a great disad¬ 
vantage. 

It is not essential that a helper should 
have experience. The beeman who uses his 
brains can take a comparatively raw man 
or boy and almost double his own capacity 
for work in a day. The author’s yardman 
takes along with him one or two helpers. 
The helper with smoker opens up the hives 
in advance, so that all is ready when the 
boss makes his inspection. His practiced 
eye will see almost at a glance what treat¬ 
ment is required, and he will, therefore, 
direct his helper or helpers to bring him 
the necessary equipment to put the colony 
in proper condition. An experienced man 
who has his plans well worked out will be 
able to keep one man bringing him stuff. 
As the men acquire more experience the 
boss simply tells them what to do with a 
colony. In the meantime he studies the 
needs of the next colony. 

A good beeman who is capable of getting 
along* with help will be able to take care of 
seven or eight hundred or perhaps a thou¬ 
sand colonies with one helper during the 
active season. When conditions are right, 


OUT-APIARIES 


645 


and with the proper system, lie sometimes 
may be able to handle twice the number 
with the same help. 

Of course it goes without saying that the 
owner or boss should know how to operate 
his automobile. As already pointed out, 
he cannot afford to waste time with a horse 
and buggy, as he will thus kill valuable 
time. 

But perhaps it may be urged that the 
roads are bad and almost impassable for 
any automobile, and that a horse and buggy 
must therefore be used. But usually a 
Eord with a good driver will go where any 
horse can. 

No beekeeper should go to an outyard 
without a spare inner tube and an outer 
casing, with a boot to provide against blow¬ 
outs, and patching stuff to make repairs to 
inner tubes. In the rush of the season it is 
the height of folly to get caught on the 
road with a blowout or a puncture without 
means for making repairs. To run on an 
uninflated tire is the ruination of the inner 
tube and a damage to the casing. As a 
general thing the author would recommend 
having a Ford equipped with detachable 
rims. With this extra rim carrying a tire 
already inflated, one can get started in a 
very few minutes. 

An extra box should be provided on the 
running-board of the machine to hold 
smoker, smoker-fuel, hive-tools, bee-brush, 
grass-hook, or anything else that may be 
required at the outyard. These tools will 
be needed on every trip, besides the combs, 
supers, and other equipment that will ordi¬ 
narily be loaded in the wagon-box for that 
special trip. 

Sometimes it is necessary to take along 
a scythe, and while the boss is making an 
inspection of colonies his helpers can be 
employed in cutting down grass and weeds 
and leveling up the hives. This last item 
may not seem to be essential; but if a hive 
is on a tilt it will have its combs in the 
section-supers built out of plumb. If the 
season happens to be a good one, and there 
are four or five supers on the hive, a stiff 
wind just before a thunderstorm may blow 
the whole thing over. It is important, 
therefore, to have a good foundation for 
each hive at the yard. 

At every outyard there should be a small 
collapsible building. (See Buildings.) This 


is to hold extra combs, supers, and equip¬ 
ment; and if the extracting is performed 
with a small hand machine it can be done 
in a building of this sort. 

As given under Extracting, the author 
advises one large extracting-outfit at the 
home yard, where the work can be done 
inside of a bee-proof building. It is not 
advisable ordinarily to extract at outyards, 
on account of the danger of robbers, and 
because conditions usually are not favor¬ 
able for putting up an extracting-outfit. 

In the case of bee disease it is sometimes 
necessary to extract at the outyard, in order 
to avoid mixing the combs, and danger of 
carrying disease to the home yard. But 
even in that case, if one plans rightly he 
can arrange to take his combs off, load 
them on the machine, carry them home, ex¬ 
tract, and return. There should be a drip- 
pan in the wagon-box to catch any drip 
from the supers after extracting. And it 
may be advisable to throw a large canvas 
over the load to keep any bees in the home 
yard from getting a taste of the honey. In 
any case the extractor should be thoroly 
washed out with boiling water after ex¬ 
tracting from diseased or suspected combs. 
Such work cannot be done too carefully. 

WINTERING OUT-APIARY BEES. 

It is the practice of some to haul the 
bees home from the outyard and put them 
in a large cellar; others winter in large 
quadruple winter cases at the outyard. 
(See Wintering Outdoors, subhead 
“Quadruple Winter Cases.”) If there is 
any danger that the bees may be tampered 
with during winter by thieves or boys, it is 
advisable to haul the bees home and winter 
them under the eye of the owner. Usually 
an outyard can be located in sight of some 
house. If the land is rented from the 
owner of the house he will be' willing to 
keep a watch on the bees; but as a usual 
thing bees may be left out of doors year in 
and year out without disturbance. 

If the bees at the outyards are well sup¬ 
plied with stores in the fall, and put into 
double-walled hives or large winter cases, 
they will not require much attention except 
to see that the entrances do not become 
clogged with dead bees, which may happen 
along late in the winter. Usually some 
one near the outyards can be hired to rake 


646 


OVERSTOCKING 


the dead bees out of the entrances, as it 
may not be practicable for the owner to 
make a visit when roads are bad. 

For building up outyard bees the reader 
is referred to Building Up Colonies, Nu¬ 
cleus, and Increase. 

FAILING LOCATIONS. 

Experience has shown, in many in¬ 
stances, that a yard which in years gone 
by has furnished tons of honey is now 
practically worthless, or so nearly so that 
the moving of the bees to some more 
favorable location is a necessity. For ex¬ 
ample, four or five years ago an apiary 
furnished an abundance of basswood 
honey; but the basswoods have all been cut 
off; there is no clover and the field is 
worthless. Again, a locality had once fur¬ 
nished immense quantities of white clover; 
but intensive agriculture has set in, and 
clover pasturage has given way to immense 
wheat fields. The inroads of civilization 
sometimes cut off the honey resources of a 
locality; at other times they augment them 
very considerably. There are a few loca¬ 
tions in New York State that formerly gave 
very little honey until the farmers in recent 
years introduced buckwheat to such an 
extent that these are now excellent honey 
locations; and the yield of this dark rich 
honey plays a considerable part in the net 
profits of the season. In California some 
sage locations that were formerly good 
were ruined by fire. In other places in the 
State the planting of orange groves has 
made these places good for bees. 

a scale hive at an out-apiary. 

It is a well-known and established fact, 
that one yard may yield quite a crop of 
honey while another, only a few miles dis¬ 
tant, requires to be fed. It is highly im¬ 
portant to be able to tell just what the bees 
are doing at stated periods during the sea¬ 
son. One beekeeper kept a hive on scales 
at each yard; and every time he visited 
one he consulted the scales. If they indi¬ 
cated an increase of several pounds, he 
knew the bees in this apiary needed more 
room, and were also liable to swarm; but, 
if they indicated a loss of several pounds, 
he inferred that the whole yard was losing 
likewise, and that some colonies needed to 


be fed. Of course, the hive on the scale 
should contain a fair average colony. In 
many cases it is not always possible to 
visit yards at regular periods, and in that 
case some resident near the apiary can be 
employed to watch the scales, and report by 
postal card or telephone. See Scale 
Hive. 

A CAUTION ABOUT ENTERING INTO THE 
OUT-APIARY BUSINESS. 

While there are many beekeepers who 
have brains and capacity enough to man¬ 
age a series of out-apiaries, there are also 
more who should never think of going into 
the business. To be a keeper of several 
out-apiaries means great perseverance and 
a good deal of system, besides ability to 
manage not only the bees, but the help 
who are to take care of them. If one 
cannot make 50 or 60 colonies pay in one 
location, he should not delude himself by 
establishing a series of out-apiaries. The 
man who can not make a small business 
pay probably will not make a large one do 
so. When one can manage successfully his 
home apiary, it may be profitable, as soon 
as the increase is sufficient, to take a part 
of it to an outyard. 

OVERSTOCKING.— This means putting 
more colonies in a locality than can be 
supported profitably. Sometimes a local 
beekeeper makes the mistake of putting too 
many bees in a place; but it more often 
happens that another, observing that the 
locality is good, brings in one or more 
yards, thus crowding the territory that was 
already overstocked in the first place. See 
under Apiary, Backlot Beekeeping, 
Farmer Beekeeping, and Out-apiaries. 

A given locality with only ten colonies 
to gather the nectar in it may show a large 
average per colony—perhaps 200 or 300 
pounds. When the number is tripled or 
quadrupled, the average will be cut down 
a half. The locality should be carefully 
studied, and only that number of colonies 
used which on an average, one year with 
another, will give the largest results in 
honey, with a minimum of labor and capi¬ 
tal. If 75 hives during an average season 
would furnish an average of 150 pounds 
to the hive, then, perhaps, the number 
might be increased to 100 or even 150. If, 


OVERSTOCKING 


647 


on the other hand, the average is only 50 
lbs. of extracted honey, and there are only 
50 colonies in the apiary, then, clearly, 50 
would be all there could be kept with profit 
in that spot; and it could be questioned 
whether or not 35 might- not be just as 
profitable, and at the same time save a little 
in the investment and some labor in gath¬ 
ering and harvesting the crop. 

In some locations, notably Wyoming, 
Montana, Idaho, Utah, California, Colo¬ 
rado, Cuba, and in some portions of New 
York, one can have as many as 300 or 400 
colonies, and in some rare instances 500 
colonies in one apiary. The late E. W. 
Alexander of Delanson, N. Y., had some 
700 .colonies in one beeyard; but he had 
immense acreages of buckwheat and gold- 
enrod. The celebrated Sespe apiary in 
southern California, owned by Mrs. J. E. 
McIntyre, has, in one yard, 600 colonies 
of bees. The great mountains on either 
side, the fertile valley and the great abun¬ 
dance of honey flora make such a number 
possible. See Apiary ; also Out-apiaries. 

OVERSTOCKING AND PRIORITY RIGHTS. 

A new phase of overstocking has been 
developed within recent years, bringing up 
a rather difficult and serious problem. In 
good localities such as, for example, the 
irrigated regions of Colorado, the keeping 
of bees is much more profitable, or at least 
once was, than in some of the less favored 
localities in the central and northern 
States of the Union. It has come to pass 
that, in recent years, certain beekeepers, 
learning of the wonderful yields in Cali¬ 
fornia, Nevada, Colorado, Idaho, Wyom¬ 
ing, Montana, and Arizona, in the irrigated 
alfalfa regions, have started apiaries with¬ 
in less than a mile of some other beekeeper 
having 100 or 200 colonies in that locality. 
When the new comer establishes another 
apiary of 100 colonies, the place becomes 
overstocked, with the result that beekeeper 
No. 1 has his average per colony cut down 
very materially. There is only a certain 
amount of nectar in the field to be gath¬ 
ered; and if all the colonies get a propor¬ 
tionate share, then beekeeper No. 2 prac¬ 
tically robs beekeeper No. 1 of a large per¬ 
centage of honey that he would have ob¬ 
tained had not other bees been brought 


into the locality to divide the spoils. There 
is no law against such a procedure. The 
only protection that the original squat¬ 
ter has is the unwritten moral law that is 
observed among the better class of beekeep¬ 
ers, to the effect that no beekeeper should 
locate an apiary so close to another as to 
rob him of a certain amount of nectar in 
the field which is his by priority of loca¬ 
tion. In a good many localities, unfortu¬ 
nately this unwritten moral law is only 
loosely observed. Locations that once af¬ 
forded an average of 100 or 150 pounds 
per colony now afford only about 50 or 75 
pounds. 

For the other side, on this question of 
priority of rights it may be said that the 
first-comer beekeeper has in no sense 
leased, bought, or borrowed the land grow¬ 
ing the plants from which the nectar is 
secreted; that any and every one has a 
right to the product from the flowers,. 
Legally the second comer has just as much 
right to the field as his neighbor. 

No attempt will be made to define moral 
distinctions which may be involved in this 
question any more than to state that, if a 
beekeeper has, by luck, careful observation, 
or at great expense, discovered a locality 
that yields large amounts of honey, he 
ought to be left in the peaceful enjoyment 
and free possession of his discovery, to the 
extent that no one else should locate an 
apiary nearer than a mile and a half from 
any of his apiaries; and right here it 
would appear that the principle of the 
golden rule ought to be used to settle all 
such problems; for it is practically certain 
that beekeeper No. 2, who comes into an 
already occupied field to divide the profits, 
would not regard with very much favor 
such action on the part of another if he 
were in the position of the one having 
prior rights. 

In many localities there is a very strong 
sentiment on the part of local beekeepers 
established in good territory against new 
comers putting more bees into a place 
already overstocked. This sentiment is so 
pronounced and strong that the new man 
is often glad to sell out or move away of 
his own accord. Sometimes he is stubborn, 
and attempts to fight it out; but usually 
he is the loser in the end, because he does 
not know the locality as do the old-estab- 


G48 


PALMETTO 


lished beekeepers, and his yields per colony 
will be considerably less. While the policy 
is not here advocated, local beekeepers 
sometimes agree on the plan of freezing 1 
out, or, more exactly, starving out, the 
new coiner. The latter enters the territory 
with a yard of bees. Immediately the 
old-established beekeeper or beekeepers 
will place around that yard, within, a 
quarter of a mile of it or less, a lot more 
bees—enough to overstock the place very 
greatly. The old residents, knowing the 
locality, build up their colonies, and are 
ready for the nectar when it does come in. 
As there is not enough to go around by 
considerable, the bees will not secure an 
average of ten pounds per colony. But 
the old resident beekeepers will secure more 
than the new comer because they know the 
locality and how to meet the conditions. 
After Mr. Newcomer has tried it out one 
season, and finds he cannot make anything, 
he will move out. This freezing-out or 
starving-out game has been worked to a 
finish in a good many places in the West. 
As a rule the resident beekeepers in the 
locality will agree among themselves to 
divide up the territory and put no more 
bees to the yard than the locality will sup¬ 


port. This policy prevails in many of the 
orange and sage districts of California and 
the alfalfa districts of the West. A good 
feeling exists, and in some places they co¬ 
operate among themselves to sell their 
honey, perhaps picking out one of their 
number to visit the big markets. Such a 
policy is much more sane than for every 
one to grab territory and compete against 
his neighbor, with the result that no one 
can make a fair living. 

In one or two localities Mr. Newcomer 
has been met by a shotgun. He is told to 
get out or “take the consequences.” As 
such a policy is, of course, indefensible, a 
milder and gentler means should be em¬ 
ployed. 

As a rule the s new comer can find terri¬ 
tory if he will make some inquiry before 
he attempts to squat his yard or yards. 
By making a personal visit and becoming 
acquainted with the beekeepers in any 
given locality, he can usually make satis¬ 
factory arrangements, and open territory 
may be assigned if there is any. Some¬ 
times none is available. In that case, Mr. 
Newcomer should not attempt to crowd in, 
for he may find some one beekeeper who 
will resort to the shotgun argument. 


P 


PALMETTO. —The palm family (Pal- 
maceae) is represented in Florida by 15 
native species, not including the cultivated 
date palm. There are in the world 130 
genera and over 1,000 species of palms, 
which are nearly equally divided between 
the tropics of both hemispheres. Palm 
trees with their slender, unbranched colum¬ 
nar trunks, surmounted with a crown of 
immense fern-like leaves, are among the 
most stately and graceful of trees, and 


occupy an important place in both story 
and history. The individual flowers are 
small, stemless, and white or greenish-col¬ 
ored, resembling the flowers of a rush; but 
they are borne in enormous branched spikes 
or flower-clusters. The largest flower-clus¬ 
ter in the world, which is 40 feet in length, 
is produced by the Talipot palm of Ceylon. 
The natives of the tropics utilize every 
portion of the palms for food, wine, cloth¬ 
ing, medicine, and dwellings. 


PALMETTO 


649 



In Florida the cabbage, scrub and saw 
palmettoes, and the royal palm are valu¬ 
able as sources of nectar. The cocoanut 
palm is reported to yield a surplus, but 
further observation is desirable. The date 
palm is wind-pollinated and the flowers are 
nectarless; but bees often in large numbers 
gather the pollen. The cabbage palmetto 


Cabbage palmetto. 

(Sabal Palmetto ), so called from the cab¬ 
bage-like terminal bud, which is boiled and 
eaten like a cabbage, is found in the sandy 
coast regions from North Carolina to Flor¬ 
ida, and also occurs in Cuba and the Ba¬ 
hamas. It grows from 20 to 50 feet tall, 
and is abundant along the east and west 
coasts, on the banks of rivers, and in ham¬ 
mocks thruout southern Florida. The 
erect trunk is gray-colored and bears a 
crown of fan-shaped leaves, about 5 feet 
in length and almost equally broad, having 
long footstalks. The flowers have 3 sep¬ 
als, 3 petals, 6 stamens, and a 3-celled 
ovary. It is a picturesque tree and is 
widely planted for ornament. The droop¬ 
ing flower-cluster, which is 3 or more feet 
in length, consists of a central, much 
branched axis, bearing over the ultimate 
smaller branches hundreds of small white, 
stalkless flowers. They exhale a strong fra¬ 
grance, as pronounced as that of apple 
bloom. 


In the extreme southern part of Florida 
the cabbage palmetto begins to bloom about 
the first of July, but in the northern por¬ 
tion of the State not until August. The 
flowers are very sensitive to the weather; 
too much dampness blights, and a hot dry 
atmosphere blasts the bloom. According 
to Baldwin it is on an average a good yield- 
er only one year in three, e. g., 1907, 1909, 
and 1912. In a gopd year it secretes nectar 
very freely, and on the St. Lucie River 65 
colonies gathered 3,500 pounds of extract¬ 
ed honey in two weeks. 

The honey is nearly white, or light am¬ 
ber-colored, and has a characteristic aroma, 
which does not resemble at all that of scrub 
palmetto. It is very thin, and in warm 
weather runs almost like water, and even 
in cold weather it never thickens. The 
flavor is extremely mild, but it is inferior 
to that of scrub palmetto. Gas bubbles 
may frequently be seen under the cappings 
of the sealed cells, and during extracting 


Saw palmetto. 

the honey foams considerably, as tho it was 
fermenting, but after it has stood for a 
few days the bubbles wholly disappear. 
But honey from unsealed cells will ferment 
enough to deprive it of its flavor. In the 
list of Florida honeys it has been ranked 
fifth or sixth. As it is a mild honey it 






G50 


PALMETTO 


blends well with other honeys. In the 
vicinity of Hawks Park, Fla., it blooms 
almost simultaneously with mangrove so 
that the two honeys are always secured to¬ 
gether. Farther south they are obtained 
separately. Of this blend of honeys, 
Langstroth, the father of American bee 
culture, wrote, “In color it is unexception¬ 
able and its flavor is very pleasant.” 

THE SCRUB PALMETTOES. 

Two low shrubs with creeping or hori¬ 
zontal stems, called scrub palmetto ( Sabal 
megacar pa) and saw palmetto ( Serenoa 
serrulata) are also valuable honey plants 
in Florida. Beekeepers frequently fail to 
distinguish between them, and regard them 
as a single species. The leafstalks of the 
scrub palmetto are sharp-edged, but not 
toothed, while the leafstalks of the saw 
palmetto are armed with numerous sharp 
spink teeth. The true palmettoes (Sabal) 
may readily be distinguished by the thread¬ 
like fibres on the margins of the leaves. In 
the scrub palmetto the three cells of the 
ovary are wholly united, but in the saw 
palmetto they are free at the base. The 
two species also differ in distribution. The 
scrub palmetto is confined to peninsular 
Florida, while the saw palmetto grows in 
dry soil from Forth Carolina to Florida 
and Texas, extending northward to Arkan¬ 
sas. 

The scrub palmetto ( Sabal megacar pa) is 
a low shrub with long, crooked, creeping 
stems, which are partly subterranean. At 
intervals the stems root and send up clus¬ 
ters of light-green fan-shaped leaves four 
to seven feet tall. The plant is not injured 
by frosts, and when burned to the ground 
a new growth requires only a year. The 
scrub palmetto grows well over the south¬ 
ern two-thirds of the peninsula of Florida, 
becoming rarer and smaller toward the 
northern boundary of the State. It reaches 
the largest size south of a line extending 
from Tampa to the east coast. On the 
west coast for miles north and south of 
Tampa it forms an unbroken sea of green. 
The traveler on the Seaboard Airline Rail¬ 
road, may ride for miles without losing 
sight of the scrub palmetto, which offers 
an impressive appearance in such large 
masses. It grows over all of the “flat- 
woods,” or low pine lands, which overflow 


more or less during the rainy season, also 
along all the water courses, and on the 
edges of the heavy hammocks. The latter 
places are most suitable, for there the 
shrubs grow 8 feet tall or more, and yield 
the most honey. The stunted plants in 
the flatwoods do not yield as well. There 
are still large areas of scrub palmetto ham¬ 
mocks and flatwoods as yet unoccupied by 
beemen, which offer an attractive field for 
bee culture. An objection to these locali¬ 
ties is that the palmetto is usually the only 
nectar-secreting plant in the region, and 
colonies must be watched closely or they 
will run out of stores in seasons when it 
does not bloom. But year in and year out 
there is no more reliable honey plant in 
Florida than the scrub palmetto. 

It begins to bloom at Fort Myers and 
Miami in April, and farther north in May. 
The small, white, stalkless, fragrant flowers 
are borne in a great many-branched flower- 
cluster, which is 2 to 4 feet in length. Too 
much rain during the blooming period pro¬ 
duces mildew; too much heat and dry 
weather parch the bloom and cause it to 
wither early. Both conditions are detri¬ 
mental to nectar secretion. When soil and 
weather conditions are favorable there is a 
profuse secretion of nectar. From 6 to 8 
pounds daily per hive have been reported 
from this source, and 8 or 9 pounds are not 
unknown; an average of 100 pounds per 
colony has been secured. The honey is 
lemon yellow, thick and heavy, with an 
aromatic flavor and fragrance. It is con¬ 
sidered one of the finest honeys in Florida, 
but possibly is surpassed by white tupelo 
honey. It granulates early but not as 
quickly as orange honey. 

Saw palmetto ( Serenoa serrulata) close¬ 
ly resembles scrub palmetto in flower and 
fruit, and also gives a large honey flow. 
The honey is similar to that of scrub palm¬ 
etto, with which it is usually mixed, as both 
species bloom at the same time. As has 
been pointed out the saw palmetto has a 
much wider distribution, extending far be¬ 
yond the boundaries of Florida. In the 
extreme southern portion of the State it 
becomes a tree 20 feet tall. 

The cocoanut palm ( Cocos nucifera) 
grows in southern Florida, and thruout 
the West Indies and the tropical regions 


PARTHENOGENESIS 


661 


of both worlds. It lias been reported to 
yield an amber-colored honey with a flavor 
resembling horeliound honey. On Key 
Biscayne on the east coast of Florida the 
cocoanut is said to be practically the only 
source of honey, but in Porto Rico it is 
not considered a good honey plant. As 
the bloom is wind-pollinated, and the sta¬ 
mens and pistils are in different flowers on 
the same tree, further observation is de¬ 
sirable. When, however, the stalks of the 
great flower-cluster, 3 to 6 feet long, are 
wounded, a sweet sap flows freely, which 
in the East Indies is collected and evapor¬ 
ated into a crude sugar. Possibly honey¬ 
bees gather sweet sap rather than nectar 
from the cocoanut palm. 

The royal palm (Oreodoxa regia) which 
is also found in southern Florida, Cuba, 
and Porto Rico, is pollinated by insects 
and is nectariferous. The tree has no 
regular time of blooming, but the flowers 
appear at intervals thruout the year, and 
there may be fruit of four different ages 
on the tree at one time. The tough buds 
open with a sharp cracking sound expos¬ 
ing the clusters of flowers, which are 3 or 4 
feet long, and consist of hundreds of blos¬ 
soms. It is not usual to get a surplus from 
this palm, altho once in a while a strong 
colony will store a pound a day; but it is 
a valuable honey. In localities where the 
royal palm covers large areas a small 
amount of honey may be placed on the 
market. The honey is light amber, very 
thin, and has a strong flavor. 

PARTHENOGENESIS. —In the great 
majority of cases the sex cells disintegrate 
unless they unite with the products of the 
opposite sex of the same species; but in 
some cases of the animal kingdom cells are 
given off from the ovary, which, without 
fertilization, are able to undergo develop¬ 
ment. That these cells are true eggs is 
evident from their origin, appearance, be¬ 
havior, and fate, while the only difference 
between these eggs and eggs requiring fer¬ 
tilization is that the former are able to 
divide and grow without receiving the 
stimulus given by the male sex cell. To 
this phenomenon the name “partheno¬ 
genesis” is applied. 

The word parthenogenesis (virgin de¬ 
velopment) was first used in this sense by 


Professor v. Siebold in his classic paper, 
“Parthenogenesis in Lepidoptera and 
Bees,” in 1856. 

However, earlier writers described the 
phenomenon under various other names. 

In 1745 Charles Bonnet described the 
parthenogenetic development of plant lice; 
and Prof. Oscar Hertwig, the great Ger¬ 
man embryologist, designated this work as 
marking one of the milestones in the his¬ 
tory of the science of development. 

Just one hundred years later the Rev. 
Johannes Dzierzon of Carlsmarkt, Ger¬ 
many, put forth the theory that the drone 
or male bee is produced from an egg which 
is not fertilized. This work, published in 
the Eichstadt Bienenzeitung, may well be 
looked on as the starting point of the 
theory of parthenogenesis, since it began a 
very important discussion, and marked the 
origin of a host of works along similar 
lines. Dzierzon based his views on the 
following facts observed by him and since 
confirmed by many others: 

1. An unmated queen occasionally lays 
eggs, but these produce only drones. 

2. Workers under certain peculiar cir¬ 
cumstances lay eggs, but these develop 
only into drones. Worker bees have never 
been known to mate. 

3. Old queens may exhaust their supply 
of spermatozoa received in mating, and 
thereafter produce only drones. As the 
supply diminishes they lay an ever in¬ 
creasing percentage of drone- eggs. See 
Dzierzon Theory. 

While this theory is based on the work 
of Dzierzon, it must not be forgotten that 
its establishment is due in no small part to 
the researches of Professor Leuckart and 
von Siebold of Germany. 

The facts brought out in the examination 
of this work have an important bearing on 
the practical work of the apiary, and it is 
necessary for the queen-breeder, at least, 
to know the application. If, for example, 
a Cyprian queen is mated to an Italian 
drone, the resulting workers are a cross 
between the two races, or Cyprio-Italians. 
Any queens reared from this colony are 
also Cyprio-Italians; but the drones of 
this cross-mated queen are pure Cyprians, 
the Italian drone in the cross having no 
influence on the male offspring of the Cyp- 


652 


PARTRIDGE PEA 


rian mother. If, therefore, but one purely 
mated queen is' obtained, her daughters 
produce pure drones, regardless of mis- 
mating, and the race may be established in 
an apiary. 

The conclusion frequently drawn from 
this theory is that the queen can voluntarily 
control the sex of an egg by withholding or 
allowing its fertilization. It is sometimes 
further held that all eggs in the ovary are 
male, and the sex changed by fertilization. 
These conclusions are not based on obser¬ 
vation, and proof is entirely lacking. In a 
statement of the theory, therefore, it is 
necessary to stick to facts. 

The Dzierzon theory has been combated 
by many different scientists, more recently 
by Dickel, a German beekeeper with scien¬ 
tific aspirations. While the theory has 
been somewhat modified by recent work, it 
remains the prevalent view today, and 
Dickel generally receives the condemnation 
so richly deserved. See Dzierzon. 

Parthenogenesis occurs in many other 
orders of both plants and animals, and a 
comparison of the various results is most 
interesting. Merely to cite some cases for 
comparison: In the bee, only males are 
produced parthenogenetically; in certain 
Jepidoptera, only females are so produced; 
while in plant lice and certain small Crus¬ 
tacea, both males and femaes are pro¬ 
duced from unfertilized eggs. Ants were 
formerly supposed to have a parthenoge- 
netic development identical with that seen 
in the honeybee; but more recent work 
makes this doubtful as a general statement. 
The silkworm is occasionally parthenoge- 
netic. 

PARTRIDGE PEA (Cassia Chamae- 
christa ).—Also called sensitive pea. The 
genus Cassia contains more than 275 spe¬ 
cies, which are very abundant in tropical 
America. It is of interest to note that the 
flowers of this great genus are both nectar¬ 
less and odorless. They are pollen flowers. 
While all the species may be cross-pollin¬ 
ated by insects, visiting them for pollen, 
they all retain the power of self-fertiliza¬ 
tion. The species consist of herbs, shrubs, 
and, in tropical regions, of trees, with 
evenly pinnate leaves and yellow or white 
flowers. There are five species in the north¬ 
eastern States, and 25 species ki the south¬ 


eastern States, a part of the species being 
common to both areas. 

Partridge pea is an herbaceous much- 
branched, spreading annual with pinnate 
leaves, and showy yellow flowers which 
often have the petals purple-spotted at 
base. It extends from Maine to Florida 
and westward to Indiana and Texas, but 
it is valuable as a honey plant chiefly in 
Florida and Georgia. In the north-central 
part of Florida there are thousands of 
acres in bloom during July and August, 
and for miles the ground is covered with a 
yellow carpet of flowers. It is also common 
in Georgia; in many dry sandy sections of 
the South, indeed, it is the main depend¬ 
ence of the beekeeper, making beekeeping 
possible in very unfavorable localities. 

The blooming period is long, beginning 
the last of June and closing late in Septem¬ 
ber. The flowers are wholly nectarless, and 
are pollinated by bumblebees, which visit 
them for pollen. But nectar is secreted 
profusely by extra-floral glands located on 
the upper side, near the base, of the leaf¬ 
stalks (petioles). This gland is saucer¬ 
shaped, and there is usually only one to a 
leaf. Unless the summer rains are too 
heavy and continuous, nectar is yielded 
every season for more than 100 days. Much 
rain washes the nectar from the glands be¬ 
fore the bees can gather it. In early morn¬ 
ing and late in the afternoon there is a 
large drop of nectar on each gland, but 
during the middle of the day it is greatly 
i educed in size by evaporation unless it is 
cloudy. During the night the nectar is se¬ 
creted in such large quantities that it runs 
down the stems, and wets the, ground for 
an inch or more around the base of the 
stalks. The nectar in the daytime is very 
thin and probably at night contains a very 
large percentage of water. Surprise has 
been expressed that the bees do not gather 
more honey from this soui'ce, but the thin¬ 
ness of the nectar is probably the reason 
in part. From one to three supers of hon¬ 
ey are stored from partridge pea, and 100 
pounds per colony have been obtained. 

The honey is medium-light amber, ex¬ 
ceptionally thin, with a poor flavor. At 
Fort White, Fla., the surplus comes from 
partridge pea and chinquapin which yields 
a bitter honey. Inferior as is the flavor of 
this honey, its fine appearance has caused 


PATENTS RELATING TO BEE CULTURE 


653 


it to sell at a high price. The extracted 
honey is bought by bakers, and the large 
quantity obtained partly atones for the 
quality. 

PASTURAGE. — See Artificial Pas¬ 
turage. 

PATENTS RELATING TO BEE CUL¬ 
TURE. — Under the head of Inventions 
Relating to Bee Culture is given a list 
of all the useful ideas and inventions, pat¬ 
ented or otherwise, that have been accepted 
by beekeepers. It is but fair to state that 
there is in use today hardly a hive of value 
that is covered by an unexpired patent. 
The field of apicultural invention has been 
so thoroly covered by some 3,000 patents 
on file in the Patent Office that it is very 
difficult to secure a patent on any hive or 
bee-appliance today that will have claims 
of any value. Even if the patent is granted, 
the claims are generally so loosely drawn, 
and so complicated to avoid conflicting 
with other patents, that it is usually worth¬ 
less. As already pointed out at the close 
of the article on inventions, no patent 
granted today on beehives or bee-feeders 
will be worth anything to the inventor. 
The unpatented hive has so far reached the 
point of utility and perfection that Jit 
would be practically impossible to make 
any improvements; and the improvements, 
if any, would not be fundamental. 

When the field was wide open, as in the 
days of Langstroth, it was possible to 
secure fundamental patents; but even with 
a fundamental patent Langstroth was 
robbed of the fruits of his brain, and died 
almost penniless, notwithstanding the fact 
that his invention was so useful that it was 
accepted, at the time of his death, practi¬ 
cally thruout the whole known world, but 
long years after his patent of 1852 had 
expired. 

In the early days of bee culture the 
country was full of patent-right venders 
who sold county or state rights. Some of 
these sharks reaped a harvest in selling 
moth-proof hives. Practically all of these 
patent-right venders sold useless contrap¬ 
tions, and most of them were men without 
principle—so much so that the business 
of selling out county and state rights has 
become of such ill repute that it has been 
discontinued. 


PEDDLING HONEY. — See Honey¬ 
peddling; also Extracted Honey. 

PENNYROYAL (Satureja rigida ). — 
Perennial shrubby plants, 2 to 3 feet tall, 
growing on sandy barrens and pine lands 
thruout southern Florida; but it is of little 
value to the beekeeper north of Lake Apop¬ 
ka. The stems branch diffusely and bear 
head-like clusters of light purple, 2-lipped 
flowers. It is abundant in the southwest¬ 
ern part of the State below Tampa on the 
west coast, and near Stewart on the east 
side. The honey flow comes in January, at 
a time unfortunately when the colonies in 
this section are usually weak, but the plant 
does not cease entirely to bloom until 
March. During the flow colonies build up 
very rapidly and fill the hives with stores. 
While good crops have been obtained three 
years in succession, rainy weather is very 
likely to interfere with the flow. 

The honey is light colored and has a 
minty flavor and odor. The aromatic taste 
might not be agreeable to everyone, but 
only a small quantity of the honey is placed 
on the market. A beekeeper at Hansford 
writes under date of Jan. 17: “I examined 
15 colonies yesterday and found them full 
of bees, with from 4 to 6 frames of brood 
in each hive and an average of 50 pounds 
of surplus in the supers. Pennyroyal is 
now just at its best and has yet 60 days to 
yield. Don’t call it erratic; this is the 
third season 1 have secured a surplus.” See 
Purple-flowered Mint. 

PEPPERBUSH (Clethra alnifolia ). — 
Sweet pepperbush. White alder. A shrub 
5 to 10 feet tall, with wedge-shaped, sharp¬ 
ly toothed leaves and numerous racemes, 
or oblong clusters, of very fragrant white 
flowers. It is common in swamps and wet 
woodlands from Maine to Florida near the 
coast. A surplus of honey from this shrub 
has been reported in southeastern Massa¬ 
chusetts, Rhode Island, and southeastern 
Georgia. In New England the comb honey 
is white; the extracted honey is tinged with 
yellow, and has a fine slightly peculiar fla¬ 
vor suggestive of the spicy fragrance of 
the flowers. The honey often fills with 
bubbles, which may force off the cappings 
if it is taken from the supers too early; but 
it finally ripens if left in the hive. It is 


654 


PHACELIA 


slow to granulate, and extracted lioney two 
years old still remained liquid. It forms 
an excellent blend with the honey of white 
clover. 

The sweet pepperbush region of Massa¬ 
chusetts extends from Middleboro to Sand¬ 
wich on Cape Cod and to New Bedford on 
Buzzard’s Bay. At Westport, Mass., where 
it blooms during the last of July or early 
August, 900 pounds of pepperbush honey 
have been gathered by three colonies in a 
single season. Often there are 7 or 8 supers 
on one hive. It is an uncertain yielder, and 
there is usually one poor year in every 
three, owing to late frosts, damp or cloudy 
weather, or other causes. In 1916 there 
was a large surplus, but in 1917 the foliage 
turned a dark brown and very little nec¬ 
tar was gathered. In 1918 there was a fair 
yield. In 1919 at Lakeville, Mass., seven 
4-frame nuclei in 10-frame hives filled the 
brood-chamber, and produced 12 supers of 
comb and extracted honey. In Rhode Is¬ 
land sweet pepperbush often yields no sur¬ 
plus, but sometimes there is a “flood” of 
nectar. A prominent beekeeper reports 
the honey as aromatic flavored and very 
white. It should not be removed until late 
in the season. 

In southern Georgia in the great swamps 
pepperbush gives a good surplus and main¬ 
tains brood-rearing, when there are few 
other honey plants in bloom. The flowers 
appear early in July, and the blooming 
period is of long duration. It is more or 
less abundant thruout the Coastal Plain 
from Virginia to Mississippi, but it never 
grows very near the coast. 

PEPPER TREE (Schinus molle ).— 
From Peru. This is really not a pepper 
tree at all; its flowers and the honey have 
a peppery flavor, and the seeds resemble 
pepper. It is a magnificent shade tree, and 
in California has been very largely planted. 
The honey is thick and dark, but it serves a 
very useful purpose in helping the bees to 
tide over bad times without feeding. It is 
under a ban now, as it is supposed to har¬ 
bor injurious insects; but it seems proba¬ 
ble these pests would still exist even if all 
the pepper trees were destroyed. 

PERFORATED ZINC.— See Drones. 

PHACELIA (Phacelia tanacetifolia ).— 


Fiddle-neck. A hairy herbaceous annual, 
6 inches to 2 feet tall, with bluish flowers 
in scorpioid racemes, 3 to 4 inches long, 
common from Sacramento Valley to south¬ 
ern California. It blooms in about six 
weeks from seed and furnishes an excel¬ 
lent bee pasturage for about the same 
length of time. The honey is amber-col¬ 
ored with a mild aromatic flavor. The 
color of the pollen is blue. It was former¬ 
ly very abundant in California, but owing 
to the over-pasturing of the cattle ranges 
it has almost disappeared from thousands 
of acres of wild land. It is now found 
chiefly in the underbrush where it can not 
be reached by cattle. It has been intro¬ 
duced into Europe where it has been high¬ 
ly praised as a honey plant. In Sweden 
on a trial plot of 500 square meters one 
kilogram of phacelia seed was broadcasted 
and harrowed into the soil. The plants 
came up in 8 or 10 days, and by the middle 
of August had reached maturity, averaging 
a half meter in height. Eight weeks after 
planting they began to bloom, and the 
blooming period lasted for about 4 weeks. 
Thruout the entire time the field was con¬ 
stantly visited by bees from 3 o’clock in 
the morning to 9 :30 at night. The field is 
estimated to have yielded 50 to 60 kilos of 
honey, and if the summer had not been dry 
the crop would undoubtedly have been lar¬ 
ger. The honey was clear and thin, and 
excellent in quality. 

The racemes of the caterpillar phacelia 
(Phacelia hispida ) are coiled and covered 
with slender white hairs, whence the com¬ 
mon name. Its range is from Santa Bar¬ 
bara County to San Diego County. It was 
formerly very abundant in Ventura Coun- 
ty, but it has be^n largely destroyed by 
mountain fires. It grows luxuriantly if 
there have been abundant winter and 
spring rains, and attains a height of 2 to 
4 feet. One season M. H. Mendleson of 
\ entnra secured from this honey plant a 
large surplus. The honey was extracted 
into a seven-ton tank; and, before the tank 
was full, it granulated at the bottom. A 
few feet of liquid honey were drawn off, 
and about 3 feet of solid candied honey 
were then shoveled out. “The honey,” 
writes Mendleson, “is water white and has 
a fine mild flavor; in the candied condition 
it is like a fine flour paste. I have never 


PLAYFLIGHTS 


655 


had a surplus before nor since that season 
from this source.” 

PICKLED BROOD. —See Foul Brood; 
subhead “Sacbrood.” 

PLAYFLIGHTS OF YOUNG BEES.— 

Under the head of Robbing mention is 
made of the playflights of young bees as 
being very similar to the performances of 
robbers as they fly about in front of the 
entrance of the colony they are trying to 
rob. As soon as settled warm weather 
comes on in the spring, especially after a 
few days when the bees have been shut in, 
there will be a very pronounced demonstra¬ 
tion of hundreds of bees flying around in 
front of the entrances of a number of 
hives. 

The so-called “playflights” of young bees 
are flights of orientation. For one or two 
days after the young bees leave the cells 
they are so weak and helpless that they 
move about very little, and take no active 
part in the work of the hive. Then for ten 
days or more they act as nurse bees, clean 
the cells, build new combs and serve as 
guards. Before they leave the hive for 
the field they perform the flight of orienta¬ 
tion. On a warm clear morning, or some¬ 
times later in the day, hundreds of them 
may be seen flying up and down, and back 
and forth in front of the hive. Their 
heads are always turned toward the hive, 
as they hover about in the air and they 
even at times fly backward slightly. In 
this way they form a memory picture of 
the appearance of the hive and its exact 
position, and occasionally they describe lar¬ 
ger orientation circles, and thereby impress 
upon their memory the near surroundings. 
According to Dzierzon, the distinguished 
discoverer of parthenogenesis in the hon¬ 
eybee, “There is not the slightest doubt that 
bees find their way back to the hive guided 
by memory pictures of their dwelling and 
the near surroundings. Instinct is the ex¬ 
planation, in so far as they are led to ob¬ 
serve accurately the position of their hive 
and the nearest surroundings in the first 
flight out. In the first flight (Vorspiel or 
first play) they gain an exact impression 
of the neighborhood and the hive.” If 
young bees or brood-nurses, which have not 
yet had their flight of orientation, are car¬ 
ried a short distance away, and released, 


none find their way back to the hive. But 
if this experiment is performed with old 
bees, they quickly return to the hive even 
from a long distance. Again if the queen 
be removed from the first swarm, which is 
composed of old bees, they quickly return 
to the hive; but if the queen is removed 
from an after-swarm, which is composed 
for the most part of young bees, they buzz 
about for a long time and finally enter 
strange hives. Without the flight of orien¬ 
tation the young bees would not be able to 
locate their hive on returning from their 
first trip to the fields. 

When the beehives are moved from one 
location to another, unless the older bees 
also orient themselves before they leave 
for the fields, they are likely to be lost and 
fail to find the hive again. In Germany, 
according to Buttel-Reepen, colonies which 
are sent to buckwheat fields are always 
brought out to these fields before the buck¬ 
wheat blooms, so that the bees can learn 
thoroly the new locality. If the bees 
are not moved until the fields are in full 
bloom they rush out without orientation 
and many are lost. If the weather is mild 
and clear unoriented bees are not always 
lost, but they soon return, often after 5 or 
10 minutes, because not finding the cus¬ 
tomary landmarks they seek orientation. If 
a colony of bees is moved several miles, 
and the old bees are carried 100 feet from 
the hive before they have been able to make 
their flight of orientation and released, 
none of them will find their way back to 
the hive even from this short distance, if 
a house or a tree intervene between it and 
the place where they were set free. 

Buttel-Reepen found that if the height 
of the hive is changed so that the entrance 
is suddenly made, let us say, one or two 
inches higher or lower, then the bees con¬ 
tinue to fly exactly to the spot where the 
entrance was before. Hours and often 
days may pass before the bees fly directly 
to the entrance in its new position. Bees 
are accustomed to fly in and out the hive 
at the same point of the entrance. If a 
bee is powdered on entering at the outer¬ 
most right corner of the entrance, it will 
be seen that, in unmolested flight, it uses 
the same corner constantly in a straight 
line, even if the entrance is very narrow. 
If the entrance is stopped up, except for 


656 


POISONOUS HONEY 


the breadth of an inch, they will try to 
press in at the point they have been accus¬ 
tomed to use, and will find the open part 
only after more or less searching. 

Occasionally the “playflight” is mistaken 
for a case of robbing. There are, however, 
two important differences. When bees are 
making a flight of orientation there are no 
fighting bees, as in a case of robbing. But 
in a genuine case of robbing when a colony 
has been overpowered, the robbers will fly 
around in front of the entrance in a man¬ 
ner very similar to orienting bees. Sec¬ 
ondly, a “playflight” is of short duration. 
With robbing there is no let-up. If the 
flight before the front of the hive con¬ 
tinues for more than fifteen minutes, rob¬ 
bing is indicated; and the entrance should 
be treated as recommended under Bobbing. 
If the supposed robbing after treatment 
stops suddenly, it may be assumed that 
the bees were only at play. 

POISONED BROOD.— See Fruit Blos¬ 
soms and Foul Brood. 

POISONOUS HONEY.— The earliest ac¬ 
count on record of honey causing sickness is 
given by Xenophon in the fourth book of 
the Anabasis. It occurred 400 B. C., during 
the memorable retreat of the Ten Thousand, 
in the mountainous country of the Colchians, 
in the province now called Trebizond bor¬ 
dering on the Black Sea. A literal trans¬ 
lation of Xenophon’s description is as fol¬ 
lows: “The number of beehives was ex¬ 
traordinary, and all of the soldiers who ate 
of the combs lost their senses, vomited, and 
were affected with purging, and none of 
them were able to stand upright. Those 
who had eaten little were like men intoxi¬ 
cated; those who had eaten much were 
like madmen, and some like persons at 
the point of death. They lay upon the 
ground in consequence, in great numbers, 
as if there had been a defeat; and there 
was general dejection. The next day no 
one of them was found dead; and they re¬ 
covered their senses about the same hour 
that they lost them on the preceding day; 
and on the third and fourth day they got 
up as if after having taken physic.” The 
passage is given entire, as it has probably 
done more to establish a general belief that 
certain kinds of honey are poisonous than 


any other account ever written. The an¬ 
cients believed that this honey was gath¬ 
ered from a species of Rhododendron, prob¬ 
ably R. pontica. 

It is noteworthy that the honey was ob¬ 
tained from beehives, not from trees or 
hollows in the rocks. It may be doubted 
if the symptoms described by Xenophon 
are strictly accurate, altlio there can be no 
doubt that the honey caused nausea and 
purging. Apparently it did not affect the 
natives in a similar manner. The Greek 
soldiers plundered the Colcliian villages, 
and the probability is that they ate exces¬ 
sively of unripe honey as the number of 
hives was very large. It does not necessar¬ 
ily follow that the honey was actually pois¬ 
onous. 

Poisonous honey in the United States 
was reported first by Barton, an early 
American botanist, in 1794. Since then 
poisonous honey has been repeatedly re¬ 
ported in the mountains of New Jersey, 
Virginia, and North Carolina. The honey, 
it is believed, is gathered from the moun¬ 
tain laurel (Kalmia latifolia) and the Rho¬ 
dodendrons. Mountain laurel is often 
called poison ivy in Tennessee and Ala¬ 
bama; poison laurel in Alabama, and ivy 
in Virginia, North Carolina, South Caro¬ 
lina, Mississippi, and Maryland. 

In 1921 a beekeeper living at Morgan- 
ton, North Carolina, described conditions 
in that locality as follows: “There are 
districts in western North Carolina in 
which the so-called “poison honey” is pro¬ 
duced. About one-third of this county 
(Burke) can not be used for this reason. 
I have known beekeepers deliberately to 
throw hundreds of pounds of honey into 
the streams. As to the effects, I have seen 
and have also personally experienced the 
acute sickness which this honey produces. 
Within a few minutes after it is eaten a 
staggering, deathly nauseous sensation is 
experienced which lasts several hours. 
While I have seen whole families rolling in 
their clooryards I have never known of any 
fatal results. But the poisonous honey is 
eaten by bees year after year without in¬ 
jury. It is beieved that the poisonous hon¬ 
ey has .become more abundant in recent 
years due to the spreading of ivy over 
areas which have been cleared of forest. 


POISONOUS HONEY 


657 


Most officials seem to doubt the existence 
of this honey.” 

A jar of poisonous honey was obtained 
from Blowing Rock, Watauga County, in 
the Blue Ridge Mountains, which when 
gathered two years ago was very poison¬ 
ous. The extracted honey in the jar was 
dark brown, and had a pronounced dis¬ 
agreeable or nauseous odor, and a nauseous 
flavor. A small teaspoonful produced 
slight nausea, headache, and burning in 
the throat. In large quantity the effect 
would doubtless be serious. It is difficult 
to understand how such a poor honey could 
find a market, or even be eaten by the bee¬ 
keeper producing it. The comb was light- 
colored and did not differ in any way from 
the average comb. The honey was stated 
to have been gathered not from mountain 
laurel, but from Leucothoe, probably from 
mountain Leucothoe (L. recurva). A hon¬ 
eybee is said never to have been seen on 
mountain laurel' in this locality. In the 
absence of cai-eful observations the source 
of this honey remains in doubt, but it 
should receive thoro investigation. 

Numerous letters of inquiry were sent to 
beekeepers living in western North Caro¬ 
lina. With two exceptions they all replied 
that they had never personally obtained 
any poisonous honey, but the majority had 
heard that in the mountains it was occa¬ 
sionally gathered from the flowers of the 
mountain, laurel. According to one report 
bees never visit the flowers of mountain 
laurel except in years, when there is an 
extreme dearth of honey. Two other bee¬ 
keepers state that they have never seen a 
honeybee on the blossoms of this bush, and 
one of them adds that the poisonous honev 
comes from the genus Leucothoe, a shrub 
2 to 4 feet tall. In New England the close¬ 
ly allied species of Kalmia, sheep laurel, 
or lambkill, ( Kalmia angustifolia) yields 
very little nectar and is only occasionally 
visited by bees, mostly solitary bees. 

Kalm, the Swedish traveler, after whom 
the genus Kalmia is named, says that if 
domestic animals eat the leaves of the laur¬ 
els they fall sick, and in some cases die, 
but that they are harmless to wild animals. 
But Dr. Jacob Bigelow, Professor of Ma¬ 
teria Medica at Harvard University, States 
in American, Medical Botany that he re¬ 
peatedly chewed and swallowed a green 


leaf of the largest size without perceiving 
the least effect in consequence. A powder 
made from the leaves recently dried in 
doses from ten to twenty grams produced 
no perceptible effect. The taste of the 
leaves is perfectly mild and mucilaginous. 
Dr. Bigelow believed that the noxious effect 
of the leaves on young domestic animals is 
due to their indigestible quality. 

The reports are so indefinite, and there 
is so much uncertainty as to whether bees 
ever store much honey from the mountain 
laurel that it is impossible to reach any sat¬ 
isfactory conclusion. Evidently the moun¬ 
tain laurel as a honey plant should be sci¬ 
entifically investigated by a flower ecolo¬ 
gist. 

In Georgia and Florida the yellow jes¬ 
samine ( Gelsemium semperrirens) is very 
abundant and bees visit the yellow blos¬ 
soms from February to March. But it is 
doubtful if a surplus of jessamine honey 
is ever obtained. It is useful chiefly for 



Yellow jessamine. 

spring stimulation. According to one pub¬ 
lished statement the uncapped honey is 
poisonous and has even produced death, 
but the capped honey is perfectly whole¬ 
some. According to E. G. Baldwin no in- 









POLLEN 


658 


jurious' effect has ever been observed either 
from the nectar, or the honey in the hives. 

In addition to the laurels, Rhododen¬ 
drons, and yellow jessamine, poisonous hon¬ 
ey is supposed to be yielded by species of 
Andromeda, Leucothoe, and Pieris. It will 
be noticed that all these plants belong to 
the heath family, or Ericaeae. One writer, 
indeed, refers to this entire family as a 
source of poisonous honeys; but this is 
clearly false, since the honeys gathered 
from sourwood and the heathers are excel¬ 
lent. The flowers and flow T er-clusters of 
Pieris, Andromeda, and Leucothoe are very 
similar to those of sourwood, and they may 
well yield an equally harmless nectar. 

Thousands of bees are said to be killed 
by the nectar of the soapberry tree (Sap- 
indus marginatus) , a small tree found in 
the South. It belongs to the same genus 
as the maples, and the nectar is undoubtedly 
equally harmless. It is in the highest de¬ 
gree improbable that any plant produces 
nectar which is poisonous to the insect pol¬ 
linators. Nectar is an allurement, the role 
of which is to induce the visits of insects 
and to secure cross-pollination, and the pro¬ 
duction of poisonous nectar would tend to¬ 
ward self-destruction. It is impossible to 
imagine how such a condition could arise. 
But flowers often have poisonous petals, 
the purpose of which, in the opinion of 
Darwin, is to prevent leaf-eating insects 
from feeding upon them. 

There have been a few cases in which 
severe sickness and even death have been 
reported from eating poisonous honey. 
While such statements may be accepted 
with reserve, yet until more proof to the 
contrary is produced, it would be well to 
' err on the safe side by eating such honey 
in very small quantities if at all. Inferior 
grades of honeydew, or fruit juices, 
which had undergone partial decomposi¬ 
tion, might occasionally cause sickness. 
It is also possible that in rare instances 
bees may get access to unwholesome or 
harmful liquids. It is extremely probable 
that the nectar of many species of plants 
when first gathered would produce sick¬ 
ness. The poisonous species of Rhus, as 
poison oak, and poisonwood of Florida, 
yield a' large amount of honey. Very likely 
ill effects would follow the eating of this 
honey, before it is capped. But tlioroly 


ripened it is said to be harmless. It is 
well to remember in this connection that 
thOroughwort and cascara sagrada yield 
medicinal, honeys and rabbitbrush a nause¬ 
ous honey. Further investigation is desir¬ 
able, and meanwhile the so-called poison¬ 
ous honeys should be used with great cau¬ 
tion. 

POLLEN. —The anthers of flowers are 
composed of four sacs, which contain nu¬ 
merous small dust-like grains called pollen 
or microspores. Pollen is a highly nutri¬ 
tious food which is eagerly eaten by many 
insects, and is gathered in large quantities 
by bees as food for their brood. A pollen 
grain is protected by an inner and an outer 
coat (in a few species there is but one 
coat), and is filled with a semiliquid in 
which float many minute granules. Its 
contents form a complete food, consisting 



of proteids, substances rich in nitrogen, 
sulphur, and phosphorus; and carbohy¬ 
drates, or starch, oil, and sugar. Pollen 
thus offers a rich supply of easily obtained 
nourishment to all insects, especially to 
those which are not predaceous. 

Pollen grains vary in size from 1/100 of 
an inch in iris to 1/3000 of an inch in 
some saxifrages. The number of pollen 




POLLEN 


659 


grains is also very variable but is usually 
large. Each anther of the peony has been 
estimated to produce 21,000 grains; and 
if there are 174 stamens to a flower there 
would be 3,654,000 grains. In wistaria 
there are said to be 7000 grains to each 
ovule. The excess of pollen is thus so 
large as to permit of much waste. In 
shape the grains may be globular, ellipsoi¬ 
dal, polyhedral, or of the form of a dumb¬ 
bell in the borage family; or in some 
Polygalaceae they have the shape of “a 
wickerwork basket.” The outer coat may 
be banded, ribbed, or checkered, and beset 
with sharp teeth, points, spines, prickles, 
or knobs; variation in the sculpturing is, 
indeed, almost endless. The air in the nu¬ 
merous little pits and hollows on the sur¬ 
face of the grains protects them from con¬ 
tact with water. The projections enable 
them to adhere to insects. While yellow is 
the prevalent color, red, blue, brown, and 
green hues also occur. 

THE BEHAVIOR OF BEES IN COLLECTING 
POLLEN. ' 

The behavior of bees in collecting pollen 
is of great interest to both beekeepers and 
fruit-growers. Bees are the only insects 
which feed their brood on pollen, to obtain 
which in sufficient quantities they are com¬ 
pelled to visit a great variety of flowers, 
and incidentally are thus most valuable 
agents in pollination. The small primitive 
bees of the genus Prosopis 
have nearly smooth bodies, 

'and the pollen-brushes on 
the hind legs are so feebly developed that 
they are little better adapted for carrying 
pollen than the wasps." The common ground 
bees of the genera Halictus and Anclrena 
show a much greater advance. The body 
is hairy, and the hind legs are entirely 
covered with collecting hairs, which become 
filled with loose, dry pollen grains. A fur¬ 
ther step in the development of the pollen¬ 
collecting apparatus of the hind legs was 
the acquisition of the habit of moistening 
the pollen with honey. Among the solitary 
bees, Macropis and the Panurgidae carry 
in this way large balls of damp pollen 
moistened with freshly gathered nectar. 
Finally among the bumblebees and honey¬ 
bees there occur on the hind legs structures 
called corbicul® or pollen-baskets in which 


the damp pollen is packed, while the tarsal 
brushes are highly specialized. In honey¬ 
bees the tibial spurs on the hind legs, used 
by the wasps and solitary bees in digging 
holes in the ground, have been lost because 
no longer useful. 

In another series of bees the Megachili- 
dae, or leaf-cutting bees, the pollen-collect¬ 
ing hairs form a stiff brush on the under 
side of the abdomen. These hairs slant 
backward and vary in length and color in 
the different species. As the bees crawl 
over level-topped flowers!, like the sun¬ 
flower and other species of Compositae, 
which have a large amount of free pollen 
on the surface, the abdominal brush be¬ 
comes filled with dry pollen. The leaf¬ 
cutting bees are also very common visitors 
to leguminous flowers, as the vetches and 
clovers, which have an apparatus for plac¬ 
ing pollen on the underside of the bodies 
of insects. This large family of bees has 
become adapted to collect pollen chiefly 
from these two groups of flowers. None 
of the species moistens the pollen with 
honey. 

The behavior of the honeybee in collect¬ 
ing pollen has been carefully investigated 



Fig. 1.—Left fore leg of a worker bee. — Bulletin 
No. 121, Bureau of Entomology. 


and described by Casteel. (“Behavior of 
the Honeybee in Collecting Pollen,” D. B. 
Casteel, Bur. Ent., Bull. 121.) Honeybees 
collect pollen from flowers by the aid of 
the mouth parte, the three pairs of legs, 
and the dense coat of long plumose hairs. 


060 


POLLEN 


^--Femur^ 


Corfrtci//a 



-Femur 


Tibia- 


Anterior 
edge 


Posterior 

edge- 


Pecten 

Auricfo 


Plarda 


Fig. 3.—Outer surface 
of the left hind leg of a 
worker bee. — Bulletin No. 
121, Bureau of Entomol¬ 
ogy. 





Fig. 4.—Inner surface 
of the left hind leg of a 
worker bee.—Bulletin No. 
121, Bureau of Entomol¬ 
ogy. 


The feather-like structure of the hairs en¬ 
ables them better to retain the pollen which 
falls upon them. The mouth parts are 
especially serviceable in the case of small 
flowers, or of those which produce little 
pollen. The mandibles are actively used in 
biting 1 and scraping the anthers and free¬ 
ing the pollen, which is brushed up by the 
maxillae and slender tongue. All the pol¬ 
len gathered by the mouth parts is very 
thoroly moistened with nectar or honey 
which comes from the mouth. It is, in¬ 
deed, so wet that in its transfer to the 
pollen-baskets the hair on the breast and 


the brushes of the legs becomes so damp 
that it easily moistens the dry pollen swept 
from the bee’s body. 

The leg of a bee is composed of nine 
segments: The coxa, by which it is at¬ 
tached to the body; the trochanter, femur 
or thigh, tibia, or shin, and the five tarsi. 
The first tarsal segment, or metatarsus, is 
as long as the four tarsal segments to¬ 
gether. This segment of the fore-legs is 
called the palm,a (palm), and of the middle 
and hind legs the planta (sole). The inner 
side of the metatarsal segments of all three 
pairs of legs bears a dense brush of un- 











POLLEN 


661 


branched hairs, which on the plantae of 
the hind leg’s has become modified into a 
regular series of transverse combs. The 
palmar brushes of the fore-legs take away 
the mass of wet pollen - from the mouth 
parts, and collect the dry pollen from the 
pubescence on the head. 

The metatarsal brushes of the middle 
legs receive the pollen from the first pair 
of legs and transfer it to the plantar 
brushes of the hind legs. This transfer is 
effected by drawing each of the middle 
legs between the plantae of the hind legs, 
In this way the pollen on each middle leg 
is scraped off on the pollen combs of each 


groove on the outer side of the tibia. It is 
broadest at the lower end and is nearly 
surrounded by a salient rim. On the front 
edge of the tibia there is a fringe of hairs 
overarching the pollen-basket, and on the 
hind edge a. row of hairs slanting back¬ 
ward. The floor of the basket is nearly 
smooth except for a few small spines near 
the entrance. The moistened pollen is held 
in position largely by its adhesiveness. The 
lower end of the tibia, except the articula¬ 
tion, is truncated, slightly concave, and 
fringed along its inner margin, with 15 to 
21 stiff spines, inclined backward, called 
the pecten. Immediately below the flat- 



Fjq 6—4 k ee upon the wing, showing the position of the midcfle legs when they touch 
and pat down the pollen masses. A very slight amount of pollen reaches the corbiculae 
thru this movement.—Bulletin No-. 121, Bureau of Entomology. 


opposite hind leg. The middle legs also 
brush off the pollen entangled in the 
hair on the thorax, which is moistened 
by coining in contact with the wet pollen 
from the mouth parts. The middle legs 
are further used to pat down and compact 
the growing pollen mass in the pollen- 
baskets. 

The hind legs are very highly specialized 
for carrying the pollen masses. The tibia 
is dilated at its lower extremity and the 
metatarsal segments ( plantae ) are much 
thinner and wider than the corresponding 
segments of the fore and middle legs. The 
pollen-basket or corbicula is a longitudinal 


tened end of the tibia on the upper edge of 
the planta is the auricle. The ear-shaped 
structure is concave and covered with short 
spines. Its inner edge, when the leg is 
straightened, slips along the spines of the 
pecten, while its outer edge, which is fringed 
with hairs, projects into the entrance of-the 
pollen-basket. The ends of the tibia and the 
auricle have the appearance of a pair of 
jaws or pincers; and in the older works on 
bee culture are erroneously described as 
being used for taking scales of wax from 
the Avax-pockets. The inner side of the 
planta, or metatarsus, is covered Avitli about 
eleven transverse rows of stiff spines Avhich 



POLLEN 


662 


serve as pollen combs. The spines of the 
lowest comb are the largest and are used 
for picking up wax scales. This highly 
specialized apparatus receives the pollen 
and loads it into the pollen-baskets. See 
illustrations. 

Most of the pollen on the plantar combs 
of the hind legs is received from the middle 
legs as has been described, but a portion of 
it is swept from the abdomen. During the 


left leg. A small portion of the pollen 
will be left on the spines and the end of the 
tibia. The left leg is then flexed, pushing 
the auricle against the flat end of the tibia, 
squeezing out a thin layer of pollen. The 
spines of the pecten prevent this layer of 
pollen from escaping on the inner side, 
but on the outer side there is a way open 
to the. pollen-basket. In a similar way pol¬ 
len is transferred from the plantar combs 



Fig. 8. —Camera drawings of the left hind legs of worker bees to show the manner in which pollen 
enters the basket, a, shows a leg taken from a bee which is just beginning to collect. It had crawled over 
a few tiovvers and had flo-wn in the air about five seconds at the time of capture. The pollen mass lies at 
the entrance of the basket, covering over the fine hairs which lie along this margin and the seven or eight 
short stiff spines which spring from the floor of the corbicula immediately above its lower edge. As yet the 
pol.en has not come in contact with the one long hair which rises from the floor and arches above the en¬ 
trance. The planta is extended, thus lowering the auricle; b, represents a slightly later stage, showing the 
increase of pollen. The planta is flexed, raising the auricle. The hairs which extend outward and upward 
from the lateral edge of the auricle press upon the lower and outer surface of the small pollen mass, re¬ 
taining it and guiding it upward into the basket; c, d. represent slightly later stages in the successive pro¬ 
cesses by which additional pollen enters the basket.—Bulletin No. 121, Bureau of Entomology. 


act of loading the pollen into the corbiculae, 
which has been described in much detail 
by Casteel, the hind legs hang downward 
beneath the abdomen, and . the plantar 
combs are in contact for most of their 
length. If pollen is to be loaded into the 
left pollen-basket the right planta is drawn 
upward, scraping against the pecten of the 


of the left leg to the right pollen-basket. 
The movements alternate very rapidly, the 
legs rising and falling with a pump-like 
motion. As the amount of pollen loaded 
at each stroke is very small a great many 
strokes are required. 

The pollen at first lies at the extreme 
lower end of the pollen-basket, but as sue- 






POLLEN 


662 



Bees with masses of pollen on their legs. 


cessive layers are added it is gradually 
pushed upward. If pollen from different 
species of flowers and of different colors, 
which occasionally happens, is collected, 
the mass will have a stratified appearance. 
The shape of the pollen mass is largely 
determined by the hairs which fringe the 
sides of the basket. The hairs on the front 
edge, which curve inward, prevent it from 
projecting far forward; while the hairs on 
the posterior edge, inclined outward, per¬ 
mit it to extend backward far outside of 
the tibia. Casteel found it possible to 
manipulate the legs of a recently killed bee 
with a pair of forceps, and artificially load 
the pollen-baskets with thin layers of pollen 
as has been described. It was formerly be¬ 
lieved that in loading the pollen-baskets the 
hind legs were crossed, and the plantar 
combs scraped over the edges of the baskets 
and the fringes of hair. On trial it is 
found that this method yields wholly dif¬ 
ferent results. 

Chemical analysis shows that the liquid 
with which the pollen is moistened is chiefly 
honey or nectar recently gathered. In pollen 
taken directly from the anthers of corn the 
sugar content was 11 per cent, while in 
pollen from the pollen-baskets the sugar 
content was 28 per cent, showing that a 
large amount of sugar had been added. 
Since the pollen from the corbiculas con¬ 
tains three times as much reducing sugar 
as sucrose it is indicated that the liquid 


added is honey (largely a reducing sugar) 
rather than nectar which contains more 
sucrose. 

Honeybees make their collecting trips 
more frequently in the morning than in the 
latter part of the day. Young bees return¬ 
ing with their first loads are said to show’ 
great excitement, while the older bees move 
about leisurely. After a suitable cell has 
been selected, which may take some time, 
the bee grasps, according to Casteel, one 
edge with its fore-legs, while the apical 
end of the abdomen rests'on the outer side 
of the cell. The hind legs hang free within 
the cell, the pollen masses about even with 
its margin. The pollen masses are then 
forcibly thrust out of the baskets by the 
plant* of the middle legs. The bee then 
usually departs, leaving to another worker 
the packing of the pollen in the cell. The 
pellets are broken up and pressed down¬ 
ward, and sugar, with perhaps some liq¬ 
uid, is added to preserve them. 

NECESSITY" OF POLLEN FOR BROOD-REARING. 

Both the solitary and the social bees re¬ 
quire pollen for brood-rearing, and would 
speedily perish if deprived of it. Alone 
among insects the existence of this group 
depends on an ample supply of pollen. 
While a colony of honeybees cannot pro¬ 
duce brood without pollen, the adult bees 
themselves do not appear to use it as food, 
since they will live only as long as the hive 



POLLEN 


664 

contains honey, and, when that is con¬ 
sumed, they will die of starvation, altho 
there may be an abundance of pollen in 
the combs. The less specialized solitary 
bees, however, belonging to the g’enera 
Prosopis, Halictus and Andrena, have been 
observed to feed on both pollen and nec¬ 
tar. There are also highly specialized 
genera of beetles and flies, which, like the 
honeybee, live wholly on nectar, while the 
more primitive species consume both kinds 
of floral food. If honeybees are confined 
and fed only on sugar syrup they will live 
for a long time, build comb, and, since 
they void no excrement, will not require a 
flight in the open air, but they will rear no 
brood. Pollen is a necessity for the life of 


often may be seen in large numbers re¬ 
sorting to sawdust heaps, and collecting 
tine particles of wood, which contain a cer¬ 
tain amount of nitrogenous matter. They 
also gather at times the spores of fungi, 
which are very similar in composition to 
pollen grains. In Michigan they have been 
reported as gathering loads of fine black 
earth from the swamps, and they have been 
known to collect even coal dust. The owner 
of a cheese factory states that one day bees 
were observed hovering over the shelves in 
the cheese-room, and, as their numbers in¬ 
creased, they were found to be packing on 
their legs the fine dust that had accumu¬ 
lated from handling the cheese. Micro¬ 
scopic examination showed this dust was 



Masses of pollen taken from legs of bees. These were photographed with a thimble to 

show the relative size. 


the colony, and it is for this reason that 
honeybees are equipped with the elaborate 
apparatus described above, and gather it 
so diligently from spring till fall. In stor¬ 
ing pollen preference is given to the cells 
immediately surrounding the brood. In 
very late fall it is common to find large 
quantities of pollen packed firmly in 
cells but not protected in any way; in 
other cases it is covered with honey and 
the cell capped over. To provide suffi¬ 
cient pollen is a vital problem to both bees 
and beekeepers. 

I 

SUBSTITUTES FOR POLLEN. 

In the absence of flowers honeybees will 
gather many other substances as substi¬ 
tutes for pollen. In early spring they 


embryo cheese-mites, so that the bees had 
actually been using animal food as pollen, 
and living animals at that. 

At times also when there is a scarcity of 
pollen bees will raid barns, stables, and 
chicken-houses to obtain bran or meal. 
There have been numerous reports of their 
invading the premises of farmers, stinging 
the cattle and driving them out of the sta¬ 
bles and causing general annoyance. This 
difficulty may be remedied easily by sup¬ 
plying them with a quantity of rye meal. 
As it has been known for many years that 
in springtime bees will use the flour or 
meal of different kinds of grain, Many bee¬ 
keepers believe that they can feed substi¬ 
tutes for pollen to advantage. Usually 
they resort to rye meal, cottonseed meal, 




4 «. 


-Photo ~by E. F. Bigelow. Several show side hairs (like stakes on a hay 
wagon) to hold the load, 


Pollen masses gn legs of hees. 


















666 


POLLEN 


wheat flour, oatmeal, or pea meal, and 
sometimes to strange mixtures of eggs, 
milk, and sugar. Rye meal is a favorite 
spring feed, and cottonseed meal has been 
strongly advocated. If it is desired to feed 
the meal inside the hive, flour candy is 
used. This is made by mixing one part of 
rye meal with three parts sugar and a little 
water, and cooking it until it will sugar. 
It is then vigorously stirred and poured 
into greased pans. It is difficult to make, 
may cause brood-rearing at the wrong time, 
and is probably of no benefit. The dry 
meal is placed in shallow pans, protected 
from the rain and wind, and if a little dry 
pollen, saved from the tassels of corn the 
preceding season, is scattered over it, the 
bees will soon begin carrying it into the 
hives very eagerly. Care should be taken 
to prevent the packing of the combs with 
it to the exclusion of pollen later in the 
season. 

There is no doubt but that these substi¬ 
tutes will stimulate brood-rearing, for in 
colonies in which there were healthy queens, 
but no pollen, eggs, or brood, three days 
after rye meal had been fed, there was a 
large number of eggs in the cells. The 
fact that brood-rearing can thus be stimu¬ 
lated has led many beekeepers to jump to 
the conclusion that the use of pollen sub¬ 
stitutes must be desirable. But careful ob¬ 
servation of the effects of feeding pollen 
substitutes, especially in regions where 
there are pollen famines, seems to show 
that they are not only not beneficial, but 
are positively injurious. In the tupelo sec¬ 
tion of Florida, along the Apalachicola 
River there is plenty of pollen until about 
June 15, but after this date there is little 
or none for nearly 90 days, or until Sep¬ 
tember, for the tupelo furnishes very little. 
The colonies become very weak and the 
queens cease laying, but two prominent 
beekeepers in this section report that they 
never feed meal. It is the practice of one 
beekeeper after the flow from tupelo is 
over to move his apiary southward to a 
locality where pollen is more abundant, 
and where it remains for the balance of the 
year. In Australia pollen famines are as 
regular as the seasons themselves. There 
is a “critical period” in midsummer, when 
the pollen fails, the queen ceases to lay 


eggs, and the brood dies of starvation. 
This shortage is due to the failure of the 
gum-trees, or Eucalypti, to produce much 
pollen. So small is the supply that colo¬ 
nies working on yellow gum dwindle down 
to mere handfuls, altho there is a fine crop 
of honey. Beuhne says that he has used all 
kinds of substitutes in large quantities; 
but, altho hives were well filled with brood, 
the bees thus raised were lacking in vitality 
and were short-lived. He has never been 
able to obtain a strong force of field bees. 
In Connecticut Latham states that as the 
result of years of observation he believes 
that the ground grains do more harm than 
good. One season strong colonies were fed 
freely with cottonseed meal; but when 
examined a month later they showed clearly 
the futility of feeding substitutes, for they 
not only showed no advance but were actu¬ 
ally weaker in bee strength. Out-apiaries 
which never received any meal invariably 
contained stx-onger colonies than the home 
apiary which was fed. Feeding meal in 
early spring apparently causes the bees to 
fly out and waste away in cold weather, 
when they had better remain quiet, and 
retards building up later on; injures their 
digestive powers; while the weak bees and 
brood thus obtained lessen in the end 
rather than add to the strength of the 
colony. In the course of centuries bees 
have become adapted to the use of pollen, 
and it is not surprising that neither the 
nurse bees nor the larvae can digest meal 
equally well. 

Discarding the feeding of pollen substi¬ 
tutes as of no benefit, or injurious, the only 
practical method in most instances of meet¬ 
ing a dearth of pollen would seem to be the 
giving of combs of pollen. It is often as 
important for beekeepers to reserve sur¬ 
plus combs of pollen as it is combs of 
honey. Not infrequently, especially in lo¬ 
calities where pollen is very abundant, 
combs largely filled with pollen can be re¬ 
moved from the hive without apparent dis¬ 
advantage. Bees without queens are said 
also to store large quantities of pollen. Such 
combs stored in a dry room would keep for 
a long time, and, introduced into the hive 
as required, would often make a great dif¬ 
ference in the season’s results. 


POLLINATION OF FLOWERS 


667 


POLLED IX THE COMBS AND SECTION BOXES. 

When pollen or meal is brought into the 
hive, it is usually packed in cells as near 
the brood as possible. If the hives are 
opened in spring, pollen is found scattered 
more or less thru all the brood-combs; but 
the two outside combs on each side of the 
hive are often a solid. mass of pollen. 
Should there be a few stormy days the 
supply will disappear with almost unac¬ 
countable rapidity, so large is the demand 
for brood-rearing. As soon as it is wholly 
consumed brood-rearing must stop, altho 
the queen may continue to lay eggs. It is 
most important, then, that there should be 
an ample stock of pollen during unfavor¬ 
able weather, in order that strong colonies 
may be obtained. 

Complaint has been made by those who 
use shallow hives that pollen is sometimes 
stored in the sections. It has been claimed 
that this can be prevented by placing a 
comb of pollen in the brood-chamber, tho 
this was questioned by C. C. Miller. But this 
practice will usually induce the storage of 
more pollen below the sections, even if it 
does not keep them Avholly free from it. In 
hives with the brood-nest as deep as the 
Langstroth, it is very seldom that pollen 
will be found in the sections. It is in hives 
having less depth that there is danger. 

Strips of perforated zinc in the slatted 
honey-board will largely prevent the stor¬ 
age of pollen in the sections, if there is a 
large brood-chamber. But if the brood- 
chamber is much contracted the bees will 
put pollen where they please, zinc or no 
zinc. 

POLLINATION OF FLOWERS.— 

Plants may be divided into two great series, 
the seedless, or lower plants; and the seed- 
plants, or higher plants. The seedless plants 
include the seaweeds, fungi, mosses, and 
ferns; the seed-plants comprise the coni¬ 
fers and the cycads (Gymnosperms) and 
the plants with flowers (Angiosperms). 
The possibility of dividing the plant world 
into two sub-kingdoms was recognized over 
150 years ago by the Swedish botanist Lin¬ 
naeus who called the lower plants Crypto¬ 
gams, or flowerless plants: and the higher 
plants Phanerogams, or flowering plants. 
The number of described species in each 


of these great groups is approximately as 


follows: 

SEEDLESS PLANTS. 

Seaweeds or Algae. 15,460 

Fungi (higher forms) .• • 63,700 

Liverworts and mosses or 

Bryophytes . 16,600 

Fernworts or Pteridopliytes: 

Ferns . ••.... 5,940 

Horsetails . 20 

Club-mosses . ••.... 900 

SEED-PLANTS. 

Conifers and cycads or Gymno¬ 
sperms . 450 


Flowering plants or Angiosperms.. 132,000 
THE ORIGIN OP SEX. 

Plant life had its origin in the ocean 
many millions of years ago. The first 
plants were miscroscopic, one-celled forms, 
without sex, multiplying by self-division 
or fission. The simplest plants are today 
sexless, and still multiply wholly by re¬ 
peated division into two equal parts, as in 
the blue algae, the desmids, diatoms, and 
bacteria. So rapidly does fission take place 
that, if conditions permitted, they would 
quickly pack the ocean itself. Gradually 
thru the long ages of primeval time the sea¬ 
weeds were developed. In the different 
groups of seaweeds sex was evolved inde¬ 
pendently again and again. Evidently for 
the- development of plants multiplication 
without sex was not sufficient. Stripped of 
all the accessories, which attend it in the 
flowering plants, sex consists only of the 
union of two cells of unequal size, the 
smaller being known as the male cell or 
sperm, and the larger as the female cell 
or egg. The sperms and eggs leave the 
organs in which they are formed, and swim 
about freely in the water by means of 
cilia, or whip-like hairs, until they meet 
and unite.- From the cell or spore arising 
from this union, called a zygote, there 
grows after a period of rest a new plant. 
The development of sex was the first step 
in the evolution of flowers. 

But vegetative reproduction was not re¬ 
placed by sexual reproduction: it still con¬ 
tinues to exist and probably more indi¬ 
viduals are produced by sexless methods 
than by sex. Reproduction by spores, or 
single cells capable of growing into new in¬ 
dividuals, which is a simple form of bud- 









G68 


POLLINATION OP FLOWERS 


ding, also was developed. Many plants pro¬ 
duce spores in countless numbers: the com¬ 
mon puffball has been estimated to contain 
three trillions, the spores issuing under 
pressure like puffs of smoke. They are also 
very abundant in mosses and ferns. 

THE AGE OP SEAWEEDS. 

The first period in the histoi'y of plant 
life was the age of seaweeds, and during 
this long interval of time there were no 
land plants. In the warm paleozoic seas 
more than one hundred million years ago 
seaweeds were more abundant than they 
are today. The lower or seedless plants 
are of great interest because they show the 
various stages by which stems, leaves, 
roots, and sexual reproduction have been 
gradually developed from microscopic, one- 
celled plants. Step by step in the Algae 
and ferns the way was prepared for the 
evolution of the seed-plants. Without 
these lower groups the early history of 
plants would be far more obscure than it 
is at present. Animal life with its power 
of motion found the conditions in the 
ocean suitable for a varied and advanced 
development; and, responding to all the 
complex action of the sea, it branched and 
perfected itself before the evolution of 
land animals. All the great divisions of 
the animal kingdom, including the lower 
vertebrates or fishes, are represented. But 
plants could make little progress in the 
ocean and did not advance beyond the sea¬ 
weeds. The development of the plant world 
has taken place almost wholly upon the 
land. The advance of plants from the 
ocean to the land is justly regarded as the 
most important event in the history of 
vegetation. 

THE FIRST LAND PLANTS. 

The first land plants were liverworts, 
mosses, and ferns. The simplest liverworts 
which are little more than green mats, with 
lobed margins, growing on damp ground, 
probably resemble very closely the first 
land plants. Prom such seaweed-like 
plants, which had become only partially 
adapted to living on the land, are descend¬ 
ed by different lines the mosses and ferns. 
The life cycle, or history of each moss and 
fern, consists of two different phases or 
generations, the earlier portion being a 


sex plant, the later, a spore plant. Both 
kinds of reproduction are apparently al¬ 
most of equal advantage to the plant. 

The sex plant in the ferns is a small 
flat brown mat or thallus, growing on the 
ground. It has neither stems nor leaves 
and closely resembles a seaweed, which is 
a strong reason for believing that all of 
the mosses and ferns have come from sea¬ 
weed-like ancestors. The sex plant pro¬ 
duces both eggs and sperms in separate 
organs which, so long as it is dry, remain 
closed; but, as soon as they are covered 
with water by rain or overflow, they open 
and the sperm swims by whip-like hairs to 
the ovary and fertilizes the egg. Thus 
fertilization in the mosses and ferns is the 
same as in the seaweeds, and in all three 
groups water is the means by which it is 
effected. The sex plant is indeed an aquatic 
plant, while the spore plant is a land plant 
—mosses and ferns are thus amphibians. 
They have never become wholly independ¬ 
ent of their aquatic origin. After fertili¬ 
zation the egg grows into an entirely dif¬ 
ferent plant, the leafy fern or spore plant. 
It is the spore plant that is commonly 
known and admired for its beautiful 
fronds. On the back of the fern leaves 
there grow round spore cases or sporangia, 
in which are produced in great numbers 
yellow spores of the same size, which are 
widely distributed by the wind. Each of 
these spores under favorable conditions 
grows into a sex-plant. Since sex-plant 
and spore plant thus continuously succeed 
each other, this life cycle is called alterna¬ 
tion of generations. 

HETEROSPORY. 

The spores produced by most fernworts 
are of equal size, and grow into sex-plants 
which produce both sperms and eggs. But 
a few of the higher ferns and club-mosses 
have produced spores of two different 
kinds, small spores and large spores—het- 
erospory. Both kinds are widely distrib¬ 
uted by the wind. The small spores grow 
into male plants which produce only 
sperms; the large spores grow into female 
plants which produce only eggs. Cross- 
fertilization is a frequent result of this ar¬ 
rangement; but a vast number of spores 
are wasted since the two kinds of spores 
are often so widely dispersed and are so 


POLLINATION OF FLOWERS 


669 


far apart that fertilization cannot occur. 
To prevent this loss in part the seed was 
evolved. In the cases of the seed plants 
the large spores were retained in the seed- 
cases, or ovules, and became the center 
around which the seed was built up. The 
small spores are similar to pollen grains, 
altho not so called outside of the seed- 
plants. Thus the production of spores of 
two kinds made possible the development 
of the seed-plants which otherwise would 
not have taken place. It is the second most 
important event in the history of plants. 

THE SEED-PLANTS, OR PLANTS ADAPTED TO 
POLLINATION. 

Pollination occurs only in the seed- 
plants or Spermatophytes. To this group 
belong the conifers or evergreen trees and 
the eycads (Gymnosperms), and The flow¬ 
ering plants (Angiosperms). The Gymno¬ 
sperms are so-called because the seeds are 
naked or unprotected by a seed vessel, while 
in the Angiosperms the seeds are enclosed 
in a case or capsule. The cycads and the 
conifers are derived from the ferns and 
are very much older than the flowering 
plants. In the Mesozoic Age a remarkably 
even climate prevailed over the larger part 
of the land surface of the earth and gymno- 
spermous trees were the dominant type of 
vegetation. The vast forests of this age 
composed of conifers, maiden-hair ti'ees, 
cycads and cycad-like plants, and tree ferns 
must have displayed a foliage which in 
beauty of form has never been equaled be¬ 
fore nor since in a terrestrial landscape. 
There are only 450 living species of Gym¬ 
nosperms, the larger part of which produce 
cones. 

To the Angiosperms belong the hardwood 
trees, as the birches, beeches, oaks, maples, 
and elms; all common shrubs; and a great 
company of herbaceous plants, as the 
grasses, sedges, lilies, pinks, buttercups, clo¬ 
vers, heaths, gentians, mints, asters, and 
goldenrods. The seeds are enclosed in a 
case or ovary; and, as the pollen can not 
come directly in contact with the ovules, 
it is received on a glutinous surface called 
the stigma. 

THE ORIGIN OF THE SEED AND OF POLLINA¬ 
TION. 

As has already been pointed out the 


higher fernworts produced two sorts of 
spores, small spores and large spores. (This 
is well shown today in the water ferns, Mar- 
silia.) The small spores were similar to 
pollen grains, and produced male cells or 
sperms alone. The large spores produced 
only eggs, and were often 100,000 times 
larger than the small spores. The small 
spores were exceedingly numerous and 
were very widely and easily distributed by 
the wind. The large spores were fewer in 
number and contained a reserve supply of 
food, which, after the fertilization of the 
egg, nourished the young plant. .The ad¬ 
vantage of heterospory, or the production 
of two different kinds of spores, was that 
it very frequently ensured cross-fertiliza¬ 
tion. But where both kinds of spores were 
set free, and widely scattered, they were 
many times so far apart when they fell to 
* the ground that fertilization could not take 
place. Thus the waste of spores was enor¬ 
mous. 

To prevent this waste the seed was 
evolved. The first step in its development 
was the retention of the large spore in the 
spore case, called in the higher plants the 
ovule (the seed before fertilization). The 
egg was thus protected by the coats both 
of the spore and the spore-case. The fe¬ 
male plant practically disappeared, or 
rather was reduced to a few cells, one of 
which was the egg. After fertilization the 
egg today gwvvs into an embryo or infant 
plant, consisting of one or two minute 
leaves and a stem. Thus time is saved 
when later the seed germinates. The seed 
is called by Scott the nursery of the infant 
plant. But in the first seeds which were 
formed many million years ago there were 
no embryos.or young plants. They were 
evolved at a later period; but a quantity of 
food was stored in the seed then as now, 
and its contents were protected by the 
hardening of the walls of the spore and the 
spore case. Finally the seeds were dis¬ 
persed in various ways. 

The smaller spores wero identical with 
pollen grains, and were brought to the 
ovules by the wind. In the cone trees the 
pollen adheres to a drop of glutinous liq¬ 
uid or mucilage in the opening at the end 
of the ovule; and in the flowering plants 
to a sticky surface called the stigma. The 
reception and retention of the pollen near 


POLLINATION OF FLOWERS 


670 

the eggs and the dispersal of only one kind 
of spore greatly reduced the waste of 
spores. The seed also proved a great ad¬ 
vantage in providing for the distribution 
of the species. 

Pollination and the habit of forming 
seeds arose at the same time; and, as there 
were cone trees as far back as the Devon¬ 
ian Age, the origin of both is very ancient. 
Pollination consists in carrying pollen to 
the ovules of the cone trees (Gymno- 
sperms), and to the stigmas of the flower¬ 
ing plants (Angiosperms). It is thus re¬ 
stricted to the seed plants, but its beginning 
goes back to the ferns. 

THE FOLLINATION OF THE CONE TREES OR 
GYMNOSPERMS. 

The Gymnosperms include the Cycads 
(Cycadaceae), the conifers (Coniferae), 
and a small peculiar group called the joint 
firs (Gnetaceae). There are about 100 spe¬ 
cies of cycads, 300 species of conifers and 
46 species of joint firs. The cycads occur 
in the tropics of both the Old and New 
Worlds; but the conifers are found chiefly 
in the north and south temperate zones, 
where they form extensive forests. The 
cycads resemble tree-ferns and palms, the 
tallest species attaining a height of 40 to 
60 feet. The conifers have needle-like leaves 
and include the giant firs, spruces, red¬ 
woods, and Sequoias of the Pacific Coast, 
among the largest trees in the world. 

In the cycads and conifers the stamens 
and ovules are in separate cones, formed of 
numerous scales spirally arranged around 
a central axis. As the seeds are unpro¬ 
tected by a seed-case, the purpose of the 
cone of scales is to protect them from the 
weather; and so great is its advantage that 
the conifers may owe their existence to it. 
In the cycads the ovules and stamens are 
in separate cones on different trees. In the 
conifers (Coniferae) the stamens and seed 
cones are in many species on the same 
tree, as in the fir, spruce, and pine, or on_ 
different trees as in the juniper and yew. 
The seed cones are at the top of the tree 
or at the end of the branches, while the 
staminate cones are lower down on the lat¬ 
eral branches, an arrangement favoring 
cross-pollination. The seed cones may be 
of great size; in the cycad Dioon spinulo- 


sum of Mexico its length is 20 inches and 
its weight 33 pounds. 

When the evergreen forests of the tem¬ 
perate zone bloom in May the neutral-col¬ 
ored cones are seldom noticed, as they do 
not usually contrast strongly with the green 
needle-like leaves. But a red pine cov¬ 
ered with red-purple staminate cones, half 
an inch in length, and associated in clus¬ 
ters of 30 or more; and a black spruce and 
balsam fir bearing innumerable staminate 
cones, about the size and color of a field 
strawberry, certainly present a strikingly 
handsome appearance. The fertile cones 
are much less noticeable, but they are pur¬ 
ple in the spruce and pale green in the fir. 
The seed cones of the cycads are often 
brilliantly colored, as orange-colored scales 
and scarlet seeds. None of the cones yield 
nectar, and the bright colors are an inci¬ 
dental result of no advantage in pollina¬ 
tion. 

All of the cycads and conifers are wind- 
pollinated. The quantity of pollen pro¬ 
duced is almost incredible. Clouds of pol¬ 
len rising from pine trees are sometimes 
mistaken for columns of smoke. The fall¬ 
ing of pollen grains in such immense num¬ 
bers that they tinge the ground yellow has 
given rise to reports of sulphur showers. 
The pollen is very light and in the pine is 
provided with two bladder-like wings, which 
greatly increase its buoyancy, and cause 
it to be carried upward by a slight breeze 
to the seed cones at the apex of the tree. 
On the upper side of each of the scales of 
the fertile cones there are two naked ovules 
in the end of which there is a small open¬ 
ing, the micropyle or little gate. The mi- 
cropyle is wide open, and filled with a drop 
of mucilage well shown in the yew and 
running juniper. When the air is filled 
with pollen slowly settling downward, pow¬ 
dering the foliage, the grass and the 
ground, it can not fail to come in contact 
with the drop of mucilage. As this gradu¬ 
ally dries up the pollen grains* are drawn 
into the »ovule until they come in contact 
with the spore containing the egg. The 
grain of pollen then puts out a tube, which 
enters the spore and from which there is¬ 
sues a sperm which unites with the egg. 
In the pine this tube grows so slowly that 
fertilization does not take place for over 
a year after pollination. Cross-pollination 


POLLINATION OF FLOWERS 


671 


is of necessity of wide occurrence among 
the cone trees, and is always effected by the 
wind never by insects. It might be sup¬ 
posed that the great abundance of pollen 
would be attractive to bees, but there is no 
record of bees ever gathering it, or of flies 
feeding on it. Several species of beetles 
have been observed eating the pollen of 
pine trees. 

POLLINATION OF THE FLOWERING PLANTS OR 
ANGIOSPERMS. 

Th Angiosperms are today the dominant 
type of plant life, and cover the larger 
part of the land surface of the globe. About 
132,000 species have been described. They 
show a marvelous power of adapting them¬ 
selves to all conditions, growing in swamps, 
salt-water, marshes, rivers, ponds, and 
even in the ocean; in arid deserts and alka¬ 
line sinks; under tropic heat and arctic 
cold and at sea-level and on mountain sum¬ 
mits. They have been well called the An- 
tkopliytes or flowering plants. Many emi¬ 
nent botanists would restrict the word flow¬ 
er to this group, which has the seed en¬ 
closed in an ovary or seed vessel, and the 
pollen received on a glutinous surface call¬ 
ed the stigma. The term as thus limited 
has a very definite meaning, which can not 
easily be misunderstood, even when the 
flower is reduced to a single stamen or pis¬ 
til as among the aroids. This definition 
has also the advantage that it agrees with 
the popular conception of the word, and 
when possible for obvious reasons it is de¬ 
sirable that the definitions of the scientific 
and non-scientific public should agree. 

THE ORGANS OF THE FLOWER. 

If some common flower, as a buttercup, 
rose, or basswood blossom, is selected for 
examination it will be seen to consist of 
many small central thread-like organs sur¬ 
rounded by two whorls of leaves. The 
outer circle of leaves is usually colored 
green, and forms the calyx or cup, each 
leaf of which is a sepal. The function of 
the calyx is to protect the inner and more 
delicate organs, especially in the bud, when 
the calyx is visible. The second or inner 
circle of leaves is the corolla, or little crown, 
and the several leaves of which it is com¬ 
posed are petals. The corolla is often large 
and bright colored, but in many flowers it 


is small and greenish. When conspicuous 
the role of the corolla is to attract the at¬ 
tention of insects or birds. The two sets 
of leaves taken collectively a re termed the 
perianth. The central thread-like members 
of the flower are the stamens and pistils. 
The stamens stand next to the corolla and 
consist of slender stems or filaments, bear¬ 
ing the two-celled anthers filled with pol¬ 
len. In the center of the flower are the 
pistils. A pistil consists of three parts— 
the ovary, style and stigma; but the style, 
or stalk, is sometimes wanting. The base 
of the pistil is the ovary, or seed-case, 
which contains the unfertilized ovules or 
young seeds; the style is a porous stalk ris¬ 
ing from the ovary, at the upper end of 
which there is a glutinous receptive sur¬ 
face called the stigma. Pollination is the 
transference of pollen from the anthers to 
the stigma. If the pollen is from the same 
flower it is self-pollination; but if from a 
different flower it is cross-pollination. 
Cross-pollination between flowers on the 
same plant or between the flowers of plants 
descended from the same stock is little bet¬ 
ter than self-pollination. Cross-pollina¬ 
tion between different strains or varieties 
of the same species or between different 
species is hybridization. 

FERTILIZATION. 

Soon after a grain of pollen has lodged 
on the stigma, if the proper conditions ex¬ 
ist, it sends out a slender tube which grows 
down thru the porous style, by which 
it is nourished, until it comes to one of the 
ovules in the ovary. It enters the ovule 
by a little orifice (micropyle, meaning lit¬ 
tle gate), and there passes from the end 
of the tube a male cell,, which unites with 
an egg cell in the ovule—this is fertiliza¬ 
tion. Fertilization does not always occur 
immediately after pollination; for instance, 
the flowers of witch-hazel are pollinated in 
the fall, but fertilization does not occur 
until the following spring. 

THE FORMS OF FLOWERS. 

But there are comparatively few flowers, 
which, like the buttercup and rose, have 
all the members present, separate and regu¬ 
lar in form. In many species a part of 
the organs are wanting. The cat-tails, 
pondweeds, gTasses, and sedges have neith- 


672 


POLLINATION OF FLOWERS 


er calyx nor corolla, or they are repre¬ 
sented only by scales and bristles. In the 
willows the flowers on a part of the bushes 
consist only of stamens, while on others 
they are composed only of pistils. In Jack- 
in-the-Pulpit the flowers are reduced to a 
single pistil or stamen.. 

Flowers may be modified also in another 
way by the fusion or consolidation of the 
organs. Tubular calyces and corollas, as 
in the morning glory and phlox, are 
stronger and better adapted to protect the 
nectar than those which consist of separ¬ 
ate sepals and petals. In the pulse family 
the stamens are commonly fused into 
“brotherhoods.” But fusion is nowhere so 
common as among the pistils. So long as 
they are separate, pollen must be placed 
on the stigma of each; but when they are 
consolidated, one application may serve to 
fertilize all the ovules. Clearly a flower 
like the buttercup, where all the parts are 
separate units, is more primitive .than an 
orchid, where they have coalesced to such 
an extent that it is difficult to determine 
their number. In primitive families again, 
like the buttercups, mallows, roses, and 
saxifrages, the flowers have regular forms 
and the sepals or petals are all alike; but 
in many families, which have developed 
more recently, the flowers have assumed 
strange bizarre forms as in the sweet pea, 
snapdragon, and sage. The purpose of 
these singular forms is to compel an insect 
to pursue a fixed path in its visits and thus 
effect pollination. Such flowers are the 
youngest and latest to appear in the plant 
world; the larkspur is of later origin than 
the buttercup, and the clover blossom than 
the rose. 

A flower is hermaphrodite or bisexual 
when it contains both stamens and pistils. 
Unisexual when either the stamens or pis¬ 
tils are wanting. Monoecious when the 
stamens and pistils are in different flow¬ 
ers on the same plant. Dioecious when the 
stamens and pistils are in different flowers 
on different plants. Polygamous when both 
hermaphrodite and unisexual flowers occur 
on the same plant. 

THE ADVANTAGE OP CROSS-FERTILIZATION. 

Tliruout the plant world cross-fertiliza¬ 
tion is of frequent occurrence. In the 
lower plants the male and female cells of 


different plants are often brought together 
thru the medium of water, and in the seed 
plants crossing is secured by cross-pollina¬ 
tion. It is, therefore, of the greatest im¬ 
portance and interest to inquire what bene¬ 
fits result from crossing. Otherwise the 
investigation of the pollination of flowers 
becomes a blind pursuit. Plants reproduce 
in two ways, vegetatively or without sex, 
and sexually; and contrary to the common 
belief the chief purpose of sexual repro¬ 
duction is not the multiplication of plants. 
As it originated independently many times 
among the seaweeds it was evidently nec¬ 
essary for the evolution of the plant king¬ 
dom. What advantage then is there in 
sexual reproduction, which is not found in 
vegetative multiplication. 

VEGETATIVE' REPRODUCTION. ' 

Plants multiply vegetatively, or without 
sex, by fission or self-division; by spores 
or single cells which are able to grow into 
new plants; and by bulbs, stolons, tubers, 
layering, or by the breaking up of the 
plant into fragments which become new in¬ 
dividuals. The rapidity with which one- 
celled plants and animals multiply by self¬ 
division is almost incredible. Large areas 
of snow are reddened in a single night by 
a red alga. Some species of Euglena and 
Astasia are so prolific that they color the 
waters in which they live green or red. 
Other forms of Flagellata are known as 
“sea-lights,” because in darkness they emit 
light, and they often exist in such enor¬ 
mous quantities that the surface of the sea 
is illuminated for miles. According to Cohn 
the descendants of a single hay bacillus in 
24 hours equal seven septillions. Even 
more impressive of the enormous product¬ 
iveness of one-celled organisms are their 
fossil remains. The most vivid imagination 
would hardly suppose that they had been 
instrumental in building up the rock strata 
of the earth. Yet the lofty white chalk 
cliffs of southern England are composed of 
the empty shells of Forminifera mixed with 
the silicious shells of diatoms. In the In¬ 
dian Ocean the mountainous Nicobar Isl¬ 
ands are built up of flinty shells of Radio- 
laria. As island and continent builders 
these little unicells surpass all other forms 
of life, and today in the abyssmal depths 


POLLINATION OP FLOWERS 


673 


of the ocean their little shells are silently 
falling- and building up new deposits. 

Fungi, mosses, and ferns produce single 
cells or spores in countless millions, which 
are capable of growing into new plants. If 
conditions admitted, almost any species of 
these groups would speedily occupy the en¬ 
tire land surface. The poplar tree, tulip 
tree, osage orange, raspberry, blackberry, 
and many other shrubs and trees send up 
numerous shoots from the roots. Many 
plants are readily propagated by buds, or 
bulbs, or by the rooting of the leaves or 
stems. Other plants send out numerous 
runners or stolons as white clover and the 
strawberry. So far as numbers are con¬ 
cerned the absence of sex is clearly no dis¬ 
advantage to many plants. 

SEXUAL REPRODUCTION. 

If plants can multiply vegetatively why 
has sex been developed. The first plants 
did not possess sex; it has not taken the 
place of vegetative reproduction. The lat¬ 
ter has always been and is still very ef¬ 
fective. Both methods still exist side by 
side. The offspring of plants which are 
produced without sex are similar to the 
parent form, They vary relatively very 
little, altho there are exceptions. Florists 
and horticulturists take advantage of this 
fact to increase their stock of new flowers 
and fruits by grafts or divisions of the 
original plant, since such varieties grown 
from seed are not likely to be true to name. 
Species which have little power of varia¬ 
tion are clearly at a great disadvantage. If 
conditions change, they can not change with 
them and are likely to perish quickly. They 
can not migrate to new localities since they 
can not adapt themselves readily to new 
conditions. It is difficult to see how the 
evolution of plants could have ever taken 
place without variation, and sex secures 
greater variation. 

The offspring of plants by sexual repro¬ 
duction will inherit the characters of both 
parents, and will therefore be more vari¬ 
able than either. Among the variations 
there are likely to be some which will be 
beneficial, and which will enable the plants 
to adapt themselves to new conditions, and 
to take advantage of new opportunities. 
Variation is necessary for evolution, and 
the greater the variations the more rapid 


the advance. One advantage of sex is, then, 
that it secures greater variation thru cross- 
fertilization. 

Greater vigor in the hybrids also usually 
follows cross-fertilization, as was first 
pointed out clearly by Charles Darwin. He 
was experimenting with two beds of toad¬ 
flax, or butter-and-egg’s (Linaria vulgaris), 
one set being the offspring of self-fertiliza¬ 
tion and the other of cross-fertilization. 
The plants had been raised for the purpose 
of studying heredity, and not the results 
of cross-breeding. To his astonishment 
he observed that the plants which were 
the result of cross-breeding were far more 
vigorous than the others. He temporarily 
abandoned all his other investigations and 
devoted himself to making numerous ex¬ 
periments in breeding, and to acquiring in¬ 
formation as to the practical experience of 
horticulturists and breeders of animals. As 
the result of his inquiries he was convinced 
that no species of animal or plant can fer¬ 
tilize itself thru numberless generations, 
and that an occasional cross is indispen¬ 
sable. 

Hybrids have a greater power of assimi¬ 
lation, a larger root system, and the seed¬ 
lings grow more rapidly and mature ear¬ 
lier. The leaves are larger, the stems are 
stronger, and there are more flowers and 
fruits. Why does the crossing of two 
strains or races produce greater vigor in the 
progeny? The following explanation has 
been suggested by Coulter: In the strug¬ 
gle for existence among plants undesirable 
characters tend to disappear, since the spe¬ 
cies possessing them are eliminated. The 
characters which survive are the most de¬ 
sirable ones. In order to survive a desir¬ 
able character must have vigor, and each 
must add somewhat to the vigor of the 
plant containing it, and in consequence its 
size and productiveness will also increase. 
The plants having the greatest number of 
desirable characters are hybrids, since they 
contain the characters of both parents, 
hence hybrids will show at once a great 
increase in vigor and productiveness. The 
first generation shows the greatest vigor, 
after which, if there is inbreeding, the pro¬ 
ductiveness rapidly falls off. As the re¬ 
sult of inbreeding a race tends to disappear. 
Crossing between flowers on the same plant 
or between plants derived from the same 


074 


POLLINATION OF FLOWERS 


stock shows little improvement over self- 
fertilization. The cross must be between 
two different races or strains, or between 
two species. 

When two weak, run-out, self-fertilized 
strains of corn, which yielded at the rate 
of only 29 bushels to the acre, were crossed 
the hybrids yielded at the rate of 68 bush¬ 
els to the acre. Thus, in cultivation of many 
crops, the crossing of two weak varieties 
may be very profitable. Hybrids between 
two different species of oaks and two spe¬ 
cies of elms were in eight years one-third 
larger than the parent species. 

The evil effects of inbreeding have long 
been known in a general way, and are even 
instinctively recognized by barbarous races; 
but they are not so easily recognized as the 
good effects, for the deterioration is grad¬ 
ual. When corn is self-fertilized for a 
number of generations the plants become 
inferior in size, vigor, and productiveness, 
as compared with normally crossed plants 
from the same source. Many plants have 
become self-sterile to their own pollen, 
which would seem to be evidence in favor 
of cross-pollination. 

A summary of the more important ways 
in which self-pollination, and consequently 
self-fertilization, is prevented in plants is 
given in the following table: 

A. SEPARATION OF STAMENS AND PISTILS BY 

SPACE. 

1. Stamens and pistils in different flow¬ 
ers, but on the same plant. 

2. Stamens and pistils in different flow¬ 
ers and on different plants. 

3. Stamens longer than the pistils, or 
pistils longer than the stamens. 

4. Stamens bent away from the pistils, 
or pistils bent away from the stamens. 

B. SEPARATION OF STAMENS AND PISTILS BY 

- TIME. 

1. Anthers mature before the stigmas. 

2. Stigmas mature before the anthers. 

C. MECHANICAL SEPARATION OF THE STA¬ 

MENS AND PISTILS. 

1. Absolute separation. Anthers or pol¬ 
len masses held in a fixed position, and 
never set free unless the flower is visited 
by insects. 

2. Partial separation. Self-pollination 


may occur during the latter part of the 
blooming period. 

D. PHYSIOLOGICAL SEPARATION OF THE STA¬ 
MENS AND PISTILS. 

1. Stamens aborted in some flowers, pis¬ 
tils in others. 

2. Pollen from a different flower prepo¬ 
tent over pollen from the same flower. 

3. Pollen from the same flower sterile or 
impotent on its own stigma. 

“Crossing is by no means confined to the 
races and varieties of the same species, but 
is very common between different species 
and may occur between different genera. It 
is rapidly coming to be regarded as an im¬ 
portant factor in evolution, and Lotsy re¬ 
gards it as the most important agency in 
the development of the plant world. In 
Kerner’s time more than 1,000 hybrids 
were known in the flora of Europe, and 
he fully believed that many new species 
originated in this way. Darwin had pre¬ 
viously realized the possibility that hy¬ 
bridism might have played an important 
part in the history of evolution; but ow¬ 
ing to the general belief that hybrids 
were almost invariably sterile he underes¬ 
timated its significance, altho he observed 
that every intermediate stage existed be¬ 
tween complete sterility and complete fer¬ 
tility.” 

“While hybrids do in general show de¬ 
creased fertility, there are thousands of 
cases in which they multiply readily by 
seed. Jeffrey has recently shown that hy¬ 
brids among the Angiosperms, or flowering 
plants, are characterized by having a part 
of the pollen imperfect or aborted; and, 
judged bjr this test, they are very common 
both among wind-pollinated and insect- 
pollinated plants. A great many forms 
which have long been regarded by systema- 
tists as perfectly good species are now rec¬ 
ognized by their aborted pollen as hidden 
hybrids. They are especially abundant 
among the roses, apples, pears, brambles, 
hawthorns, mulleins, gentians, nightshades, 
evening-primroses, thistles, hawkweeds, and 
asters. Among wind-pollinated flowers hy¬ 
brids are very common in the sedges, 
rushes, pondweeds, oaks, and birches.” 
(Lovell, J. H. The Flower and the Ree; 
Plant Life and Pollination, p. 277.) 


POLLINATION OF FLOWERS 


675 


Close or Self-pollination .—But while 
there is wide provision for cross-pollina¬ 
tion among flowers, they very generally 
have the power of self-pollination, so that, 
in the event of' the failure of cross-pollina¬ 
tion, before the period of blooming closes 
self-pollination may occur. The more com¬ 
mon ways are as follows: 

a. The stamens lengthen, contract, or 
bend so that the anthers touch, or drop pol¬ 
len on the stigmas. 

b. The pistils lengthen, contract, or bend 
so that the stigmas receive pollen from the 
anthers. 

c. If lobed, the lobes of the stigma roll 
back so that they touch the anthers. 

d. The filaments and styles become twist¬ 
ed together. 

e. The corolla in wilting closes, causing 
the stigmas to be pollinated. 

f. Self-pollination caused by the growth 
or movement of the petals. 

g. Change in the position of the flower 
caused by the curving of the flower-stalk. 

In addition to the many plants in which 
self-pollination occurs in the event of cross- 
pollination failing to occur there are many 
plants which are regularly self-pollinated 
and self-fertilized. When the flowers ex¬ 
pand, the anthers rest directly against the 
stigmas, which thus necessarily receive the 
pollen. Many plants produce, besides con¬ 
spicuous flowers, small green flowers, which 
never open; and which, altho invariably 
self-fertilized, are very fertile (cleisto- 
gainy). Many of these self-fertilized plants 
are very common, very vigorous and fer¬ 
tile, and extend over a large portion of the 
earth, as the ehickweed, shepherd’s purse, 
and doorweed. They prove conclusively 
that, altho nature may abhor perpetual 
self-fertilization, she does not abhor self- 
fertilization. On the contrary, it is a most 
valuable principle which is carefully pre¬ 
served, and upon which the plant world is 
largely dependent. The contrivances, says 
Kerner, to bring about self-fertilization, 
are no less numerous than those which fa¬ 
vor cross-pollination. “That flowers should 
be adapted at different times to two such 
diverse purposes as cross and self pollina¬ 
tion is one of the marvels of floral con- • 
struction.” 

These facts have led certain botanists 


to question Darwin’s conclusions as to the 
evil results of continual self-fertilization, 
and to assert that the good effects of inter¬ 
crossing are only a temporary stimulant 
and are not permanent. In the opinion of 
Henslow, self-fertilized plants are best fit¬ 
ted to survive in the struggle for life. To 
sum up, he says they are very numerous, 
increase very rapidly, are very vigorous, 
flourish in the most neglected ground, and, 
being independent of insects, are best able 
to establish themselvesi in foreign countries, 
and are, therefore, of world-wide distribu¬ 
tion. 

It should, however, be noted that the 
forms which are continually self-fertilized 
are admittedly degraded or retrogressive 
species, or at least not advancing in devel¬ 
opment. Like certain groups of animals 
they are adapted to certain places or con¬ 
ditions in nature where they appear able 
to maintain themselves indefinitely. But 
for races of plants which are rapidly evolv¬ 
ing, cross-fertilization appears to be essen¬ 
tial. Darwin showed that, when the off¬ 
spring of cross-fertilization were brought 
into competition with the offspring of self- 
fertilization, the former always gained the 
mastery and survived. It would, therefore, 
appear that intercrossing in an advancing 
race of plants would be indispensable in 
enabling it to overcome its competitors. 

FLOWER-GROUPS. 

Flowers according to the ways in which 
they are pollinated are divided into three 
groups. 

Flowers pollinafed by the wind (Anemo- 
philae, wind-lovers). 

Flowers pollinated by water (Hydro- 
philae, water-lovers). 

Flowers pollinated by animals (Zoidio- 
philae, animal-lovers). 

Flowers pollinated by animals may again 
be subdivided into: 

Snail-pollinated flowers (Malacophilae). 

Bat-pollinated flowers (Chiropterophi- 
lae). 

Bird-pollinated flowers (Ornithophilae). 

Insect-pollinated flowers (Entomophilae). 

Flowers pollinated by insects are divided 
into: 

Bee-flowers. 

. Bumblebee-flowers. 



POLLINATION OF FLOWERS 


676 


13 utterfly-flowers. 

Moth-flowers. 

Fly-flowers. 

Flowers visited by miscellaneous insects. 

Insect-pollinated flowers may be divided 
into pollen flowers and nectar-flowers ac¬ 
cording as they contain nectar or only pol¬ 
len. Nectar-flowers may be divided into 
flowers with the nectar fully exposed, part¬ 
ly concealed, or deeply concealed. 

Flowers Pollinated by the Wind. —Wind- 
pollination is the oldest method of pollen 
dispei’sion and for many years the only 
method of pollination in existence. There 
were wind-pollinated cone trees as far back 
as the Devonian Age, long before the de¬ 
velopment of the higher seed plants. The 
wind offers an excellent medium for inter¬ 
crossing. It levies no toll for its services, 
and it is seldom that there is not sufficient 
air stirring to carry pollen. A gentle breeze 
is much better than a strong wind which 
sweeps the pollen away too quickly and too 
forcibly. When the weather is stormy, as 
is often the case when the wind is high, 
the anthers do not open; and, if they have 
already dehisced, they close ag*ain to pro¬ 
tect the pollen. An objection to wind- 
pollination is the great waste of pollen. 
There are no allurements to attract insects, 
such as nectar, bright colors, odors, or 
resting places. 

As has already been described, in the 
conifers and cycads the stamens and seeds 
are produced in different cones, in part of 
the species on the same tree, and in part on 
different trees. In the fir, the spruce, the 
hemlock, and the pine both kinds of cones 
are on the same tree, but the fruiting cones 
are above the cones producing the pollen, 
an arrangement favoring cross-pollination. 
In the juniper, yew, and all the cycads the 
staminate and seed cones are on different 
trees. 

The grasses, sedges, and rushes are also 
all pollinated by the wind with the excep¬ 
tion of a few cases of self-pollination. To 
the grasses belong the edible cereals, corn, 
wheat, rye, barley, oats, rice, and millet. 
“Next to the importance,” says Ingalls, “of 
the divine profusion of water, light, and 
air, those great physical facts which ren¬ 
der existence possible, may be recorded the 
universal beneficence of grass. Should its 


harvest fail for a single year, famine would 
depopulate the earth.” Many species bloom 
at dawn, just as the sun is rising above 
the horizon, when, their anthei'S loaded with 
pollen, they exhibit an attractiveness very 
different from their appearance at noon¬ 
day. The stamens and pistils often occur 
in the same flower; but self-pollination 
may be prevented by the stigmas ripening 
before the anthers. Common com is an il¬ 
lustration of a grass which has the stamens 
and pistils in separate flowers. The blos¬ 
soms that bear the seed are midway on the 
stalks, and are commonly termed the ear; 
the pistils are the silk. The flowers that 
bear the pollen are at the very summit of 
the stalk, and are known as the spindle. 
When ripe the pollen is shaken off and falls 
on the silk below, or, what is still better, 
it is wafted by the wind to the silk of neigh¬ 
boring stalks, thus preventing' inbreeding. 

Very many deciduous-leaved trees and 
bushes are wind-pollinated, as the alders, 
birches, oaks, hornbeams, elms, walnuts, 
hickories, and beeches. Usually the sta¬ 
mens and pistils are in different flowers 
either on the same plant or on different 
plants. Trees the world over more often 
have the stamens and pistils separated, and 
consequently the sexes, than herbaceous 
plants. Anemophilous or wind-pollinated 
trees bloom in early spring before the fol¬ 
iage has appeared, in order that the leaves 
may not intercept 1 and waste the pollen. 

Many coarse, homely weeds are pollin¬ 
ated by the wind, as pigweed, ragweed, net¬ 
tle, hop, pondweed, sorrel, dock, hemp, and 
rue anemone. They agree in having small, 
green or dull-colored flowers, which are 
commonly odorless, but which are produced 
in immense numbers. The pollen grains 
are round and smooth, Avhile the stigmas 
are lobed or feathery to present a large re¬ 
ceptive surface. They flourish in a great 
variety of situations and are well worthy 
of careful observation. The Roman worm¬ 
wood (Ambrosia artemisiifolia) blooms in 
the fall and is common everywhere in old 
fields and waste land. The air in the fall 
is filled with its yellow pollen, which is be¬ 
lieved to be productive of hay fever. The 
stamens of the stinging nettles are elastic; 
and, when the flowers open, they suddenly 


POLLINATION OF FLOWERS 


677 


spring upward, and little puffs of pollen are 
projected into the air. 

Flowers Pollinated by Water. — Flowers 
pollinated by the agency of water are com¬ 
paratively rare. There are, however, four 
common species, two growing in salt water 
and two in fresh water, which deserve men¬ 
tion. The two maritime species are ditch 
grass ( Buppia maritima ) and eel grass 
(Zostera marina), both of which are very 
abundant in shallow streams and bays 
along the eastern coast. The two fresh¬ 
water forms are wateiweed ( Elodea cana¬ 
densis) and tape grass (Vallisneria spiral¬ 
is), which grow in ponds and canals thru- 
out much of eastern North America. Tape 
grass is also called “wild celery” because it 
is the favorite food of the canvasback duck. 
The pollination of tape grass and water- 
weed is so very remarkable that it must be 
briefly described. The flowers are dioeci¬ 
ous, that is, the staminate and pistillate 
flowers grow on different plants. Both 
kinds of flowers are formed under water 
near the base of the plants. The pistillate 
rise to the surface, upon which they float, 
anchored by a long thread-like stem. The 
staminate flowers while still in bud break 
away from their stems, and rise to the sur¬ 
face, where they float about like little boats. 
Presently they expand; and when they 
drift against a pistillate flower the anthers 
come in contact with the broad leaf-like 
stigmas and pollinate them. Then the fer¬ 
tile flower is again drawn down into the 
water by the spiral coiling of its stem, 
where its fruit is matured. 

Flowers Pollinated by Birds. —Bird-flow¬ 
ers are flowers pollinated chiefly or wholly 
by birds, as the cardinal flower, trumpet 
honeysuckle, and torch lily. A typical 
bird-flower is the trumpet flower ( Tecoma 
radicans), a woody vine, which creeps 
over trees and bushes in the woodlands of 
the South and bears scarlet, trumpet¬ 
shaped flowers, two and a half inches 
long, which are often visited by humming 
birds. There are three families of birds 
which are adapted to flower-pollination, the 
humming birds, or Trochilidae; the sun- 
birds or Neetariniidae; and the honey- 
suckers or Meliphagidae. The humming 
birds are confined to North and South 


America; the sun-birds to Africa and In¬ 
dia; and the honeysuckers to Australia. 

In the eastern United States the ruby 
throated humming bird is the only species 
of humming bird. The number of humming 
bird flowers in this area is small, the most 
familiar examples being -the trumpet hon¬ 
eysuckle, the cardinal flower, the trumpet 
flower, the painted cup, Carolina pinkroot, 
and the wild columbine. In the western 
United States some 15 species of humming 
birds are known. But they are most abun¬ 
dant in tropical America where more than 
400 kinds have been described. In Brazil 
they are on the wing thruout the year, and 
Fritz Mueller thought that they visited 
most flowers. The bill is very long, in one 
species exceeding the length of the head 
and body taken together. The extensile 
tongue consists of two hollow cylinders or 
tubes, which can be thrust far out of the 
beak and draw the nectar out of long tubu¬ 
lar flowers. Humming birds have the habits 
of insects and are often mistaken for hawk- 
moths, as they dart swiftly from flower to 
flower. They were first attracted to flow¬ 
ers, not by nectar, but by insects which 
feed on nectar; and altlio they have be¬ 
come fond of sweets their diet still con¬ 
sists largely of insects. The pollen is car¬ 
ried on the short feathers at the base of the 
bill. As the birds poise on the wing in 
sucking nectar, bird-flowers do not have 
alighting or resting platforms. 

Bird-flowers are usually bright red or 
scarlet-colored. It would be easy to enum¬ 
erate more than fifty species of common 
bird-flowers, which display bright red hues. 
It seems, therefore, probable that these col¬ 
ors attract the attention of nectar-sucking 
birds. In Europe, where there are no hum¬ 
ming birds and consequently no native 
bird-flowers, scarlet colors are noticeably 
absent. 

Flowers Pollinated by Insects .—It is es¬ 
timated that there have been described in 
the world up to the present time 132,584 
different kinds of flowers. Kerner places 
the number of species pollinated by the 
wind at about 10,000; but this, undoubt¬ 
edly, is an underestimate. Even if it is 
twice that number, there must be over 100,- 
000 flowers which are regularly or occasion¬ 
ally visited by insects, or are self-pollinated, 


678 


POLLINATION OF FLOWERS 


The insect-pollinated flowers are usually 
bright-colored, often sweet-scented, and 
commonly yield nectar as well as pollen. 
The pollen, unlike the dry dusty pollen of 
wind flowers, is thickly beset Avith teeth, 
spines, knobs, pits, and grooves, which 
cause the grains to adhere together, and to 
the bodies of insects. Water is always 
hurtful to it, and there is an astonishing 
number of de\ T ices provided for its protec¬ 
tion, the mere description of which would 
fill many pages. It is probable that in¬ 
sects first visited flowers for the sake of the 
pollen, and that the function of secreting 
nectar was developed later. 

Any part of the flower may secrete nec¬ 
tar, as the bracts, sepals, petals, stamens, 
and pistils; but most frequently it is se¬ 
creted near the base of the styles. Its 
quantity varies from an almost impercep¬ 
tible layer to several drops or even a spoon¬ 
ful. In a tropical orchid Coryanthes there 
collects in the hollow lip over an ounce 
avoirdupois. 

Insects which are of importance as 
floAver-visitors belong to four orders: the 
beetles (Coleoptera) ;.the flies (Dipteral; 
the moths and butterflies (Lepidoptera), 
and the bees, Avasps, and their allies (Hy- 
menoptera). A few insects belonging to 
other orders occasionally are valuable as 
pollinators. Several species of bugs (Hem- 
ip tera) suck the nectar and are found on 
the flowers of the carrot, mustard, and aster 
families. A number of species of Neurop- 
tera visit the floAvers of the carrot family. 
The minute and active little insect knoAvn 
as Thrips is present in many flowers and 
sometimes effects pollination. It is very 
abundant on the flowers of the beet. 

Beetles and Floivers. —It would be much 
better for flowers if they were never visit¬ 
ed by beetles, for they cause more harm 
than benefit. As agents in pollination they 
are of little significance. The enormous dev¬ 
astation of foliage and bloom, the consump¬ 
tion and waste of pollen and nectar, the 
absence of hairs for holding pollen, and 
their indefinite manner of flight are factors 
Avhich greatly reduce their value as pollen- 
carriers. In New England 232 species of 
beetles belonging to 127 genera and 29 
families have been collected by Lovell and 
Frost on flowers. This is probably less 


than one-sixteenth of the total number of 
described species in this region. Why is 
it that so few feed on pollen and nectar? 
Their habits and forms in many instances 
answer this question; many are predaceous 
like the tiger beetles and ground beetles, or 
are scavengers; others are nocturnal or 
aquatic, or occur chiefly on the ground 
lurking beneath stones and boards, or liv¬ 
ing in the nests of other insects. 

Beetles are usually found on open flow¬ 
ers with the nectar visible or nearly visible, 
as the cherries, cornels, New Jersey tea, 
and goldenrods. On the flowers of the 
New Jersey tea ( Ceanothus americana ) 58 
different kinds have been collected. Most 
beetles feed upon both pollen and nectar 
and have been little modified in form as the 
result of their visits; but two remarkable 
genera, Gnathium and N emognatha, have 
acquired a slender suctorial tongue, like 
that of a butterfly, except that it cannot be 
coiled up. In one species it is nearly half 
an inch in length. Both genera live wholly 
on nectar, and thrust their tongues in and 
out tubular flowers with the precision and 
rapidity of bees. 

Many beetles pass their entire life on a 
single kind of plant. The blue flag beetles 
in the larval state feed on the seeds of the 
blue flag, and, in the adult form, live in the 
flowers. Many beetles are exceedingly de¬ 
structive to vegetation, as the rose chafer, 
the June bug, and the potato beetle. 

Fly-Flowers. —The flies are of far great¬ 
er importance as flower visitors than the 
beetles. Very many of the 8,000 North 
American species live largely or wholly on 
animal substances, but a large number also 
feed on pollen and nectar. The hover-flies 
(Syrphidae ) and the bee-flies visit floAvers 
which are similar to those attractive to 
bees; but for the more stupid flies there are 
pitfall-flowers, prison flowers, pinch-trap 
flowers, and flowers Avith deceptive nectar¬ 
ies, colors, and odors. 

Flowers with nauseous or indoloid odors, 
due to the decomposition of some nitro¬ 
genous compound, are attractive to flesh or 
carrion flies. The petals are often flesh- 
colored, blood-red, or dull dark purple 
marked with lurid stripes or spots. To some 
observers they suggest putrefying flesh or 
decaying carcasses; but in most instances 


POLLINATION OF FLOWERS 


679 


the resemblance is not very apparent. 
There are also malodorous flowers which 
are yellowish or green. It is chiefly the 
nauseous odors which draw to flowers car¬ 
rion or dung-flies belonging to the genera 
Musca, Lucilia, Calliphora and Sarco- 
phaga. Many strong-scented odors are also 
attractive to flies. Common carrion flow¬ 
ers are the carrion-flower ( Smilax herba- 
cea), the purple trillium, and the water 
arum ( Calla palustris). 

The spotted arum ( Arum maculatum ) is 
a prison flower, and, like all the Aroids, has 
an offensive odor. Small flies can easily 
pass downward into the bulbous cavity at 
the base of the sheathing leaf, or spathe, 
but for a time are prevented from return¬ 
ing by the ring of bristles inclined down¬ 
ward. After they are covered with pollen 
the bristles wither and the midges escape. 
As many as 1,000 midges may be impris¬ 
oned in a single spathe. The common Jack- 
in-the-Pulpit, or Indian turnip, is a pitfall 
flower. The inner side of the spathe or 
“pulpit” is smooth, shining, and very slip¬ 
pery. When little moth-like flies ( Psy- 
choda) rest on this polished surface they 
cannot get a foothold, and fall into the 
chamber below. The staminate and fertile 
flowers are on separate plants. The stam¬ 
inate flowers are visited first since they 
bloom first. As the spathe withers, the in¬ 
ner surface relaxes and becomes rougher, 
enabling the little visitors, now loaded with 
pollen, to escape and fly to the pistillate 
flowers. The spathes of the latter wither 
less promptly, and many of the little flies 
perish in the chamber. Another prison 
flower is the Dutchman’s pipe. 

The bee-flies (Bombyliidae) , which are 
often mistaken for bees, live wholly on 
nectar, but the Syrphid or hover-flies 
(Syrphidae), feed on both pollen and nec¬ 
tar. They are very common visitors to 
flowers and are usually dotted or striped 
with yellow. In New Zealand where there 
were, at the time of their discovery, no 
bumblebees nor honeybees and only a few 
solitary bees, flies were the most important 
visitors among the native insects. 

Butterfly-Flowers. — Butterflies were call¬ 
ed by Jean Paul “the flowers of the air.” 
As they do not collect pollen but feed on 
nectar alone they are of far less importance 


as pollinators than bees, and much less con¬ 
stant in their visits. The tubular probos¬ 
cis or tongue, which is carried coiled be¬ 
neath the head, is formed by the extension 
of the blades of the maxillae, or second pair 
of jaws, which are held together by minute 
hooks. 

Common butterfly-flowers are the pinks, 
various primroses, lilies, and orchids, and 
some species of phlox. The floral tubes 
are so long that the nectar is far beyond 
the reach of bees. It is also noteworthy 
that the color of butterfly-flowers is usu¬ 
ally red, the color of many butterflies; but 
in the genus Phyteuma there occur blue 
butterfly-flowers which are visited by blue 
butterflies. 

Butterflies do not confine their visits to 
butterfly-flowers, but visit a great variety 
of blossoms. They experience more or less 
difficulty in sucking nectar from flat sur¬ 
faces, and consequently prefer tubular 
flowers. But no flowers are so frequently 
visited by butterflies, as social flowers of 
-the type of the Compositae, to which 40 to 
60 per cent of their visits are made. Clouds 
of butterflies often hover over a clump of 
purple thistle-heads, or the yellow flowers 
of elecampane ( Inula Helenium) , or the 
dull white clusters of the thoroughwort. 
Butterflies often rob flowers of their nec¬ 
tar thru crevices or openings in the corolla 
without rendering any service in return. 

Nocturnal or Moth-Flowers. — Nocturnal 
flowers are adapted to pollination by moths, 
chiefly hawk-moths. In their relation to 
flowers moths may be divided into two 
groups, the highly specialized hawk-moths 
(Sphingidae) and the other moth families. 
Among the smaller moths frequently ob¬ 
served on flowers are the measuring moths, 
leaf-rollers, owlet moths or noetuids, and 
the teneids. Few of them are common 
floral visitors or of much significance in 
pollination. 

The yuccas or Spanish bayonets, lilia¬ 
ceous plants, which are widely distributed 
in this country and Mexico, are entirely 
dependent for pollination on little teneid 
moths of the genus Pronuba. The large 
creamy-white flowers are borne in magnifi¬ 
cent clusters, which never fail to excite ad¬ 
miration. As the large bell-shaped flowers 
hang downward,and the stamens are longer 


680 


POLLINATION OF FLOWERS 


than the pistils self-pollination is impos¬ 
sible. The veryt existence, therefore, of the 
yuccas depends on the little moths of Pro¬ 
nub, a. Soon after twilight falls the moth 
flies from flower to flower, and alone of all 
the thousands of moths in the world gathers 
a ball of pollen. Then she lays her eggs 
in the seed-vessel, after which she climbs 
the pistil, and stuffs the ball of pollen into 
the hollow formed by the stigmas. Appar¬ 
ently she deliberately pollinates the flow¬ 
ers in order that they may produce seed. 
If she failed to perform this service to the 
plant her offspring would perish for want 
of food. While this almost incredible act 
of pollination is probably the result of in¬ 
stinct not intelligence, its origin is very 
difficult of explanation. 

There are about 100 species of hawk- 
moths in this country. They are distin¬ 
guished by their swift impetuous flight, 
their size and sombre but handsome garb 
of tan, brown, and gray colors. As flower 
pollinators they easily surpass all other 
moths and the butterflies. The rapidity of 
their flight is astonishing, and a species of 
Macroglossa has been seen to visit several 
hundred flowers in a few minutes. Com¬ 
mon hawk-moth flowers are the climbing 
honeysuckle, the evening species „ of to¬ 
bacco, thorn apple, the white lilies, several 
species of gentians and orchids, and the 
sweet-scented Gardenia. Nocturnal flowers 
are usually white or yellow, as blue and red 
would be nearly invisible in the evening 
shadows. 

Bee-Flowers .—As pollinators of flowers 
the bees far surpass all other insects. Un¬ 
like all other insects they feed their brood 
with pollen, and they are thus wholly de¬ 
pendent on flowers for food both for them¬ 
selves and their young. As the result of 
their great industry and mental acuteness 
there have been developed thousands of 
flowers which are adapted to their visits 
and are in consequence called “bee-flowei’s.” 
They have the nectar deeply placed where 
it cannot readily be pillaged by ants, 
beetles, and flies, and are often irregular 
in form. (The purpose of these odd and 
and sometimes bizarre forms is to compel 
the bee to pursue a fixed path to the nec¬ 
tar, so that pollination may be effected 


with greater certainty.) Finally they are 
very often blue or red in color. 

The legume family, or Legiuninosae, in¬ 
cludes a great number of common bee- 
flowers, as the pear, bean, locust, alfalfa, 
clover, vetch, red-bud, partridge pea, sain¬ 
foin, lupine, and sweet clover. The flowers 
bear a crude resemblance to a butterfly, as 
in the sweet pea. For the most part nine of 
the ten stamens unite to form a tube at the 
bottom of which lies the nectar. Four of 
the petals interlock around this tube, while 
the fifth, called the standard, is broad and 
erect and brightly colored to attract the 
attention of insects. The two lower petals 
enclosing the stamens form the keel or 
carina, and the two lateral petals are termed 
the wings. In order to obtain the nectar a 
bee rests on the two wing-petals, braces its 
head against the standard, thus pushing 
downward the keel, and exposing the open¬ 
ing in the staminal tube. When the keel is 
pressed downward, the pollen is placed on 
the under side of the bee’s body in four 
different ways. 

1. Elastic apparatus: The stamens and 
the pistil project from the keel as long as 
the bee remains on the flower, and then re¬ 
turn within the keel, as in sweet clover, 
white clover, alsike clover, and sainfoin. 

2. Explosive apparatus: The stamens 
and pistil suddenly spring out of the keel 
but never return within it, as in alfalfa 
and tick-trefoil. Only one effective visit is 
possible. 

3. Pumping apparatus. A small amount 
of pollen is pumped out of the end of the 
keel, each time a bee pushes it down, by 
the thickened ends of the stamens, as in 
the lupine. 

4. Brushing apparatus: A brush of hairs 
on the pistil sweeps out a small amount of 
pollen from the tip of the keel, as in the 
pea, bean, locust, and vetch. 

In the mint family (Labiatae) and the 
figwort family (Scrophulariaceae) there 
are many two-lipped bee-flowers. The lar¬ 
ger flowers often mimic the heads of rep¬ 
tiles, animals or inanimate objects, as in 
the turtlehead, monkey-flower, snapdragon, 
toadflax, foxglove, slioe-flower, scullcap, 
painted cup, and dragonhead. In these flow¬ 
ers the stamens and pistil lie under the up¬ 
per lip, and the pollen is placed on the back 


POLLINATION OF FLOWERS 


081 


of the bee, or the opposite of the arrange¬ 
ment in the pulse family. In nearly all 
species the stigma is touched first so that 
cross-pollination is ensured. Other peculiar¬ 
shaped bee-flowers are the larkspur, monks¬ 
hood, Dutchman’s breeches, (Dicentra), 
bleeding heart, climbing fumitory, the jew- 
elweed, fringed polygala, blue violet, and 
various orchids. 

In the heath and blueberry families there 
is another great group of bee-flowers, but 
unlike the members of the pulse and mint 
families, the species are all shrubs and 
trees. The Rhododendrons and Azaleas are 
showy bumblebee flowers, but the wheel¬ 
shaped flowers of the mountain laurel are 
readily pollinated by smaller bees. The 
heaths, fetterbush, Andromeda, leather-leaf, 
sourwood, the blueberries, and huckleberries 
have small white or pink bell-shaped or urn¬ 
shaped pendulous flowers, which are adapt¬ 
ed to bees, over which pollen is sprinkled 
from pores in the ends of the anthers. 

As the bumblebees have much longer 
tongues than the honeybees, in some species 
more than twice as long, there are a num¬ 
ber of bumblebee flowers, or flowers with 
the nectar so deeply concealed that bumble¬ 
bees alone of bees can reach it. Among the 
more common bumblebee-flowers are the 
red clover*, larkspur, columbine, monks¬ 
hood, snapdragon, the wood ebony, the 
Rhododendrons and many honeysuckles, 
gentians, and orchids. See Bumblebees 
-and Red Clover. 

It is a remarkable fact that bee-flowers 
are more often red and blue than yellow 
or white. In the northeastern States of 
34 species of violets 17 are blue, 4 blue pur¬ 
ple, 6 yellow, and 7 white. Of 197 species 
belonging to the pea' family (Papilion- 
aceae) 24 'are blue, 88 blue purple, 13 red, 
33 yellow, and 39 white; of 120 species of 
the mint family 33 are blue, 12 red, 4 yel¬ 
low and 24 white. In the German and 
Swiss floras there are 482 bee-flowers, ot 
which 330 are red, violet, or blue, and 152 
white or yellow. Honeybees and bumble¬ 
bees have been observed to make 20 per 
cent more visits to red and blue flowers 
than to. yellow and white flowers. So keen 
an observer as the honeybee can easily 


* In later years it has been discovered that 
honeybees are doing most of the pollinating of 
red clover. 


learn to associate blue coloring with the 
flowers most likely to supply it with nectar. 

Honeybees by no means restrict them¬ 
selves to bee-flowers, but visit all flowers 
with nectar accessible to them, as well as 
many flowers which yield only pollen. Un¬ 
der Fruit Blossoms the great value of 
the honeybee in pollination has been shown 
in detail. It is an indisputable fact that a 
large number of trees and shrubs will not 
produce fruit unless cross-pollinated. The 
importance of the honeybee in this work 
cannot be overemphasized. The fruit culture 
of the future must be largely dependent on 
the domestic bee, the only agency in cross- 
pollination that can be controlled by man. 

The wild bees are wholly inadequate in 
numbers to pollinate the vast areas devoted 
to many crops, which are more or less ster¬ 
ile in the absence of cross-pollination. The 
production of seed by buckwheat, alsike 
clover, sweet clover, red clover, and sain¬ 
foin is largely dependent upon the honey¬ 
bee. 

North America has been called a natural 
garden, so abundant are its native fruits. 
But in the absence of cross-pollination our 
native plums, cherries, blueberries, huckle¬ 
berries, currants, gooseberries, and scores 
of other wild fruits are largely or wholly 
barren. Many ornamental flowers both 
wild and cultivated are also largely depend¬ 
ent on cross-pollination as Wistaria, labur¬ 
num, calceolaria, foxglove, pansy, geran¬ 
ium, nasturtium, passion flower, abutilon, 
mountain laurel, primrose, snapdragon, 
and many orchids. There are likewise a 
great number of plants with inconspicuous 
flowers which produce no seed in the ab¬ 
sence of crossing. 

Finally, if crossing between different 
species has played as important a role in 
the development of the flowering plants, as 
Lotsy and Jeffrey believe, then a great 
number of forms which have been regarded 
as distinct species are hybrids. Cross-fer¬ 
tilization is every year taking place on an 
extensive scale, and under favorable • con¬ 
ditions new species arise. Thus not only in 
the development of the great group of flow¬ 
ering plants( Angiosperms) has the hon¬ 
eybee been a most important factor, but 
its services in maintaining the productive¬ 
ness of many species are inestimable. 



PROFITS IN BEES 


682 


Bibliography. —The reader who desires 
to pursue the subject further is referred 
to The Flower and the Bee; Plant Life and 
Pollination by John H. Lovell, Chas. Scrib¬ 
ner’s Sons, N. Y. The bibliography of pol¬ 
lination is very extensive. In 1906 Knuth’s 
Handbook of Flower Pollination listed 3748 
titles. Among the more important investi¬ 
gators are Sprengel, Darwin, Mueller, Del- 
pino, Kerner, Loew, Knuth, and Asa Gray. 
Their books are now out of print, but may 
be consulted in the larger libraries. 

POLLINATION OF FRUIT BLOOM. 

See Fruit Bloom. 

PRICKLY PEAR (Opuntia). —There 
are between fifty and sixty species in the 
southwestern States. Succulent plants, 
with jointed branched stems, often spine¬ 
bearing; leaves small and awl-shaped: 
flowers wheel-shaped, without floral tube, 
usually yellow, or yellow inside and red 
outside. Thruout southern and western 
Texas Opuntia Engelmanii is common,, and 
under favorable climatic conditions which 
occur about once in four years, yields a 
large surplus. Extremely hot and humid 
weather is required during the blooming 
period. The honey is very heavy and 
almost viscous in consistency, having a ropy 
appearance when it is extracted. The color 
is light amber and the flavor very good. The 
prickly pear is an important source of pol¬ 
len, and one of the most dependable of Tex¬ 
an honey plants for this purpose. 

PRIORITY RIGHTS.—See Overstock¬ 
ing. 

PROFITS IN BEES.—This question is 
a hard one to answer, as so much depends 
on the locality, the man, and the number 
of bees to the area. 

Considering the average production of the 
poor and the good beekeepers, in the north¬ 
ern States, in what is known as the rain- 
belt, one might perhaps expect to get any¬ 
where from 25 to 50 lbs. of comb honey, 
and perhaps from 25 to 30 per cent more 
of extracted. There will be some seasons 
when he might secure as much as 200 lbs. 
or more on an average, and occasional sea¬ 
sons when there would be no surplus of 
comb nor extracted, and the bees would re¬ 
quire to be fed. Taking one year with an¬ 
other, the ordinary beekeeper ought to av¬ 


erage about 50 lbs. of comb honey, on a 
conservative estimate, provided he has rea¬ 
sonable skill and love for the business. The 
comb honey might net him, deducting' the 
expense of selling, from 10 to 25 cents; 
the extracted, from 7 to 12. These figures 
do not include the labor of producing the 
honey nor the cost of the fixtures. The cost 
of the equipment, exclusive of sections and 
foundations, ought to be sufficient to cover 
10 to 20 years if no increase is made. Sup¬ 
pose the comb honey be put at 50 lbs. as 
the average, and the price secured 15 cents 
net. The actual money one would get from 
the commission merchant or grocer might 
be about $7.50 per colony; but out of this 
he must deduct a certain amount for labor, 
and 10 per cent on the cost of equipment, 
to be on the safe side. 

With only a few bees the labor need not 
be considered, as the work could be per¬ 
formed by some member of the family 
or by the man of the house, who could, dur¬ 
ing his spare hours, do a little with bees, 
and work in his garden. In case of one, 
two, or three hundred, the labor item must 
be figured. The larger the number crowd¬ 
ing the available territory, the smaller the 
profit per colony. A rough estimate for an 
apiary in a locality not overstocked, not 
including the labor on the $7.50 actually 
received for honey sold, ought to leave a 
net profit of somewhere about $5.00. This 
would be on the basis that the locality did 
not require much feeding in the fall. Tf 
feeding was found to be necessary, 50 cents 
more might have to be deducted, making a 
net profit of $4.50. On this basis it will 
be seen that the profit in one season ought 
to pay for the hives and supers in two 
years, or come very close to it, leaving the 
investment good for ten or more years. Tf 
it is figured that way the ten per cent need 
not be added. For a professional man, or 
one who has other business, even these re¬ 
turns are not bad; for if he secures only 
enough for family use, the diversion or 
change to relieve the tired brain is worth 
something. 

The question as to whether one should 
keep few or many bees will depend upon 
many conditions; but the principal one is 
the ability of the man. Many a person can 
handle a few chickens, and get good re¬ 
sults; but when he runs the number up into 


PROFITS IN BEKS 


the hundreds he meets with failure. Some 
have done remarkably well with a few colo¬ 
nies ; but when they have attempted to 
double or treble the number they entered 
into a business proposition that proved to 
be too much for them. 

Many years ago a neighbor cleared a 
thousand dollars from one acre of onions. 
It made him wild. He bought ten more 
acres of the same kind of onion land, going 
into debt for it, and expected to clear the 
following year $10,000. When he managed 
the one acre he did all the work himself; 
but when he worked the ten acres he bad to 
hire help. The help was incompetent, or 
did not understand. Onions fell in price; 
and at the final round-up that year he had 
a great stock of poor onions without a 
buyer. They rotted. He became discour¬ 
aged, and lost all he had. * 

A few persons, on account of a lack of 
experience or perhaps business ability, not 
understanding their own* limitations and 
those of their localities, will plunge into 
beekeeping too deeply and meet with dis¬ 
aster. 

Many a beekeeper has done well with 
four or five hundred colonies when he fails 
with twice that number. When he or mem¬ 
bers of his family can do all the work 
everything goes well; but when he has to 
hire help, much of it incompetent, his 
troubles begin, and his profits are cut in 
two. Said one large producer, “When I 
had 3,000 colonies, and my boys and I did 
all the work, we made money; but when I 
increased my number to 7,000, and hired 
help, I actually did not make as much 
money as when I had 3,000.” 

There are some men who are unable to 
get along with their help. There are oth¬ 
ers who, when they have good help, have no 
ability to plan the work for others. 

If it were not for bee disease and rob¬ 
bing, the question of hired help would not 
be so serious. A poor man in a beeyard 
may make his employer a world of trouble 
and expense unless his boss can be with 
him constantly, and that is not always 
possible. 

One may double or treble the number of 
his colonies if he can plan his work ahead 
and then go along with the help, taking one 
yard after another. After a time one of the 


683 

men may be competent enough to go to the 
yards and manage the other help; but usu¬ 
ally a good man can make more money by 
running and owning the bees himself than 
by working for some one else. It is diffi¬ 
cult, therefore, to hold such a man. 

If one expects to expand his bee busi¬ 
ness, tho he does not have members of his 
family to help him, he will probably have 
to work on a profit-sharing basis — a mod¬ 
erate salary and a percentage of the crop. 
This creates in the man a sense of responsi¬ 
bility and ownership that makes him a bet¬ 
ter man than if he merely had to put in so 
many hours, and at the same time holds 
him. If the owner can go with the help to 
all the yards, it is not necessary for him to 
hire on the profit-sharing basis. 

Assuming that the help question can be 
solved let us look at the side of expansion 
of the business. Let us assume a case. 
Here is a beekeeper who has 300 colonies. 
During the busy season he is comfoi'tably 
busy. But during six months in the year 
his time is not very profitably employed— 
a distinct loss; for it will take him only a 
short time, comparatively, to get his supers 
ready for the next season, nail his hives, 
repaint them, or do other preliminary work 
that can easily be done indoors and yet his 
interest or his rent and his living expenses 
are going right on. Suppose, for example, 
that this beekeeper has 600 colonies, or 
1,000; that he has good business ability; 
that he has plenty of bee-range. Suppose 
lie scatters this number in 15 different 
yards, none further than 15 miles from his 
home, and a good part of them not over 
four or five miles away. In the busy sea¬ 
son he will, of course, have to employ help. 
If he has the right kind of executive ability 
he will see that that help is profitably em¬ 
ployed. When the rush of work is over he 
will look after the marketing of the crop, 
put the bees into winter quarters, perhaps 
doing the work himself with the occasional 
help of one man, and a machine. In cold 
weather he can devote all of his time profit¬ 
ably in preparing for the next season. 
While he is operating 1,000 colonies it 
costs him no more to live; the same auto¬ 
mobile that will carry him to two or three 
hundred will carry him to the other seven 
or eight hundred. If he is running for 


PROPOLIS 


084 

extracted honey, the same extractor, un- 
ca pping-knives, and smokers can be used 
at a central extracting-station. He is thus 
enabled to put his invested capital where 
it will be earning’ money for him all the 
time in the busy season instead of eating 
up interest part of the time. Let it be as¬ 
sumed that some of his swarms get away 
from him; let it be assumed also that some 
of the work is not done as well as when he 
had only 300 colonies; but he has in¬ 
creased his honey crop by three times, pos¬ 
sibly, and has increased his actual operat¬ 
ing expenses only to the extent of the help 
that he has to pay for, extra hives, and 
sugar to feed. An exti’a man and a boy 
three months in a year—the men at $4.00 
each and a boy at $2.00 per day—would 
make his expense $450, counting 25 work¬ 
ing days to the month. To this should be 
added $70 for extra team or automobile 
truck hire. The cost of the extra 700 colonies 
with hives and supers divided by ten (as¬ 
suming that they would last ten years) 
would be $840 more, or $1360. But there 
must be added $350 more for sugar for 
feeding and $700 for sections, foundation, 
and shipping cases making $2,410 as the 
total added expenses for the 700 extra colo¬ 
nies. Say he is producing comb honey, and 
that he can average 35 lbs. per colony. If 
this nets him 15c he would get from 300 
colonies $1,575. If he has 1,000 colonies 
his gross income will be $5,250 by adding 
only $2,410 to his general expenses. 

This is a supposable and a possible case. 
But it shows that the operating expenses 
will not be proportionately increased if the 
number of colonies be doubled or trebled—- 
all on the assumption, of course, that the 
beekeeper has the necessary skill and busi¬ 
ness ability. 

PROPOLIS (From the Greek; pro, be¬ 
fore, and polis, city, referring to its 
use in partially closing the entrance or 
gateway to the bee commune or city).— 
Propolis is a gum gathered by bees from 
a variety of plants, but especially from 
the buds having some sort of gum or sticky 
substance. As it occurs in the beehive, it 
is dark reddish brown in color, and re¬ 
sembles the pitch of commerce. It has an 
aromatic odor similar to that of the buds 
of the balm-of-Gilead, is extremely brit¬ 


tle, melts at about 150 degrees F., is partly 
soluble in alcohol, only slightly soluble in 
turpentine, but readily dissolves in ether 
and chloroform. When wax and propolis 
are melted in the same receptable the liq¬ 
uid wax, being of less specific gravity, rises 
to the top and the liquid propolis sinks to 
the bottom. Propolis quickly sinks in wa¬ 
ter. 

Bees do not pack propolis in the cells, 
but it is applied at once to some portion 
of the hive. When newly gathered it is 
very soft, and in an almost liquid state is 
forced by the bee’s tongue into cracks and 
crevices, or spread as a varnish over the 
surface of combs. It is found in every 
part of the hive, but is especially abundant 
around the edges of the cover and at the 
ends of the frames, often completely filling 
the space between the ends of the top-bars 
and the front and back walls of the hive. 
It occurs in many parts of the hive, where 
it is entirely useless, as on its walls, bot¬ 
tom-board, middle of the cover, and on the 
frames and sections. In some cases it is 
found in' pellets or small masses, in others 
in narrow bands. It is stated that empty 
combs, which are not immediately used for 
brood-rearing or honey, are given a thin 
coating of propolis to preserve them. The 
spaces between the wires of queen-exclud¬ 
ers are often partially filled with propolis, 
but wax is also used for this purpose and 
is often covered with propolis. English 
beekeepers check projoolizing by rubbing 
chalk over the edges of frames and covers, 
and whitewashing the interior of the hive 
is sometimes practiced for the same pur¬ 
pose. It is seldom, however, that any 
measures to prevent propolizing are neces¬ 
sary. 

Small animals which enter the hive are 
stung to death, and are then sealed up in 
a wall of propolis. Snails, lizards, mice, 
and even small snakes, have been embalmed 
in an impervious coating of glue. 

If the sections are left on the hive too 
long, the bees will not only cover the wood¬ 
work but will also varnish over the whole 
surface of the white cappings, rendering 
the honey almost unsalable. The best 
course is to take off the supers as soon as 
the sections are capped over, for during a 
strong flow of honey little propolis is 


PROPOLIS 


685 


gathered. But it is almost impossible to 
keep the sections entirely free from it. The 
sections should be so packed in the supers 
as to leave few crevices and no more sur¬ 
face than necessary accessible to the bees. 
The outside of the sections may be covered 
entirely by. using holders having the top' 
and bottom of the same width as the section 
frames. Propolis may be readily removed 
from the boxes, and partially from the 
surface of the combs, with sandpaper. 

The quantity of propolis brought into 
the hive depends partly upon the race of 
bees, and partly upon the location. Cau¬ 
casian bees use propolis much more freely 
than Italian races, and may nearly close 
the entrance to the hive with pillars or 
buttresses, between which are left spaces 
so narrow that only one bee can pass at a 
time. In Colorado the narrow-leaved cot¬ 
tonwood ( Populus angustifolia) furnishes 
so large an amount of propolis that a grove 
of these trees near an apiary is an objec¬ 
tion. The gum is a bright reddish color, 
and exudes on the buds in such large quan¬ 
tities that a bee can obtain several loads 
from a single bud. The bees continue to 
gather this gummy substance long after the 
'leaves have fallen. 

In the East the buds of the balsam pop¬ 
lar ( Populus balsamifera) are believed to 
be one of the chief sources of propolis. 
The larger buds usually have on the ends 
small drops of yellow gum. Bees gather 
the gum with their mandibles, and it is 
packed and carried in the pollen baskets 
in the same way as pollen. In its removal 
within the hive the bee is said to be aided 
by other workers. Huber placed some 
branches of a wild poplar tree before the 
hives of his apiary, and the bees alighted 
on them and removed the gum with their 
mandibles in threads, which were loaded 
first on one hind leg and then on the 
other. 

At Banning, California, and Tacoma, 
Washington, propolis has been reported to 
produce an eruption similar to that caused 
by poison ivy. Poison ivy (Rhus Toxico- 
dendvon) and poison oak (Rhus divevsi- 
loba) are found in both States and are fre¬ 
quently visited by bees for nectar. Prob¬ 
ably also propolis was brought into the 
hives from these shrubs. The burning and 


intense irritation caused in such cases may 
be entirely relieved by two or three appli¬ 
cations of sweet spirits of niter. 

While propolis may be gathered at any 
time during the summer, it is gathered 
most largely in the fall, when the bee’s in¬ 
stinct impels it to prepare for cold weath¬ 
er. During the honey flow very little if 
any propolis is brought in. In the absence 
of a natural supply of propolis bees may 
gather a supply from the parts of old 
hives, where it has been softened by the 
heat of midsummer. Dadant relates that 
in the vicinity of Matamoras, Mexico, 
where propolis seemed to be scarce, lie saw 
bees collecting green paint from window 
blinds and pitch from the rigging of a ves¬ 
sel in the harbor. Bees are attracted by 
the smell of varnish and will alight on a 
newly varnished object in large numbers. 
The superstition, formerly prevalent, that 
bees, in sorrow for the death of the bee¬ 
keeper, would follow his body to the grave, 
probably gained credence, from instances 
where bees were seen working on the var¬ 
nish of the coffin. 

A small quantity of propolis may be re¬ 
moved from glass with alcohol. Frames 
and separators may be wholly or partly 
cleaned by dipping in a wash-boiler filled 
with boiling water and lye. While the 
separators will come out entirely clean, it 
is usually necessary to scrape the wooden 
frames. With a large boiler many frames 
and separators may be cleaned at one 
time; supers and hives may also be cleaned 
in the same way. Propolis may be pre¬ 
vented from sticking to the fingers by the 
use of vaseline, or oil, or a pair of light 
cotton gloves. It can easily be removed 
from the hands with alcohol, gasoline, and 
lye. 

Propolis was known to the ancient Ro¬ 
mans and is described by Virgil in the 
fourth book of the Georgies. Surprising¬ 
ly little progress has been made' in our 
knowledge of the origin of this resin since 
those early times. Many modern books on 
bee culture refer to it very briefly, and 
compared with the collection of pollen rel¬ 
atively few observations have been made. 
As recently as 1911 an article was pub¬ 
lished in which it was asserted that the be- 


686 


QUEEN-REARING 


lief that propolis is derived from the buds 
of shrubs and trees is entirely erroneous; 
and that it is a by-product arising when 
brood food is prepared by the nurse bees. 
Small drops of balsam were said to be 
forced out thru the mouth of the bee and 
deposited in corners or crevices of the hive. 
This theory is clearly imaginary and not 
supported by facts, since propolis is pres¬ 
ent in queenless colonies and in hives in 
which no pollen is fed to brood; but it is 
not without interest since it calls attention 
to the imperfection of our knowledge of 
its origin and the few reliable observations 
available. Further investigation is greatly 
to be desired. 

Under the conditions of modern bee cul¬ 
ture the collection of propolis is apparent¬ 
ly useless to the bees and a disadvantage to 
the beekeeper. The various parts of the hive 
are glued tightly together so that they are 
removed with difficulty; the combs are fre¬ 
quently stained a dark color; and the seal¬ 
ing of all crevices may prevent proper ven¬ 


tilation causing the interior of the hive to 
become damp, and ice to form in cold 
weather. But in the early history of the 
honeybee, long before the beginning of bee¬ 
keeping, when honeybees built their nests 
in hollow trees or in cavities in the rocks, 
the use of propolis was undoubtedly of 
great benefit both in excluding rain and 
cold, and also ants. Altho no longer bene¬ 
ficial under proper methods of beekeeping, 
the habit still survives; and, when bees are 
not engaged in gathering nectar, they still 
continue to seek for gums and resins. 

Propolis is the base of an important an¬ 
tiseptic preparation used by surgeons. In 
a hospital where 58 surgical cases were 
treated with propolisinvasogen (Pearson & 
Co., Hamburg) there was not a single fail¬ 
ure. The results were much less favorable 
in cases where this preparation was not 
used. It is highly commended as a domes¬ 
tic remedy for wounds and burns. It is 
also claimed that it makes an excellent pol¬ 
ish for wood and leather. 


Q 


QUEEN-REARING. —Before this sub¬ 
ject is read the subject of Queens further 
on should be gone over carefully. This 
will make queen-rearing more easily under¬ 
stood. 

As a general rule, extensive honey-pro¬ 
ducers believe that it is better and cheaper 
to buy their queens than to attempt to 
raise them, for the following reasons: 
(1) When they buy queens they introduce 
new blood in their yards; (2) in order to 
raise queens it takes a large amount of skill, 
time, and equipment, which, if devoted to 
the production of honey, would yield larger 
results in dollars and cents; (3) there is 
often a predominance of black drones in 
their locality, so much so that their matings 
would produce hybrids. There are other 
large producers who do raise some queens 
of their own, such stock coming from colo¬ 


nies showing' the best, average in honey pro¬ 
duction year in and year out. When swarm¬ 
ing is controlled by caging the queen, re¬ 
queening can be effected without very much 
loss of time. Moreover, the best of cells 
can be reared during the swarming season. 

There are certain of the smaller pro¬ 
ducers who raise their own queens, if for 
no other reason than for the fun of it. The 
whole process, from start to finish, is inter¬ 
esting and fascinating. For the benefit of 
these and others, some of the fundamental 
principles as well as the methods that are 
used by our best queen-breeders will be 
shown. But before the breeder launches 
into this general subject, he should be re¬ 
minded again to turn to Queens. After 
having read that he may then consider 
queen-rearing. 


QUEEN-REARING 


687 




Queen, drone, and worker. 



CONDITIONS FAVORABLE AND UNFAVORABLE 
FOR REARING QUEENS. 

Bees will builcl queen-cells _ and rear 
young queens, when preparing to swarm 
(see Swarming), when superseding an old. 
failing queen, or when their queen is lost 
thru accident or removed hv the beekeeper. 

Some hold that the best queens are those 
that are reared either during the swarming 
time or when the bees are about to super¬ 
sede an old queen soon to fail. • At such 
times one may see large beautiful queen- 
cells, looking like big peanuts, projecting 
from the side of the comb. The larvae in 
such cells are lavishly fed with royal jelly; 
and when the queens finally emerge they are 
usually large and vigorous. 

As already stated there is one class of 
cells that bees rear when they are about 
to supersede an old queen. When she is 
two or three years old she begins to show 
signs of failing. The bees recognize the 
fact that their own mother will soon die, 
or at least need help from a daughter, and 
very leisurely proceed to construct a num¬ 


ber of cells, all of which are supplied with 
larvaa, and fed in the same lavish way as 
those reared under the swarming impulse. 

Unfortunately one can never determine 
in advance when the bees will rear super- 
sedure cells, and it may be true that the 
queen about to be superseded is not desirable 
stock from which to real'. In like manner it 
may be that cells reared under the swarm¬ 
ing impulse, if from poor stock, should be 
rejected; because it is certainly unwise to 
rear queens from any thing but the very 
best select stock. All of the finest swarrn- 
ing-cells from good queens can be reserved 
and kept in a warm place. Queens two or 
three years old can be destroyed and their 
colonies supplied with one of these cells. 
One may have good queens even three or 
more, years old, but it is hardly probable. 
The majority of honey-producers think it 
profitable to replace all queens two years 
old, while a good many make it a practice 
to requeen all colonies having queens one 
year and over. 

While these swarming-cells produce the 



688 


QUEEN-REARING 


very best queens, it may not always be con¬ 
venient to requeen during the swarming 
season, which in some localities may be a 
very bad thing to do, owing to the in¬ 
terruption that it makes in the regular 
production of honey; for some believe 
that a good many colonies will not do as 
well in honey-gathering when they are 
queenless. If good swarming-cells are avail¬ 
able, however, they may be given to nuclei 
in order to save them. 

Among the several systems of rearing 
queens, the one put out by Mr. Doolittle 
a few years ago forms the basis of some 
of the best now in vogue. It is very sim¬ 
ple, requiring no special tools more than 
one can improvise for himself. Thorolv 
understanding this, the reader will be in 
position to carry out the more advanced 
ideas put forth by others'. 

THE DOOLITTLE METHOD OF REARING QUEENS. 

While Mr. Doolittle’s system seems to be 
artificial he endeavored to make his meth¬ 
ods conform as nearly as possible to Na¬ 
ture’s ways. It is of prime importance 
in the rearing of queens to bring about 
conditions that will approach, as nearly as 
possible, those that are generally present 
during the swarming season or supersed- 
ure at a time when the bees supply the cell- 
cups lavishly with royal food. One of the 
first requisites for cell-building is very 
strong colonies; second, a light honey 
flow, or a condition almost analogous, viz., 
stimulative feeding if the honey is not then 
coming in. Queens reared during a dearth 
of honey, or queens from cells reared in 
nuclei, are apt to be small. The mothers 
that do their best work are those that are 
large, and capable of laying at least from 
3,000 to 4,000 eggs per day.* A queen 
that is incapable of this should not be re¬ 
tained. A colony with a good queen might 
earn for its owner in a good season $5.00 

* It is not necessarily the large queens which do 
the hest work. Also 3,000 to 4,000 is hardly the 
maximum of “best” queens. A Langstroth comb 
has approximately 6,000 cells, and good queens 
will not infrequently fill all of one and part of 
another in 24 hours. This summer I saw 14 colo¬ 
nies, each with two 12-frame chambers for the 
queen; and in several which I inspected, the 
queens had the whole 24 frames filled with brood 
in various stages. This figures out like this: 24 
times 6.000 °ouals 144 000 cells of brood. Divide 
this by 21, the time from egg to mature bee, and 
the result is 6 837 for a day. Allowing for some 
pollen (and there was not much in those 24 combs) 
the figure 6 000 could not have be°c far from what 
those queens were doing. — A. C. Miller. 


to $25.00 in clean cash. In the same sea¬ 
son the same colony (or, perhaps, to speak 
more exactly the same hive of bees), with 
a poorer queen, would bring in less than 
half that amount. A queen that can average 
2,000 or 3,000 eggs a day at the right time 
of the year, so that there will be a large 
force of bees ready to begin on the honey 
when it does come, is the kind of queen 
that should be reared. 

The old way of raising queens was to 
make a colony or a nucleus queenless; wait 
for the bees to build their own cells; then 
distribute them to colonies made queenless 
beforehand. This plan is very slow and 
wasteful, and, worst of all, results in the 
rearing of inferior queens. Mr. Doolittle 
took advantage of Nature’s way to such 
an extent that he was enabled to rear a 
large number of queens from some selected 
breeder, by increasing the number of cells 
ordinarily built; for the prime requisite in 
queen-rearing is cells—plenty of them— 
that will furnish good, strong, healthy 
queens. 

The first step in queen-rearing is to pro¬ 
vide cell cups. Many times, when an 
apiarist is going thru his yard he can cut 
out embryo cell cups. These can be utilized 
at some future time for the purpose of 
grafting. But such cells are not generally 
found in large numbers, and after they are 
gathered, are exceedingly frail, irregular 
in shape, and will not bear much handling. 

HOW TO MAKE DOOLITTLE CELL CUPS. 

Mr. Doolittle was among the first who 
conceived the idea of making artificial cell 
cups that should not only be regular in 
form but of such construction as to stand 
any reasonable amount of handling. Con¬ 
trary to what one might expect., such cells 
are just as readily accepted by the bees as 
those they make in the good old-fashioned 
way; and, what is of considerable impor¬ 
tance, they can be made in any quantity by 
one of ordinary intelligence. 

Mr. Doolittle took a wooden rake-tooth, 
and whittled .and sandpapered the point so 
that it was similar in size and shape to the 
bottom of the ordinary queen-cell. Prepar¬ 
atory to forming the cells he had a little 
pan of beeswax, kept hot by means of a 
lamp; also a cup of water. Taking one 
of these cell-forming sticks he dipped it 



QUEEN-REARING 


G89 


into water, after which he plunged it about 
9-16 of an inch into the melted wax. He 
then lifted it up and twirled it at an angle 
(waxed end lower) in his fingers. When cool 
he dipped it again, but not quite so deep, 
and twirled it as before. He proceeded thus 
until the cup was dipped seven or eight 
times, but each time dipping it less deep, 
within 1-32 inch of the previous dipping. 
The main thing is to secure a cup having a 
thick heavy bottom, but which will have a 
thin and delicate knife edge at the open 
top, or at that point where the bees are 
supposed to begin where man left off work. 
After the last dipping is cooled, a slight 
pressure of the thumb loosens the cell cup 
slightly. It is then dipped once more, and 
before cooling it is attached to a comb or 
stick designed to receive it. 

grafting cells. 

A small particle of royal jelly is inserted 
in every queen-cell. The amount in each 
should be about equivalent in bulk to a 
double-B shot, said Mr. Doolittle. But it 
has been found that a much less quantity 
will answer. Out of an ordinary queen-cell 
well supplied with royal jelly one can get 
enough to supply 20 cups. This royal jelly 
should come from some queen-cell nearly 
ready to seal, as that will contain the most. 
It should be stirred to bring all to about 



Supplying cells with royal jelly. 

the same consistency, after which it may 
be dipped out of the cells by means of a 
stick whittled like an ordinary ear-spoon, 
or a toothpick. 

The next operation is to take a frame of 
young larvas just hatched from the eggs 
of the best breeding queen. Each little 
grub should be lifted up with the aforesaid 


ear-spoon, and gently laid on the royal 
food previously prepared in one of the cell 
cups. A larva should be given to every 
one of the cell cups in this manner, and 
when all are supplied they are to be put 
into the cell-building colony, to be ex¬ 
plained later.* 

REARING QUEENS IN LARGE 
NUMBERS. 

Thus far the original Doolittle system 
of rearing cells has been considered; 
and where one desires only a few for his 
own use he may find this method more con¬ 
venient than the one now to be described. 
But if he has any number to rear he should 
carry out the following plan. The method 
of preparing the colonies for cell-building 
will be the same. 


A B 

Cross-section of wooden cell-holder; cell cup par¬ 
tially pushed into place. 

Instead of dipping the cells one by one 
with a stick, or dipping several sticks at 
once, compressed cell cups are made on a 
plan originally devised by E. L. Pratt. 
With a suitable die, cells more nearly per¬ 
fect than can possibly be dipped by the 
slow process already described are punched 
out at the rate of 2,000 an hour. These are 
furnished by dealers, and, generally speak¬ 
ing, it would be better to buy cell cups than 
to attempt to make them by the dipping 
process. 

To facilitate general handling, the modi¬ 
fied Doolittle system calls for wooden cell- 
holders, which may, under certain circum¬ 
stances, be used as direct cell cups. 

These are cylindrical pieces of wood, % 
inch in diameter, % inch.long. A suitable 
drill of the same diameter as the compressed 
cell cup bores a hole into the end of the 
plug and nearly thru. One of the wax cups 
is then pressed down in the hole. A series 
of about a dozen of these plugs, each con¬ 
taining a cup is then stuck on a strip of 
wood by hot wax. The end of the plug 

*This work should be done in an atmosphere 
of 80 °. 













GOO 


QUEEN-REARING 


is dipped into hot wax and before it cools, 
it is applied to the wooden bar as shown. 
These wooden cell-holders can likewise be 
purchased by the thousand. 

The compressed cups are forced into the 
hole in the cell-holders by means of a little 
plunger-stick. When enough of them have 
been prepared, and secured to a cell-bar 
by being pressed against the under side of 
the cell-bar, they are ready to be grafted. 
This process is much the same as that al¬ 
ready described in the Doolittle method, ex¬ 
cept that a much smaller quantity of royal 
jelly is used, and special tools are provided 



Manner of inserting cell cups in cell-holders. 


for the purpose, these being obtained of 
the dealers. Sufficient royal jelly is gath¬ 
ered up from a series of cells, and the same 
is stirred with a special jelly-spoon. A 
spoonful is then held in the left hand, while 
the right hand uses the grafting-tool to 
take a speck of the royal jelly, about the 
size of the head of a pin. This is then 
placed in the bottom of one of the com¬ 
pressed cups. Other cups are treated in 
the same way until the whole series of cells 
is provisioned. 

The next operation is to take a comb of 
very young larvae, just hatched, from a 
breeding queen. In an atmosphere not 


cooler than 75 or 80 degrees (the warmer 
the better) a young larva is scooped or 
lifted up out of a worker-cell with the flat¬ 
tened end of the grafting-tool, and depos¬ 
ited in the royal jelly of one of the com¬ 
pressed cups. This is repeated until all the 



Cell-holder with cell in place. 


cups are grafted. This royal jelly serves a 
double purpose. It affords a downy bed, 
so to speak, in which to lay the larva, and 
at the same time provides food until the 
bees can give it a fresh supply. Despite 
the claim that royal jelly is not necessary 
one will get more cells accepted by using it. 


GETTING CELLS ACCEPTED AND BUILT OUT. 


The average beginner will probably suc¬ 
ceed best by giving grafted cells to a queen¬ 
less strong colony. In about two days after 
making it queenless a bar of 15 cells (not 
more) inserfed in a frame may be given. 
If no honey is coming in from natural 
sources, the colony should be fed in a man¬ 
ner to be explained. When conditions are 
right, nearly every cell, if not every one of 
them, will be accepted. By “accepted” is 




Hoffman frame with removable bars for cell- 
holders. 

meant that the bees have begun work on 
them, and have added their own royal jelly. 
After being accepted they are given to the 
upper story of a strong colony, with an 
excluder between the two stories, to be 
completed. 

























































QUEEN-REARING 


691 


The question might be raised right here, 
“Why not make these upper stories start 
as well as complete the cells?” For the 
simple reason that they will not start work 
of this sort except under the most favorable 
conditions; and the average queen-breeder 
has decided it does not pay to try to make 
the attempt. There should be one colony 


G, fully completed cell from holder; H, partially 

built cell torn away to get at the royal jelly. 

to start the cells and another' to complete 
them after they are accepted in another 
colony. 

After the first batch of 15 grafted cups 
have been accepted and removed, another 
batch of 15 may be given, and so on the 
process can be repeated. But such cell- 
starting colonies should not be kept for 
such purpose more than three weeks, on 
account of the danger of laying workers. 
See Laying Workers. 



In eight days after giving the first batch 
of grafted cells, it will be necessary to go 
over the combs very carefully and destroy 
any natural cells of their own; for if these 
are left in the hive the bees will do no work 


on the second batch of cells. In the mean¬ 
time a virgin would emerge and trouble hap¬ 
pen. Even after the first batch of natural 
cells are cut out, it is advisable to go over 
the combs again in eight days, because a 
colony like this may steal an egg or two 
from some other colony. 

Another excellent cell-building colony 
outside of the swarming season is one hav¬ 
ing a queen which it is trying to super¬ 
sede. One or more such colonies will be 
found in a large apiary, but as a general 
rule the queen is hardly good enough to 
use as a breeder. Having found such a col¬ 
ony, begin giving it daily feeds at once, 
this being a requisite for the best results in 
cell-building with any colony, either with a 
queen or without one. This supersedure 
cell-building colony will not only draw out 
and complete one set of cups but several 
sets in succession; but it is best not to give 
any one such colony more than a dozen or 
a dozen and a half prepared cups at a time. 
Allow it to finish up one batch, and then, if 
necessary, give it another. 

Just how far supersedure bees will con¬ 
tinue to build out batches of cells, one after 
another, is not known; but if they are 
fed half a pint of syrup daily they appear 
to be willing to keep up the work indefi¬ 
nitely, in the hope that they will some day 
be able to rear a virgin that will supplant 
the old queen that appears to be failing. 

THE FORCED-CELL-STARTING COLONY. 

There is still another plan used by queen- 
breeders to get cells accepted or started in 
a more wholesale way; and that is, make 
up a forced-cell-starting colony. This is 
done by making a strong colony queenless 
and broodless. The combs are taken out 
one by one, and shaken in front of the 
entrance. When combs are cleaned of bees 
it will be very easy to see any eggs. Combs 
haying honey only are set back in the hive, 
and with them two division-board feeders. 
One is placed on each side and half filled 
with syrup; and an hour or two after the 
bees have been made queenless and brood¬ 
less they will set up a roar; for without 
any brood or any possibility of producing 
it, they are in dire distress, and in just the 
right condition, psychologically, to rush 
upon grafted cups that may be given them. 



























6C2 


QUEEN-REARING 



Fully completed queen-cells built on wooden cell cups here described. 


The nurse bees are already supplied with 
pap; and with no young brood of any 
kind to feed they have royal jelly in any 
quantity to give the cups. A colony in this 
condition may be given 100 cells on two 
frames, which are placed in the center of 
the colony in places previously left vacant. 
If everything has been done right, nearly 
every one of the cells will be accepted; but 
the attempt should not be made to make 
such a colony start a second batch. When 
the cells are accepted they are taken out 
and placed in an upper story of a cell¬ 
building (or, rather, cell-completing) col¬ 
ony next to be described. 

While queenless bees will complete any 
cells given them, such cells will generally 
not be as good as those built under the 
swarming or supersedure impulse. For a 
cell-completing colony a two-story colony 
with an excluder between the stories is pre¬ 
pared. The lower hive contains the queen, 
but the brood is lifted into the upper story. 
The queen and bees below will begin rear¬ 
ing more brood. If no honey flow is on, it 
is important to feed, because otherwise 
these cell-builders will tear down the work 
so nicely started in the other hive. 

Under Feeding is described the Board- 
man feeder for slow feeding. After one 
feed is given another must be given the 
next day. If a day is skipped in feeding, 
the colony begins to feel that the honey 
flow has stopped, and apparently comes to 
the conclusion that there will be no neces¬ 
sity for continuing the work of cell-build¬ 


ing. When- feeding stops, it will often 
destroy work nicely under way. 

If feeding continues such cell-builders 
will take care of and build out about 15 
cells at a time. When the first batch is 
sealed, another batch of accepted cells may 
be given, and so on the process may be con¬ 
tinued thruout the season—provided, how¬ 
ever, the colony is kept up to the maximum 
strength by continuous feeding. 

In about 15 days brood is again lifted 
from the lower to the upper hive and the 
combs from which brood has hatched above 
are put below. Brood must be kept above to 
keep cell-building going on. 

NURSERY CAGES. 

The illustration shows a batch of cells 
taken from one of these cell-builders. In 
large queen-breeding establishments there 
will be 40 to 50 cell-building’ colonies 
kept constantly at work; but the ordi¬ 
nary beekeeper who desires a few queens 
of his own will not need to keep more than 
one such colony more than a few days. 

The cells are now ready to be placed in 
nursery cages. This, it will be seen, is 
practically a modified Alley cage. A sur¬ 
plus of cells often occurs in queen-rearing 
— that is to say, a lack of queenless nuclei 
or colonies to take them. One should ar¬ 
range to have more cells than he will prob¬ 
ably be able to use, to provide for bad 
weather, when cells will be destroyed or 
young virgins will be missing. At such a 
time, if one has extra cells or virgins that 







QUEEN-REARING 


lie can take out of a nursery, lie can quick¬ 
ly make good the loss. 

The nursery cage here shown has a large 
opening at the top to receive the wooden 
cell cup; the small hole in the lower right- 
hand corner is filled with queen-cage candy 



Nursery cage for cells and virgins. 


to supply the young miss after she emerges. 
Twenty-four of these cages, supplied with 
cells that are capped over, can be put in a 
nursery-frame having holders which may 
be tilted on an angle so that any one cage 
can be easily removed from a holder with- 



A nursery frame. 


out disturbing the rest. There are three of 
these holders in each frame, pivoted at both 
ends as shown. When the nursery-frame 
has been filled with cages, each containing 
a capped cell, it should be put down in the 
center of a strong colony. 

While various artificial-heat incubators 
using kerosene lamps or electric heaters 
have been devised, experience has shown a 
majority of breeders that nothing is quite 
so good as a strong cluster of bees. What is 
still more, when the young virgins emerge, 
some of the bees will be inclined to feed 
them thru the wire cloth, providing a 
stimulus that they cannot receive from the 


(><)'.] 

queen candy in the cage. After the vir¬ 
gins have emerged they should be trans¬ 
ferred to introducing cages, and intro¬ 
duced as soon after emerging as possible. 
The younger the virgin, the more success¬ 
ful will be her introduction. After she 
becomes four or five days old, even if she 
be accepted by the bees they are likely 
to mistreat her so that her usefulness there¬ 
after will be greatly impaired. While it is 
possible to introduce these virgins to full- 
sized colonies it is not practicable except 
by the use of the Smith cage or smoke or 
distress method described under Introduc¬ 
ing. It is much easier to .introduce to baby 
nuclei. 

DUAL PLAN OF INTRODUCING VIRGIN QUEENS 
FOR EXTENSIVE BREEDERS. 

It sometimes happens that a breeder will 
have a great surplus of cells, or more 
virgins than he has queenless nuclei or 
colonies. In such cases it has been found 
practicable to introduce two queens at a 
time. First a virgin, the younger the bet¬ 
ter, is introduced in a Miller cage to a baby 
nucleus. After two or three days she should 
be released; in about four days more, being 
seven days from the time of caging the first 
queen, another virgin may be caged among 
the same bees; but the candy of the second 
cage thru which the bees liberate the queen 
must be covered with a little strip of tin or 
the bees will liberate her prematurely. In 
two days more the first virgin will be mated, 
and within two or three days will begin to 
lay if the weather is favorable, when she is 
removed and sent out to fill an order. The 
strip of tin covering the candy of the sec¬ 
ond cage is opened to let the bees release 
virgin No. 2, and, having already acquired 
the colony odor, she will usually be ac¬ 
cepted in less than a day’s time. In about 
seven days from the time she was caged, a 
third queen, if there is still a surplus of 
virgins, may be put into the nucleus while 
No. 2 is taking her mating-flight, and so 
the progress may continue so long as there 
is a surplus of virgins. 

This is really high-pressure queen-rear¬ 
ing, and should be practiced only when 
there is a surplus of virgins, or when there 
are rush orders for cheap queens—cheap 
queens, because the queens introduced on 
the dual plan may or may not be the equal 





























































































094 


QUEEN-BEARING 


of those introduced in the regular way 
where a single queen is introduced at a 
time and is confined in a cage not more 
than a couple of days. If the virgin is 
very young, just emerged, and the nucleus 
has been queenless a couple of days, she 
can be let loose quietly over the top of the 
frames without any caging; but care 
should be taken not to allow her to touch 
the hands, for the scent of the human body 
sometimes causes the bees to attack and 
kill her. 

INTRODUCING QUEEN-CELLS INSTEAD OF 
VIRGINS. 

Some queen-breeders prefer to give ripe 
queen-cells to their nuclei direct, claiming 
that too many of the virgins that they in- 



West queen-cell protector. 


troduce are lost.. It is true, the aver¬ 
age beginner will succeed better with cell's 
than with virgins; but if cells be given, the 
nuclei should be made strong in bees. In 


some cases it will be necessary to use \\ est 
queen-cell protectors to keep the bees from 
gnawing holes in them. • 

The long spiral cage is designed to slip 
under the queen-cell protector, and when 
the young queen emerges she will pass 
into the long cage, wbei’e she can be held 
secure from bees or other virgins in the 
colony that might kill her. 

MATING-HIVES. 

Before securing a lot of nice cells there 
should be in readiness a number of mating- 
hives, or nucleus boxes. The usual plan is 
to use one or two Langstroth combs cov¬ 
ered with bees and brood, and containing 
some honey, in little hives just large enough 
to hold two frames. Mating-liives of this 
kind have been used to a great extent in 
the past; but, as it generally happens be¬ 
fore the season is over, the bees will need 
more room than the box will accommodate. 
Tor this and other reasons to be explained 
it has come to be more and more the prac¬ 
tice to make use of a common Langstroth 
hive, either eight or ten frame. In the 
center, running lengthwise, is inserted a 
close-fitting division-board dividing the 
hive into two equal compartments. The bot¬ 
tom-board is adjusted in such a way that 
there will be an entrance at each end 'com¬ 
municating with each compartment. It is 
customary to have a separate inner cover 
to each compartment; then an additional 
cover that telescopes over the whole. There 
should be enough of these double mating- 
hives on hand ready for queen-rearing op¬ 
erations in the spring to take care of all 



After the battle. By accident a batch of cells were left for a day or so too long in a cell-building 
colony. The first virgin that hatched, true to her nature, waged an unfair war upon her helpless sisters, 
still in their cradles. Every cell was ruthlessly torn open, and the little white queen inside killed. A 
virgin queen will not stand for competition. This inborn instinct of hatred against a rival does not end 
with youth. Two laying queens—old enough to know better—will usually fight if placed together even 
in strange and unnatural surroundings. Place two queens under a drinking glass in the hot sun. If 
they could reason, we might expect them to forget their hatred of each other in view of their common 
predicament of being confined away from the care of nurse bees. But the powerful instinct of hatred 
is so strong that they will usually fight—fight until one or the other is stabbed by that poisoned 
weapon that is never used except against a rival. 


































QtJEEN-REARING 


(>95 


cells or virgins as fast as they are pro¬ 
duced. 

The advantages of a full-sized hive with 
a double compartment are: 

1. A larger capacity providing for an in¬ 
crease in size of the little colony thruout 
the season. 

-• A conservation of the heat of, the two 
clusters of bees. In chilly or cool weather 
the bees of each compartment will be over 
next to the division-board, thus making one 
big cluster with a thin sheet of wood be¬ 
tween. 

3. Economy and convenience in using 
standard equipment which may at any time 
be used for the production of honey when 
queen-rearing operations are over or sus¬ 
pended. 

When it is desired to get the early mat¬ 
ing of queens, and before settled warm 
weather comes on, one can divide a ten- 



frame Langstroth hive into three compart¬ 
ments with close-fitting division-boards. 
There should then be an entrance on each 
side and one in the center. The underside 
of this mating-box or hive-body has a wire 
screen tacked on, when it is set over a strong 
colony in such a way as to leave an en¬ 


trance at the side and one entrance in tin* 
rear or opposite to the entrance of the col¬ 
ony beneath. One or two frames of bees 
and brood containing honey are placed in 
each of the compartments, when they are 
ready for virgins or cells. The advantage 





Twin-nuclei frame. 

of this arrangement is that the heat from 
the big colony beneath will keep each of 
the compartments warm, thus providing 
for early mating. This arrangement is used 
quite extensively by so;ne queen-breeders, 
but onlv early in the season or late in the 
fall. 

BABY NUCLEI USING BABY FRAMES. 

The mating-equipment just described is 
adapted for the northern States. Of course 
it can be used in the South as well; but as 
a rule the queen-breeders of the South use 
what are called “baby nuclei.” These use a 
small force of bees, which, on account of 
the wanner climate, will take care of cells 
or virgins as well as a larger force of bees 
in the larger nuclei. The baby hives are 
much more quickly handled; they require 
fewer bees, and cost less than the full-sized 
standard nuclei using Langstroth frames. 
But they are much more difficult to han¬ 
dle; and beginners, especially those who 
desire to rear only a few queens, should 
not waste any time or money on them. 

FORMING BABY NUCLEI. 

A regular hive-body that has a wire-cloth 
screen bottom and a removable wire-cloth 
screen top is prepared. Into this box some 
ten or twelve pounds of bees are shaken 
from some other yard. These may come 
































































































G96 


QUEEN-RE A RTNG 







^ n# 

: 

»* I 
- 1 


Fig. 2.—Scooping the bees with a small dipper into baby nuclei. 


from four or five colonies, but generally 
from a dozen or more hives. This box of 
bees is then taken to the queen-rearing 
yard, where the nuclei are to be formed. 
Four of the twin baby hives are first placed 
upon a little light stand, each filled with 
empty combs ready to receive the bees, 
entrances closed, and ventilators opened. 
The hive-body containing the shaken bees 
is then placed conveniently near. They are 
wet down with a spray, then given a jar so 
as to get the bees down in a mass in the 
bottom. With a little tin dipper are scooped 
up approximately four ounces of bees, 
which comprise from 1,000 to 1,200 indi¬ 
viduals. As the bees have been previously 
wet down they can not fly very readily, and 
can therefore be scooped up a la Pratt and 
dumped in one of the compartments as 
shown in Pig. 2. An attendant stands 
ready with a number of virgin queens. He 
removes one of the frames of one compart¬ 
ment, and, while the apiarist is scooping up 
a dipperful or two of bees and dumping 
them in the space made vacant by the re¬ 


moval of the frame, he drops in a virgin 
queen just dipped in water. He now puts 
in the removed frame and folds back the 
enamel cloth. The operation is repeated in 
the other compartment of the box, and so 
on the process is continued until all of the 
twin mating-boxes are filled with bees and 
virgin queens. The baby hives are then set 
to one side for about 48 hours, when they 
are placed on their permanent stands for 
the summer. Their entrances are opened 
at night. The next morning, as the bees 
come out they will mark their location and 
begin housekeeping with their baby queen. 

After the baby nuclei are in full opera¬ 
tion ripe queen-cells in place of virgins are 
given. The two frames are spread a little 
apart when the cell is placed in position. 

At the time of forming these baby nuclei, 
a thick syrup of about 2% parts of sugar 
to one of water is poured into the feeder 
compartment at one side. At other times, 
if it is a little cool it is given at night, hot, 
when it will all be taken up before morn¬ 
ing. This feeding may be required off and 





QUEENS 


697 


on during the season. In some years the 
baby nuclei will gather enough to supply 
their own needs. At other times they will 
require a little help. 

These little twin nuclei serve only the 
purpose of mating. No cells a^e reared in 
them, and the comparatively small number 
of bees in each compartment makes it easy 
to find a laying queen or virgin if present. 
If in doubt as to whether the nucleus has a 
virgin, another cell should be given; and 
even should the virgin come back from her 
flight she will take care of that cell by 
gnawing a hole in its side and killing its 
occupant. Should she be lost in one of 
those flights the cell will provide another 
virgin, which will come on in due course of 
time. It is better to have a surplus of cells 
than to lose time. 

These baby nuclei have been carefully 
tested in one of the author’s yards, and 
have given good results; but one needs to 
remember a few things in handling them or 
he may become digusted with the whole 
plan. 

1. If the force becomes a little weak, a 
frame of emerging brood should be given, 
but not eggs nor larvae; or if this cannot be 
had, after the last queen is taken out a few. 
more bees may be dumped in from a strong 
colony of the main yard. While some of 
these will go back, many will remain. 

2. After the young queens begin to lay 
they should be taken out almost immedi¬ 
ately, otherwise they will fill the two small 
combs with eggs and lead off a little swarm 
if there is a honey flow on. If not con¬ 
venient to take the queen out at once, the 
perforated zinc side should be shoved 
around to shut her in. 

3. It is preferable to make up these little 
nuclei with bees from some outyard. 

4. Neither side of the nucleus box should 
be allowed to become empty of bees. The 
combined heat -of the two clusters brings 
about a better state of contentment. 

QUEENS.— T he most important person¬ 
age in the hive is the queen, or mother bee. 
She is called the mother bee because she is, 
in reality, the mother of all the bees in the 
hive. 

Structurally she is much like the worker 
bee. The same egg that will produce a 


worker will also produce a queen. While 
a worker will lay eggs only under stress of 
abnormal conditions, and these only drone 
eggs (see Laying Workers), the queen 
bee, after she has met a drone (or male 
bee), will lay two kinds of eggs—worker 
and drone. While the worker bees have all 
the organs of the queen, those organs are 
undeveloped. The workers instead of be¬ 
ing neuters are all females but incapable of 
reproducing more females. The queen is 
the only true female. So far from being a 
ruler or sovereign she is little more than an 
egg-laying machine subject to the caprices 
of the worker bees. 

When a colony is deprived of its queen, 
the bees set to work and raise another so 
long as they have any worker larvae or 
eggs in the hive from which to do it. This 
is the rule; but there are some exceptions 
—so few, however, that it is safe to assume 
that a queen of some kind is present in the 
hive whenever they refuse to- start queen- 
cells from eggs or larvae of a proper age. 

undersized or imperfectly developed 

QUEENS. 

Some laying queens are small* and un¬ 
usually dark in color, and yet become fer¬ 
tilized. They lay eggs for a little while 
(from a week to several months), but sel¬ 
dom prove profitable. Sometimes they will 
not lay at all, but remain in a colony all 



The queen and her retinue. 

thru the season, neither doing any good nor 
permitting any other queen to be either in¬ 
troduced or reared. A wingless queen, or 
one with bad wings, will prevent another 

*Small queens are not necessarily inferior. One 
of the most marvelous egg-producers I ever saw 
was a “bantam” from Golden stock. She could 
run thru perforated zinc and hack again, before 
a worker could get started thru.—A. C. Miller. 



698 


QUEENS 



Find the queen. 


from being introduced. The remedy is to 
hunt her out and remove her. When queens 
are so nearly like a worker bee as to make 
it hard to distinguish them, they can often 
be detected by the peculiar behavior of the 
bees toward them. See woodcut on page 697. 
In the fall, after the queen has ceased lay¬ 
ing, she will usually look small and insigni¬ 
ficant even tho she be an extra good one. 
But if it is during the laying season, when 
all fertile queens are laying, and the queen 
looks small, she should be removed. Usu¬ 
ally after the main or heavy honey flow' is 
over, all queens let up on or stop laying 
for a short time. At such times any 
queen will look small. 

DEVELOPMENT OF BABY QUEENS. 

HOW A WORKER EGG IS MADE TO PRODUCE A 
QUEEN. 

This is a question that puzzles novices 


about as much as any question they can 
ask. To answer it let the following experi¬ 
ment be tried when the bees tell their own 
story: Get a frame of eggs, and put it into 
a colony having no queen. The tiny eggs 
will hatch into larvas; but about as soon 
as they begin to hatch, there will be found 
a few of the cells supplied with a greater 
profusion of milky food than others. Later 
these cells will begin to be enlarged, and 
soon at the expense of the adjoining ones. 
These are queen-cells, and they are some¬ 
thing like the cup of an acorn in shape, 
and usually occupy about the space of 
three ordinary cells. In the cuts will be 
seen cells in full stages of growth. See 
Queen-rearing. 

There are some queer things about queen- 
cells, as will be noticed. After the cell is 
sealed, the bees put a great excess of wax 
on it, make a long tapering point, and 




QUEENS 


699 


corrugate the sides something like a thim¬ 
ble. This corrugation, or roughness, when 
closely examined, will be seen to be honey¬ 
comb, or, rather, an imperfect representa¬ 
tion of honeycomb on a very small scale. 

It is very handy to be able to tell when 
any young queen will be likely to emerge; 
and the bees are very accommodating in this 
respect also; for, about the day before the 
queen emerges, or maybe two days, they 
proceed to tear down this peak of wax on 
the tip of the cell, leaving only a thin cov¬ 
ering. No one knows why unless they are 
anxious to get a peep at their new mother. 
It has been said they do it that she may be 
better able to pierce the capping; but 
sometimes they omit the proceeding entire¬ 
ly, and apparently she has no difficulty in 
cutting the cap off. If the cell is built on 
new comb, or on a sheet of foundation, and 
be held up before a strong light at about 
the fifteenth day, or a little later, the queen 
can be seen moving about in the cell. Aft¬ 
erward, by listening carefully, she can be 
heard gnawing her way out. Pretty soon 
the points of her sharp and powerful man¬ 
dibles will be seen pi’otruding, as she bites 
out a narrow line. Since she turns her 
body in a circle while doing this, she cuts 
out a circle so true that it often looks as if 
marked by a pair of compasses. The sub¬ 
stance of which the cell is made is tough 
and leathery, and, therefore, before she 
gets clear around her circle, the piece 
springs out in response to her pushing, and 
opens just about as the lid of a coffeepot 
would if a kitten should happen to be in¬ 
side crowding against the lid. Queens may 
often be seen pushing the door open and 
looking out, with as much apparent curi¬ 
osity as a child exhibits when it first creeps 
to the door of a summer morning; often, 
after taking this look, they will back down 
into their cradles, and stay some time. 
This is especially the case when other 
queens are emerging, and there is a strife 
as to who shall be sovereign. 

• royal jelly. 

It will now be in order to consider the 
strange substance, royal jelly, on which 
the baby queens are fed while in the cell. 

The milky food before described, which 
is given to the young larvae, and which is 


supposed to be a mixture of pollen and 
honey partially digested, is very similar, if 
not identical, in composition with the royal 
jelly. Bees are not the only examples in 
the animal kingdom where the food is 
taken into the stomach by the parent, and, 
after partial digestion, regurgitated for the 
use of the offspring. Pigeons feed their 
young precisely in this way until they are 
able to digest their food for themselves. 
It has been stated that bees use a coarser 
food for the worker larvae, after they are a 
few days old, and also for the drone larvse 
during the whole of their larval state. By 
“coarser food” is meant a food not so 
perfectly digested; in fact, drones are said 
to be fed on a mixture of pollen and honey, 



» 

.. LJ 

Natural built oueen-colls life size—Photographed 
by W. Z. Hutchinson. 

in a state nearly natural. It has also been 
said, that queens receive the very finest, 
most perfectly digested, and concentrated 
food that bees can prepare. This we can 
readily believe, for the royal jelly has a 
very rich taste—something between cream, 
quince jelly, and honey—with a slightly 
tart and a rank, strong, milky flavor that is 
quite sickening if much be taken. 

WHAT DOES THE QUEEN DO WHILE SEALED 
UP? 

The author has opened cells at every 
stage after they were sealed until the queens 




700 


QUEENS 


were ready to emerge. One day after being' 
sealed they are simply ordinary larvae 
altho rather larger than worker larvae of 
the same age; after two or three days, a 
head begins gradually to be “mapped out,” 
and, later, some legs are seen folded up; 
last of all, a pair of delicate wings come 
•from somewhere. (See Development of 
Bees.) Two days before emerging the au¬ 
thor has taken them out of the cell, and had 
them mature into perfect queens, by keep¬ 
ing them in a warm place. He has also 
taken them out of the cell before they were 
mature, held the white, still, corpse-like 
form in the hand, then put it back, waxed 
up the cell by warming a bit of wax in the 
lingers, and had it emerge three days after, 
as nice a queen as any. Mr. Langstroth 
mentions having seen the whole operation 
by placing a thin glass tube, open at both 
ends, in the cell, so as to have it inclose 
the queen, the bees being allowed to cap it 
as usual. This experiment was first made 
by Huber. With several such glass queen- 
cells the Avhole operation could be watched 
from beginning to end. See Observatory 
Hives. 

WHAT BECOMES OF THE QUEEN AFTER SHE 
LEAVES THE CELL? 

After she pushes open that hinged door, 
she generally begins by poking her head 
into the cells until she finds one containing 
unsealed honey, from which she takes a sip 
that, at least, indicates she likes that kind 
of provision. 

After she has.had her repast she begins 
to crawl about, partly to enjoy using the 
long strong legs God has given her, and 
partly because she knows that it is her 
allotted task to tear down the remaining 
queen-cells, if such there are. 1 f other 
queens have emerged before her, it is one of 
her first and foremost duties to look them 
up, and either reign supreme or die in the 
attempt. When all other cells have been 
removed, as they usually are where queens 
are wanted for other purposes, she has 
nothing to do but to promenade over the 
premises, monarch of all she surveys. If 
she ever sits down to take a rest, or takes a 
rest in any other position, during the first 
week of her life, the author has never been 
able to discover it. 

But suppose she does find another cell— 


what then? She sometimes runs around 
awhile; sometimes the bees tear it down, 
and sometimes she tears it down herself, 
with the same strong mandibles that she 
used to cut her way out of the cell at first. 
She usually makes the opening in the side 
of the cell. 

It is said that the queen immediately 
stings her helpless immature sister to make 
a sure thing of her destruction, but there 
is some doubt about this. Spots have been 
seen in the side of the queen that looked 
as if she had been stung. Such cells have 
been torn open, and nice queens matured 
from them. As these immature queens are 
very soft, the workers will soon pick them 
out of the cell, piece by piece. The author 
has sometimes placed them in the nursery 
and had them mature, minus a wing, a leg, 
or whatever portion the mischievous work¬ 
er had pulled away. From many observa¬ 
tions the queen generally tears a hole in the 
cell, or bites into it in such a way that the 
workers tear it all down, much in the way 
they do any mutilated or broken pieces of 
comb. See page 694. 

When queen-cells have been cut out, all 
the larvae that are in any way injured are 
at once thrown out, and none but the per¬ 
fect cells preserved. Bees never fuss with 
cripples, nor try to nurse up a bee that is 
wounded or maimed. They have just the 
same feeling for their fellows that a loco¬ 
motive might be expected to have for a 
man whom it had run over. They battle 
against anything that threatens the extinc¬ 
tion of the colony, it is true. There are no 
signs of their caring for one of their num¬ 
ber, or even having compassion on their 
helpless brood when it is wounded and suf¬ 
fering. 

When a queen emerges, the remaining 
cells are very soon torn down, as a general 
thing, but there are many exceptions. Where 
tAvo queens emerge at about the same time 
they also generally attempt to kill each 
other; but both are not killed. This prob¬ 
ably results from the fact that they can 
sting their rivals only in one certain way; 
and the one that, by strength or accident, 
gets the lucky position in the combat is 
sure to come off victorious. This explains 
hoAV a. very inferior virgin queen, that has 
entered the hive by accident, may some- 


QUEENS 


701 


times supplant an old laying’ queen. Two 
queens, when thus thrown together, gener- 
erally fight very soon, but this does not al¬ 
ways happen. Several eases are on record 
where they have lived in peace and har¬ 
mony for months, even when they emerge at 
about the same time, and it is quite com¬ 
mon to find a young queen helping' her 
mother in the egg-laying duties of the hive, 
especially when the mother is two or three 
years old. If the- season is good, and the 
hive populous, they may divide up their 
forces, and after-swarming occurs. See 
After-swarming. 

Sometimes the queen will pay no atten¬ 
tion to the remaining cells, but will let 
the young queens emerge, and then their 


teeting. Whatever it is, it consists of a 
prolonged tone, or a long zeep followed by 
several much shorter, each tone shorter 
than the preceding one. This piping is 
made when the queen is out of the cell, 
either virgin or laying, but usually by a 
young one. The older ones are generally 
too dignified, or too something, to give 
forth any such loud squealing; but they 
will squeal, and lustily, .too, sometimes, 
when the bees ball them and grab them by 
the legs and wings. 

The other note that queen bees are known 
to give forth is what is called qualiking , 
for that more nearly describes the actual 
sound than any other combination of let¬ 
ters that can be put together. It is emitted 
only by a young queen in the 
cell, before she emerges, and is 
made in answer to the piping or 
zeep, zeep, of one of the virgins 
that has already emerged, and 
is trying perhaps to proclaim 
aloud her sovereignty. The quahk 
will be heard, then, only when 
there are queen-cells in the hive. 

While a young queen is being 
introduced she frequently utters 
a note of alarm, a zeep, zeep, 
etc. The bees are almost always 
stirred by these notes and they 
will often run after her and 
cling around her like a ball, 
when they would have paid no 
attention to her had she not ut¬ 
tered this well-known note. 

Queens, when placed near to¬ 
gether in cages, will often call 
and answer each other, in tones 



Natural queen-cells at different stages—The capped cell 
on the left has been detached from the comb, and is ready"to 
give to a colony; cell in the center, flv.e or six days old, has 
been shaved down to show the queen larva just before it is 
ready to stretch out lengthwise of the cell; cell on the right 
shows the mouth of a cell just before capping. 


‘little differences” are adjusted afterward,, 
either by swarming or by the usual “hand- 
to-hand” conflict “until 1 death.” Many losses 
in introducing queens have resulted from 
two queens being in the hive, the owner be¬ 
ing sure his hive was queenless — because he 
had removed one. See Introducing. 

QUEEN’S VOICES. 

Queens have two kinds of voices, or calls, 
either one of which they may emit on cer¬ 
tain occasions. It is almost impossible, on 
the printed page, to describe these sounds. 
One of them is a sort of z-e-e-p, z-e-e-p, 
zeep, zeep. Some call it piping, others 


that are probably challenges to mortal com¬ 
bat. 

Some queens received one summer from 
the South called so loudly when placed on 
the table that they could be heard the entire 
length of a long room. One voice would be 
on a high, shrill key and another a deep 
bass, while others were intermediate. On 
watching closely a tremulous movement of 
the wings was noticed while the queen was 
uttering the note, and one might infer from 
this that the sound is produced by the 
wings, but this is probably not the case. 
Some one reported having heard a queen 














702 


QUEENS 


squeal, both of whose wings had been en¬ 
tirely clipped' off. 

VIRGIN QUEENS. 

The newly emerged queen is termed a 
virgin because she has not met a drone and 
to distinguish her from queens that have 
been fertilized and are laying. Virgin 
queens, when first emerged, are sometimes 
nearly as large as a fertile queen, but they 
gradually decrease in size, until when three 
or four days old they often look so small 
and insignificant that a novice is disgusted 
with their appearance, and, if hasty, pro¬ 
nounces them useless. For the first week 
of their lives they crawl about much as an 
ordinary young worker does, and it is often 
very difficult, if not almost impossible 
to find them unless an amount of time 
is taken that is more than a busy apiarist 
can well afford to spare. It is a waste of 
time to look for them. It is better to in¬ 
sert a frame having some unsealed larvae 
just hatched from the egg; then if no cells 
are started one can decide the queen is 
there without looking further. This plan 
answers a threefold purpose: It enables 
one to tell at a glance whether the queen is 
in the hive all right or not; for as soon as 
she is lost they will start more queen-cells 
on it; it also enables the bees to raise an¬ 
other queen in case the former queen is lost 
by any accident on her wedding-flight, 
which is frequently the case; and, lastly, it 
serves as a sort of nucleus to hold the bees 
together and to keep them from going out 
with the queen on her wedding-trip, which 
they are much disposed to do, if in a small 
nucleus containing no brood. (See Baby 
Nuclei under Queen-rearing.) Unsealed 
brood in a hive is a great safeguard against 
accidents of all sorts, and some say a young 
queen has been started to laying by simply 
giving the bees some eggs and unsealed 
brood. Whether it caused her to rouse up 
and take her wedding-flight, or whether 
she had taken it, but was for some reason 
idle, can not be determined. 

AGE AT WHICH VIRGIN QUEENS TAKE THEIR 
WEDDING-FLIGHT. 

Some fix the wedding-flight from two to 
ten days after birth. It is probably sel¬ 
dom before the fifth day. Some difference, 


doubtless, arises from the fact that queens 
often stay in the cell a day or two after 
they are strong enough to leave it. Some¬ 
times a queen will be found walking about 
the combs when she is so young as to -be 
almost white. Beginners will sometimes 
rejoice at their beautiful yellow queens, 
saying that they are yellow all over, with¬ 
out a bit of black on them; but when 
looked at again, they will be found to be 
as dark as the generality of queens. At 
other times when they come out of the cell 
they will look, both in color and size, as if 
they might be three or four days old. The 
queens generally begin to crawl about the 
entrance of the hive, possibly looking out 
now and then, when 5 or 6 days old. The 
next day, supposing, of course, it is fine 
weather, they will generally go out and try 
their wings a little. These flights are usu¬ 
ally taken in the warmest part of the after¬ 
noon. There is no prettier or more inter¬ 
esting sight to the apiarist than the first 
flight of a queen. She runs this way and 
that, somewhat as does a young bee, only 
apparently much more excited at the pros¬ 
pect of soaring aloft in the soft summer 
air. Finally she tremblingly spreads those 
silky wings, and with a graceful movement 
that can not be equaled anywhere in the 
whole scope of animated nature, she swings 
from her feet, while her long body sways 
pendulously as she hovers about the en¬ 
trance of the hive. A worker bee hovers 
also about the entrance and carefully ob¬ 
serves its location when trying its ivings 
for the first time; but she, seeming to feel 
instinctively that she is of more value to 
the colony than many, many workers, with 
the most scrupulous exactness notes every 
minute point and feature of the exterior of 
her abode, often alighting and taking wing 
again and again, to make sure she knows 
all about it. 

Soon she ventures to circle a little way 
from home, always verging back soon, but 
being gone longer and longer each time. 
She sometimes goes back into the hive sat¬ 
isfied, without going out of sight at all; 
but in this case she will be sure to take a 
longer flight next day or a half-hour later 
in the same day. During these seasons she 
seems to be so intent on the idea she has in 
her head that she forgets all about sur- 


QUEENS 


rounding tilings, and, instead of being 
frightened as usual at opening the hive, she 
will pay no attention; but if the comb she 
is on is lifted up she will take her flight 
from that as well as from anywhere else. 
They have been caught in the hand at such 
times, without their being frightened; and 
as soon as they were allowed to go, they 
were off as if nothing had happened. 

After the queen is satisfied that she will 
know the place, she ventures out boldly; 
and from the fact of her circling right np 
in the air, it was once supposed that ferti¬ 
lization took place above the ken of human 
eyesight. This has been shown to be a mis¬ 
take. See Drones. 

After a successful flight she returns with 
the organs of the drone remaining attached 
to her body. (See Drones.) This is a 
white substance, and is frequently so large 
as to be plainly seen while she is on the 
wing. A queen is usually gone half an 
hour, but she will sometimes return ferti¬ 
lized after an absence of not more than 10 
or 15 minutes, and there have been reported 
instances where she has been gone not more 
than three minutes. This accomplished, sLe 
goes quietly into the hive. The bees are 
much inclined to chase after her, and they 
sometimes pull at the protruding substance 
as if they would drag it away. That they 
do so, is pretty well proved. 

Until recently it was generally believed 
that the queen met the drone only once, 
notwithstanding the fact that Francis Hu¬ 
ber, in his book, “New Observations,” pub¬ 
lished in 1814, made the statement that 
queens might or might not take more than 
one wedding-flight before beginning to lay. 
But this seems to have been overlooked un¬ 
til 1904, when considerable proof was ad¬ 
duced to show that the same queen before 
laying (not after) may not only take sev¬ 
eral wedding-flights, but come back on dif¬ 
ferent occasions with sure evidence of hav¬ 
ing met a drone. ^ 

While it seems to be pretty well proved 
that the queen may take more than one 
marriage-flight prior to her laying, it is 
very much doubted whether she ever takes 
a second flight to meet the drone after lay¬ 
ing. It is true that some facts seem to 
point that way; but when the great number 
of spermatozoa that she receives on her 


wedding-flight is considered, it hardly 
seems likely that a flight is taken later. Ac¬ 
cording to Cheshire, the spermatozoa are 
extruded from the spermatheca in detach¬ 
ments, only a part of them being effective 
in the fertilization of eggs. He estimates 
that about 4,000,000 spermatozoa are re¬ 
ceived at the fertilization of the queen. A 
good queen might, perhaps, lay two hun¬ 
dred thousand eggs in a season. If only 
one-fourth (or 1,000,000) of the spermato¬ 
zoa were effective, the queen could still re¬ 
main fertile for five years if she laid an 
average of 200,000 eggs per year. There¬ 
fore, unless a much greater number of 
spermatozoa are lost, there could be no 
necessity for a later fertilization. 



Queen laying, surrounding bees turned toward her. 


For further particulars on this subject 
of mating, see Drones. 

WHEN THE QUEEN BEGINS TO LAY AFTER 
MATING. 

The 3d or the 4th day after a successful 
mating one will, as a general rule, find the 
queen depositing eggs. The average age at 
which queens begin laying is about nine 
days. Between impregnation and the time 
the first egg is laid a remarkable change 
takes place. 

After the queen has been out and ferti¬ 
lized, her appearance is much the same as 
before. She runs and hides when the hive 
is opened, and looks so small and insignifi¬ 
cant that one would not think of calling 





704 


QUEENS 


her a fertile queen. A few hours before 
the first egg is laid, however, her body in¬ 
creases remarkably in size, and, if an Ital¬ 
ian, becomes lighter in color, and, instead 
of running about as before, she walks slow¬ 
ly and sedately. She seems to have given 
up all her youthful freaks, and comes 
down to the sober business of life in sup¬ 
plying the cells with eggs. 

HOW OLD A QUEEN MAY BE AND STILL 
BECOME FERTILIZED. 

As before stated, queens usually begin 
to lay when 8 or 10 days old, on the 
average; but during a spell of bad weather, 
or when drones are scarce, they may fail to 
lay until three weeks old. The longest pe¬ 
riod we have ever known to elapse between 
the birth of a queen and her laying worker- 
eggs is about 25 days. All queens that do 
not lay at the age of *20 days should be de¬ 
stroyed, when the season, flow of honey, 
and flight of drones are right. There is one 
important exception to this. Many times 
queens will not lay in the fall at all, unless 
a flow of honey is produced either by nat¬ 
ural or artificial means. Queens introduced 
in the fall often will not lay until the ensu¬ 
ing spring, unless the colony is fed regu¬ 
larly every day for a week or ten clays. 
Likewise young queens that are fertilized 
late in the season will often show no indi¬ 
cations of being fertilized until the follow¬ 
ing spring. 

DRONE-LAYING QUEENS. 

If a queen is not fertilized in two weeks 
from the time she emerges, she will some¬ 
times commence laying without being ferti¬ 
lized at all. She is then what is called a 
drone-laying queen. Usually her eggs are 
not deposited in the regular order of a fer¬ 
tile queen, neither are there as many of 
them; by these marks one is able to guess 
that she may not be all right, and so watch 
her until some of the. brood is capped, 
when the extra height of the cappings, as 
is explained under Drones and Brood, 
shows. At times, however, the eggs are 
deposited so regularly that one is deceived, 
and the queen may be sold for a fertile 
queen, when she is only a worthless drone- 
layer; but this can be determined after the 
brood is capped. Such a case occurs, per¬ 


haps, once in a thousand. Whether these 
drones reared from drone-layers are just 
as good to furnish drones as those reared 
from a fertile queen, is a point not fully 
decided; but if the queen lays the eggs in 
drone comb, and the drones are large, fine, 
and healthy, they are probably all right. 
Drones reared from fertile workers, and 
drones reared in worker-cells, as those from 
drone-laying queens sometimes are, should 
not be used. 

How to find queens, see Manipulation 
of Colonies, subhead “How to Manipulate 
Hoffman Frames,” also “How to Handle 
Unspaced Frames.” 

SHALL QUEENS’ WINGS BE CLIPPED ? 

Many of the honey-producers prac¬ 
tice what is known as clipping; that is, 
both wings on one side are cropped off, 
leaving merely the, stumps of what were 



Willis queen-clipping device, and how used. 


once wings. The object, of course, is to 
prevent swarms from going off by making 
it impossible for the queen to follow. See 
Bee Behavior, also Swarming. 

There are very few who believe or pro¬ 
fess to believe that clipping is injurious to 
the queen. The fact that queens after be¬ 
ing clipped seem to do good service for two 
or three years, and sometimes four, and the 








QUEENS 


705 


further fart that such queens do as well as 
those not clipped, would seem to show that 
no detrimental results follow. 

HOW TO CLIP A QUEEN’S WINGS. 

There are several ways of accomplishing- 
this. One plan is to grasp the queen by 
the wings with the right hand, in the usual 
manner. With the thumb and forefinger 
of left hand, take hold of her waist, or 
thorax. In this way she can be held very 


securely and safely, leaving her legs as 
well as her wings entirely free. With a 
pair of slender-pointed embroidery scissors 
'(or any kind of scissors if these are not 
obtainable) clip oft both wings on one side 
only, being careful not to cut too close. 
This accomplished, drop her gently between 
two frames of brood; but in no case let her 
fall more than an inch; for a queen during 
the height of the egg-laying season is liable 
to be injured if handled roughly. Some 
prefer, after picking up the queen, to 
grasp her by the legs; but this is liable to 
pull one or more legs off unless done just 
right, and therefore the first-mentioned 
plan is recommended. 

Before any one of these plans is at¬ 
tempted, if one has had no experience he 
should first practice on drones. If these 
are not to be found, worker bees should be 
picked up by the wings until one becomes 
reasonably expert; but a worker should 
not be put between the thumb and finger 
of the other hand, as one will run a good 
chance of being stung. For this part of 
the work drones should be procured. Then, 
when one can do both operations well, he 
can try a queen. Even then the attempt 
should be made on one'of not much value, 
23 


as it is a nice piece of work to do it well. 

Sometimes in an outyard, when a pair oL' 
scissors is not to be had, a sharp blade of a 
pocketknife can be used. This is passed 
under the wing in such a way as to cause 
it to bear directly upon the edge of the 
blade. The thumb is now pressed down 
upon the wing over the blade, and then 
drawn back and forth seesaw fashion, per¬ 
haps two or three times. If the knife is 
sharp, the wing will be severed with two or 
three strokes. If it is dull, 
the queen should be laid 
on her back, still holding 
her between the thumb and 
finger of the left hand so 
that her wing will bear di- 
. reetly upon a hive-cover or 

any other piece of board 
or wood. The edge of the 
\Nw knife should be brought to 
bear upon the wing, when 
a slight pressure will cause 
the blade to pass thru it. 
During these operations 
care should be taken to handle a queen 
only by the wings or the thorax. This way 
avoids all danger of hurting her. One 
should be careful not to press the abdomen 
of any queen. 

HOW QUEENS LAY TWO KINDS OF EGGS. 

That queens lay two kinds of eggs no 
one now is inclined to dispute, since the 
experiments with the microscope have de¬ 
cided the matter so clearly, as given under 
Drones. Suppose a young queen goes out 
to meet the drones so late in the fall or so 
early in the spring that there are none; 
what is the consequence? Sometimes she 
will never lay at all; but frequently she 
commences to lay when three or four weeks 
old, and her eggs produce only drones. In 
fact, she can produce no other eggs, having 
never been fertilized. How shall such queens 
be distinguished from fertile ones? 

No one can decide positively concerning 
them, until their brood is ready to seal up; 
then one can know by the round, raised 
cappings of the brood, like bullets laid on 
a board, as explained under Drones. (See 
Brood, particularly large illustration of 
worker and drone brood.) One can give a 
pretty good guess by noticing the way in 



706 


QUEENS 



Close view of eggs. Notice the cell in the lower left-hand corner contains two eggs, while that at the 

right-hand corner has a larva. 


which the queen lays the eggs; if they are 
few and scattering, and sometimes, or of¬ 
ten, in drone-cells, coupled with the fact 
that she did not commence laying until two 
weeks or more old, she should be replaced. 
A .young queen, if properly fertilized, 
never, or very rarely, lays an egg in a 
drone-cell; and when she commences to 
lay, she fills cell after cell in regular order, 
as men plant hills of corn; her work also 
has a neat and finished appearance that 
says at once to the expert, “She is all 
right.” 

In rare cases a young queen begins with 
all, or nearly all, drone eggs, but, after a 
while, lays entirely worker eggs as regu¬ 
larly as one could wish.* It is not known 
why this is; perhaps she has not yet got 
used to the “machinery.” Again, any queen 
is liable any day of her life to begin laying 
drone eggs altogether, or in part. A nice 
young laying queen, taken from a hive, and 
shipped to a distance, may prove to be a 
drone-layer shortly after or immediately 


* It has been suggested that this phenomenon 
may be accounted for by the fact that laying 
workers were in the hive before the young queen 
began to lay; that the drone eggs are not from 
the queen but the laying workers, and that, when 
the queen begins, she lays worker eggs at the 
very start, while the laying workers are de¬ 
stroyed, and hence the drone eggs disappear. This 
is possible. 


after she is received. Such things are not 
very common, but they do occur. Out of 
three or four hundred colonies one may 
find one drone-layer, on an average, each 
spring. During the summer, perhaps one 
more will be found. It may be that the 
queen was not fertilized sufficiently, and 
that the supply of spermatozoa gave out 
while she was in full vigor, thus reducing 
her to the condition of a virgin queen. 
Microscopic examination has shown an en¬ 
tire absence of spermatozoa in at least one 
or two instances where queens of this kind 
were killed and dissected. Similar experi¬ 
ments given by Dzierzon show that the 
spermatozoa may be injured beyond recov¬ 
ery by chilling the queen, and yet the queen 
herself be resuscitated. Hardship and be¬ 
ing shipped long distances may produce 
the same result. 

Queens not only turn suddenly to drone- 
layers, but they sometimes produce about 
an equal number of each kind of eggs. In 
all these cases, where the queen lays drone 
eggs when she evidently intended to lay 
worker eggs, they are in worker-cells; at 
the same time the number of eggs laid 
usually rapidly decreases. The bees, as 
well as queen, evidently begin to think that 
something is wrong; queen-cells are soon 
started, and after the young queen emerges 














QUEENS 


707 


she becomes fertile, and begins to help her 
mother. 

Very early in the spring, late in the fall, 
or at any time when forage is not abun¬ 
dant, a queen will pass right by drone-cells, 
taking no notice of them. The author has 
fried to get eggs in drone-cells by feeding, 
but concludes that the queen knows What an 
egg will produce, and just how to have 
every egg laid in a drone-cell produce a 
drone. Possibly the workers have some¬ 
thing to do with this matter, but no one 
knows by what means they signify to the 
queen that some eggs in drone-cells, or even 
queen-cells, would be desirable. There seems 
to be a constant understanding in the hive 
as to what is going to be done next, and 
consequently there is no clashing. In the 
author’s apiary there seems to be, in strong 
stocks, a kind of understanding that eggs 
shall be laid in drone-cells about the last of 
March and drones are found, therefore, 
some time in April, ready for the first 
queens that may, by any accident, make 
their appearance. Those who insist that 
there is only one kind of eggs can satisfy 
themselves very easily by taking a larva 
hatched from a worker-egg and placing it 
in the bottom of a queen-cell. In due time 
this will develop into a queen. On the 
other hand, if a larva from a drone-egg is 
placed in a queen-cell no queen results. 

Occasionally a queen is found that will 
never lay at all; again, queens that laid 
eggs which never hatched into larvae have 
been several times reported. 

After having related some of the faults 
and imperfections of queens, it should be 
stated for their credit that, when once 
properly installed in a good strong colony, 
they are about as safe property as any¬ 
thing, because, in the great majority of 
cases, they live and thrive for years. While 
a worker lives only a few months, queens 
often live three or four years. One that 
was imported from Italy furnished the 
author brood and eggs for queen-rearing 
for four summers. She was sold for $2.00, 
and she died in being sent less than 50 
miles. She was very large and heavy, and, 
probably, being so old could not cling to, 
the sides of the cage like a younger one. 

LOSS OF QUEEN. 

It is a very important matter to be able 


to know at once when a queen is lost. Dur¬ 
ing the months of May and June in the 
States east of the Mississippi and north of 
the Ohio the loss of a queen from the hive 
a single day will make quite a marked dif¬ 
ference in the honey crop. If it be as¬ 
sumed that the number of eggs a queen can 
lay in a day is 3,000, by taking her away a 
single day there might be just that number 
of bees short during a yield of honey. To 
put it very moderately, a quart of bees 
might be taken out of the hive by simply 
caging the queen for a single day. Begin¬ 
ners should remember this, for their un¬ 
timely, or, rather, inconsiderate tinkering, 
just before the flow of honey comes, often 
cuts short their income to a very consider¬ 
able degree. Whatever is done, it is very 
important not to drop the queens off the 
combs when they are handled at this time 
of the year, nor should one needlessly inter¬ 
rupt the queen in her work by changing 
the combs about so as to expose the brood 
or upset the little household matters of the 
bees. 

With a little practice one will be able io 
detect a queenless hive simply by the way 
the bees behave themselves in the hive and 
on the outside. When they stand around 
on the alighting-board in a listless sort of 
way, with no bees going in with pollen, 
when other colonies are thus engaged, it is 
well to open the hive and take a look at 
them. (See Diagnosing Colonies.) If 
eggs and worker-brood are found one may 
be sure a queen is there; but if not, pro¬ 
ceed at once to see if there is not a queen 
of some kind in the hive, that does not lay. 
If one is not found they should be given a 
frame of eggs to see if they build queen-, 
cells. Incipient ones should be found in 
about twenty-four hours if the bees have 
been some little time queenless. If these are 
found a queen should be given. If no 
queen is to be had, they may be allowed to 
raise one, if the colony has bees enough. 
If it has not, they should be united with 
some other stock. 

THE CRY OF DISTRESS FROM A QUEENLESS 
COLONY. 

A queenless colony will reveal its condi¬ 
tion, if not of long standing, by the be¬ 
havior of the bees in the hive. They will 


708 


QUEENS 


set up a .peculiar cry—that is to say, all 
thru the hive they will he buzzing as if in 
distress, and they surely are, because they 
have no queen. As soon as a hive of this 
kind is opened they will begin this cry of 
distress. Sometimes only a part of the 
bees will be involved, and at other times 
apparently every bee in the colony. This 
buzzing of the wings is so marked that the 
practiced beekeepe'er recognizes it as an in¬ 
dication that a colony may be queenless; 
and if he finds no eggs nor young brood at 
a time of the year when both should be 
present, he is quite sure that the hive lias 
no queen. If he finds queen-cells, all doubt 
will be removed. Sometimes a colony that 
is not queenless will set up a buzzing as if 
they were without a mother. It is then 
evident that the show of distress is not 
because they have no queen but because of 
the disturbance. Too much smoke, Tor ex¬ 
ample, with most colonies and a little smoke 
with some colonies will cause them to make 
this sign of distress. It must, therefore, be 
regarded as not an infallible sign of queen- 
lessness. Colonies that have been queenless 
for a long time will no longer indicate their 
condition in this manner. 

ODOR OF A LAYING QUEEN. 

After bees have been some time queen¬ 
less they usually become, if no laying 
workers make their appearance (see Lay¬ 
ing Workers), very eager for the presence 
of a queen; and in no way can this eager 
behavior be described, so well as to describe 
another way of testing a colony that is 
thought to be queenless. Take a cage or 
box containing a laying queen and hold 
either the cage or simply the cover of it 
over the bees, or hold it in such a way as 
# to let one corner touch the frames. If 
queenless, the first bees that catch the 
scent of the piece of wood on which the 
queen has been, will begin to move their 
wings in token of rejoicing, and soon near¬ 
ly the whole colony will be hanging to the 
cage or cover. When they behave in this 
manner there will seldom be any trouble 
in letting the queen out at once. Such cases 
are generally where a colony is found with¬ 
out brood in the spring. 

There is something very peculiar about 
the scent of a laying queen. After having 


had a queen on the fingers, bees will often 
follow and gather about the hand. They 
will often hover for hours about the spot 
where the queen has alighted for even an 
instant, and, sometimes, for a day or two 
afterward. Where clipped queens get down 
into the grass or weeds or crawl • sometimes 
a considerable distance from the hive, they 
may often be found by watching the bees 
that were crawling about along the path 
she had taken. When cages containing 
queens are being carried away bees will 
often come and alight on the cage, ma kin g 
that peculiar shaking of the wings which 
indicates their joy on finding the queen. 

queens’ stings. 

There is something rather strange in the 
fact that a queen very rarely uses her sting, 
even under the greatest provocation possi¬ 
ble, unless it is toward a rival queen. In 
fact, she may be pinched or pulled limb 
from limb, without even showing any symp¬ 
toms of protruding the sting at all; yet as 
soon as she is put in a cage or under a 
tumbler with another queen, the fatal sting 
is almost sure to be used at once. There 
seems to be a most wise provision in this; 
for if the queen used her sting on every 
provocation as does the worker, the pros¬ 
perity of the colony would be almost con¬ 
stantly endangered. 

It was just stated that a queen very 
rarely uses her sting; but it is the excep¬ 
tion that proves the rule. The following 
will explain: 

One very young virgin queen that stung 
me was well developed and later proved to 
be a good queen for business. The other 
virgin, also very young, that stung me was 
from a good-looking cell, and I suppose was 
all right. As it was so much easier to crush 
her than to endure her continued stinging 
till I could get her out of my clothing, she 
was killed without knowing positively what 
kind of a queen she would have proven her¬ 
self to be. • W. A. H. Gilstrap. 

Ceres, Calif. 

caution in regard to deciding a stock 

TO BE QUEENLESS. 

As a rule it may be said that absence of 
brood or eggs is a pretty sure indication of 
queenlessness; but it should be borne in 
mind that all colonies, as a rule, in the 
eastern and northern States, are without 


QUINBY 


709 


eggs and brood in the fall and early winter 
months, or, in fact, at any time when there 
is a considerable dearth of pasturage. At 
such seasons, beginners are more apt to 
think their colonies are queenless, because 
the queens are much smaller than when 
they are laying profusely, and therefore 
are not as easily found. In the North 
queens often cease laying during the whole 
of the winter months. They will not lay 
much when their colonies are in the cellar 
except sometimes the last month in the cel¬ 
lar. In California and the semi-tropical 
States of the South queens may lay every 
month of the year. 

For further particulars regarding queens, 
see Drones, Queen-rearing, and’ Bee Be¬ 
havior, 

QUEENS, HOW TO FIND.— See Ma¬ 
nipulation of Colonies, subhead, “How 
to Manipulate Hoffman Frames,” and 
“How to Handle Unspaced Frames;” also 
Diagnosing Colonies. 

QUINBY.* —Moses Quinby was born on 
April 16, 1810. During his boyhood his 
family removed to Coxsackie, Greene Co., 
New York. 

In 1828 at the age of 18, he earned his 
first money, working in a sawmill, and with 
it purchased his first swarm of bees and 
began the 25 years of study and experiment 
which prepared him for the writing of his 
book, published in 1853. In 1832 he mar¬ 
ried Miss Martha Powell Norbury, also of 
English extraction, and, like Mr. Quinby, a 
Quaker. They were married at the Nor¬ 
bury homestead. From this time till his 
removal to the Mohawk Valley he lived at 
the home. There was a mill on the place, 
and he earned the support of his family in 
these early years running the turning-lathe 
and doing cabinet work, many specimens of 
household furniture made by him being 
now the valued possessions of his grand¬ 
daughters. Here also he made his hives 
and the first honey-boxes. 

I have reason to believe that at this 
period there were more bees kept in this 
section than in any other part of the 
United States. For years after Mr. Quin- 
by’s death I have been to this location to 
buy bees to replenish my home apiaries. 

* Written by his son-in-law, L. C. Root. 


On a recent visit I saw small apiaries, 
many of them using the form of hive Mr. 
Quinby had recommended. 

He says he “commenced without any 
knowledge of the business to assist him, 
save a few directions about hiving, smok¬ 
ing them with sulphur, etc.” Beekeeping 
was considered a matter of luck. His 
friends and neighbors on all sides discour¬ 
aged him. One wise old man predicted 
failure for him because he pottered with 
them too much, boring holes in the top *of 
the hives and disturbing them. All of this 
advice only stimulated him to greater ac¬ 
tion. He prefixed to the word “luck” a 
big P, and underlined it. 



Here lie spent 25 years experimenting 
and writing, with a determination to place 
beekeeping on the same successful financial 
basis with other branches of agriculture. 
All his experiments during this period were 
made with bees in box hives, there being no 
better ones at that time. 

His first move to avoid destruction of 
the bees in securing the honey was by bor¬ 
ing holes in the top of the hives, for he 
found that the bees would fill large boxes 
put over the hive. These were the fore¬ 
runner of the super and section. 

Another menace to success in beekeeping 


710 


QUINBY 


was foul brood. Rereading the chapter in 
his first book, in the light of modern sci¬ 
ence of contagious diseases and bacteriolo¬ 
gy, shows it to be a marvel of careful ob¬ 
servation and accurate reasoning that 
would do credit to the present day. The 
principles of his treatment of the scourge 
can never be changed. These and many 
other facts Mr. Quinby found had never 
been published; so, being by nature phil¬ 
anthropic, and having an unselfish desire 
to help others in a practical way by shar¬ 
ing his knowledge, he wrote this accumu¬ 
lated experience of 25 years into his “Mys¬ 
teries of Beekeeping Explained, being a 
complete anatysis of the whole subject,” 
as the title-page quaintly states. As I re¬ 
read the book I realize how fully up to 
date it was for 1853', 
and how fundamentally 
correct were his state¬ 
ments and deductions 
on many points. It 
bears evidence of being 
entirely the author’s 
own work. He started 
with no knowledge of 
the subject, but with an 
inquiring and open 
mind; had no help from 
others, and only theo¬ 
retical information from 
the limited literature on 
the subject of bees. 

The keynotes of its 
success appear to me to 
be the scientific attitude 
of its author, unusual 
at that p e r i o d—the 
clearness and plainness of its style, and the 
effort to help and instruct the reader rather 
than impress him with the accomplishments 
of the writer. 

We do not know just when he was able 
to make beekeeping his sole business and 
the support of his family; but he certainly 
did so after his removal to St. Johnsville, 
Montgomery County, New York, in 1853, 
the year his first book was published. Dur¬ 
ing the next ten years he owned the largest 
number of colonies at any time during his 
business career. He began to send large 
amounts of honey to the New York market, 
even while still using the box hive. There 
being only a moderate demand at that time, 


he nearly glutted the market. This was, 
indeed, the beginning of the reconstruction 
period in beekeeping. In 1856 Mr. Quin- 
by’s attention was called to Mr. Lang- 
stroth’s invention of a movable-comb hive. 
He saw its advantages, and at once adopt¬ 
ed it in a modified form. Then followed 
the introduction of Italian bees, honey-ex¬ 
tractor, comb foundation, single sections 
for comb honey, and his own invention of 
the bee-smoker. These were indeed grati¬ 
fying days to Mr. Quinby. Who was there 
in all of the beekeeping world so well pre¬ 
pared as he from the standpoint of prac¬ 
tical experience to meet the needs of this 
wonderful forward movement? 

Mr. Quinbv’s non-swarming standing- 
frame hive enabled him to accomplish large 


results under his management. Much might 
be said in regard to Mr. Quinby’s prefer¬ 
ring the larger frame. Marked success can 
be secured only by extremely populous 
swarms. I have proved the larger frames 
very advantageous to that end.* 

I shall never forget the enthusiasm which 
was caused at our home when the words 
“centrifugal force for removing honey from 
the combs” were received in the report of 
the invention of Major de Hruschka of 
Vienna. An old fanning mill, which had 
been used for cleaning grain, was at once 

* See “Frames, Self-spacing, for a description 
of his self-spacing frame; and “Hives,’’ subhead 
“The Dadant Hive,’’ for a description of the 
merits of the large hive and frame. 



The room where Mr. Quinby wrote the 1853 edition of his book. 












The Quinby home at St. Jolmsville, N. Y. Mr. Quinby moved here in 1853. the year his first hook was published. 
















712 


QUINBY 


taken apart, the fans removed, and wire 
cloth stretched around its four sides. A 
larger box was made, inside of which this 
frame was arranged to revolve, and with 
the gearing of the fanning mill it was set 
in motion. The gratification with which 
Mr. Quinby saw the honey thrown from the 
first combs cannot well be described. He 
soon made an extractor in more workable 
form, which was afterward perfected by 
A. I. Root, and known as the Novice ex¬ 
tractor. 

Mr. Quinby realized that, tho fearless 
himself, people were deterred from keeping 
bees by fear of being stung. Smoke had 
been used in various crude ways; but he 
knew that, if it could be easily and con¬ 
veniently adapted, it would be a great 
boon, especially to the amateur. His in¬ 
vention of the bee-smoker did this, being 
so arranged with upright bellows and fire- 
tube as to burn standing upright, but to 
go out when placed on the side, and to be 
easily manipulated with one hand. The 
principle of it has never been improved 
upon. 

New York State, where Mr. Quinby’s 
influence was most in evidence, became the 
largest honey-producing center in the 
world. One of the first articles on bees he 
ever wrote for publication was for a Phila¬ 
delphia paper, expressing doubts as to the 
possibility of a writer having secured a 
gain of 20 pounds of honey from a swarm 
in two weeks. In these later days he had 
seen that amount gathered in two days, and 
500 pounds of extracted honey taken from 
one colony in a season. Mr. Quinby sent 
in these days generally from 5,000 to 30,- 
000 pounds of honey to the New York mar¬ 
ket annually. 

While essentially a scientist and teacher, 
his first object was to enable others as well 
as himself to make beekeeping a commer¬ 
cial success by knowing how to gather in 
quantity this useful, natural foodstuff and 
delicacy. As Mr. Quinby became well 
known from his books and articles in agri¬ 
cultural papers, his home was quite a cen¬ 
ter for those seeking the information he so 
gladly imparted. Mr. Quinby was never 
so happy as when passing on his knowledge 
and experience to others. Few people who 
were not personally acquainted Avith him 
can realize how devoted he was to his ques¬ 


tioners, whether in person or by mail or 
thru the press. From the start to the last 
evening of his earthly life he never proved 
a principle in bee culture the benefit of 
which he did not give to the public. Two 
hours before he passed away he was at his 
desk, where he left an unfinished article. 

The late Captain J. E. Hetherington was 
one of his most energetic pupils. It is still 
a joy to me to recall his enthusiasm during 
his frequent visits to Mr. Quinby’s home, 
and the eager way in which he asked ques¬ 
tions and received answers. He soon be¬ 
came one of the large bee-owners, first of 
box hives, but, as improvements followed, 
always up to date. Of these early visitors, 
almost the last one living was P. H. Elwood 
of Starkville, New York, an intelligent, 
thoughtful worker and genial friend. 

In 1865 Mr. Quinby published a revised 
edition of his book, and from the tone of 
the preface it is gratifying to see his pleas¬ 
ure in the success and popularity of this 
first edition. 

In March, 1870, the Northeastern Bee¬ 
keepers’ Association was organized at Al¬ 
bany, with Mr. Quinby as its first presi¬ 
dent, an office he held for five years, declin¬ 
ing re-election at the meeting preceding his 
death. He was elected president of the 
North American Beekeepers’ Association, at 
Cleveland, in 1871, and served one year. 

Thus with modest honors and much sat¬ 
isfaction in his work and in the fruit¬ 
growing on his place, a happy home life 
and wide outside interests in the anti-slav¬ 
ery cause, temperance work, and all good 
and progressive endeavors, the years went 
by. Death came suddenly on the night of 
May 27, 1875, and a life of usefulness was 
over. , ' | ! 

I am writing this article with the extreme 
desire to show Mr. Quinby’s devotion to his 
chosen calling. It would be impossible for 
any one who did not come in daily contact 
with him in his manipulation of bees, in 
the beekeepers’ conventions, and, most of 
all, in his home, to have a full appreciation 
of how completely his work filled his 
thoughts. How well I remember the em¬ 
phasis he gave the words when he once said 
to me, “I want it distinctly understood that 
I cannot afford to spend any time making 
money!” 


RACES OF BEES 


713 


He gave 47 years of constant applica¬ 
tion in honest effort to place beekeeping' on 
a firm business basis. I am somewhat ac¬ 
quainted with the history of the beekeep¬ 
ing of the past, and I feel justified in 


pointing with pride to these 47 years of 
devotion which should warrant the name 
of “Father of practical commercial bee¬ 
keeping in America.” 



RABBITBRUSH ( Chrysothamnus ).— 
Rayless goldenrod. Chico. Shrubby plants 
•with narrow entire leaves, and rayless yel¬ 
low flowers, which bloom in the fall. Rab¬ 
bitbrush yields a surplus of deep yellow 
honey which is thin and poor in quality. 
It granulates quickly, even in the comb; 
and when it is present in a section of al¬ 
falfa or sweet clover honey, it granulates 
before either of these honeys. The intense 
yellow color of the pollen often stains the 
surface of the combs. At Independence, 
Inyo County, Cal., C. nauseosus, a peren¬ 
nial plant, is abundant in waste land. The 
small yellow flowers in terminal clusters, 
on ash-colored or white stems, open in Sep¬ 
tember and October. The honey is dark 
and has so disagreeable an odor and so 
nauseous a taste that even the Indians will 
not eat it. Beekeepers remove their sec¬ 
tions when rabbitbrush begins to bloom. 
There are 18 .species of rabbitbrush in the 
Rocky Mountain Highlands, several of 
which are very common on the dry hills 
and plains of Colorado and Wyoming, as 
G. lanceolatus, C. pumilus, and C. frigidus. 

RACES OF BEES. —This volume deals 
particularly with Italians, the common 
black bees of this country, and the crosses 
between the two, because they are used 
almost exclusively. The crosses are often 
given the name “hybrids;” and as the 
name has been generally adopted, it is re¬ 
tained. For particulars regarding these 
bees the reader is referred to Hybrids. 
The Italians are spoken of specifically 
under the heading of Italians, elsewhere 
in this work. 


BLACK OR GERMAN BEES. 

As the name indicates, they are black. 
One variety in the South is of a brownish 
black; another distinctly black, and if 
anything, a trifle smaller. 

The black bees are more inclined to rob 
than the pure Italians, are not as good 
workers, but are equal when nectar is 
abundant, or when there is dark honey like 
that from buckwheat to be gathered. They 
are much more nervous; and when a hive 
of them is opened they run like a flock of 
sheep from one corner of the hive to an¬ 
other, boiling over in confusion, hanging 
in clusters from one comer of the frame as 
it is held up, and finally falling off; in 
bunches to the ground, where they continue 
a wild scramble in every direction, proba¬ 
bly crawling up one’s trousers-leg, if the 
opportunity offers. Black queens are much 
harder to find, their bees are not so gentle, 
and, worse than all, they have a disagree¬ 
able fashion during robbing time of fol¬ 
lowing the apiarist about from hive to hive 
in a most tantalizing manner. This habit 
of poising on the wing before one’s eye is 
extremely annoying, and some bees will 
keep it up for a day at a time. When an¬ 
gry bees trouble in this way, one should 
work in another part of the apiary or stop 
■work entirely for a time. If the trouble 
continues, he should requeen with queens 
of a more gentle strain. 

Comb honey from the blacks is a little 
whiter, if anything, than that made by 
pure Italians, because the capping is raised 
up, leaving a slight air-gap between it and 
the surface of the honey in the cell. But 


514 


RACES OF BEES 


this difference in the whiteness of capping 
is so very slight as compared with that on 
comb honey made by selected Italians that 
it really cuts no figure in the market. The 
blacks are also much easier to shake off the 
combs than pure Italians, which can hardly 
be shaken off, and some prefer blacks or 
hybrids, when extracting, for that reason 
alone. 

Blacks, when their hives are moved a 
short distance, will find their entrances 
much more readily than Italians. The re¬ 
turning bees will nose around everj^ hive 
until they find their own, when they will 
enter as tho they had always lived there. 
On the other hand, Italians cannot be 
moved in this way. Many of them will be 


were introduced into this countxy in 1884. 
They are very gentle, but no more so than 
Italians. As stated, they resemble blacks, 
and might easily be mistaken for them; but 
there is a difference. They are larger, and 
their abdomens are of a more bluish cast, 
the fuzzy rings being very distinct. They 
are gentler, and do not, like the blacks, boil 
over in confusion when the hive is opened. 
They have not the fixity of character of the 
Italians—colonies of the same race differ¬ 
ing quite widely. The general verdict is, 
that they are excessive swarmers, and this 
trait alone makes them very undesirable 
for comb-honey production, altho some like 
them for the production of extracted hon¬ 
ey. Their close resemblance to black bees 



found on the ground on the old location, 
and die, only a few of them, comparative¬ 
ly, finding homes in other near-by hives. See 
Moving Bees. 

Many believe that blacks are more per¬ 
sistent than the Italians in that they will 
stand unfavorable weather conditions bet- - 
ter than Italians; but it has been proven 
over and over again that they will not re¬ 
sist brood diseases as do the yellow bees. 
Indeed, they rapidly succumb under the 
ravages of European foul brood where 
some strains of Italians will seem to be 
almost immune from it. Practically all Ital¬ 
ians will resist brood disease of both Euro¬ 
pean and American foul brood better than 
the average strain of black or hybrid bees. 
See Foul Brood. 

CARNIOLANS. 

The Carniolans, evidently a variety of 
black bees, which they very much resemble. 


makes it difficult to detect the crosses of the 
two races. This fact, coupled with their 
great swarming propensity, has prevented 
their meeting with general favor. 

But the Carniolans have one good trait 
in their favor, and that is, they deposit as 
little propolis as any bees ever known. 
In the production of comb honey this is 
quite an important item. See Hybrids of 
Carniolans and Cyprians. 

CAUCASIANS. 

This is a race that, looks very much like 
Carniolans and the common black bee of 
this country, but it resembles the latter 
more than the former. So close is the gen¬ 
eral resemblance that even experts in some 
cases have been unable to distinguish them. 
But there is a vast difference in their gen¬ 
eral habits and temperament. 

The claim has been made that Caucasians 
are the gentlest bees known; and this claim, 


RACES OF BEES 


715 


in part at least, lias been established, altho 
they are no more so than some good strains 
of pure Italians. Beemen are not agreed, 
however, as to their honey-gathering quali¬ 
ties. Some consider them very interior, 
while others believe they are equal to any 
race in this respect. All admit that they 
are bad propolizers, sticking large chunks 
of gum in all parts of the hive—a trait 
that becomes more manifest as cold weather 
comes on. In this one respect they differ 
radically from Carniolans. 

The most serious objection to them is 
their propensity to swarm. It is even more 
pronounced than with the Carniolans. 

BANAT BEES. 

These are named from a district of Hun¬ 
gary from which they were imported. They 
much resemble the Carniolans in appear¬ 
ance and habit but with less inclination to 
swarm. They are gentle, and impart this 
trait to their offspring when crossed with 
Italians. Even after several generations this 
character is in evidence. The queens are of 
a dark tan color, and no more prolific than 
good Italians, but they build up the colo¬ 
nies more rapidly in the spring. They are 
worthy a more extended trial both in their 
purity and in their crosses. 

TUNISIANS. 

This black race, natives of North Africa, 
are sometimes called “Punics.” They have 
been tested to some extent in this country, 
but so far have not been able to establish 
any claim in their favor that would entitle 
them to consideration on the part of Amer¬ 
ican beekeepers. They are cross, and so 
inclined to smear everything with a red 
bee glue that they are entirely unsuited for 
the production of comb honey. They are 
no better honey-gatherers than gentler 
races. 

EGYPTIANS. 

The Egyptian bee is reputed the most 
beautiful species of Apis. It has been 
named Apis fasiata by entomologists; has 
been cultivated for thousands of years by 
the Egyptians, and was probably the first 
species used by mankind for domestic pur¬ 
poses. 

In the time of the ancient historian 
Herodotus, apiaries were transported up 


and down the Nile so as to keep pace with 
the seasons in Upper and Lower Egypt. 
This practice is continued at the present 
day to a limited extent. Inscriptions on 
tombs show the practice in use 4,000 years 
ago, at least, and that the honeybee was 
highly reverenced by the people of that 
age. 

The Egyptian bee is so much smaller 
than the Italian that the two do not 
hybridize very well; on the contrary, the 
queen, if compelled to mate with a Euro¬ 
pean drone, frequently dies soon after fer¬ 
tilization. It is probably, however, the 
mother-species of the Cyprian, Holy Land, 
and Grecian bees. It is a fast, excellent 
worker, but reputed to possess an irritable 
temper tho kept domesticated for thou¬ 
sands of years. Possibly in a climate sim¬ 
ilar to that of Egypt it would exhibit a 
better temper than in Northern Europe. It 
could hardly be otherwise. 

In color Egyptians are almost identical 
with Italians, but in addition have a coat 
of white hairs, which adds to their appear¬ 
ance. There are varieties, or races, of the 
same species in countries next to Lower 
Egypt. One feature of these bees would 
please Americans, namely, their ability to 
keep themselves pure and uncontaminated 
with other races. There is a similar species 
in Senegal known as Apis Adansonii, of 
which we know but little. 

ALBINOS. 

Albinos are either “sports” from Ital¬ 
ians, or, what is more generally the case, a 
cross between Holy Lands and Italians. 
After testing them the author finds them 
little different from common Italians. The 
fringe, or down, that appears on the rings 
of the abdomen of young bees is a trifle 
whiter than usual, yet no one would observe 
it unless attention is called to it. The 
queens are very yellow, while the workers, 
as honey-gatherers, are decidedly inferior, 
even in the second generation; and when 
light-colored bees or queens are selected for 
several successive generations, unless care 
is used, a weaker progeny lacking ability 
as honey-gatherers and endurance will be 
developed. 

EASTERN RACES OP BEES. 

Cyprians, Holy Lands, or Syrians, are 


716 


RACES OF BEES 


mentioned elsewhere under head of Ital¬ 
ians. Of other Eastern races Frank Ben¬ 
ton, formerly Apicultural Expert of the 
United States Department of Agriculture, 
wrote a special bulletin, from which the 
following extracts are made: 

THE COMMON EAST-INDIAN HONEYBEE. 

(Apis indica, Fab.) 

The common bee of Southern Asia is kept 
in very limited numbers and with a small 
degree of profit in earthern jars and sections 
of hollow trees in portions of the British and 


Fig. 1. — Worker-cells of Common East Indian 
Honeybee (Apis indica )natural size. 

Dutch East Indies. They are also found 
wild, and build when in this state in hollow 
trees and in rock clefts. Their combs are 
composed of hexagonal wax cells, and are 
arranged parallel to each other like those of 
A. mellifica, but the worker brood-cells are 
smaller than those of our ordinary bees, 



Fig. 2.—Worker-cells of Common East Indian 
Honeybee (Ajris inaica), one-third natural size. 


showing 36 to the square inch of surface in¬ 
stead of 29; while the comb where worker- 
brood is reared, instead of having, like that 
of A. mellifica, a thickness of seven-eighths 
inch, is but five-eighths inch thick. (Fig. 1.) 


The workers.—-The bodies of these, three- 
eighths inch long when empty, measure about 
one-half inch when dilated with honey. The 
thorax is covered with brownish hair, and 
the shield or crescent between the wings is 
large and yellow. The abdomen is yellow 
underneath. Above it presents a ringed ap¬ 
pearance, the anterior part of each segment 
being orange yellow, while the posterior 
part shows bands of brown of greater or 
less width, and is covered with whitish- 
brown hairs; the tip is black. They are 
nimble on foot and on the wing, and active 
gatherers. 

The queens.—The queens are large in pro¬ 
portion to their workers, and are quite pro¬ 
lific; color, leather or dark copper. 

The drones.—These are only slightly lar¬ 
ger than the workers; color, a jet-like blue- 
black, without yellow, their strong wings 
showing changing hues like those of wasps. 

Manipulations with colonies of these bees 
are easy to perform if smoke be used; and, 
tho they are more excitable than our com¬ 
mon hive bees this peculiarity does not in- 


Fig. 3.—Worker-cells of the tiny East Indian Hon¬ 
ey bee (Apis florea), natural size. 

duce excessive stinging, but seems rather to 
proceed from fear. The sting is also less 
severe. 

Under the rude methods thus far employed 
in the management of this bee no great yields 
of honey are obtained, some 10 or 12 pounds 
having been the most reported from a single 
hive. It is quite probable these little bees 
would yield more if imported into this coun- 
try, since they could no doubt visit many 
small flowers not frequented by the hive 
bees we now have, and whose nectar is, 
therefore, wasted; but very likely they 
might not withstand the severe winters of 
the North unless furnished with such extra 
protection as would be afforded by quite 
warm cellars or special repositories. 

Of the smallest honeybees in the world 
the same writer says: 

THE TINY EAST-INDIAN HONEYBEE. 

(Apis florea, Fab.) 

This bee, also a native of East India, is 
the smallest known species of the genus. Tt 
builds in the open air, attaching a single 
comb to a twig of a shrub or small tree. 
This comb is only about the size of a man’s 















RACES OF BEES 


717 


hand, and is exceedingly delicate, there be¬ 
ing on each side 100 worker-cells to the 
square inch of surface (Figs. 2 and 3). The 
workers, more slender than house flies, tho 
longer-bodied, are blue-black in color, with 
the anterior third of the abdomen bright or¬ 
ange. Colonies of these bees accumulate so 
little surplus honey as to give no hope that 
their cultivation will be profitable. 

GIANT BEES OF INDIA. 

(Apis dorsata, Fab.) 

A few years ago much was said regard¬ 
ing the East Indian “giant” honeybees, 
Apis dorsata, and the possibilities of hav¬ 
ing them imported and domesticated in this 
country. Mr. Benton, having been in their 
native land, describes them. 

This large bee, which might not inappro¬ 
priately be styled the Giant East-Indian 
bee, has its home in the far East—both on 
the continent of Asia and the adjacent 
islands. There are probably several varieties 
of this species, more or less marked, and 
very likely Apis zonata, Guer., of the Phil¬ 
ippine Islands, reported to be even larger 
than Apis dorsata, will prove on further in¬ 
vestigation to be only a variety of the lat¬ 
ter. All the varieties of these bees build 
huge combs of very pure wax—of ten. 5 to 
6 feet in length and 3 to 4 feet in width, 
which they attach to overhanging ledges of 
rocks or to large limbs of lofty trees in the 
primitive forest jungles. When attached to 
the limbs of trees they are built singly, and 
present much the same appearance as those 
of the tiny East-Indian bee, shown in the 
accompanying figure (Fig. 3). The Giant 
bee, however, quite in contradistinction to 
the other species of apis mentioned here, 
does not construct larger cells in which to 
rear drones, these and the workers being pro¬ 
duced in cells of the same size. Of these 
bees — long regarded as a myth by bee¬ 
keepers of America and Europe—-strange 
stories have been told. It has been stated 
that they build their combs horizontally 
after the manner of paper-making wasps; 
that they are so given to wandering as to 
make it impossible to keep them in hives, 
and that their ferocity renders them objects 
greatly to be dreaded. The first real infor¬ 
mation regarding these points was given by 
the author. He visited India in 1880-81 for 
the purpose of obtaining colonies of Apis 
dorsata. These were procured in the jungles 
by cutting the combs from their original at¬ 
tachments, and it was thus ascertained (as 
might have been expected in the case of any 
species of apis), that their combs are always 
built perpendicularly; also that colonies 
placed in frame hives and permitted to fly 
freely did not desert these habitations, and 
that, far from being ferocious, these colonies 
were easily handled by .proper precautions, 


without even the use of smoke. It was also 
proved by the quantity of honey and wax 
present that they are good gatherers. The 
execution at that time of the plan to bring 
these bees to the United States was prevent¬ 
ed only by severe illness contracted in India. 

These large bees would doubtless be able 
to get honey from flowers whose nectaries 
are located out of reach of ordinary bees, 
notably those of the red clover, now visited 
chiefly by bumblebees, and which it is 
thought the East Indian bee might pollinate 
and cause to produce seed more abundantly. 
Even if not further utilizable, they might 
prove an important factor in the production; 
thruout the southern States, of large quanti¬ 
ties of excellent beeswax, now such an ex¬ 
pensive article. 

At one time a few in this country were 
advocating the importation of Apis dor¬ 
sata into this country for the reason that 
these bees would be able to get honey from 
red clover and other flowers with deep 
tubes. It is doubtful, however, whether 
they would be able to adapt themselves to 
this climate. In California there is too 
great a change of temperature from night 
to day, and in Florida and in the southern 
States the climate is not hot enough. The 
impression prevails that they are too much 
like bumblebees to be' of any commercial 
value. For the last 20 years there has been 
very little said about them. 

RASPBERRY (Rubus idaeus variety 
aculeatissimus ).—The wild red raspberry 
is a valuable honey plant in the northern 
part of the southern peninsula of Michi¬ 
gan, in the Adirondack region of New 
York, in north-central Pennsylvania, and 
to a smaller extent in northern New Eng¬ 
land. Probably no raspberry location is 
so well known as that of the lower Michi¬ 
gan Peninsula. The northern portion of 
this section of the State was once covered 
by an extensive forest of white and Nor¬ 
way pine, in which there were belts of 
magnificent hardwood timber consisting 
largely of beech, maple, and elm. Nearly 
all of the pine has in recent years been cut 
for lumber. During the first dry season 
following the cutting, fire burns over the 
stump-land leaving a blackened, desolate, 
almost weird, pine barren. Two or three 
years later willow-herb may spring up, but 
raspberries are either entirely absent from 
the pine barrens, or are so short and stunt- 


RASPBERRY 


718 


ed as to be of little value as honey produc¬ 
ers. 

It is upon tracts from which the hard¬ 
wood lumber has been cut that the wild 
red raspberry offers as reliable a bee pas¬ 
turage as is to be found anywhere. So 
luxuriant is the growth that it is possible, 
in riding along a woodroad, to pick the 
luscious ripe berries from the tall bushes 
bending with the fruit. If the land is not 
burned over, the rich loam, mulched with 
brush, produces large thrifty bushes which 
yield great crops of honey for several 
years. A hive on scales showed in fair 



Raspberry. 


weather a daily gain of 6 to 13 pounds. 
But the rapidly growing young trees soon 
smother the bushes, and the beekeeper is 
forced to seek a new location. If, how¬ 
ever, the land is occasionally burned over, 
the average annual surplus is less, but the 
bee pasturage lasts much longer. Thus the 
raspberry district is constantly changing, 
and this' shrub is not a permanent source 
of nectar in one locality like white clover. 
As new areas are lumbered off “new pas¬ 
tures are offered to new comers.” There is 


only one way, according to Hutchinson, to 
find a desirable location and that is to hunt 
for it.” 

Wild raspberry honey is described by 
Hutchinson, who produced it in large 
quantities, as having a delicious raspberry 
flavor, and, while not as white as white 
clover honey, it is still classed as a white 
honey. In a warm season it begins to 
bloom about the first of June, but if the 
spring is cold and backward the flow does 
not start until the middle of June. “I 
think that I can safely say,” wrote Hutch¬ 
inson, “that the wild raspberry never fails 
to produce nectar. It does not winter-kill 
as does clover, and nectar secretion is less 
affected by the weather. I have seen bees 
doing well working upon it, when the 
weather was so cool that clover would not 
yield a drop of nectar.” A luxuriant 
growth of bushes yields more nectar than 
a stunted one. The bloom lasts fully as 
long as that of white clover, and bees have 
been seen gathering nectar from it during 
the latter part of July. If there is a 
drought in August, followed by rains and 
warm weather in September, it sometimes 
blossoms again and furnishes a second 
crop of honey. The blossoms are inverted, 
a provision for protecting the nectar from 
rain. 

A long-settled country is of no value for 
wild raspberries, since the land is so highly 
cultivated that there will be no berrybushes 
except along the fences and the edges of 
the clearings. Support for several hundred 
colonies can be found only where the hard 
timber has recently been lumbered and 
the land has not been sold for farms. The 
lumbered regions on which the wild rasp¬ 
berry is abundant are isolated and remote 
from the settlements. The only buildings 
available are log shanties and deserted lum¬ 
ber camps. The beeman who goes to north¬ 
ern Michigan must expect, to “rough it,” 
and live in a shanty. The severity of the 
winters and the danger from forest fires 
are also objections. The time will eventual¬ 
ly come when this country will be cleared 
and cultivated, as is the case in the southern 
portion of the State, but this will be many 
years hence. But probably no location is 
so inaccessible at present that the beekeeper 
can not get his crop to market. The wild- 



RECORD-KEEPING OF HIVES 


719 


erness has, moreover, to the lover of nature 
a fascination of its own. The streams are 
stocked with speckled trout, the forest with 
game, and the cut-over land furnishes an 
inexhaustible supply of huckleberries, 
blackberries, and raspberries. 

Across the Straits of Mackinac in upper 
Michigan raspberry is abundant on the cul¬ 
tivated hardwood land, and is second in 
importance only to alsike clover. In the 
acid sandy soils north of the Adirondack 
region in New York the clovers do not 
thrive, but raspberry is abundant and 
yields well. Raspberry honey is produced 
in commercial quantities year after year 
near Massena Springs. It is the only 
source of surplus and about 50 pounds of 
extracted honey per colony is obtained. 
Considerable of Franklin County is to be 
included in the raspberry area, as from 
Malone southward. 

Where the raspberry is cultivated on a 
large scale for market it is also an impor¬ 
tant honey plant. The largest acreages of 
bush fruits are located on the eastern shore 
of Lake Michigan, on the southern shore 
of Lake Ontario, in southern New Jersey; 
and around Cincinnati, Ohio; St. Louis, 
Missouri; and Los Angeles and San Fran¬ 
cisco, Cal.; and Salem and Portland, Ore¬ 
gon. The red varieties, especially the 
Cuthbert, are believed to furnish the most 
honey. Bees work on the flowers closely, 
and the honey is excellent in quality. The 
raspberry blooms between fruit trees and 
white clover, so that large fields of it are a 
great acquisition. 

Finally it is both of historical and prac¬ 
tical interest to quote Langstroth’s opinion 
of raspberry honey: “In flavor it is supe¬ 
rior to that from white clover, while its 
delicate comb almost melts in the mouth. 
When it is in blossom, bees hold even white 
clover in light esteem. Its drooping blos¬ 
soms protect the honey from moisture, and 
bees work upon it when the weather is so 
wet they can obtain nothing from the up¬ 
right blossoms of the white clover.” 

RATS. —Rats may do a great deal of 
damage in a honey-house. There are some 
old fellows clever enough to avoid traps 
and poison. The only thing to do with 
such is to shoot them by watching when 
they congregate about five o’clock in the 


afternoon in and about the out-buildings. 
A 32-ealiber Flobert rifle with shot cart¬ 
ridges, or, better, a taxidermist’s 44-caliber 
shotgun, will do good execution. 

One of the best traps that was ever 
made is the old-fashioned rabbit-trap with 
gnain spread on the bottom of the box. 
The trigger to. close the trap should extend 
down to the grain. The rats in eating will 
bump against the trigger and set it off, 
when they are imprisoned alive, after which 
they can be drowned. 

Poison can be given in the form of 
dough made of one-fifth part of barium 
carbonate, or barytes, and four-fifths meal. 
This poison has no odor nor taste; and it 
is better than strychnine because its action 
is slower, giving the rats a chance to get 
off the premises before they die. 

RECORD-KEEPING OF HIVES —Al¬ 
most every apiarist has a plan of his own, 
whereby he can record the condition of the 
hive at the time of its examination, so that, 
without depending on memory, he may tell 
at a glance what its condition was when 
last examined. 

Many of the large honey-producers have 
what they call a record book. This has a 
page for each colony, the number of the 
page corresponding with the number of the 
colony. The book should be small and 
compact, just about right to carry in the 
hip pocket, and securely bound. It should 
always be carried when at work among the 
bees. On each page is supposed to be a 
record of each colony’s doings within a 
year—when it became queenless, when it 
had cells or brood, when it swarmed, and, 
toward winter, the strength and quantity of 
stores it had when last examined. 

There is an advantage in this method, 
as the book can be consulted in the house, 
and the work mapped out beforehand for 
the day. If the record book be for an out- 
apiary, the work can be planned while rid¬ 
ing to the yard; and, upon arrival, the 
plans formulated can be executed. It is 
thus possible to know in advance just where 
to get the cells to give to queenless colo¬ 
nies; just which colonies will be likely to 
have laying queens; which ones may cast 
swarms, and which ones will need more 
room in the w-~- of sections or surplus 
combs. 


720 


RECORD-KEEPING OF HIVES 


There is one objection to the record 
book, however. It is liable to get lost, or 
to be left out in the rain; and if the book 
is lost, the whole knowledge of the apiary, 
except so far as the apiarist can remember, 
is gone. Another thing, only one can use 
the book at a time. 

Others prefer card indexes. Each hive 
in the apiary will have a number, and 
corresponding to that number will be a 
card. Boxes of these card indexes can 
usually be obtained at the stationer’s or at 
the bookstores at a moderate price. The 
advantage of such index is that, when some 
particular card for some hive is full, it can 
be replaced by another card bearing the 
same number for additional data. The most 
important advantage is that one can look 
thru his index at home; and when he 
comes across a card, the corresponding hive 
of which requires some particular atten¬ 
tion, he can remove that card entirely from 
the index. In like manner he can remove 
the cards of all other colonies of the yard 
requiring special attention. These cards 
can then be slipped into the hip pockets 
and carried to an outyard or handed to an 
assistant with proper instructions; and 
after the hives have received the requisite 
attention, the necessary record can be at¬ 
tached. On returning home the cards can 
be put back. 

Where there is a series of outyards, one 
should have one index for each yard. As 
there will seldom be more than 200 colonies 
to the yard, one can have an index of 200 
cards. For example, yard No. 1 will have 
cards up to 199; yard No. 2 from 200 to 
399; yard No. 3 from 400 to 599, and so 
on. If any of the cards should get mis¬ 
laid or get mixed with another index, the 
first figure of the number will indicate to 
what yard or index it belongs. 

For the purpose of queen-rearing, the 
card index is invaluable because it enables 
one to keep a complete record of a queen, 
even her pedigree for several generations 
back. When she is sold, the record can be 
made, showing to whom she was sold, so 
that, if the purchaser complains that her 
bees are not pure, or that the colony is 
diseased, the breeder can easily go to the 
identical colony from which she came, and 
prove or disprove either assertion. 


The value of the card index can be ma¬ 
terially increased by the use of colored 
cards to slip into the index here and there 
to indicate immediate or early attention to 
some particular number. As the apiarist 
goes over his records the colored cards will 
indicate just where the cards are, referring 
to a specific colony. Let us suppose a 
case. No. 241 at the time of examination 
looked suspicious. The presence of foul 
brood is feared. A red card is put right in 
front of card 241, for red indicates danger. 
Blue, green, and yellow cards may be used 
to indicate other conditions such as queen- 
lessness, short of stores, failing queen, 
about to swarm, etc. If one is making 
preparations to feed he will hunt over the 
blue cards. Either pull the cards back of 
them out of the index or note down on a 
slip of paper the numbers of the hives that 
require feeding. 

In this connection it should, perhaps, be 
stated that one can purchase at very small 
expense loose-leaf note-books with an al¬ 
phabetical or numerical index. These books 
are so constructed that any particular page 
can be removed and another page substi¬ 
tuted or added, on the principle of loose- 
leaf ledgers. Such books can be used in 
place of a card index. In other words, it 
will be a pocket card index that can be 
carried to and from the yard; and as such 
books are usually bound in leather they 
will stand rough usage. 

Of course, with any books or card index 
it goes without saying that every hive in 
the yard should be numbered. These num¬ 
bers may be put on the hive with a 
brush, using black paint. But it is pref¬ 
erable to use a detachable number. Such 
a number may be stenciled on a sheet of 
tin and the tin tacked on the hive. The 
objection to these is the expense. Fortu¬ 
nately there can now be secured of supply 
dealers, numbers printed on heavy rnanila 
tags that are afterward soaked in boiling 
paraffin so they will stand the weather. 
These numbers can then be tacked on the 
cover, or on one side or end of the hive. 
As a rule it is better to use the front end 
just over the entrance. In the course of 
two or three years it may be necessary to 
replace the old number with a new and 


RECORD-KEEPING OF HIVES 


721 


fresh one. As these card numbers are very 
cheap the expense of renewal is small. 

RECORD-KEEPING IN OR ON THE HIVE. 

There are many beekeepers who think 
they cannot afford to fuss with books, card 
indexes, nor anything of that sort. Some 
of them simply write the record inside of 
the cover; but in most cases the form or 
make of cover renders this impracticable. 

One of the best schemes to accommodate 
this class of beekeepers is what may be 
called, for want of a better name, wooden 
writing tablets. These are made out of 
broken sections, IV 2 or 2 inches wide, by 
4 s or 5 inches long. But these, unless 
dipped in white lead, will soon weather- 
stain so that the lead-pencil record will be 
blurred if not entirely obliterated. To coat 
a thousand of these, dip in thin white lead, 
and lean against something until dry. In 
every case after they are painted they will 
hold lead-pencil records the entire season. 
At the author’s yards both the card index 
and the wooden tablets coated with white 
lead have been used. The tablets are for 
a temporary record, which record is later 
transferred to the card index. In connec¬ 
tion with the white tablets some painted 
different colors to indicate different con¬ 
ditions are used. With these one can stand 
in one position in the yard, and at a glance 
can easily locate a colony having a blue, 
red, yellow, or green tablet, each color car¬ 
rying its own special meaning. 

But these wooden tablets will blow off 
the hives, and become lost. This difficulty 
is easily overcome by the use of little 
spring clips made of brass; and in lieu 
of anything better, the ordinary steel super 
’springs coated with paint make a very 
good substitute. Each spring clip should 
he fastened down with a staple. The ad¬ 
vantage of these clips is that they not only 
hold the tablets fast to the hive, but they 
enable one to place the tablet in front or 
on top. Where a. colony needs attention at 
the next visit, a red tablet is placed on top 
of the white one bearing the record. If a 
colony needs feeding, a blue tablet will be 
used; if it is queenless, a green one; and 
thus one can use a great variety of colors 
to indicate as many conditions of the col¬ 
ony. In most cases a red tablet may be 
used to show anything that requires imme¬ 


diate attention. For example, a colony 
may be starting to build queen-cells. They 


should be cut out, of 
trip they will need to 
forestall swarming. 



course. At the next 
be cut out again to 



Again, a red card may indicate a failing 
queen, or a poor queen which needs replac¬ 
ing soon; a colony that is on the verge of 
starvation, a colony that has suspicious- 
looking brood, that will need another ex¬ 
amination a week hence before its nature 
can be fully determined. In like manner 
a red card may be used to indicate any con¬ 
ditions that need rectifying at the time of 
the next visit. 

The spring clips should usually be made 
out of brass, and those used in the author’s 
apiaries are made of that material, 24 
gauge, 14 inch wide, and about 4 inches 
long, bent as shown in the illustration. 

QUEEN-REGISTER CARDS. 

Another system of record-keeping that 
is popular with a few is what are called 
register cards. The accompanying plan 
shows how they are used. To indicate the 


1 23456789 


Queen Hegistei*. 


12 EG « S - 

13 MISSING. 

14 

15 TESTED. O 


No . 

BROOD. 


CELL. 


26 n 23 22 212019 18 17 SELECT Tested. 


Hatched 


MARCH. 


LAYING. 


OCT. APRIL. 


SEPT, O MAY. 
AUG. JUNE. 
JULY. 


DIRECTIONS.—Tack the card on a 
conspicuous part of the hive or nu¬ 
cleus: then, with a pair of pliers, force 
a common pin into the center of each 
circle, after which it is bent in such a 
manner that the head will press se¬ 
curely on any figure or word. 























722 


REVERSING 


date, the pin heads are revolved so as to 
point to the proper place. There is no 
writing, and nothing to do except to turn 
the pointers to the right place. 

RED CLOVER.— See Clover. 

REVERSING. —This, as the term signi¬ 
fies, is a scheme or plan for inverting, or 
turning over, the comb. It may be accom¬ 
plished by inverting the frames individ¬ 
ually or the whole hive at one operation. 

Reversing began to be discussed in 1884; 
and for three or four years following there 
was much said on the subject. Reversible 
frames and reversible hives were invented 
by the dozen. Some of them were quite 
ingenious, while others were clumsy and 
impractical. 

Taking into consideration the fact that 
the bees store their honey immediately over 
the brood, and that, as a consequence, their 
combs at this point are much better filled 
out, certain beekeepers conceived the idea 
of turning the combs upside down at fre¬ 
quent intervals. “Why,” said they, “when 
the combs are reversed, bringing the bot¬ 
tom-bars uppermost, the combs will be 
built clear out to the bottom-bars, and the 
honey next the top-bar, which is now at 
the bottom of the hive, will be carried up 
into the supers, just where it is wanted.” 
This seemed very nice in theory, and even 
in practice it seemed to be partially car¬ 
ried out. Many beekeepers reported that, 
when the combs were reversed, the bees, 
rather than have the honey in the bottom 
of the combs, near the entrance, and acces¬ 
sible to robbers, would uncap it and take it 
up into the sections. Unfortunately, honey 
carried above was often poor and dark in 
color. Many times also the bees did not 
cany the honey above but allowed it to 
stay at the bottom of the hive, so that the 
only real advantage secured was getting 
the combs filled actually to the bottom-bars, 
now at the top. 

A very few claimed that reversing, when 
done at the proper time, would destroy 
queen-cells, and so control swarming. Rut 
this worked better in theory than in prac¬ 
tice. 

The only real and direct advantage of 
reversing is in getting combs filled out solid 
in brood-frames. (See Manipulation of. 
Colonies.) When hunting queens it is 


much easier to find one where there is no 
horizontal space between the edge of the 
comb, and the bottom-bar,, and no holes to 
furnish her hiding-places. Moreover, hav¬ 
ing combs filled out solid gives better fas¬ 
tening to the frame and increases the ca¬ 
pacity of the hive just in proportion to the 
new comb built after reversing. Nearly 
every frame that is not reversed is liable 
to have a space of % inch or % between 
the top of the bottom-bar and the comb; 
and this is a waste that ought to be utilized 
if possible. To a certain extent this space 
can be filled in non-reversing frames by hav¬ 
ing sheets of foundation reach from frame- 
bottom to top-bar, wired in with perpen¬ 
dicular wires; but even such combs are 
never as well filled as those reversed. Hav¬ 
ing the combs built in the upper story 
causes the bees to build them down to the 
bottom-bar much better than when built in 
the lower story. 

Several good reversible frames have been 
proposed; but no one should think of 
adopting any of them unless it has some 
points of merit outside the one exclusive 
feature of reversing. A reversible frame 
that is not good for all-around use—easy 
to handle—would be very unprofitable. 



The Van Deusen reversible frame. 


One of the first practical reversing 
frames was the Van Deusen, having metal 
corners or ears. This was essentially a 
standing frame, and could be used just as 
well one side up as the other. The frames 
were spaced apart by “spacing-ears,” and 
these very ears offered some distinctive ad¬ 
vantages in the way of handling the frame. 
This frame was used very largely by the 
one-time most extensive beekeeper in the 
world, Captain J. E. Hetherington of New 
York, also by his brother in Michigan. Out 
side of its reversing feature it offered one 
very decided advantage; namely, the facil¬ 
ity with which it could be handled like the 
leaves of a book. By taking out one or 
two frames the rest could be thumbed over 
without lifting them out of the hive. Not¬ 
withstanding, it is not now used. 






ROBBING 


723. 


Two other reversible frames a,re the 
Danzenbaker and the Heddon (see Hivks; 
also Frames, Self-spacing, and Manipu¬ 
lation of Colonies), either one of which 
can be used as well one side up as the 



Danzenbaker reversible frame. 


other; in fact, any closed-end standing 
frame, except the Quinby, can be used as a 
reversible frame. 

The fact that none of these frames nor 
any other reversible frames are in use to 
any extent would seem to argue that the 
advantages of reversing are more theoreti¬ 
cal than actual. 

how to reverse ordinary frames so that 

COMBS WILL BE BUILT DOWN TO THE 
BOTTOM-BARS. 

The ordinary frame in general use, as be¬ 
fore stated, will have a space of from 
to y~z inch between the bottom edge of the 
comb and the bottom-bar. There is only one 
way to make the bees fill this out, and that 
is to turn the combs upside down for a 
short time. With the Hoffman frames, the 
hive-body and all containing the frames can 
lie inverted. To prevent the frames from 
sliding down on to the bottom-board when 
the whole thing is reversed, a couple of 
cleats should be placed on each end, equal in 
thickness to the bee-space on top of the 
frames and the bee-space in the bottom- 
board. An ordinary bottom, after the 
cleats are in place, should be put on top 
of the hive in place of the cover, after 
which the bottom-board, hive, frames, and 
all may be turned the other side up for a 
week’s time. The time selected for doing 
this should be just at the beginning of 
the honey flow. After the frames have 
been upside down for about a week they 


can be set back to their normal position 
with the top-bars on top as usual. 

A few beekeepers do not like to have 
these empty bee-spaces under the bottom- 
bars, for two reasons: They think this 
space is an actual waste; and, second, it 
provides an excellent hiding place for the 
queen when it is desired to find her to clip 
her, or otherwise see how she looks. 

ROBBING. —As the term signifies, “rob¬ 
bing” is an act or series of acts by which 
bees pilfer or steal from each other, or 
from any source where sweets in the form 
of jam, jellies, syrup, or honey, are left 
exposed. Like some human beings.when 
the opportunities are given, bees find it 
easier to steal than to work. The passion 
for stealing or robbing, if neglected, be¬ 
comes a habit—a habit that is exceedingly 
hard to break up. 

When bees discover that a large amount 
of sweets can be secured without working 
for it, they are quick to profit by the 
chance; and in the space of a few min¬ 
utes they may start an uproar. This not 
only means pillage, but death to the bees 
and stings to their owners. 

Paul says that the love of money is the 
root of all evil; and similarly the love of 
honey on the part of the bees is a root of a 
great deal of the evil that takes place in 
bee culture. When they find it easier to 
help themselves to the results of the honest 
toil of others they will enter into the busi¬ 
ness of plundering without scruple. 

One of the ABC class has said that he 
found a single bee making visits to over 
100 clover-heads before it obtained a load 
sufficient to carry to its hive. It is proba¬ 
bly true that during a great part of the 
season a bee will be absent a full hour, or, 
it may be, during unfavorable spells, as 
much as two hours, in obtaining a single 
load. The time during which a bee may be 
absent is very variable. If the nectar se¬ 
cretion is heavy it will return much quicker 
than if it is light. Is it at all strange that 
a bee, after having labored thus hard dur¬ 
ing the fore part of the day, should, in the 
afternoon, take a notion to see if it could 
not make a living in some easier way? 
Would it be very much worse than many 
types of humanity? As the bee noses 
around to other hives it catches the per- 

















724 


ROBBING 


fume of the honey other bees have gath¬ 
ered, and, by some sort of an operation 
in its little head, it figures out that, if 
it could abstract some of this, unperceived, 
and get it safely into its own hive, it would 
be so much the richer. It has no sort of 
care whether these other bees die of star¬ 
vation or not. That is none of its concern. 

With all their wonderful instincts, no 
one has ever been able to perceive that the 
bees of one hive have any spark of solici¬ 
tude as to the welfare of their neighbors. 
If, by the loss of a queen, the population 
of any hive becomes weak, and the bees 
are too old to defend their stores, the very 
moment the fact is discovered by the other 
colonies they rush in and overpower the 
sentinels, with the most perfect indiffer¬ 
ence, plunder the ruined home of its last 
bit of provision, and then rejoice in their 
own home, it may be but a yard away, 
while their defrauded neighbors are so 
weak from starvation as to have fallen to 
the bottom of the hive, being only just able 
to attempt to crawl feebly out at the en¬ 
trance. Had it been some of their own 
flock, the case would have been very differ¬ 
ent indeed; for the first bee of a starving 
colony will carry food around to its com¬ 
rades, as soon as it has imbibed enough of 
the food furnished to have the strength to 
stagger to them. 

Suppose a robber bee, in prowling 
around in the afternoon or some other 
time, should find a colony so weak or so 
careless that it could slip in unobserved, 
and get a load from some of the unsealed 
cells, and get out again. After it has 
passed the sentinels outside it usually runs 
little danger from the inmates that seem to 
take it for granted that every bee inside is 
one of their number. There is danger, tho; 
for should the robber betray too great 
haste in repairing to the combs of honey 
they often suspect something; so it as¬ 
sumes an indifference it is far from feel¬ 
ing, and loiters about very much as if it 
were at home, and finally with a very well- 
assumed air of one who thinks he will take 
a lunch, it goes to the cells and commences 
to fill up. Very often, when it gets pretty 
well “podded out” with its load, some bee 
approaches, apparently to see if all is 
right. When the robber once gets its head 


into a cell, however, it seems to have lost all 
sense or reason; and if it is discovered at 
this stage to be a stranger and a thief, it 
is often pounced upon and stung with very 
little ceremony. 

How do bees know a stranger from one 
of their own number, where there are so 
many? It is said they tell by the sense of 
smell; this may be the principal means, 
perhaps, but apparently they depend great¬ 
ly on the action and behavior of a bee, 
much as men do when judging of the re¬ 
sponsibility of a man who asks to be trust¬ 
ed. One can give a very good guess, simply 
by his air or manner, or even by the sort 
of letter he writes. 

If a robber bee is suspected, and a bee 
approaches for the purpose of satisfying 
itself, it is a very critical moment, and one 
becomes intensely interested in watching 
the performance. The robber will stand 
its ground, if it is an old hand, and permit 
itself to be looked over with wonderful in¬ 
difference; but one who has watched such 
scenes closely will detect a certain uneasi¬ 
ness, and a disposition to move slowly to¬ 
ward the entrance, that it may be the bet¬ 
ter able to get out quickly, when it discov¬ 
ers things to be too hot for it inside. If 
the bee that first suspects it concludes it is 
an interloper, it begins to bite it, and grab 
hold of its wings to hold on until others can 
come to help. The thief has now two 
chances to escape, ,and sometimes it seems 
meditating which to adopt; one is, to brave 
it out until they shall perhaps let it alone, 
and then slip out unobserved. The other 
is to break away and trust to its heels and 
wings. The latter plan is the one generally 
adopted. One that has been many times in 
such scrapes will usually get away by an 
adroit series of twists, turns, and tu mb les, 
even tho three or four bees have hold of it 
at once. Some of these fellows, by a sud¬ 
den and unexpected dash, will liberate 
themselves in a manner that is even won¬ 
derful, and then, as if to show their 
audacity, will wheel about and come back 
close to the noses of their captors of a 
minute before. 

In case the bee secures its load and 
makes its way out unobserved, it gets home 
very quickly, and, under the influence of 
this new passion for easily replenishing 


ROBBING 


its hive witli the coveted sweets, it rushes 
out with a vehemence never known under 
any other circumstances. Back it goes and 
repeats the operation, with several of its 
comrades at its heels. Does it tell them 
where to go? 

When a bee comes into the hive in such 
unusual haste, podded out with its load in 
a way also rather unusual when obtained 
from the flowers, its comrades at once 
notice it, and, either from memory or in¬ 
stinct they are suddenly seized with the 
same kind of passion and excitement. 
Those who have had experience at the 
gambling-table, or in wild speculations of 
other kinds, can understand the fierce and 
reckless spirit that stirs these little fellows. 
The bees, when they see a comrade return 
in the way mentioned, seem to know, with¬ 
out any verbal explanation, that the plun¬ 
der is stolen. Anxious to have “a finger 
in the pie,” they tumble out of the hive, 
and look about, and perhaps listen, too, to 
find where the spoil is to be had. If they 
have, at any former time, been robbing any 
particular hive, they will repair at once to 
that; but, if it is found well guarded, those 
used to the business will proceed to exam¬ 
ine every hive. 

< INTELLIGENCE OF THE HONEYBEE. 

The following incidents, described in 
Gleanings in Bee Culture, are worth repro¬ 
ducing here: 

“One afternoon, the door of the honev- 
house being left open, the bees were soon 
doing a ‘land-office’ business before the 
mischief was stopped by closing the door 
until they had clustered on the windows 
in the room, which were then opened, and 
the process repeated until all were out. 
All the rest of the afternoon they were hov¬ 
ering about the door. Toward night they 
gradually disappeared; and when the au¬ 
thor went down about sundown, to try a new 
feeder, not a bee was near the door. The 
feeder was placed in front of a hive where 
bees were clustered out; and as soon as a 
few bees had got a taste, and filled them¬ 
selves, they of course went into the hive to 
unload. We expected a lot to come out; as 
soon as these entered with their precious 
loads, but were much astonished to see an 
eager crowd come tumbling out as if they 
were g’oing to swarm, still more when they 


rushed right past the feeder and took 
wing for—where do you suppose? the 
honey-house door, of course. How should 
they reason otherwise, than that it had 
again been left open, and that was where 
these incomers had found their rich loads? 
On finding it closed, back to the hive they 
came to repeat the maneuvers over. 

“As another evidence of the wonderful 
intelligence and almost reasoning power of 
the honeybee, another instance will illus¬ 
trate further. 

“Some years ago in September a carload 
shipment of honey came in 60-pound cans 
so badly damaged that the contents had 
leaked out and run thru the floor of the 
box car. The railroad company had agreed 
to take the car away at half-past ten; and 
as the weather was cool the bees had not 
discovered it at that time. Unfortunately 
the company failed to move the car as 
agreed, and we knew nothing of it till we 
were apprised something was wrong by the 
unusual number of bees swarming around 
the windows and doors. We carried a hose 
over to the leaky car and washed away the 
honey, cleaning it from the gearing, iron¬ 
work, and underside of the car until the 
bees were pretty well satisfied there was 
nothing more to get, altho they were hang¬ 
ing around in great numbers. To prevent 
the bees from getting the honey inside the 
car, our boys covered the floor pretty well 
with sawdust. About three o’clock the en¬ 
gine came around and pulled the ear away. 
A little after four, some men who were 
loading wheat informed us our bees were 
making them a great deal of trouble. We 
at once jumped to the conclusion that the 
company, instead of taking the car entire¬ 
ly away, as agreed, had only removed it to 
another location in the yard, and that the 
sticky car was still enticing our bees. We 
saw the sawdust on the floor on which they 
were dumping bags of wheat, and concluded 
it was the honey-car; but, while we were 
puzzling to account for the fact that the 
ironwork unfler this car showed no trace 
of honey or water either, a man called and 
pointed to another car in still another loca¬ 
tion, just swarming with bees around its 
door, inside and out. Then we ‘caught 
on.’ There was not a particle of honey 
in or around either of the two cars we 
were looking at. After the honey-car had 


ROBBING 


72(5 


been pulled clear out of town, the bees, not 
willing to give up, proceeded to Reave no 
stone unturned/ and were investigating 
every car having an open door that, in 
their judgment, might be the one that had 
been pulled away. When they found one 
with sawdust spread over the floor they nat¬ 
urally concluded that was the car, and got 
down on their hands and knees searching 
in the sawdust for honey. The other bees, 
seeing them thus employed, naturally con¬ 
cluded this was the place. Others, having 
learned that one box car contained so rich 
a find, concluded that a search thru all the 
cars in the yard might possibly reward 
them for their investigation; and it was 
only in the cool of the evening that they 
were willing to stop digging in that saw¬ 
dust, and be convinced there were no more 
honey-ears. 

“It may not be true that bees recognize 
colors, but they certainly do take in the 
.general make-up of objects. They are not 
only able to recognize a hive, but they 
know a box car at sight; and even if it is 
moved to a different location they take in 
its general appearance so that they know 
pretty well how to find it in case of re¬ 
moval. We are not prepared to prove that 
they read the letters ‘Big Four’ on the 
side of that car, nor that they remembered 
there was an enormous figure 4 printed in 
white on the red door of the car they 
wanted; but they came pretty close to it.” 

HOW BEES COMMUNICATE. 

Of course, bees have particular notes, as 
for joy, sorrow, anger, despair, etc., which 
are produced by the wings, usually when 
flying; but probably they are unable to 
communicate to each other more than a 
single idea. In other words, they have no 
faculty of telling their fellows.that a lot of 
honey is to be had in a feeder at the 
entrance, and that it would better be 
brought in quickly or other bees may find 
it. A bee goes out in the spring, and, by 
smelling around the buds, discovers honey 
and pollen; when it comes into the hive 
the others see it and start out to hunt up 
the source of supply in a similar way. 

WHEN BEES WILL NOT ROB. 

By turning back and reading Anger of 


Bees, one will get a very good idea of the 
causes that start bees to robbing. Read, 
also, Bee-hunting, Feeding, and Bee Be¬ 
havior. As a general thing, bees will 
never rob so long as plenty of honey is to 
be had in the fields. During a bountiful 
flow the author has tried in vain to get bees 
to take any notice of honey left around the 
apiary. At such times one can use the ex¬ 
tractor right in the open air, close to the 
sides of the hives, if need be. On one occa¬ 
sion at Medina a comb of unsealed honey 
was left on the top of a hive from morn¬ 
ing until noon, and not a bee touched it. 
It seems they preferred to go to the clo¬ 
ver fields in the regular way rather than 
to take several pounds from the top of a 
neighboring hive. It can readily be sup¬ 
posed that they did not have to visit any¬ 
thing like a hundred blossoms at this time, 
and perhaps they secured a load in going 
to not more than a dozen. 

After the season begins to fail, one must 
expect that every colony in the apiary will 
be tried. As a rule, any fair colony will 
have sentinels posted to guard the entrance 
as soon as there is any need of such pre¬ 
caution. The bee that presumes to think 
it may enter for plunder, will be led off by 
“the ear,” and this will be repeated until 
it learns that there is no chance for rob¬ 
bing at that house. At the close of the 
honey harvest precaution should be taken 
that there are no weak colonies, especially 
if they are queenless, that may be over¬ 
powered, for one such may start the fash¬ 
ion of robbing, and make it much harder to 
control. An apiary, like a community, 
may get so demoralized that thieving be¬ 
comes a universal mania. “A stitch in 
time will save” a great many more than 
nine in this case. The space occupied by 
the bees also should be in proportion to 
their numbers. Likewise the entrance should 
be in proportion to the size of the colony. 
They should have only as many combs as 
they can cover if they are to defend them¬ 
selves properly from either moths or rob¬ 
bers. Colonies without either queen or 
brood are not apt to fight for their stores 
very vigorously. It is harfily necessary to 
repeat what has been said about Italians be¬ 
ing better able to defend themselves than 
black bees. A few Italians will often pro- 


ROBBING 


teet tiie hive better than a whole swarm of 
black bees. 

HOW TO KNOW ROBBER BEES. 

It sometimes puzzles beginners exceed¬ 
ingly to know whether the bees that come 
out are robbers, or ordinary inmates of 
the hive out for a general playspell. There 
are times when a playflight looks very much 
like robbing. See Playflights of Young 
Bees and Drifting. 

When the robber bee approaches a hive, 
it has a sly nervous manner, and flies with 
its legs spread in a rather unusual way, as 
if it wanted to be ready to use its heels as 
well as wings if required. It will move 
cautiously up to the entrance, and quickly 
dodge back as soon as it sees a bee coming 
toward it. If it is promptly grabbed on 
attempting to go in, never fear. When a 
bee goes in and it caniiot be determined 
whether it is a robber 01 not, a close watch 
should be kept on all the bees coming out. 
This is sure way of telling when rob¬ 
bers have got a start, even at its very 
commencement. A bee, in going to the 
fields, comes out leisurely, and takes wing 
with but little trouble, because it has no 
load. Its body is also slim, for it has no 
honey with it. A bee that has stolen a load 
is generally plump and full; and, as it 
comes out it has a hurried and “guilty 
look.” Most of all, it finds it a little diffi¬ 
cult to take wing, as bees ordinarily do, be¬ 
cause of the weight. In Bee-hunting is 
related how a bee, laden with thick undi¬ 
luted honey, would stagger under its load 
before it could take wing for the final trip 
home. The bee, when coming out of the 
hive with honey it has very likely just un¬ 
capped, feels instinctively that it will be 
quite apt to tumble unless able to take 
wing from some elevated position, and 
therefore crawls up the side of the hive 
before launching out. When first taking 
wing it falls a little by the weight of its 
load, before its wings are fully under con¬ 
trol, and therefore, instead of starting out 
as a bee ordinarily does, it takes a down¬ 
ward curve, coming quite near the ground 
before rising safely and surely. With a 
little practice one can tell a robber at first 
glance by its way of coming out of the 
hive and taking wing. 


HOW TO TELL WHERE THE ROBBERS BELONG. 

If one is a bee-hunter he will probably 
line them to their hive without any trouble; 
but if he is not, he can easily find from 
which hive they come by sprinkling them 
with flour as they come out of the hive 
being robbed. Watch should be kept'on 
the other hives, to see where the floured 
bees are going in. If the robbing is con¬ 
fined to one or two colonies, as is often the 
case, they should be put down cellar and 
kept there for several days where they can 
not incite other colonies. Reference will 
be made to this further on. 

ONCE A ROBBER, ALWAYS A ROBBER. 

After bees once get into the fixed habit 
of robbing it is a mistake to let them out 
again; for no sooner are they out than 
they are at their old tricks again. It is 
better to confine them, and then after they 
have been imprisoned' for 24 hours they 
may be brushed down into a box from the 
screen or from whatever portion of the 
building in which they have clustered. 
They should then be carried to an outyard. 
It is not advisable to let them loose again 
in the same yard where they have learned 
their bad tricks of stealing. If allowed 
their liberty they will be continually prowl¬ 
ing around for days to see where they can 
effect an entrance to the honey-house or 
an unguarded hive. It may be cheaper in 
the end to kill them outright, especially if 
there are not more than half a pound of 
bees. If there are many more, it may be 
desirable to save them; but they should 
not he let loose again in the same yard. 
If taken to another yard they will cause 
no trouble. 

ROBBING OF NUCLEI OR WEAK COLONIES. 

There is another kind of robbing that 
is much more common, and which is apt to 
perplex the beginner more than anything 
else, and that is the onslaughts that are 
often made on weak colonies or those that 
are disinclined to make a defense, especial¬ 
ly if queenless. Nuclei with large entrances 
are especially subject to the attacks of bees 
from strong stocks, and may be cleaned out 
entirely before the apiarist discovers the 
mischief. By that time the whole apiary 
will be in a perfect uproar. As soon as the 


728 


ROBBING 


supply of honey has been exhausted in the 
one nucleus the robbers will hover around 
all other entrances, and on finding one 
poorly defended will get in more bad work. 
During a dearth of honey there are always 
some bees that make a business of smell¬ 
ing around, and it is a wise precaution al¬ 
ways to have the entrances of nuclei con¬ 
tracted to a width where only one or two 
bees can pass at a time. 

One of the most prolific causes of rob¬ 
bing is a warped cover on an old hive, the 
corner of which has split open. All such 
makeshifts should be replaced. In an 
emergency a handful of mud plastered into 
the opening or crack, or some cotton stuffed 
in, will go a long way toward preventing 
serious trouble later on. During a good 
honey flow small cracks large enough for 
bees to get thru do no particular harm, but 
during a honey-dearth extra precautions 
must be taken. Weak colonies especially 
cannot defend several entrances, and that 
is why poorly fitting covers or leaky hives 
must not be tolerated. The robbers seem 
to realize that the regular entrance is more 
likely to be well guarded, and that is why 
they are often seen trying to crawl thru 
some unguarded crack. 

HOW TO STOP ROBBING. 

As to the best mode of procedure, a good 
deal will depend on circumstances. When 
bees in the whole apiary are robbing in a 
wholesale way from the honey-house, or 
from any place where a supply of honey 
or syrup is kept, the obvious remedy is to 
cut off the supply. 

Bees soon stop robbing when all sweets 
within their reach are removed or so pro¬ 
tected that they cannot get at them; but 
even then the apiary will be out of balance 
for the rest of the day, and more or less 
for two or three weeks following, because 
the bees will be trying to find where they 
can get more sweets. 

Sometimes robbing is started by some 
one in the neighborhood making sweet 
pickles, canning fruit, or doing anything 
that causes a strong odor of sweet or sour 
during its preparation. The only thing the 
beekeeper can do is to have the house 
screened; or if the case is very bad, and 
the bees keep on “sticking their noses into 
other people’s business,” the entrances of 


all the hives should be smoked with tobacco 
smoke. Half a dozen puffs of smoke 
should be blown into each entrance, one 
after the other. In half an hour the dose 
should be repeated. This will cause the 
bees to quiet down until such time as the 
canning or the pickle-making is over at the 
house where bees are “making themselves 
too familiar.” 

The best treatment for a general robbing 
thruout the apiary is prevention. The 
screen door and other openings into the 
honey-house should be self-closing. Un¬ 
less they are, some one will be almost sure 
to forget and leave one of them open. If 
the doors are not self-closing, all the honey 
or syrup stored in the building should be 
put into hives, shipping cases, cans, bar¬ 
rels, or any receptacle where bees can be 
kept from helping themselves; then, if per¬ 
chance the door is left open, no harm will 
be done. 

Let it be supposed that a colony has 
been overpowered, and that its own bees 
are making no defense, realizing, probably, 
that resistance is useless. If anything is 
to be done to save the colony, it must be 
done quickly. One way is to grasp a hand¬ 
ful of long grass, strew it closely around 
the entrance, and then spray or sprinkle a 
dipperful of water on it, and scatter more 
wet grass over the entrance. A very little 
carbolic acid added to the water makes the 
Spray more offensive to robbers. The in¬ 
vaders will not, as a rule, crawl thru the 
wet grass to get into the hive, while on the 
other hand those that have already entered 
the hive will get out and return to their 
homes. In the mean time the regular in¬ 
mates of the hive, as soon as they are given 
a little assistance, will begin to set up a 
defense. The grass should be kept wet for 
at least an hour or two, and possibly till 
sundown; but before strewing the gTass 
the entrance should be contracted so that 
only one or two bees can pass at a time. 
The entrance should never he closed entire¬ 
ly, no matter how bad the bees are robbing. 
On a hot day the large number of robbers 
in the hive, together with the regular in¬ 
mates, would be almost sure to smother to 
death. 

Another and a better way to treat colo¬ 
nies or nuclei that are not making a good 
defense is to carry them down cellar or put 


ROBBING 


729 


them in any cool place where they will have 
an opportunity to recover themselves, and 
where, too, robbers cannot continually keep 
up the policy of pestering the life out of 
them. In 24 hours the robbers in the yard 
will have quieted, when the nucleus or 
robbed colony can be taken out and set 
back on its stand. But at this time the 
entrance should be contracted to a space 
just wide enough so that only two or three 
bees can pass at a time. 

A still better plan for the treatment of 
a colony that is being overpowered by rob¬ 
bers is to set a wire-cloth cage or tent over 
it. This cage need not be larger than will 
cover the hive. The illustration shows the 
style used by the authors. Three or four 
of such cages are kept in the yard ready 
for an emergency of this kind. 

There is no rob¬ 
bing except when the 
regular apiarist is 
temporarily away 
and a new man has 
been left in charge. 

Such a man or boy 
will sometimes let 
robbing get well un¬ 
der way, not know¬ 
ing that trouble is 
brewing. In very 
short order it will be. 
apparent that the 
colony or the nucleus 
is not making a de- 
f e n s e. Sometimes 
even a strong colony 
will be taken by sur¬ 
prise, and before it 
is aware of what is 
happening the rob¬ 
bers will be piling 
into the hive at a 
furious rate. At other times there are 
not enough bees in a nucleus to make a 
respectable defense. Such colonies or nu¬ 
clei need help, and that right speedily. If 
one has a wire cage, he can set it over the 
hive, and that immediately stops any more 
robbers from getting in. As soon as the 
marauders in the hive fill up, they will 
rush out of the entrance pell-mell; but 
instead of going back to their own hive 
they are imprisoned in the cage. Tn the 
mean time there will be a big horde of 


robbers outside of the cage. Raise the 
cage up for three or four seconds, when all 
the outside robbers will pounce on the en¬ 
trance. Right here the reader may think 
this a mistake. The scheme is to catch 
every robber that has been carrying on the 
business of stealing for the last few min¬ 
utes or half-hour, so as they return from 
their hive the cage is lifted up at inter¬ 
vals when the robbers rush in. The bees 
that have been imprisoned will cling to the 
top of the cage, even tho it be lifted for the 
moment. In the mean time their number 
will be reinforced by more robbers coming 
out of the hive. In the space of about thir¬ 
ty minutes, if the robbing has not been go¬ 
ing on too long, every robber will be in the 
top of the cage, and there they will stay. It 
is a serious mistake to let such bees loose 


again, for they will immediately go back 
to their hives and return to attack the col¬ 
ony that has been overpowered. 

Toward night the cage is lifted off the 
hive and set down carefully till the next 
day, when the bees will be found clustered 
up in the top of the cage, perhaps in one 
corner. After using a little smoke they 
are sqooped off with a dipper and dumped 
into a box. They are then, carried to an 
outyard, where everything will be strange 
to them, and given to a colony that needs 



Convenient cage to set over hive that is being robbed. 






ROBBING 


730 

a few more bees, the precaution being 
taken, however, to cage the queen, as the 
new bees might kill her. 

Some good beekeepers doubt whether it 
is best to let these robbers loose after they 
have once been trapped. Where there are 
very many of them it would be bad to 
destroy them. If only a few they should be 
killed. 

A CONVENIENT ROBBER CAGE. 

This consists, of a light framework of 
%-square stuff held together at the inter¬ 
sections by means of three-cornered blocks. 
The whole is then covered with wire cloth, 
and across the top a strip is nailed to pro¬ 
vide a handle so the cage may be lifted up 
with one hand. It is advisable to have in 
addition one or two larger cages—big 
enough to take in a man while he is operat¬ 
ing over the hive. These cages may be of 
various sizes, but they should be light 
enough so that one can carry them around 
easily and squat over a hive to be manipu- 



Open top robber cage. 


latecl. The larger cages should be made in 
the same way as the small cages, of 
%-square stuff braced at the intersections 
by three-cornered blocks, except that the top 
need not be covered. Cross-rails on each 
side two feet from the bottom serve as con¬ 
venient handles, so that the man on the in¬ 
side can pick up the cage and walk from 
one hive to another. The use of cheese 


cloth is quite as effective as wire cloth for 
these large cages, and much cheaper. With 
the large cages it is not necessary to have 
the top covered. The average robber that 
is supposed to make trouble will hover 
along on a level about the top of the hive 
that is being operated. It does not have 
sense enough to rise up and dive down over 
the top. At the same time bees that be¬ 
long to the hive that is being manipulated 
will easily escape. On the other hand, the 
cages that have tops will cage the bees so 
they will be bumping around the head of 
the operator. Unless they are actual rob¬ 
bers, it is better to let them loose; and as 
soon as the operator has left the hive they 
will go into their own entrance. 

Tor raising queens these topless cages 
are very convenient when the robbing sea¬ 
son is oil. The queen-breeder, while he is 
on the inside of one of these cages, can 
work over a hive as long as he pleases, 
secure from robbers. If he uses the cage 
continually, robbers will seldom get a taste 
of honey; and therefore there will be little 
or no trouble. 

EXCHANGING PLACES WITH THE ROBBING 
AND ROBBED COLONIES. 

Trying to people the house-apiary in the 
fall, when it was first built, the author had 
trouble with one certain colony. In fact, 
when robbing was going on anywhere it 
was sure to be these hybrids that were at 
the bottom of the mischief. After trying 
every plan recommended, and still finding 
these fellows would ; persist in pushing into 
every new colony started, the idea occurred 
that, on the principle that it takes a rogue 
to catch a rogue, it would be well to try to 
see how these would repel other robbers. 
The greater part of the combs were taken 
from the robbers, bees and all, carried into 
the house-apiary, and put into the hive 
which had been robbed. The effect was in¬ 
stantaneous. Every laden robber-bee that 
went home with its load, on finding the 
' queen and brood gone from the old stand 
at once showed the utmost consternation, 
while the passion for robbing was instantly 
changed to grief and moaning for the lost 
home. The weak colony which they had 
been robbing, and which had only a queen¬ 
cell, was carried to them, and they soon 
took up with it and went ,to work. The rol)- 






ROBBING 


731 


bers newly domiciled in the house-apiary 
repelled all invaders with such energy and 
determination that the rest seemed to aban¬ 
don the idea which they, doubtless, had pre¬ 
viously formed; viz., that the house-apiary 
was a monster hive but ill garrisoned, so we 
had very little trouble afterward. Before 
they were transposed, as mentioned, we had 
serious thoughts of destroying their queen, 
simply because they were such pests; but 
the year afterward, this colony gave in the 
house-apiary over 100 lbs. of comb honey. 

HOW TO KNOW WHEN A HIVE IS PUTTING 
UP A GOOD DEFENSE. 

The half-tone shown below is a good 
illustration of how a powerful colony will 
deploy its sentinels or guards during the 
time when other colonies near by are being 
robbed. This colony is prepared for any 
kind of an onslaught; for the minute that 



A colony that is ready to meet any kind of on¬ 
slaught from robbers. Robbers had hovered around 
the entrance. The result was, the guards were 
out in good force to repel the attack. 

a robber hovers over the entrance it is 
promptly met in mid air by one of the 
sentinels. They immediately clutch in a 
rough-and-tumble fight, drop to the ground, 
roll over and over, and lucky is the robber 
if it gets away without having its hair or 
legs pretty vigorously pulled. Such “a 
warm reception” will discourage any 
would-be robber from tackling that colony 
again. The entrance is rather wide open 
and the colony is strong enough to put up 


a defense and a vigorous one at that. If 
the colony were not so strong it would be 
proper to contract the entrance as shown 
elsewhere under Entrances to Hives and 
Wintering. 

WORKING WITH BEES BY LANTERN LIGHT 
WHEN ROBBERS ARE TROUBLESOME 
DURING THE DAY. 

Some years ago, when the conditions hap¬ 
pened to be such that most of the colonies 
were not much more than two or three 
frame nuclei, it was necessary to build 
them up by means of stimulative feeding. 
No honey had been coming in, and the bees 
were very troublesome about robbing. The 
moment the hive was opened, robbers 
would pounce down on the combs. Feed¬ 
ing by day was quite out of the question. 
It was finally decided to try going thru the 
colonies by lantern light. It was found 
possible to examine hive after hive, and get 
a pretty accurate idea of their condition. 
Of course, no robbers would bother at such 
a time. The bees were given some weak 
syrup at the time of the examination, and 
by morning it would be all taken up. By 
working a few nights in this way by lan¬ 
tern light the whole apiary was built up 
without any trouble from robbers, and by 
late fall there was a lot of fine colonies 
well supplied with stores and young bees. 

The only difficulty one will experience 
will be tire disposition on the part of a few 
bees to fly out toward the light. Some of 
them will buzz around against the lantern- 
globe. But the trouble from this source is 
not very great. Other bees ■ will have a 
tendency to crawl up one’s sleeve or his 
clothing. To prevent this the ordinary 
fingerless gloves as described under Gloves 
should be worn. 

HOW TO REMOVE THE ROBBING TENDENCY 
BY OUTDOOR FEEDING. 

When honey is coming in there is no 
robbing; but as the nectar supply stops, 
bees begin to pry around to find what they 
can steal. At such times, when hives are 
opened for examination robbers will be 
about, and if" the combs are exposed very 
much by such handling they will pounce 
upon the hive and combs in great numbers, 
and then attack the entrance after the hive 








732 


ROBBING 


is closed up. If one is trying to rear 
queens the results will be discouraging. 
Bees get cross, refuse to start cells (or, if 
built out, tear them down), kill off drones, 
and destroy drone brood. 

The fact that there is no robbing when 
honey is coming in suggests the remedy; 
viz., feed outdoors a thin syrup of the con¬ 
sistency of raw nectar. See Feeding Out¬ 
doors. 

HOW TO FEED OUT UNFINISHED SECTIONS OR 
WET EXTRACTING COMBS. 

While these can be scattered out in the 
open, it is quite sure to result in fearful 
robbing and stinging after the supply is 
exhausted. To forestall this, the combs and 
sections should be put in hives or supers, 
one tiered above another on a regular 
bottom-board, and the entrance contracted 
so that not more than one or two bees can 
pass at a time. To make it wider results in 
a scramble and robbing of weak colonies in 
the yard. The top of the tier of hives or 
supers should, of course, be covered. 

These tiered-up hives with small en¬ 
trances are much used to clean up scraps 
of honey, extracting-combs, and to empty 
out partly finished sections. (See Comb 
Honey.) This slow robbing also has a 
tendency to draw off robbers from the nu¬ 
clei and weak colonies and therefore serves 
a double purpose. 

WHAT HAPPENS IF ROBBING IS NOT STOPPED. 

When robbing is under genuine head¬ 
way, the honey of a strong colony will dis¬ 
appear in from two to twelve hours; the 
bees will then starve in the hive, or scatter 
about and die. This is not all; when the 
passion is fully aroused robbers will not 
hesitate to attack the strongest stocks, and 
bees will be stung to death in heaps before 
the entrances. This may finally put a stop to 
it, but they may push ahead until every 
hive of the apiary is in an uproar. At 
such times the robbers will attack passers- 
by in the streets, and even venture an at¬ 
tack on cats, dogs, hens, and turkeys. Like 
the American Indians when infuriated at 
the sight of blood, every bee seems to have 
a demoniacal delight in selling its life while 
inflicting all the torments it possibly can, 
feeling sad only because it can not do any 
more mischief. 


The worst robbing time seems to be after 
the heaviest or main honey flow is over, 
when bees become especially crazy if they 
get even a smell of honey left carelessly 
anywhere near the hives. One who has 
never seen such a state of affairs can have 
but little idea of the furious way they 
sting every thing and everybody. The 
remedy is to get a good smoker and put 
in enough fuel to insure dense smoke; 
then, using one hand to work the smoker 
bellows, with the other, contract the en¬ 
trance of every hive that shows any symp¬ 
toms of being robbed. Shut up every bit 
of honey where not a bee can get at it, and 
do the work well; for at such times they 
will wedge into and get thru cracks that 
would make one think inch hoards were 
hardly protection enough. Be up betimes 
next morning to see that all entrances are 
close and small, and that all the hives are 
bee-tight. An experienced hand will re¬ 
store peace and quietness in a very short 
time to such a demoralized apiary. Black 
bees are much worse than Italians, for the 
latter will usually hold their stores against 
any number of assailants; good, strong, 
well-made hives, filled with Italians, with 
plenty of brood in each, will be in little 
danger of any such “raids,” altho the au¬ 
thor has seen the wounded and slain piled 
up in heaps before robbers would desist 
and give up trying to force an entrance. 
See Anger of Bees. 

BORROWING. 

Before closing this subject of robbing 
there are a few more points, to be men¬ 
tioned. There is a kind of pillaging called 
borrowing, where the bees from one hive 
will go quietly into another, and carry 
away its stores as fast as gathered; but 
this usually happens where the robbed stock 
is queenless, or has an infertile queen. As 
soon as they have eggs and brood, they 
begin to realize what the end of such work 
will be. This state of affairs seldom goes 
on long; for it either results in downright 
robbing, or the bees themselves put a stop 
to it. 

Caution to Beginners. —The first year the 
author kept bees there was constant fear 
that they would get to robbing. One after¬ 
noon in May a large number of bees were 


ROCKY MOUNTAIN BEE PLANT 


733 


seen passing rapidly out and in a particular 
hive, and the more they were examined, the 
more it appeared they were being robbed. 
The entrance was contracted, but it seem¬ 
ed to make little difference. It was finally 
closed almost entirely, compelling the 
bees to squeeze out and in, in a way 
that must have been quite uncomfort¬ 
able, at least. After awhile they calmed 
down, when there was only the ordinary 
number of bees going out and in. Behold, 
the robbers were at another colony, and 
they had to be put thru the same program; 
then another and another; until it ap¬ 
peared a host of robbers had come from 
somewhere, and made a raid on the apiary, 
and that, had some one not been on hand, 
the whole of them would have been ruined. 
When the whole performance was repeated 
the next day, it began to appear that 
bee culture was a very trying pursuit. 
In due course of time it developed that 
there was no robbing at all, but that it 
was just the young bees taking their after¬ 
noon playflights, for as already stated, a 
playflight of young bees often looks like 
a case of robbing. See Playflights of 
Young Bees. 

ROCKY MOUNTAIN BEE PLANT 

(Cleome serrulata ).—A smooth annual, 2 to 
3 feet tall, with 3-foliolate leaves, and 
showy rose-colored flowers in racemes. It 
extends from Minnesota southwest to New 
Mexico and Arizona. The value of the 
Rocky Mountain bee plant in Colorado has 
been greatly overestimated, altho it former¬ 
ly yielded a much larger amount of honey 
than today. In exceptionally favorable 
seasons it is still the source of considerable 
surplus on the plains east of the moun¬ 
tains. The honey is reported to be light 
colored and to have a fair flavor. The 
flowers appear in July. About 1890 the 
Michigan Agricultural College experiment¬ 
ed with several acres of this plant for the 
purpose of testing its value. A good stand 
of plants was not secured, and the honey 
obtained was far from paying expenses. 

Two other species of this genus also de¬ 
serve description. Spider-flower ( C. spin- 
osa) is cultivated for its handsome white 
or rose-colored flowers. It grows in waste 
places from Illinois southward to Florida 
and Louisiana, and often yields nectar very 


copiously. With a medicine dropper a tea¬ 
spoonful of nectar has been drawn from 
13 flowers. It has, indeed, been gathered 
with a spoon in sufficient quantities to taste 
its flavor, and often a single bee cannot 
gafrier all there is in one blossom. A sin¬ 
gle plant may produce several hundred 
blossoms, and the flow of nectar may con¬ 
tinue until late in the fall. 

Yellow Cleome ( C . lutea). The yellow 
Cleome has yellow flowers and blooms in 
June. It is found in the western highlands 
from Nebraska to Washington and Ari¬ 
zona. Unlike the purple Cleome, which 



Rocky Mountain bee plant. 


seems to prefer cool well-watered locations 
in the creek bottoms and upper mountain 
valleys, the yellow species is seldom found 
anywhere except in the desert and in the 
cultivated land of the warmer valleys. If 
the winters are dry the seed does not ger- 
jninate, but lies dormant in the soil until 
there is sufficient moisture, so that there 
may be few or no plants for several years. 
But, after a winter with a sufficient precipi¬ 
tation of rain or snow, it springs up so 
thickly that the desert for miles looks as 
tho it were covered with a carpet of - gold. 
In moist or irrigated land it grows to the 
height of two feet or more, and blooms 
nearly all summer. Usually it grows only 



34 


SAGE 


12 or 18 inches tall, and dies in two or 
three weeks after it begins to bloom. Un¬ 
der favorable conditions it yields a moder¬ 
ately large amount of honey. Nearly a 
super per colony has been obtained. The 


honey is rather dark colored but the flavor 
is good. Cleome fills in the gap between 
fruit bloom and alfalfa. 

ROYAL JELLY. — See Queens; also 
Queen-rearing. 



SAGE (Salvia). — Sage honey, which is 
widely known for its delicious flavor in 
Europe as well as in America, is a product 
peculiar to California. The crops of hon¬ 
ey secured from black sage during the past 
25 years have’been so immense that fine 
sage honey is now offered for sale in many 
of the principal cities of the world. During 
the past 40 years there have been two or 
three exceptionally heavy flows when 200 
pounds per colony were secured. At Ven¬ 
tura Mendleson has obtained an average of 
300 pounds per colony in a single season 
from the black and purple sages. While 
the black sage occurs to a limited extent on 
Mt. Diablo near San Francisco and in lo¬ 
calities in San Mateo County, practically 
the entire sage region of this State is re¬ 
stricted to the Coast Ranges, extending 
from the foothills in the northern part of 
San Benito and Monterey Counties to San 
Diego County in the southwest corner. The 
largest amount of sage honey comes from 
Ventura and San Diego Counties, while a 
somewhat less surplus relatively is secured 
in Riverside and San Bernardino Counties. 
The sages belong to the genus Salvia (from 
the Latin salveo, to save, from the sup¬ 
posed medicinal value of some of the spe¬ 
cies), and to the mint family or Labiatae. 
This is a large genus comprising nearly 
500 species widely distributed in both tem¬ 
perate and tropical regions. 

The three species most valuable as honey 
plants in California are black sage, white 
sage, and purple sage. Black sage is so 
called because the foliage is a very dark 
green, and also because the flowers after 
blooming turn black and adhere to the bush 
until the next season. Purple sage has pur- 


A stem of California black sage with blossoms. 


pie blossoms and the foliage has a grayish- 
purple appearance on the hillsides. When 
the two shrubs are seen side by side in the 
distance on the foothills, the contrast is 
very marked, the one looking dark or black 





SAGE 


735 



1 ® 


A bush of California purple sage. 


and the other purple. The foliage of the 
white sage is grayish white and the flowers 
are also white. The black and purple sages 
are bushy shrubs very leafy at base, but 
the white sage has longer stems and is less 
bushy. The purple sage is much larger 
th an the black sage and is sometimes six 
feet tall. The white sage grows on the flat 
mesa lands, while the black and purple 
sages are abundant on the foothills and 
the sunny slopes of the canyons. 

Black Sage (Salvia mellifera ).—Also 
called button sage and blue sage. The black 
sage is a shrubby plant 3 to 6 feet tall, 
with oblong leaves, dark green above and 
woolly beneath, and numerous flowering 
branches, which bear about five dense 
whorls or “buttons” of flowers. The cor¬ 
olla is 2-lipped, white or pale purple, and 
rather small. The whorls, the larger of 


which are about an inch across, diminish 
in size toward the tip of the stalk, and in 
fading the flowers turn dark, but do not 
fall from the bushes. 

The honey flow lasts from the middle of 
March, or the first of April, until about 
the first of July. The crop is unreliable 
every other year, and there is a total failure 
once in three or four years. Every fifth 
year a large crop may be expected, and if 
the rainfall has been ample a fair surplus 
is sometimes obtained three years in suc¬ 
cession. The black sage does not yield nec¬ 
tar freely unless there has been at least ten 
inches of rain during the winter, followed 
by a clear warm spring. The rainfall varies 
greatly in different years, presenting great 
extremes, but frequently it is less than 12 
inches; in 1882 there was only, 2.94 inches, 
while in 1905 it amounted to 22.12 inches. 










736 


SAGE 



Stems and blossoms of California white sage. 


Altho the plants are well adapted to live in 
semiarid regions, if there is a drought, they 
dry up and become valueless to the bee¬ 
-keeper. The flowers are often injured by 
the sage worm, and the foliage by rust. 
The honey is water-white, thick and heavy, 
and does not granulate. 

Purple Sage (Salvia leucophylla ).—This 
species is a much larger shrub than the 
black sage and the whorls of light-purple 
flowers are nearly twice the size of those of 
the latter species. The honey is water- 
white, does not granulate, and its flavor is 
considered a little superior to that of the 
other sage honeys. It begins to bloom usu¬ 
ally a little later than the black sage, but 
the honey flows from both species nearly 
coincide. Purple sage is most abundant in 
Ventura County where it is a characteris¬ 
tic feature of the vegetation of the foot¬ 
hills. 

White Sage (Salvia apiana ).—A shrub 


3 to 8 feet tall, which is less bushy than the 
black sage, the branches being long, 
straight, and slender. The 2-lipped white 
flowers are produced in great profusion in 
lateral racemes and the leaves are grayish 
white on both sides. The lower flowers 
open first. It begins to bloom the latter 
half of May and the blooming period lasts 
from six to eight weeks. On the dry plains 
or mesa lands and foothills of southern 
California there are thousands of acres of 
this beautiful shrub and one may ride thru 
avenues of it for miles. One range is de¬ 
scribed as a mile wide and two miles long, 
consisting practically of unbroken white 
sage. 

The white sage secretes much less nectar 
than does either the black or purple sage. 
In districts where both the black and white 
sages are abundant beekeepers have esti¬ 
mated that the black yielded ten pounds of 
honey to one from the white species. To 












SAGE 


737 


produce a vigorous growth and a profusion 
of flowers there must be a sufficient rain¬ 
fall. The honey is white and heavy, and 
does not candy; while the quality is nearly 
as fine as that of the black sage. Much of 
the white sage honey so-called comes from 
the black sage. At Caldwell, Idaho, white 
sage is reported to yield a surplus of honey. 
A colony of bees carried eight or nine miles 
away from the alfalfa fields to a sage 
range gathered fully as large a crop as 
colonies near alfalfa. The honey was wa¬ 
ter-white and its flavor was excellent 
(Gleanings in Bee Culture, Sept. 15, 1908). 

The larger portion of the surplus comes 
from the three species described above. The 
black and purple sages yield almost equally 
well, but the white sage is not a heavy yield- 
er altho the surplus varies in different years. 
Black sage is practically the only species 
of Salvia found in Monterey County. It 
grows plentifully along the coast and on 
southeast and southwest slopes, decreasing 
inland as ridge after ridge is passed, and 
disappearing in eastern San Benito Coun¬ 
ty. In the Salinas Valley it blooms from 
April 15 to June 5; in the northern part 
of the county it remains in bloom until 
July 1, and along the coast until July 15. 
In the Gavilan Mountains northeast of- 
Gonzales seed of the white sage was sown 
in 1885, and this species still perpetuates 
itself in this locality. Purple sage has 
been reported near Monterey. In San 
Luis Obispo and Santa Barbara Counties 
all three species occur, but white sage is 
not common in San Luis Obispo County. 

The distribution of the sages in Ventura 
County is described by M. H. Mendleson as 
follows: “Purple sage is. most abundant in 
this county, altho there is a large amount 
of black sage scattered thru the interior; 
but there is only a small amount along the 
coast. The white sage is the rarest in this 
county. Following a wet winter the black 
and purple sages are about equally valuable 
for the production of honey. The black 
sage blooms first, then the purple, and last 
of all the white sage, the blooming periods 
usually overlapping. The white sage can 
seldom be depended upon for a crop, and 
the honey is inferior to the flavor of that 
stored from the other two species. The 
white sage honey invariably granulates 
while the black and purple, when well rip- 
24 


ened and gathered in the interior, remain 
liquid; but on the coast they invariably 
candy. The time of blooming varies from 
March 1 to June 1, depending on climatic 
conditions, as rain and a cold or warm 
winter and spring; but usually it begins 
from April 15 to 30, and closes between 
June 20 and July 10.” 

“According to my experience of 41 years 
most of the sage honey comes from the 
black and purple species and only a small 
percentage from the white. All of the 
sage honeys darken with age, and become 
the color of molasses, altho still remaining 
translucent. A bottle of sage honey, 36 
years old, has lost its sage flavor but has 
the flavor of a delicious syrup.” 

“Many thousands of acres of the sages 
are destroyed annually by stockmen, and 
in the near future good sage ranges will be 
at a premium. The great destruction of 
brush by fire is lessening our rainfall. The 
government should take steps to reforest 
the State promptly, as the good soil washes 
away during heavy rains leaving a soil so 
poor that it will not maintain a new 
growth.” (Ventura, August, 1921.) 

In Los Angeles County the white sage 
is most abundant, and the black sage the 
rarest. White sage is found on the mesas 
adjacent to the footljills, and as high as 
2,000 feet above sea level. The black and 
purple sages occur in the canyons and high 
hills up to an elevation of 4,000 feet. The 
sages bloom in May, June, and July, and 
the duration of the honey flow depends 
upon rainfall and temperature. The black 
and purple sages bloom at nearly the same 
time, but the white sage blooms several 
weeks later, and remains in bloom for a 
month or six weeks. 

In San Diego County in the southwest 
corner white sage is estimated to be three 
times more abundant than black sage. Pur¬ 
ple sage is less common than northward. 
The black and white sages occur in San Ber¬ 
nardino County on the foothills in the 
southwest portion. The black sage is the 
better honey plant, blooming several weeks 
before the white. 

In Riverside County, according to T. O. 
Andrews, the black sage, which is found on 
the foothills and mountain slopes up to 
3,500 feet, is most abundant and the best 
yielder of nectar. It often begins to bloom 


738 


SAINFOIN 


in February and in some seasons continues 
to bloom until July 2D. The white sage 
grows on more level land and on better soil 
at the foot of the hills. It begins to bloom 
in May and may last thru June. There is 
little purple sage. This species is central 
in Ventura County near the mountains and 
is less widely distributed then either the 
black or white sage. In 1920 there was in 
Riverside County the best flow from black 
sage in 25 years. Strong colonies averaged 
over four pounds per day for 15 days. The 
honey was water-white and very heavy. 
The purple and white sages also yielded 
well. 

There are several other species of sage, 
which deserve mention. The creeping sage 
(S. sonomensis ), or ramona, covers the 
ground with a mat-like growth, from which 
arise flowering stems four or five inches 
tall bearing light-violet flowers. This spe¬ 
cies is rare, but it is widely distributed in 
the Sierra Nevada and Coast Ranges and 
in localities is important. The honey is 
like that of the other sages. Annual sage 
(S. columbariae) , or chia, is common in the 
foothills and mountains of the Coast 
Ranges, and in some districts yields a sur¬ 
plus. The seeds were formerly used for 
food, and were also considered of medici¬ 
nal value in cases of/fever. It blooms in 
April and May. Thistle sage ( S. cardua- 
cea ) likewise yield? a white honey of fine 
flavor. Two or three stems rise from a 
rosette of root-leaves, and bear from 1 to 
4 whorls or “buttons,” of light-blue flow¬ 
ers. The leaves are more or less spiny- 
toothed, whence the English name common 
in southern California and the San Joa¬ 
quin valley. It blooms in June. 

The common garden sage (S. officinalis) 
is reported to yield a white honey, where it 
is extensively cultivated as a culinary herb. 
Lance-leaved sage ( S. lanceolata ) grows in 
bare fields and on dry plains from Nebras¬ 
ka and Kansas to Texas and Arizona. It 
is about a foot tall, with lance-shaped 
leaves and blue flowers, and yields nectar 
from early in June until frost. It is help¬ 
ful in maintaining the strength of the colo¬ 
nies. The blue sage ( S . azurea) is, listed 
as a honey plant in Texas. In Australia 
the verbena sage ( S . verbenacea ), intro¬ 
duced from Europe, yields a little honey 
during the dry months of the year. But 


many species of Salvia have a corolla tube 
so long that they are adapted to bumble¬ 
bees. Other species, as the crimson sage 
of California, the cardinal sage of Mexico, 
and various Brazilian species with scarlet 
or bright corollas, are humming-bird flow¬ 
ers ; and the nectar is secreted at the bottom 
of a tube 2 inches long, far beyond the 
reach of bees. 

The opinions of the early leaders in bee 
culture in this country on the different 
kinds of honey are always of interest. 
Langstroth’s description of the flavor of 
sage honey is recorded by A. I. Root as fol¬ 
lows: “We well remember the first taste 
we had of the mountain-sage honey. Mr. 
Langstroth was visiting us at the time, and 
his exclamations were much like our own, 
only that he declared that it was almost 
identical with the famed honey of Hymet- 
tus, of which he had received a sample 
some years before. This honey of Hymet- 
tus, which has been celebrated both in 
poetry and prose for ages past, is gath¬ 
ered from mountain thyme; and thyme 
and sage not only belong to the same fam¬ 
ily but are closely related. Therefore, it 
would not be strange if Mr. Langstroth 
was right in declaring our California honey 
to be almost identical in flavor with the 
honey of Hymettus.” 

SAINFOIN ( Onobrychis sativa). —Also 
called crocetta, asperset, esparsette, French 
grass, and hen’s-bill. Sainfoin is the 
French word for wholesome hay. It has 
been extensively grown for a long time in 
England, France, and Belgium; and it is 
successfully cultivated in Ontario, Canada, 
and various parts of the United States. It 
succeeds best on a light, dry, calcareous 
soil, but it will thrive in places where clover 
fails. It makes an excellent hay and is suit¬ 
able for grazing, especially for sheep; but 
it is not suitable for a semiarid country. 
The stems of sainfoin are shorter and 
smaller than those of alfalfa, and it does 
not yield as many tons of fodder per acre. 
Like the clovers, alfalfa, and sweet clover 
it belongs to the pulse family.' 

The spikes of light-pink flowers appeal' 
in summer, and bees gather nectar from 
them very eagerly. The honey is pale yel¬ 
low, very clear, and does not granulate 
readily. Its quality is excellent and com-* 


SCALE HIVE 


739 


pares well with that of white clover honey. 
Some retailers prefer it to alfalfa honey. 

“The chief honey plant on the chalky 
uplands of southeast England,” says Sla- 
den, “is giant sainfoin, a variety of Ono- 
brychis sativa. It is cut twice sometimes in 
a single season. It blooms first about June 
10, and yields a crop of honey if the weath¬ 
er is not too wet and it is fairly warm. It 
blooms again in July when the main crop is 
gathered. It often blooms for a third time 
in middle August, but it yields no nectar, 
altho the fields are pink with bloom and 
the conditions appear to be as favorable 
as in July.” 

SCALE HIVE. —Many of the most 
prominent beekeepers have in their yards 
during the season when honey is coming 
a sort of barometer of the daily honey flow 
or, more exactly, a scale hive. This con¬ 
sists of a hive mounted on ordinary plat¬ 
form spring scales with a dial to indicate 
any increase or decrease in the weight of 
the colony. As the honey flow begins, it 
will be apparent that the hive will gain 
slightly in weight. This weight will in¬ 
crease during the day that there is a fair 
honey flow and decrease somewhat during 
the night owing to evaporation of the 
nectar. As the season continues it is very 
easy to determine the strength of the honey 
flow, what days are best, what conditions 
are best for a honey flow, and when the 
season nears its close the dial will show a 
smaller and smaller increase until no gain 
is shown at all. 

For a scale hive it is advisable to select 
a strong colony—one of the very best in the 
yard, because a medium or indifferent one 
might not show any increase in waght, 
while the stronger colony would be al#e 5 to 
record whether any honey at all were <mm- 
ing in. While of course it is understood 
that this strong colony is not a fair av¬ 
erage of all the others in the apiary, it 
indicates, to some extent, what the nectar 
secretion is in the field. If, for example, 
the best colony should record a pound or 
two pounds in a day, it might be as¬ 
sumed that the poorer or weaker colonies 
would show proportionately anywhere from 
a half to a full pound of nectar increase in 
weight. Still again, the best colony on the 
scale might not show more than a quarter 


of a pound increase. Correspondingly the 
other colonies of the apiary might not 
show any gain if they were on the scale. 
Therefore, it is important to have the best 
colony in the yard. 

One might naturally ask why it is im¬ 
portant to have a scale hive. It might be 
argued that an expert beekeeper would be 
able to determine by the flight of the bees 
going into the hives whether a honey flow 
was on, whether there was a good flow, 
whether it was increasing, or whether it 
was letting up. Very true, but the actual 
record of the best colony in the apiary, 
together with the observation of the flight 
of the bees at all entrances, gives an ex¬ 
perienced beekeeper a much more accurate 
idea of what is going on. In a practical 
Way, the scale hive enables the apiarist to 
determine whether he should put his extra 
super on top of those partly filled, or 
whether he should place it under. See 
Comb Honey, to Produce. 

Suppose that it is at the beginning of 
the honey flow and that the bees have part¬ 
ly filled the first super given. If the scale 
hive shows a good record day by day, it 
would be advisable to place the next empty 
super under the one partly filled. If, on 
the other hand, the season is getting toward 
its close and the scale shows a gradual 
daily decrease, then it would be advisable 
to put the extra super on top of the one 
partly filled, or perhaps, better still, not 
put it on at all. 

The scale hive is very useful also in 
determining how far it is advisable to 
continue extracting in the yard. If the 
season is drawing toward a close and one 
desires to leave enough stores in the hive 
for winter, or to take care of brood-rearing, 
in anticipation of another honey flow to 
follow in another month or six weeks, then 
obvionsly it is not advisable to extract if 
such extracting would leave the hives with¬ 
out any stores, making it necessary later 
on to feed sugar syrup. 

The scale hive is of value to the honey- 
producer by enabling him to determine what 
policy to pursue during the season, so that 
in producing comb honey he will not have 
too many unfinished sections on his hands; 
or, if he is running for extracted, he will 
not leave his brood-nests bare of honey, if 
he extracts at all from the brood-nest as 


740 


SHIPPING BEES 


some beekeepers do. Again, there are some 
producers who, tho they do not extract 
from below, desire to have left over for 
winter a large number of extracting combs 
well filled with sealed honey so that at the 
close of the season they can give the bees 
the necessary stores by simply giving these 
combs. In cool or cold weather they are 
invaluable. They save all feeding, and 
considerable extra time, besides the cost of 
sugar. 

The yield per day for a strong colony of 
bees may vary all the way from half a 
pound to twenty or even more pounds. Ten 
or more pounds would be considered a 
good daily gain from clover, but more than 
double the amount is often gathered in a 
day by strong colonies from sage, orange 
blossoms, or other rapid yielders of nectar. 

SCOUTS PRECEDING SWARM.— See 

Absconding Swarms, also Swarming. 

SECTIONS.— See Comb Honey, Appli¬ 
ances for and Hives. 

SELLING HONEY. — See Bottling 
Honey, Extracted Honey, Comb Honey, 
Marketing Honey, Shipping Cases, and 
Specialty in Bees. 

SELF-SPACING FRAMES. — See 

Frames; also Frames, Self-spacing, and 
Hives. 

SEPARATORS. — See Comb Honey, 
Appliances for. 

SHADE FOR HIVES.— See Apiary. 

SHIPPING BEES.— Under Migratory 
Beekeeping mention is made of the advan¬ 
tage of moving bees from one locality to 
another to catch the honey flow. The prac¬ 
tice has been extended so that bees are 
sometimes moved from one state to another 
in carlots. This enables the owner to gather 
two or three crops of honey; whereas if 
he were to remain in one locality he would 
secure only one. 

Shipping bees in carlots from one place 
to another has been practiced more in the 
West and North than in the East; but some 
beekeepers in the northern states, just 
before winter sets in, move their bees to the 
extreme South, build them up during the 
early winter or spring, catch a crop of 
honey, then move them back north to catch 
the clover honey flow. 


The publishers of this work have moved 
several carloads of bees in this way. In 
their first two shipments they were success¬ 
ful; but later ones were not as successful, 
for the reason that the seasons both south 
and north were unfavorable. Unless there is 
a fairly good crop of honey to be secured 
at both ends of the route the practice of 
moving bees in carlots is not a paying one; 
and as the seasons are somewhat uncertain, 
the movement of bees from north to south 
and from south to north is attended with 
considerable risk. 

Usually the freight alone on a carload 
of bees from Florida to Ohio will run 
over $1.00 per colony, provided there are 
350 colonies to the car. The larger the 
number of colonies, the lower is the freight 
relatively. Unfortunately the railroad 
companies require that the attendant who 
goes with the bees pay regular railroad 
fare. This ruling is decidedly unjust, be¬ 
cause the attendant in a carload of horses 
can go free. The freight rate on the bees 
themselves, the loss of some bees and brood 
during shipment, railroad fare of attendant, 
his time on a basis of twenty hours a day,* 
make the expense of moving from the ex¬ 
treme South to the North about $2.00 per 
colony. If the bees are moved back to the 
North there must be entered a charge of 
about $4.00 against each colony. In order 
to cover this expense the season will have 
to be good at both ends of the route to 
yield a profit. 

In some cases the weather is extremely 
hot when the bees are moved. If the tem¬ 
perature ranges around 80 or 90 in the 
shade, the loss of bees and brood will be 
considerable in spite of the precautionary 
measures on the part of the attendant in 
spraying the bees with water, as will be 
explained further on. This loss may 
amount to nearly 50 per cent of the bees 
and brood. If colonies are worth, with 
the queens, $10.00 each, it will be seen that 
in addition to the charge of $2.00 there will 
have to be entered another of $5.00. 

It sometimes happens that the car isUn¬ 
necessarily delayed en route; and every 
day of delay means the loss of bees as well 
as brood. Ordinarily a car of bees will not 

* He won’t get much sleep, as he will have to he 
on the alert almost day and night. 


SHIPPING BEES 


741 


stand more than four or five days of hot 
weather. 

While the moving of bees from Florida 
to some northern State is attended with 
considerable risk, so much so that such 
long-distance shipments to and from these 
points have been practically discontinued, 
it is comparatively easy to move bees from 
Idaho, Montana, and Wyoming into Cali¬ 
fornia in the fall or early winter. (See 
Migratory Beekeeping.) The distance is 
much shorter and one is much more sure of 
catching a crop at either end of the route 
than he is when he moves a car to Florida 
and back to his own State, in the North. 
No one should attempt to move bees in car- 
lots anywhere without reading this article 
very carefully. If possible he should con¬ 
sult those who have already moved bees 
successfully. 

Where one desires to move only 100 or 
150 miles and the roads are suitable, using 
a large traction motor truck, with a trailer, 
will be cheaper than sending by rail. Even 
tho one has to pay at the rate of ten or 
fifteen cents a mile, the cost of moving will 
be less than moving by rail. Usually a 
motor truck with a trailer can be secured 
that will move one or two hundred colonies 
at a trip. The cost of loading will be very 
much less, because when bees are shipped 
by rail they must be securely fastened to 
take care of the severe end jolts of a 
freight train that are heavy enough to jar 
every hive loose from its moorings and 
let loose the bees. The motor truck, on the 
other hand, will be under the direct control 
of the owner of the bees. It can start 
gradually, and be run slow enough to avoid 
jolts over the Thank-you-ma’ams” and 
chuck-holes. 

HOW TO PREPARE A CARLOAD OP BEES EOR 
SHIPMENT. 

It is important to get the local agent to 
make arrangements all along the line to see 
that the bees are moved with all possible 
speed. At transfer points it is especially 
important to get an order from the operat¬ 
ing lines to have the bees transferred with¬ 
out delay. Arrangements should be made 
at least a week or two in advance, as it 
takes time for the correspondence to get 
over the lines. It is also important that 


the rate of freight be determined in ad¬ 
vance. 

If there are not more than 250 colonies 
to be moved, a small car should be secured, 
in order to reduce the minimum weight on 
which freight must be paid. Usually the 
average gross weight of the hives of bees 
will be below minimum freight; therefore 
the more bees there are loaded on to a ear 
the less the relative cost per colony. The 
average 36-foot car will take about 350 
hives, piled four tiers high, two rows on 
a side, leaving a small alleyway between 
the tiers of hives and an entrance-way 
opposite the car doors, for there must be 
room for the attendant to place a cot-bed 
where' he can sleep, when conditions will 
permit, either night or day. The minimum 
weight on a 36-foot car is 14,000 lbs. The 
average shipping weight of a colony is 
about 50 lbs., including the crate. This 
will make the gross weight 17,500 lbs., or 
3,500 lbs. in excess of the minimum. If 
one were to ship only 200 colonies he would 
have to pay freight on the minimum of 
14,000 lbs., and on this basis he would be 
paying for 4,000 lbs. of freight, with noth¬ 
ing to show for it. Hence it is important 
to load up to the minimum. 

Formerly it was thought necessary to 
build a series of shelving made of 4 x 4’s 
and 2 x 4’s to hold the hives one tier above 
another, as it was supposed that some colo¬ 
nies might need individual treatment en 
route. But experience shows that this is im¬ 
practicable. Moreover, the arrangement of 
shelving wastes space, and makes the load¬ 
ing and unloading very difficult and expen¬ 
sive. 

A better plan is to provide a series of 
cratings made of 2 x 4’s and long %-incli 
strips 4 inches wide. The cratings should be 
put together in such a way that the 2 x 4’s 
stand on edge. For cool or cold weather 
they might be laid flatways and thus save a 
little room. The long strips are to be hailed 
on each side, making in all a framework 4 
inches thick plus two %-incli strips, or a 
total of 5% inches. 

Figs. 1 and 2 show how the crating is 
put together. Each crate should be long 
enough to run from the car door to the 
end of the car, and wide enough to take 
two tiers of hives side by side the narrow 
way. The %-ineh strips are nailed on each 


742 


SHIPPING BEES 




side at intervals, center to center, equal to 
width of hive. The two by fours are 
spaced a distance equal to the length of 
the hive. A crate is set down on the car 
floor to provide bottom ventilation. Two 
rows of hives are piled on the crate side by 
side, lengthwise of the car or so the combs 
are parallel with the rails of the track. 


Fig. 1.-—Crating on platform ready to load. 


If everything has been done right the 
edges of each hive will rest upon .the long 
4-inch strips. Every other 2x4 in the 
crate is made a little longer so that it can 
be bolted to an upright 2x4 that binds the 
four tiers of hives 
together. The opera¬ 
tion of loading is as 
follows: 

One crate is plac¬ 
ed on the car floor. 

Two rows of hives 
with screens at top 
and bottom are load¬ 
ed on the crate. In 
hot weather it is not 
advisable to try to 
get along with only 
a top screen. Over 
the first tier is then 
placed another 
crate; on top anoth¬ 
er tier of hives until 
there are four tiers. 

The other sides of the car are loaded in 
precisely the same way. When all are in 
place, the upright 2 x 4’s as long as the 
height of four tiers are bolted to the pro¬ 
jecting end of the horizontal 2 x 4’s in 
each crate. Bolts are used because they are 
more easily removed than nails and are 


stronger. Thus there is a set of two tiers 
of hives on each side of the car with an 
alleyway between these sets. The two 
sets are then braced from each other by 
means of ties across the top and bottom. 
To stand the end shocks the two sets of 
tiers in each end of the car are securely 
braced apart by 4 x 4 7 s. These ties or 
braces must be at the top and bottom so 
that the operator can reach every colony 
with a watering pot. 

There will be a space in the alleyway of 
about 14 to 15 inches between the two sets 
of tiers lengthwise and a space of the 
width of the car between the car doors and 
between the ends of the tiers. This latter 
space is occupied with tools, cot-bed, bed¬ 
clothing, lanterns, hammer, saw, nails, a 
few extra bolts, a brace and bit, and a lit¬ 
tle extra lumber. Usually it is an advan¬ 
tage to carry along a little oil stove to heat 
water for coffee or do a little light cooking, 
as one gets "a little tired of all “cold grub” 
on so tedious a journey. It is important 
that each of the hives should be screened 
top and bottom as explained under Moving 
Bees Short Distances. That makes it 
necessary to remove covers and bottoms. 


These should be piled on top of the tiers of 
hives just under the car roof. They should 
be secured by means of a rope or wire. 

Where a cattle-car is used the crates can 
be wired to the frame of the sides of 
the car. This helps, to hold each tier to 
itself. 


Fig. 2.^ — One section in the car ready for the hives. 










SHIPPING BEES 


743 



SPRAYING THE BEES TO KEEP THEM COOL. 

Mention was made of the fact that the 
operator should have room enough so lie 
ean go back and forth between the hives to 
sprinkle them with a watering-pot or force- 
pump. It is important to have in each car 
at least one or two barrels of water along 
with the bed and tools. During hot weather 
on a trip of six days bees will use up 
several barrels of water en route. When 
the car stops and the weather is hot, bees 
will be thickly clustered over the wire 
cloth. To prevent their becoming over¬ 
heated the wire cloth should be sprayed. 
Care should be taken not to overdo it, as 
the young brood will be chilled. As a gen¬ 
eral thing, unsealed brood, either on ac¬ 
count of too much heat or chilling in bad 
weather, will be killed, altho shipments 


have been brought thru from the South 
with all the brood in good condition; but 
the weather was cool, and the hives were 
sprayed only wlren the car was not moving. 

The attendant must make up his mind 
that a trip with a carload of bees is not a 
Pullman ride. He will have to watch the 
framework very carefully, especially after 
each end shock. Whenever the car stops 
he will have to look after the spraying. 
When the car has to stand on a side track 
for a few hours he may be compelled to 
tack some sheeting on the exposed side of 
the car to shut out the hot rays of the sun. 

While one can get 350 single-story colo¬ 
nies of bees in a 36-foot ear, he can load 200 
two-story colonies in the same space. This 
saves some crating and time in handling 
individual units. Colonies that are very 













744 


SHIPPING BEES 


strong will not go thru as well as those that 
are lighter. Ordinarily 3 lbs. of bees and 
six or seven frames of brood are enough 
for a single-story hive. Colonies, however, 
may be proportionally stronger in cool or 
cold weather. 

HOW TO SHIP BEES IN REFRIGERATOR CARS. 

Shipping bees in the ordinary way in 
cattle cars during hot weather where they 
are on the road several days, is usually 
attended with some loss. First, a refriger¬ 
ator car must be selected that has ventilat¬ 
ing coops on top of each end. Some venti¬ 
lation, even in iced cars, is important. The 
bees are put into the cars in much the same 
way that they are packed in open cattle- 
cars, with this difference—that less of ven¬ 
tilation to the individual colony is required. 
Every hive should have a wire-cloth screen 
on top; and between each two tiers of hives 
there should be placed 2 x 4’s; and these 
should be braced in the usual way so that 
the end shocks as the result of stopping 
and starting may not break loose the fas¬ 
teners. 

During hot weather much stronger colo¬ 
nies can be shipped in refrigerator cars 
than in open cattle-cars; but one must be 
careful not to overdo it. Some men think 
it is necessary to have a half-depth super 
on top to provide extra clustering room. 
Some say the hives can be packed solid like 
so much cordwood. This may be satisfac¬ 
tory for short distances, and where the car 
is moving along on schedule time. On 
longer distances it is advisable to have an 
alleyway thru the middle of the car, so 
that an attendant can note the condition of 
the bees. He should see that the car is iced 
every day if necessary, or where it can be 
done. In any case, should the car get out 
of ice the result will be disastrous. In the 
event of an accident or delay, so that ice 
can not be procured, the bees must be im¬ 
mediately unloaded, for they can not be 
confined in a refrigerator car without ice. 
They should then, after a flight, be reload¬ 
ed into an ordinary cattle-car, provided a 
refrigerator car fully iced can not be ob¬ 
tained. 

It is important that the attendant get on 
top of the car himself when it is being 
iced, and, if necessary, help fill the ice-com¬ 
partments. Railway employees sometimes 


do not see-the importance of fully icing the 
car, with the result that the owner of the 
bees may suffer heavy losses. 

Arrangements should be made in ad¬ 
vance to have the car iced often—the often- 
er the better, because the bees will generate 
a large amount of heat. If they can be 
kept cool as they are when in a cellar, and 
the car be kept moving, except for icing, 
they will go thru with the loss of hardly a 
bee. 

Where colonies are very strong, or of 
honey-gathering strength, it is advisable to 
use two stories. If they are fairly boiling 
over with bees it may be necessary to use 
top and bottom screens in addition. The 
shipper will have to use his own judgment, 
always erring on the side of giving too 
much ventilation or too much room. 

It is important to ice the car at least 12 
hours before the bees are put into it in 
order that the temperature may drop down 
and get the inside of the car cool. Of course 
the car will warm up somewhat while the 
bees are being loaded in. After the bees 
are in, the car should be re-iced, as some 
of the ice will melt while the loading is 
taking place. It is advisable, also, to keep 
some ice in the center of the car between 
the tiers of bees. 

It goes without saying, that the attend¬ 
ant does not ride in the car with the bees 
where ice is used. He can have the “com¬ 
forts” of the ordinary caboose, and to see 
how things are moving, he should open the 
car only when the train stops. On enter¬ 
ing he should close the door immediately 
to shut out the warm air and the light. 

The important factor in moving bees in 
iced cars is the exclusion of heat and light. 
If bees can be brought down to a cellar 
temperature, and kept in total darkness, 
they will soon become accustomed to the 
rumble and jolts of the train. 

The reader should understand that ship¬ 
ping bees in refrigerator cars is something 
comparatively new and should not be un¬ 
dertaken without knowing how. It is vi¬ 
tally necessary to have a refrigerator car 
with coops on top at each end. These, 
when opened, will let in a certain amount 
of ventilation; for even when the bees are 
packed in ice they need some air. 

For short distances the author would gen¬ 
erally recommend cattle-cars. It is only 



SHIPPING BEES BY BOAT. 


Where water privileges are available, 
bees can often be shipped best by boat, 
either up or down river or down bays. In 
1914 the publishers shipped bees up the 
Apalachicola River. The ordinary flat-bot¬ 
tom boats used on those shallow rivers an¬ 
swer a very excellent purpose. The hives 
are loaded on the outside platforms; and as 
there is no jolt, the individual hives do not 
need to be braced together. Bees on boats 
like this can be carried one or two hundred 
miles very easily. As the air on water is 
usually cooler, there is but very little dan¬ 
ger from suffocation, but they will need to 
be sprayed at intervals. 

For migratory beekeeping small boats 
can be used, carrying forty or fifty colonies 
at a time for ten or fifteen miles. The 
illustration on next page shows bees that 
were loaded and moved on the Apalachicola 
River in 1914. 


SHIPPING BEES 


7 45 


When bees are moved in cool weather, 
say along in the fall, a cattle-ear of the 
kind already described is as good as any¬ 
thing that can be Used; but if it is desired 
to move them in hot weather, the cattle-car 
can still be used, provided the hives are 
placed far enough apart to insure ventila¬ 
tion and the screens are wet down with 
water. 


Loading the bees on the steamer. * 

for long distances in hot weather that the 
refrigerator car should be used. 



On the boat down the Apalachicola River, between Bainbridge and Randlett’s Landing. 







746 


SHIPPING BEES 



Loading three-frame nuclei on launch preparatory to trip five miles up the river to the nucleus yard. 


SHIPPING BEES WITHOUT COMBS. 

On account of the danger of transmit¬ 
ting foul brood from one locality to an¬ 
other when bees are sent in hives or on 
combs, the practice of shipping bees with¬ 
out combs, or in pound packages, is becom¬ 
ing more and more common. Not only is 
there no danger of scattering disease, but 
it is actually cheaper. A colony of bees on 
combs, besides being liable to convey the 
germs of foul brood, is relatively heavier 
—much heavier than the light wire-cloth 
cage or shipping box containing an equiva¬ 
lent capacity in bees without combs. Scores 
of instances have shown that the three- 
pound package of bees without combs is 
practically equivalent to an average colony 


wintered over in the North. So far as 
their ability to secure a crop of honey is 
concerned, package bees, when hived on 
combs, will make a good colony, if rightly 
handled, by the time the ordinary honey 
harvest comes on. The time has arrived 
when beekeepers are considering whether 
it would not be cheaper to buy bees in 
three-pound packages from _ the South 
rather than go to the expense of wintering 
over bees of the previous fall that will eat 
up honey or good stores and possibly die 
before spring. 

Many of the largest beekeepers in the 
North are having shipped to them in Nearly 
spring three-pound packages of bees in 
lots of one and two dozen packages to a 



Bees in package form ready for shipment. 
















SHIPPING PEES 


747 



Fifty pound packages of bees ready for shipment. 


crate. These packages keep coming in 
about three days apart until the whole 
shipment has been received. Three pounds 
of young- bees, with a queen, will soon 
have a lot of brood, and in many cases will 
be very much ahead of a colony wintered 
in the North having- more bees, but super¬ 
annuated, and ready to die in a short time. 

The inference should not be drawn that 
the author believes that the beekeepers of 
the North should allow their colonies in 


summer to run down in strength, and 
starve out, because such a procedure would 
only mean a needless destruction of good 
property that might have been saved by 
the use of sugar syrup. 

The demand for bees in package form 
has been so great that large numbers of 
northern beekeepers have been disappoint¬ 
ed in getting deliveries early enough to be 
of any value in securing a crop that sea¬ 
son. Sometimes the packages are received 



One shipment of bees made up into crates of six each, with one crate of two. Each cage has 3 pounds of 
bees, a can of syrup, half water and half sugar, and a queen caged among the bees. Experience shows this 

is better than to have her loose. 







748 


SHIPPING BEES 


in bad order. A delay of three or four 
weeks means a severe loss to the consignee, 
because the bees will not be able to build 
up in time for the harvest. For the pres¬ 
ent, at least, it would be better for the 
average beekeeper in the North to rely on 
packages of bees to recoup the losses that 
may accrue from wintering and to make 
such increase as he may deem possible. 
After a very severe winter, when many 
colonies die outright, and they are too 
weak to build up, the apiary can be put in 
condition to do business from package bees 
from the South more cheaply than by 
buying up colonies in the North, provided 
they can be had. A single pound of young 
bees let loose in a colony of half strength 
will put that colony in fine condition as 
nothing else will. When bees are wintered 
in quadruple cases, with plenty of stores, 
the chances are that they will make stronger 
colonies, and be better prepared for the 
harvest, than the three-pound packages of 
bees received from the South with a queen, 
even when received early. 

It is perfectly obvious that the average 
person should buy bees of the old estab¬ 
lished breeders—those who have been in 
business so long that they know not only 
how to ship bees without combs, but who 
will have enough bees in early spring to 
make deliveries in time to enable the bees 
to build up ready for the harvest. Noth¬ 
ing is more exasperating than to order a 
lot of package bees and then have them 
come two or three months late. 

Those who get bees from the South in 
package form should read the article “Be¬ 
ginning with Bees,” particularly the part 
that tells how to hive these combless bees; 
for in all essential particulars they are 
swarms and should be handled as such. Un¬ 
less precaution is taken they will be liable 
to swarm out and leave for parts unknown. 

CAGES FOR SHIPPING COMBLESS BEES. 

A number of different styles of cages for 
shipping bees without combs have been de¬ 
vised. Most of them have solid wooden 
ends with wire cloth for sides, top, and 
bottom. Others make use of a wooden 
framework around which the wire cloth is 
secured. Still others use what is essential¬ 
ly the old-fashioned nucleus shipping box 


that has sides and ends of solid wood, but 
wire cloth at top and bottom. Over the 
wire cloth are mounted protecting screens 



of wood. Such a shipping cage can ac¬ 
commodate one or more frames of founda¬ 
tion. When the combless bees are hived on 



foundation they will draw it out, and the 
queen will very often lay some eggs in the 
partly drawn comb. In such a box bees 
are screened from the hot rays of the sun, 



and at the same time are ready to begin 
housekeeping, so to speak, thus insuring a 
degree of contentment that could not be 






























SHIPPING CASES FOR COMB HONEY 


749 


secured where the bees are exposed in the 
regular wire-cloth cages. 

There is another style that is the same 
as the nucleus shipping box. In lieu of 
frames of foundation it has a series of 
slats on which the bees may cluster. In the 
center of this slatwork is placed a tin can 
containing syrup—about 50 per cent water 
and 50 per cent sugar. Sometimes the syrup 
is fed thru a small hole in the bottom of 
the can. At other times a larger perfora¬ 
tion is made, thru which is pushed a piece 
of candle-wicking that allows the syrup to 
percolate thru slowty without dripping. E. 
B. Ault of Calallen, Texas, uses a screw 
cap thru which is punched a hole about 
half an inch in diameter. Over this hole, 
on the inside, is placed a piece of feltiug 
or thick cloth, when the cap is screwed 
down in place. After the can is filled with 
syrup it is turned upside down, when the 
syrup will percolate thru the cloth or felt¬ 
ing. 

The use of thin syrup for sending bees 
in package form is getting to be more and 
more common. While queen-cage candy 
was formerly used (see Candy) tests made 
at this writing would seem to indicate that 
the syrup is very much more satisfactory. 
It is not always easy to make a candy that 
is soft enough to enable the bees to utilize 
it during the entire trip; but the syrup 
will always be uniform, and any one can 
make it. 

SHIPPING CASES FOR COMB 
HONEY.— It is one thing to produce a 
fine crop of comb honey with sections nice¬ 
ly filled out, well scraped and graded, and 
another thing to deliver that honey to mar¬ 
ket without leakage or breakage. It should 
be borne in mind that a section of honey is 
exceedingly fragile, much more so than a 
bottle containing pickles, syrups, or any 
other commodity. For many years back 
comb-honey producers have been putting 
their nicely built sections in poorly de¬ 
signed cases, resulting in a large amount of 
breakage and leakage. This loss is usually 
assessed against the producer, and some¬ 
times the item alone is enough to wipe out 
the entire profit of the season. When he 
gets his returns he is so disgusted that he 
either quits the business entirely or pro¬ 
duces extracted honey only thereafter, 


The old-style shipping cases were made 
of light thin stuff having a glass front with 
a paper tray in the bottom and cross-cleats 
to support the sections of honey. They 
were altogether too light to protect their 
fragile contents; and the bottoms of the 
cases, or, rather, the cleats supporting the 
sections, were rigid, so that whenever they 
received a bump or jar from any 
cause, some sections were broken. The 
patent-medicine men and bottlers of canned 
goods put up their product in such a way 
that each separate bottle will be cushioned 
or protected from the ordinary rough 
usage that the whole box receives in the 
hands of the truck men and the express 
handlers, to say nothing of the damage re¬ 
ceived when shipped by freight. 



Old-style shipping case with paper drip pan and 
no drip cleats. 

The cut shows one of the old-style cases 
that provided a rigid or unyielding sup¬ 
port for the sections to rest on; namely, 
the wooden cross-cleats. The next two 
illustrations show a much more strongly 
built case. It will be noticed in the next 
cut that the bottom is padded with ordi¬ 
nary corrugated paper, the same material 
that is used by the patent-medicine men in 
packing their bottles of medicine. The 
shippers of all bottled goods are now using 
con’ugated paper around the bottle and un¬ 
der the bottom also. This material likewise 
makes an excellent cushion for the more 
fragile comb honey, so that when the case 
is dropped or receives a sudden jar the 
cushion of the corrugated paper absorbs a 
large part, if not all of the shock. Compar¬ 
ative tests show that sections in a case hav¬ 
ing corrugated paper will stand much 




750 


SHIPPING CASES FOR COMB HONEY 


rougher usage without breakage than simi¬ 
lar sections placed in a case having rigid 
cleats across the bottom that, of course, can¬ 
not absorb any of the concussion. Experi¬ 
ence has also demonstrated that it is wiser 
to use narrower glass. It shows enough of 



Regular 12-lb. shipping case. 


the honey, and at the same time permits of 
the use of wider cleats and more nails in the 
front. When these are properly nailed, 
the case is much stronger. * 

Sometimes cross-partitions of corrugated 
paper are used, and at other times cartons 
of cheap strawboard, such car¬ 
tons slipping around each indi¬ 
vidual section. If these are a lit¬ 
tle larger than the sections, and 
especially if a little deeper, they 
will sustain all the weight that 
may be placed on top of the 
case, leaving the sections which 
they contain without any strain 
upon them. The cartons have the 
further advantage that they can 
be sold with the individual sec¬ 
tions. In this way the delicate 
comb is protected, not only dur¬ 
ing shipment, but while in the 
market basket on the way from the grocery 
to the home. 



Regular single-tier 24-lb. shipping case. 


If there is anything that disgusts the 
housekeeper, it is a leaky section of honey 
that besmears all her other groceries, mak¬ 


ing a broken, sticky mess of everything. 
If the comb-honey producer would have 
the consumer pleased as well as the large 
dealer and buyer, he must make sure that 
his goods are protected clear to the con¬ 
sumer. 

The illustration below shows how the cov¬ 
er-boards are halved together, and how the 
glass is let into the strips. The strips should 
be thoroly nailed, two nails in each end: 
in fact, the case should be well nailed all 
over. So far as possible it should be made 
very rigid, so that it will not spring nor 
twist. If the case is at all frail the sections 
are almost sure to receive damage, particu¬ 
larly so if corrugated paper and cartons 
are not used. 

. While shipping cases containing cartons 
and corrugated paper and built on scientific 
lines cost more, as a matter of course, than 
the old-style cases, yet the producer can 
well afford to use them, because he will 
save a considerable breakage, leakage, and 
no end of complaint, and, besidek, avoid 


practically all trouble with the commission 
merchants or the dealers who buy the goods. 
When the comb honey goes thru in bad 
order there is considerable correspond¬ 
ence as to what would be a proper adjust¬ 
ment Should the services of an attorney 
be needed, and suit brought, still greater 
expense is incurred. • 

WHY IT PAYS TO USE BETTER SHIPPING 
CASES. 

One large buyer of comb honey who buys 
honey in car lots made the statement that 
his breakage carefully figured up in one 
season showed a loss to the producer of not 
less than 11 3-10 per cent. If the ship- 





















SHIPPING CASES FOR COMB HONEY 


751 


ments that are made from all parts of the 
country, in all kinds of shipping cases, 
should be taken into consideration, this 
loss would reach nearer 25 per cent. 

But there are a large number of bee¬ 
keepers who feel that they cannot afford 
to purchase even the cheap factory-made 
cases. If the loss should be from 10 to 20 
per cent with the cheap cases, it may be 
figured that the loss would be at least from 
25 to 50 per cent with the ordinary home¬ 
made cases or cases made at planing mills. 
The objections to the home product are the 
poor sawing, inaccuracy, and their miser¬ 
able appearance. Even if the honey goes 
thru safely, the eases look so cheap and 
poor that the average buyer will deduct at 
least one or two cents per pound on the 
honey. The honey may be ever so nice; 
but if it is put up in a roughly made con¬ 
tainer it will bring a lower price. 

The most serious objection to homemade 
cases is their variation in size. Some of 
them will be so shallow that when the 
cover is nailed down it will break nearly 
every section in the ease. Another case 
will be too deep and too long, with the re¬ 
sult that the sections will rattle about in 
the case and break down nearly as badly. 
The average planing-mill man does not un¬ 
derstand the importance of making the 
case absolutely accurate. His saws have 
very coarse teeth making rough edges, and 
his gauges are not accurate. His product 
will be anything but satisfactory for ship¬ 
ping so expensive and fragile a product as 
comb honey. 'When a good factory-made 
case with cartons or corrugated paper 
can be bought for a little more money, it 
is folly to pay a planing-mill man a few 
cents less for a case that will bring a loss 
in breakage and leakage amounting to 50 
per cent on the honey. 

SHIPPING CASES WADE OF CORRUGATED PAPER. 

A few years ago some effort, was made to 
use shipping cases constructed out of corru¬ 
gated paper or strawboard—the same ma¬ 
terial that is used in the safety cases, to 
cushion the sections. J. E. Crane of Mid- 
dlebury, Vt., used this kind of case for sev¬ 
eral years, and was wrell pleased with them; 
but some of the large commission houses 
and buyers of honey protested against their 


use. They claimed that they are not strong' 
enough to stand the rough handling of the 
railroad men; that as it is not practicable 
to put glass in them the fragile contents of 
the package are not understood, and, as a 
result, they receive a much rougher han¬ 
dling. Again, it has been claimed that the 
paper cases will not stand rain or wet like 
the wooden ones. If a single section is 
broken down, it is liable to cause the bottom 
of the case to soak up with honey, and this 
weakens the case so that it is of but little 
use to protect the rest of the sections. 

While such cases seem to answer very 
well for honey in bottles, it should be re¬ 
membered that a bottle of honey or a bottle 
of syrup or pickles will stand very much 
rougher handling than the ordinary section 
of honey. 

In later years the paper cases for comb 
honey have practically disappeared, and 
nothing more is heard of them. See Bot¬ 
tling Honey; also Marketing Honey. 

HOW TO SHIP COMB HONEY. 

One may have his shipping cases factory- 
made, or ever so perfect, and yet have his 
fine comb honey shipped in them broken 
down. As a rule it is not advisable to send 
such a product by express, altho it can be 
done. The experience of the authors has 
shown that comb honey sent by freight not 
only goes thru at a less cost, but in much 
better condition. 

Much will depend on whether comb hon¬ 
ey is sent in carlots or in less than carlot 
shipments. As a rule a single case of comb 
honey or half a dozen or a dozen of them 
can not be sent without being put into a 
special carrier or crate. No matter how 
modern the cases may be, with plenty of 
corrugated paper for top, bottom, sides, 
and ends, if they are sent uncrated, either 
by freight or express, there is almost sure 
to be a breakage and leakage of the comb 
honey. Where a customer wants a single 
case, or a couple of them, they should lie 
put in a box large enough so that they can 
be well packed all around in straw. Comb 
honey is seldom shipped in less than four to 
eight cases at a time, making an aggregate 
weight of not less than 100 pounds. The 
carrier or crates that ai'e ordinarily used 
will take eight cases, or the equivalent 
weight of 200 pounds. 


SHIPPING CASES FOR COMB HONEY 



The carrier here shown is lined on the 
inside with paper to conform to the rulings 
of the railroad companies. On the bottom 
is then placed six or eight inches of loose 
straw evenly distributed, when the cases are 
piled in, one on top of the other, until the 
carrier is level full, four single-tier cases 
deep, of 24 pounds each,and two cases 
long. The paper is then neatly folded 
over, after which the cover boards are 
nailed in place as shown in the next cut. 



The carrier shown is so big and heavy 
that it can not be picked up by the freight- 
handlers and dumped or thrown. The han¬ 
dles sticking out suggest the method for 
moving it, and that means two men, to pick 
it up and carry it wheelbarrow fashion. 
Two can easily pick it up and move it 
from truck to car and from car to truck, 
and from truck to destination with perfect 
ease. Such a carrier will go either by 
freight or express—preferably by freight 
without breakage or leakage. If 500 or 
several thousand pounds of comb honey 
are to be shipped, carriers like those here 
shown should be used. While they entail 
some additional expense they insure safe 


delivery of the honey, save loss from break¬ 
age and leakage, and leave a pleased cus¬ 
tomer at the other end of the route. 

In very many instances tne beekeeper 
can and should carry his own comb honey 
with his own truck to his near-by towns and 
cities. On bad roads, in a common wagon 
with no springs, plenty of straw should be 
put in before loading the honey, but usu¬ 
ally an automobile truck is provided with 
springs, which, in connection with pneu¬ 
matic tires and careful driving, will insure 
safe delivery without any carriers or crates 
or straw in the bottom. 

It sometimes happens that all the local 
markets in the towns near by, as well as 
the cities, are more than supplied with 
comb honey. In that case, less than car¬ 
load shipments should be sent in carriers. 

HOW TO SHIP COMB HONEY IN CARLOTS. 

When sending honey in carlots the car¬ 
riers are not needed. The railroad com¬ 
panies should furnish a strong serviceable 
car that will stand rough usage—one that 
has not been used for carrying phosphate, 
wool, or live stock. A wagonload of straw 
should be provided in advance. The floor 
should be swept out when the car is ready. 
The' cases of comb honey should be neatly 
piled in the car one on top of the other, 
and of even height, like cord wood, leaving 
a clear space of at least a foot from each 
end of the cai\ It is important that the 
cases be piled snugly against each other, 
in such a way that the combs will be paral¬ 
lel with the track beneath. Any interven¬ 
ing space left on the sides next to the car 
should be filled in with crating, boards, or 
straw' tightly wedged in. There is not a 
great deal of side movement in a car; but 
it is important to provide for a 'slight 
amount of it. The whole car should then 
be filled out with comb honey of an even 
depth until within a foot or 18 inches of 
each end. It is not .advisable to pile the 
honey up higher than about eight cases 
single tier, or four cases double tier. The 
intervening space of 18 inches at each end 
of the car should be filled in with closely 
packed straw. This can not be packed in 
too snugly. The purpose of the straw is 
to provide against serious end shocks due 
to stopping or starting of the train. Tt 
sometimes happens that a car of comb lion- 

















SKEP 


753 


ey is shot ahead on a switch; and unless a 
man is on top of the ear at the brake the 
car may be jammed into another car. It 
is, therefore, important to see that the end 
spaces at the end of the cases in the car 
are cushioned with tightly packed straw. 
To keep the straw from working up at each 
end, thus allowing end shock between the 
cases, boards should be put over the top of 
the straw and held clown by cleats on each 
side of the car. 



Why honey needs solid bracing in a car. In this 
instance the car was humped so violently that the 
honey went right on thru the end. 


Should there not be quite enough comb 
honey to fill the car it would be well to 
leave the space next to the doors, and fill in 
with very rigid bracing made up of 2 by 
4’s fastened in such a way that they can 
not possibly work loose. Many and many 
a car of comb honey sent long distances 
has had a heavy breakage, caused by care¬ 
lessness on the pa-t of the shipper or by 
his inexcusable ignorance in not seeing to 
it that the comb honey was packed solid 


and properly cushioned at the ends and 
sides of the car. The shipper should make 
up his mind that his comb honey is more 
fragile than eggs in egg-carriers; that it is 
relatively heavy; that the railroad com¬ 
panies en route wifi give his honey the 
heaviest end-banging it has ever had. He 
must play safe. While he may recover 
damages from the railroad company, the 
process for doing this is exceedingly long 
and difficult, with the possible and prob¬ 
able result that the railroad company will 
get out of paying for the damage, or it 
may pay a merely nominal sum. 

Perhaps in all beedom there is nothing 
more aggravating than a car of broken- 
down comb honey. If it is sent against a 
draft attached to the bill of lading, the 
consignee is liable to refuse payment. It 
lies on the tracks while telegrams .are flying 
back and forth; and', even tho a compro¬ 
mise be effected, no one is satisfied. In the 
mean time robber bees get busy, sting the 
railroad men who are trying to “clean up.” 
This is not all. Foul brood may be scat¬ 
tered far and wide. So, be careful, Mr. 
Beekeeper. 

The subjoined illustration shows what 
happens in a good many cases when proper 
provision is not made for the end shocks 
that must inevitably occur when the train 
stops or starts. When comb honey, heavy 
as it is, is jostled about in the ear, say the 
space of a foot or more between the cases, 
and the cases slide this rvay and that, the 
inevitable result is a breakdown. Possibly 
the whole end of the car may be shoved 
out as shown in the cut. 

SIZE OF FRAMES.— See Hives. 

SKEP.- —The term “skep” is often used 
by old-fashioned beekeepers to refer to a 
colony of bees in any kind of hive; but 
more properly it applies to box hives and 
straw skeps—the last named meaning bas¬ 
ket in old English. In England and even 
many of the countries on the continent of 
Europe, the old straw skep is still used 
quite largely, because lumber is expensive 
and straw cheap. The bees are allowed to 
build the combs just the same as mentioned 
under the head of Box Hives; and under 
Hives, Evolution of. On top of the flat- 
top type of skeps, modern supers containing 





754 


SMOKE AND SMOKERS 



Straw keeps the hives cool in summer and warm in winter. 


sections are sometimes used. The making 
of straw skeps for c-ottagers is quite a little 
business of itself—requiring a certain de¬ 
gree of skill and industry. _ 

Straw skeps are not used in this country; 
and if it were not for the familiar pic¬ 
tures of “ye olden times” Americans would 
know but little about them. See Box 
Hives. 


SMARTWEED. — See Heartsease. 

SMOKE AND SMOKERS.— One can 

drive cattle and horses, and, to some ex¬ 
tent, even pigs, with a whip; but one who 
tries to control cross bees without smoke 
will find to his sorrow that all the rest of 
the animal kingdom are mild in compari¬ 
son, especially so far as stubbornness and 



Dutch swarm specialists inspecting bargains at the bee market in Holland. 















SMOKE AND SMOKERS 


755 


fearlessness of consequences are concerned. 
One may kill them by thousands or may 
even burn them up with fire; but the 
death agonies of their comrades seem only 
to provoke them to new fury, and they 
push on to the combat with a relentlessness 
which can be compared to nothing better 



than a nest of yellow-jackets that have 
made up their minds to die, and to make 
all the mischief they possibly can before 
dying. It is here that the power of smoke 


recting smoke on the bees, such as a tin 
tube containing slow-burning fuel, with 
mouth-piece at one end, and a removable 
cap and a vent at the other end for the 
issuance of smoke. By blowing on the 
mouth-piece, smoke could be forced out. 
Others, again, have used a tin pan in 
which was some burning rotten wood. This 
was put on the windward side of the hive 
so that smoke would be blown over the 
frames. All of these, however, were crude 
makeshifts in comparison with the improv¬ 
ed smokers which are on the market today. 

Moses Quinby (see Quinby) has the 
credit for first giving us a bellows bee- 
smoker. This was a decided step in ad¬ 
vance over the old methods of introducing 
smoke among the bees. It combined the 
tin-tube idea with a bellows. In principle 
his original smoker did not differ essential¬ 
ly from the Bingham and the L. C. Root, 
which were introduced later. It had, how¬ 
ever, one serious defect; and that was, it 
would go out, the fire-pot not being prop¬ 
erly ventilated to insure a good draft. Some 
years after, T. F. Bingham, L. C. Root, son- 
in-law of Mr. Quinby, and A. I. Root in¬ 
troduced bee-smokers on the principle of 
the original Quinby bellows smoker, but 
with several decided improvements. The 
fire-cups, at the same time, were made 
rather larger, with a blast vent near the 
bottom. Thru this vent a continuous draft 



Three sizes of Root smokers. 


comes in; and to one who is not conversant 
with its use, it seems simply astonishing 
to see them turn about and retreat in the 
most perfect dismay and fright, from the 
effects of a puff or two of smoke from a 
mere fragment of rotten wood. What could 
beekeepers do with bees at times, were no 
such potent power as smoke known? See 
Bee Behavior; also Anger of Bees. 

There have been various devices for di- 


'could be maintained, even when the smoker 
was not in use, thus preventing them from 
going out like the original Quinby. 

Of the two smokers, the L. 0. Root was 
taken off the market some years ago. The 
Bingham is still sold, and is now furnished 
in various sizes by dealers. 

All the smokers of today employ what is 
known as the hot-blast principle — that is, 
the blast of air from the bellows is blown 



























































756 


SMOKE AND SMOKERS 


thru the fire. This makes a heavy volume 
of smoke—volume enough with the proper 
fuel to subdue the Grossest bees. 

The improved Root smoker on the same 
principle with its new snout is very neat 
and substantial. The old-style nozzles were 
somewhat topheavy, having a tendency to 
tip over or flop open at a most incon¬ 
venient time. The ones here shown are 
not only compact in appearance, but will 
hold their position on top of the stove 
without danger of toppling over, no mat¬ 
ter how roughly used. 

The object of the deflected nozzle on all 
three of the leading hot-blast smokers is to 
prevent fire dropping. In the old-style 



Fig. 1.—Details of the Root smoker—A.—Metal 
projection to aid the fingers in holding bellows; 
B.—-Coiled wire handle; C.—Hook; D.—Lock nuts 
for legs; E.—Stamped metal legs; F.—Flexible 
hinge. 

smokers it was necessary in blowing smoke 
to tip the barrel almost upside down, or at 
such an angle that the fire-embers would 
sometimes fall on the brood-frames and the 
bees. The bent nozzle permits one to use 
the smoker almost right side up, and yet a 
stream of smoke can be poured on the 
combs. 

FUEL FOR SMOKERS. 

It will lie unnecessary to give directions 
for using these smokers, as printed direc¬ 
tions accompany all smokers sent out by 
each manufacturer; yet it may be well to 
allude to the different kinds of fuel that 
have been used. Rotten wood is good, and 
accessible to all, but it burns out too rap¬ 
idly. Some recommend sound hard wood 


for the smoker. Others prefer turning- 
lathe hardwood shavings, or, if these are 
not available, planer shavings. In certain 
localities peat can be obtained very cheap¬ 
ly, and it makes an excellent fuel. Some 
use old rags; others old discarded hive- 
quilts that are covered with propolis. These 
last make a very pungent subduing smoke. 
In some parts of the South, dry pine 
needles are used. 

W. L. Coggshall, one of the most exten¬ 
sive beekeepers in the world, uses a special 
fuel made out of old phosphate sacks rolled 
around a half-inch stick, tied at regular 
intervals, and then chopped into convenient 
lengths with a sharp ax. The rolls should, 
of course, be of the right diameter and 
length to fit inside the smoker used. The 
sacking must not be rolled too tightly nor 
made too snug a fit, or else it will choke the 
draft and put out the smoker. The reader 
is, therefore, recommended to make a few 
experimental rolls before he makes up a 
lot for a season’s use. 

To facilitate lighting with a match, one 
end of the roll is dipped half an inch into 
a solution of saltpeter, and allowed to dry. 
If a little red lead be sprinkled in the solu¬ 
tion it will be very easy to tell which end 
of the roll is for lighting. 

A quantity of old sacking, says Mr. 
Coggshall, will be sufficient for one sea¬ 
son’s use, and the fuel gives a lasting 
smoke without sparks. He further says 
that he can take a cold smoker, and in ten 
seconds have all the smoke he requires, as 
the saltpeter ignites instantly. 

When old sacking cannot be obtained, 
old carpets or old burlap can be used. Even 
new burlap would not be expensive, altho 
Mr. Coggshall says the fabric should be 
partly rotted to give the best results. He 
lays his old phosphate sacks out in the 
weather for about three months and then 
rolls them up. 

GREASY WASTE AS A SMOKER FUEL. 

The authors have been using greasy 
waste in a smoker with great success. It 
requires no treatment with any chemical to 
to make it light easily, and it is almost im¬ 
possible to extinguish it after it is once 
lighted, even tho it be stamped in the mud. 
This is perhaps the very best smoker fuel, 
altho in some places it may be somewhat 




































































SMOKE AND SMOKERS 


difficult to obtain. It furnishes a strong- 
subduing smoke, and is almost free from 
creosote. It can usually be had for the 
asking at any machine shop or printing 
shop, and it may be picked up along rail¬ 
roads, altho as a rule it would take too 
much time to hunt up greasy waste in this 
way. A piece could be found here and 
there, but generally not enough to pay for 



Fig. 2. — Chopping up rolls of burlap for smoker- 
fuel. An old sack is rolled up, tied at intervals, 
and then cut in pieces between the strings. 

the trouble. A supply can be obtained at 
any factory to last a whole season. It 
gives a strong, pungent smoke; does not 
make a hot fire; is easily lighted; will not 
go out as long as any fuel is left. 

abuses of a smoker. 

A good smoker should last a number of 
seasons, but it will very quickly cease to be 
a good implement if it is not well taken 
care of. 

One of the most common abuses of a 
smoker is to leave it out in the rain. Many 
smokers are left out in all kinds of weath¬ 
er; and it is needless to say that the bellows 
leather soon becomes hard, and cracks, and 
the fire-box becomes rusty. Many bee¬ 
keepers keep their smokers in an empty 
hive and thus avoid the danger of a costly' 
fire. If the whole hive should burn, the 
loss would not be so very great. 

A better plan than this is to build a 
small tool house. This need not be over- 


five or six feet high and two or three feet 
square. There should be a shelf, on 
which smokers, hive-tools, veils, etc., may 
be kept. It is a good plan to provide a 
piece of heavy sheet iron about half an 
inch above the shelf for the smokers to 
stand on, so that there will be no danger of 
setting fire to anything. The fuel is kept 
beloAV this shelf. There is room enough 
usually to hold a supply for a whole sea¬ 
son; and when it is kept in this way it is 
always dry and ready for use. The au¬ 
thors have such small buildings at all their 
outyards, and consider them almost indis¬ 
pensable. 

Another common abuse of the smoker is 
to allow creosote to collect at the top until 
the cap will not fit dorvn over the fire-box. 
In a new smoker with the flexible hinge 



Fig. 3—A tool house for smokers, tools, veils, 
and fuel. The fuel is kept in the lower part under 
the shelf. 

there is not apt to be so much trouble in 
this way, but at the same time it is well to 
spend about ten seconds once a week or so 
with a screw-driver in cleaning off this ac¬ 
cumulation. 








SMOKE AND SMOKERS 


08 



Sometimes beginners in their eagerness 
to test new smokers work the bellows so 
vigorously as to blow fire from the nozzle, 
and before they know it the fire-box is red- 
hot. This means, of course, that the tin 
is all burned off,, leaving the bare iron to 
rust thru in a short time. There is usually 
no need of having a hot flame in the fire¬ 
box, for this implies perfect combustion. 
The secret of getting plenty of smoke is 
to have imperfect combustion. For this 
reason it is best to use fuels that burn _ 
slowly. 

While it is impossible to avoid dropping 
a smoker once n a while, as a rule bee- 


The grate will usually keep (.lean; but in 
some cases when it gets stopped up, insert 
the point of a file into one of the holes and 


Fig. 5.—How to hold the smoker when raising 
the cap. Compress the bellows in order to give 
the fingers a firmer hold. 

lift it out. It can then be easily cleaned 
and replaced. 


Fig. 4 —It is very seldom the grate becomes so 
filled up that it. has to be cleaned; but when this 
does happen it is the work of only a moment to in¬ 
sert the point of a file in one of the holes and lift 
out the grate, as here shown. It pays to keep the 
grates clean. There are a larger number of holes 
near the outside of the grate than in the center, 
consequently the fuel burns evenly and does not 
throw sparks until it is all consumed. 


smokers are handled pretty roughly. It 
does not take long to learn to use reason¬ 
able care in handling a smoker, whereby it 
will last enough longer to pay. 

When a fuel is used in which there is a 
good deal of pitch it is sometimes difficult 
to raise the cap or nozzle after the fire is 
out and the metal has become cold. There 
are numerous instances in which the cap 
has been battered almost out of shape after 
being stuck down solid. It is always best 
where such fuel is used to raise the cap 
when putting the smoker away. If it is 
left open there will be no sticking. 


Fig. 6.—The convenience of a hook in the back 
of the bellows. The smoker is always at hand at 
a second’s notice. 

HOW TO USE A SMOKER. 

Perhaps the majority of beekeepers un¬ 
derstand using a smoker without any spe- 








SMOKE AND SMOKERS 


759 


f'ial instructions, but, as a rule, too much 
smoke is'used. It is best to use just as 
much as is necessary and not any more. A 
beginner so often stupefies the bees that 
they appear completely overcome. It is 
needless to say that this is a very bad plan. 
Very often colony after colony can be 
opened without the use of smoke, espe¬ 
cially when the bees are working; but at 
the same time it is well to have a smoker 
near at hand. 

it is not considered good practice to 
smoke bees out of comb-honey supers, as 
they are frightened at the smell of smoke, 



Fig. 7.—Carrying a smoker with the little finger 
when the hands are full. 

and, in their desire to save honey, uncap 
some of the cells and thus spoil the appear¬ 
ance of what might otherwise be fancy 
honey. 

In looking for a queen use as little smoke 
as possible, as it is very easy to set the bees 
running over the combs, making it next 
to impossible to locate the queen. At such 
times the frames should be handled slowly 
and carefully, the beekeeper doing nothing 
to disturb or excite the bees. See last part 
of A B C of Beekeeping and Manipula¬ 
tion of Colonies. 


Fig. 5 shows the most natural way of 
holding the smoker when the cap is opened. 
A better hold is secured with the left hand 



Fig. 8.- — Holding a smoker between the knees 
while manipulating frames. 

if the bellows is compressed as shown. 
Take hold of the eoiled-wire handle with 
the right hand and it will be seen that the 
cap can be raised very easily without the 



Fig. 9. — Manipulating frames while holding the 
smoker between the knees and working the bel¬ 
lows. 












760 


SOLITARY BEES 


least danger of burning the fingers. The 
coiled-wire handle remains cool, no matter 
how hot the fire is. , 

SOLAR WAX-EXTRACTOR. — See 

Wax, also Bottling Honey. 

SOLITARY BEES.— The bees, or An- 
thnphila, according to their economy, may 
be divided into two groups, the social bees 
which live in communities, as the honey¬ 
bees, bumblebees, and stingless bees; and 
the solitary bees, among which each female 
builds her own nest and provides alone 
for her brood. The social bees are de¬ 
scribed elsewhere in this work. 

Up to the present time there have been 
recorded in North America over 2,000 spe¬ 
cies of native bees. This is about one-quar¬ 
ter of the described species in the world, 
which are estimated at 8,000. In Europe 
there also occur about 2,000 species; 200 
are known in England, 440 in Germany, 
510 in Hungary, and 413 in Algiers. The 
majority are solitary forms, since the social 
families do not include over 500 species. 
But the indigenous bees of North America 
are as yet only partly known. Immense 
tracts still remain unknown, so far as 
their bee fauna is concerned. Manitoba, 
British Columbia, the whole tier of south¬ 
ern States along the Gulf of Mexico, as 
well as many western States, are as yet 
practically unexplored, and will doubtless 
afford a rich harvest to the diligent collec¬ 
tor. The number of species found in any 
one locality is usually not large, and is 
greatly influenced by the climate and soil. 
In Maine there are about 200 species, in 
Illinois 300, and in New Mexico 500. The 
Anthophila may be classified in fourteen or 
more families according to the conception 
of family adopted by the mellitologist. In 
this division the more important charac¬ 
teristics employed are the structure of the 
mouth-parts, and the pollen-brushes, and 
the veining of the wings. 

SOLITARY BEES AND FLOWER POLLINATION. 

In their relation to flowers bees may be 
divided into two series, the short-tongued 
forms and the long-tongued forms. The 
long-tongued bees are able to reach the nec¬ 
tar in nearly all flowers except those 
adapted to butterflies, moths, and birds, 
but they confine their attention chiefly to 


bee flowers .which have the nectar more or 
less concealed, such as the columbines, lark¬ 
spurs, clovers, vetches, many mints and 
figworts, thistles, and many other Com- 
positae with long corolla tubes. The short- 
tongued bees are compelled to visit open, 



nearly hairless, without pollen-brushes. The pol¬ 
len and nectar are masticated as collected, and 
the regurgitated liquid is stored in the cells as 
food for the larvae. 

rotate flowers with the nectar exposed or 
only slightly concealed, as the plum, straw¬ 
berry, blackberry, raspberry, pear, apple, 
and basswood, or flowers with very short 
corolla tubes like the goldenrods. In North 
America the more common genera of short- 
tongued bees are Prosopis, Colletes, Sphe- 
codes, Halictus, Andrena, and Macropis. 

THE SHORT-TONGUED BEES AS FLOWER 
VISITORS. 

The most primitive bees belong to the 
genus Prosopis , and are closely allied to 
the sand wasps from which probably they 
are derived. Among these small coal-black 
bees there are no adaptations for visiting 
flowers. Their nearly hairless bodies are 
destitute of pollen-brushes, and they have 
short, broad, emarginate tongues like the 
wasps. Were it not that they feed their 
offspring on a paste of pollen and nectar 
and consequently visit flowers more fre¬ 
quently, they would be of no more value 
than the wasps as pollinators. The semi¬ 
liquid paste stored in their cells consists of 



SOLITARY BEES 


761 



Fig. 2.-—Short-tongued bees. 1. M acrnpis ciliata; a, female; b, male. 2. Halictus lerouxii; a, female; 
b, male. 3. Halictus hortensis; a, female; b, male. 4. Agapostemon radiatus a, female; b, male. 5. An- 
drena crataegi; a, female; b, male. 6. Andrena erythrogaster; a, female; b, male. 7. Nomia lietevoptera, 
female. 8. Megacilissa electa, male. 


partially digested pollen and nectar, which 
have been regurgitated. The bees of this 
genus tunnel in the pithy steins of bram¬ 
bles, and naturally are common on the 
flowers of blackbei’ries, but they are also 
often found on the blossoms of the stone- 
crop (Sedurn acre), prickly sarsaparilla 
(Aralia hispida) , goldenrod, mignonette, 
and collecting pollen on wild roses. Al¬ 
most equally primitive is the genus Sphe- 
codes,, except that they have acquired a 
short pointed tongue. They are nearly hair¬ 
less and are without pollen-brushes, and 
the food supply furnished their brood is 
similar to that of Prosopis. Great interest 
attaches to these two genera since they show 
the early stages of bees before they were 
much modified as the result of flower visits, 
and doubtless closely resemble the ancestral 
forms of the honeybee (Pig. 1). 

No other genera of the solitary bees are 
represented by so many species and indi¬ 
viduals as Halictus and Andrena. They 
show a marked advance over the preceding 


genera in their adaptations to flowers. The 
tongue is longer, the thorax is thickly pu¬ 
bescent, and the hind legs for nearly their 
entire length are covered with a dense 
scopa of hairs. They carry the pollen dry 
and chiefly on the thighs, while the honey¬ 
bees moisten it with honey and,pack it on 
the tibife. The ground bees are very im¬ 
portant in wild regions where there are no 
honeybees, and before the discovery of 
America probably played the chief role in 
the pollination of fruit bloom. On warm 
days in spring clouds of these bees fill the 
air around the bloom of the willows, plum 
trees, cherries, blackberries, and at times 
nearly all fruit trees and shrubs. Obser¬ 
vations made at the experiment station of 
Connecticut showed that in that locality 
they were by far the most common visitors 
to the apple, pear, quince, gooseberry, cur¬ 
rant, blackberry, and raspberry. For in¬ 
stance, out of 359 Hymenoptera taken on 
the sweet cherry 349 belonged to Andrena 
and Halictus. But in very large orchards 



762 


SOLITARY BEES 


and in general, honeybees are the most 
valuable. The ground bees are also com¬ 
mon on blueberries, cornels, Viburnum, 
roses, sumacs, goldenrods, and hundreds of 
others (Fig. 2). 

All of the genera of short-tongued bees, 
thus far described, carry the pollen dry; 
but Macropis is the first genus to moisten 
it with honey. The brush on the hind tibiae 
is long and dense and is often heavily 
loaded with damp pollen. A common spe¬ 
cies of this genus is M. ciliata, or the loose¬ 
strife bee, so called because it is usually 
found on the flowers of the common loose¬ 
strife ( Lysimacliia vulgaris), a pollen 
flower (Fig. 2). 


hind legs, and the other on the under side 
of the abdomen. 

The leaf-cutting bees (Megaphile) , the 
mason bees ( Osmia ), and the cotton bees 
( Anthidium.) have on the under side of the 
abdomen a stiff brush of unbranched hairs 
inclined backward. When they move over 
level-topped flower-clusters, like the sun¬ 
flower and many other Compositae, this 
abdominal brush sweeps up the pollen 
wdiile the bees are at liberty to suck nectar. 
They are also w 7 ell adapted to pollinate 
leguminous flowers, as the pea, bean, vetch, 
and their allies, where the anthers lie on 
the under side of the irregular flowers and 
come directly in contact with the abdomi- 



Fig. 3.—Long-tongued tees with abdominal pollen-brushes. Mason bees: 1, Osmia mandibulai is, female; 
2, Osmia megacephala, female. 3. Ormia airiventris; a. female; ft, male. Leaf-cutting bees: 4. Megachile 
laHmanvs; a, female; h, male; 5. Megachile vidua; a, female; h, male; 6 , Anthidium cognatum, female. 


THE LONG-TONGUED SOLITARY BEES AS 
FLOWER VISITORS. 

The long-tongued bees include all the 
social bees as well as many genera of soli¬ 
tary bees. The length of the tongue varies 
greatly, the medium length being 6 mm., 
as found in the honeybee, and the extreme 
length 21 to 22 mm. in some female bum¬ 
blebees. They restrict their visits chiefly 
to bee flowers and thus avoid the competi¬ 
tion of many short-tongued insects and are 
likely to find a more ample supply of nec¬ 
tar. The long-tongued solitary bees may 
be divided into two series in accordance 
with the way they collect and carry pollen. 
One series has the pollen-brushes on the 


nal scopa. The tongue in this group is 
usually less than 6 mm. long, and the pol¬ 
len is, of course, always carried in the dry 
state. (Fig. 3.) 

A part of the long-tongued bees with 
polleniferous scopa on the hind legs carry 
the pollen on the femora, or thighs, as 
Panurginus, and the carpenter bees ( Xylo - 
copa) ; while a part carry it on the hind 
tibiae. The Anthophoridae, or cliff bees, 
have a world-wide distribution, and in their 
senses and general appearance resemble 
bumblebees, but are smaller in size, and 
there are no flowers especially adapted to 
them. The collecting hairs in some gen era 
are extremely long, as in Dasypoda, and 




SOLITARY BEES 


763 


great balls of pollen, half the size of the 
abdomen, are carried on them. The com¬ 
mon genera Anthophora and Melissodes 
visit the same flowers as bumblebees 
(Fig. 4). 

Many bees •with a short term of flight 
visit only one or a few allied species of 
flowers, which are abundant and in bloom 
during the time the bees are on the wing. 
Certain vernal species of Andrena visit 
only the flowers of the willows, while other 


HOST BEES AND GUEST BEES. 

According to the way in which they pro¬ 
vide for their young, bees may be divided, 
into nest-builders and brood parasites. The 
• nest-builders are industrious insects, con¬ 
structing their nests with great care and 
skill, and provisioning them with food for 
the use of the brood. The brood parasites, 
on the contrary, neither build nests nor 
gather stores for their offspring, but in the 
case of the solitary bees they lay their eggs 




6 


Fig. 4.—Long-tongued bees with pollen-brushes on hind legs. Anthophoridae: 1. Antho¬ 
phora smittiu, male. 2. Anthophora nccidentalix. female. 3. Centrix ajAcalis, female. 4. Melis- 
xodes atripes; a, female; b, male. 6, Melixsodes dexsponsa; a, female; b, male. 

at a favorable opportunity in the cells of 
the nest-builders. The latter are often 
called host bees and the former guest bees. 

HABITS OF THE NEST-BUILDING BEES. 

The genus Prosopis, says Knuth, stands 
at the lowest level among bees and belongs 
to them only because it feeds its young on 
pollen and nectar. The female builds a row 
of cells in the hollow stems of blackberry 
bushes from which she has excavated the 


autumnal flying species confine their visits 
to the goldenrods and still others to the 
asters. There are indeed a number of bees 
which obtain their supply of nectar and 
pollen exclusively from the Compositae. 
These flowers, as in the case of the golden- 
rod and thistles, are very common, yield 
ample food supplies and are easy to visit. 
This habit has arisen because of the ad¬ 
vantage thus gained by the bees and is 
called oligotropism. 




7G4 


SOLITARY BEES 


pith. The cells are lined with a thin coat¬ 
ing of saliva, which hardens into a smooth 
cement, and are provisioned with a semi¬ 
liquid paste of partially digested nectar 
and pollen. An egg is laid in each cell. 
After the tunnel has been closed the 
mother bees still linger in the vicinity 

(Fig. 1). 

The two commonest genera of the short- 
tongued bees are Halictus and Andrena. 
The species of Halictus, often called 
“sweat bees,” vary in size from some of 
the smallest bees known to forms as large 
as the honeybee. The sexes mate in the 
fall, and the females (like the queen bum- 


Beginning with the cell in which she was 
born, each female digs a new group of. 
cells connected with the main tunnel. 
Altho there are then no males in existence, 
she provisions her cells with balls of bee- 
bread and lays eggs, which by partheno¬ 
genesis give birth to both males and fe¬ 
males. There are thus two generations 
among the Halicti. The autumnal genera¬ 
tion, consisting of both sexes, produces the 
following spring only females, which, altho 
unable to mate, yet produce by partheno¬ 
genesis both sexes, and in like manner the 
cycle- is repeated from - year to year. 

(Fig. 2). 


Pig. 5.-—Parasitic bees: 1. Coelioxys rufitarsus; a, female; b, male; 2, Nomada 

bella a, female; b, male; 3. Tri'epeolus donatus; a, female; b, male; 4. Melecta miranda 
female. 



blebees) hibernate during the winter. They 
reappear in the spring and dig burrows in 
the ground which are five or six inches in 
depth and have several short branches, in 
each of which and at the lower end of the 
tunnel a cell is built. In each cell a little 
ball of beebread, composed of pollen and 
honey, about the size of a small pea is 
stored for the use of the larvm. Halictus 
does not close the entrances to the cells. 
Fabre has apparently shown that the first 
generation of several species consists whol¬ 
ly of females. He is probably right. The 
eight or ten sisters, the offspring of one 
mother, continue to return to their cells at 
night and to share together their old home. 


Andrena is our largest bee genus, and 
more than 250 species have been described 
in America. Thousands often tunnel in 
the same sandy bank of earth until the 
ground appears as tho filled with shot- 
holes. It is, says Smith, a village or city 
of homes. A part of the species are ver¬ 
nal and fly only in the early part of the 

season, and a part are autumnal and fly 

only in autumn. Each burrow has a num¬ 
ber of short lateral branches. In these 
passages and in the enlarged lower end of 
the burrow the female stores a small mass 
of pollen and honey and lays an egg. The 
species are closely allied and are called 

ground bees, (Fig. 2.) 




SOLITARY BEES. 


765 


The mason bees of the genus Osmia vary 
greatly in the manner of building their 
nests. Some make use of the stumps of 
hollow reeds, tubes, or empty snail shells, 
while others build their cells in small cav¬ 
ities in stone walls or posts. Several 
American species build earthen cells about 
half an inch in diameter which, tho rudely 
fashioned of mud on the outside, are beau¬ 
tifully polished and glazed within; In 
France, according to Fabre, the Sicilian 
Chalicodoma builds its clay cells beneath 
projecting tiles, which in the course of 
years cover five or six square yards, and 
with their great weight threaten the de¬ 
struction of the roof. (Fig. 3.) 

The observations of Fabre show that the 
mother Osmia determines the sex of her 
offspring and can lay at will either a male 
or female egg. The males of Osmia are 
much smaller than the females, and their 
cells are consequently smaller and contain 
a less amount of stores than those of the 
latter. When an old nest is used a second 
time female eggs are invariably laid in the 
large cells and male eggs in the small cells. 
Fabre induced a large number of females 
to build their cells in glass tubes of various 
sizes. When the tubes were sufficiently large 
the bees always laid first a series of female 
eggs and then male eggs. By varying the 
size of the tubes he succeeded in obtaining 
series in which the order of laying was re¬ 
versed and began with males; or in which 
the entire laying contained only males. 
“The egg, as it issues from the ovary, has 
not yet a fixed sex. The final impress that 
produces the sex is given at the moment of 
laying, or a little before.” 

The leaf-cutting bees of the genus Mega¬ 
chile build their cells of round and oval 
pieces of leaves or flower petals. They do 
not dig burrows for themselves, but make 
use of the burrows of other bees or of the 
straight tunnels of large earth-worms. If 
the shaft is longer than is needed the ap¬ 
proach from below is blocked by fragments 
of leaves piled in irregular order. After 
this barrier come five or six pockets or cells 
composed of elliptical and round sections 
of leaves which the female Megachile cuts 
out with her mandibles. The sides of the 
cell are formed of six or eight oval pieces 
in one or two overlapping rows, with the 


lower ends bent inward to form the bot¬ 
tom. Any little crevices are covered with 
small ovals to render the leaf-pot water¬ 
tight. The top of the cell is closed by two, 
three, or six, or even ten circular pieces 
which, by some marvel of geometry, are 
the exact size to fit the cell. The sections 
of leaves are taken from a great variety 
of plants, and no special preference is 
manifested for any particular species. The 
cells are provisioned with pollen and 
honey. (Fig. 3.) 

The thimble-shaped cells of the cotton 
bees of the genus Anthidium are made of 
white cottony hairs gathered from various 
kinds of thistles, mulleins, and the cotton 
rose. Only dried hairs from dead plants 
are used since hairs containing sap would 
be likely to mildew. The little packets of 
cotton, the results of many journeys, are 
felted or matted into a layer which forms 
the entire cell. So firmly are these little 
bags woven together that they may all be 
removed without separating. The cotton 
bees make use of the tunnels of Antho¬ 
phora, or the holes of earth-worms, or the 
stumps of hollow reeds. Other species of 
Anthidium employ empty snail shells, and 
are called resin bees since they divide the 
hollow spiral into cells by partitions of gum 
gathered largely from conifers, especially 
the juniper. (Fig. 3.) The economy of 
the carpenter bees is described under 
Xylocopa. 

The Anthophoridae, or cliff bees, are dis¬ 
tributed over the entire globe and are one 
of the largest bee families. The females 
of Anthophora drive tunnels six inches or 
more in length in the sides of precipitous 
cliffs, extensive colonies selecting the same 
location. In the chalk pits at Northfleet, 
England, there was a colony so large that 
in the month of April the countless num¬ 
bers assembled cast a dark flickering 
shadow on the ground. The inner walls of 
their cells are glazed with a thin cement of 
saliva applied with the tongue, which on 
hardening becomes impervious to moisture. 
An egg is laid on the surface of the stores, 
which are in a semi-liquid condition. The 
larvae pass the winter in the cells and 
change to pupae the following spring. 
Common genera are Anthophora, Melisso- 
des, and Xenoglossa. (Fig. 4.) 


700 


SOURWOOD 


THE PARASITIC SOLITARY BEES. 

Notwithstanding that the bees are pro¬ 
verbial for industry beyond any other 
group of insects except, perhaps, the ants, 
there are many parasitic genera which no 
longer gather stores of pollen and nectar, 
but rear their brood at the expense of the 
nest-building genera. They are variously 
called guest bees, brood parasites, inqui- 
lines, or cuckoo bees, while their unconscious 
victims are known as host bees. The guest 
bees are usually allied in structure with 
their hosts, and both are probably derived 
from the same primitive stock. Thus the 
bumblebees ( Bombus ) and the false bum¬ 
blebees ( Psithyrus ) doubtless have a com¬ 
mon ancestry. Common genera of para¬ 
sitic bees are Nomada (parasitic on An- 
drena ), Coelioxys (parasitic on Mega¬ 
chile), Stelis (parasitic on Anthophora). 
(Fig. 5.) 

The manner in which a cuckoo bee enters 
the nest of her host varies greatly with 
different genera. Melecta boldly enters the 
burrows of Anthophora, even when the 
female is present, and the latter seems 
wholly unconscious of the danger. Triepeo- 
lus more prudently waits until her host 
Colletes has departed for the field before 
entering the tunnel. In France, according 
to Fabre, Stelis nasuta opens with great 
difficulty the hardened cells of Chalicodoma, 
sealed with clay cement, lays several eggs 
and again closes the opening with a pellet 
of clay. The American parasite Stelis sex- 
maculata lays her eggs in the nests of Alci- 
damea producta, which are found in the 
stems of the blackberry or sumac. The 
lawful owner Alcidamea lays her egg on 
the top of a conical mass of beebread, but 
the parasite Stelis places her egg near its 
base where it is likely to escape notice. 
There may be as many as four cells, each 
closed with a felt-like mass of chewed 
strawberry leaves. 

Graenicher has observed and described 
the tragic end of the host larva. The larva 
of the parasite is armed with long sharp 
mandibles, but those of the host larva are 
blunt and bifid and not well adapted either 
for defense or attack-—so the latter is 
doomed from the beginning. When the 
two larvse, while feeding on the beebread, 
meet, the parasite seizes the body of the 


host larva between its sharp mandibles. 
The host larva may struggle a little but 
soon succumbs, and after sucking out its 
liquid contents the parasite again turns to 
the beebread. If there are two larvse of the 
parasite Stelis sexmaculata a combat be¬ 
tween them is sure to occur, and the victor 
is the larva obtaining the first hold on the 
body of the other; but two larvae of Alci¬ 
damea can not injure each other. 

The handsomest parasitic bees belong to 
the genus Nomada, and Smith calls them 
the most beautiful of all the bees found, in 
Great Britain. They are often called wasp- 
bees, because of their gay coloring. They 
are dark red in color, often suffused with 
black, and maculated with bright or pale 
yellow. Their larvae are often found in the 
nests of • Andrena. 

In the pollination of flowers the para¬ 
sitic bees are of much less importance than 
the nest-builders. Since they have no oc¬ 
casion to gather pollen, they have largely 
lost their pollen brushes and visit flowers 
only to procure nectar for themselves. A 
part of the species restrict their visjts 
largely to the Compositae which yield nec¬ 
tar freely. 

S OURW0 0 D (Oxydendrum arh oreum ). 
Also called sour gum, sorrel tree, lily-of- 
the-valley tree, and elk tree. A fine tree, 
belonging to the heath family, or Ericaceae, 
growing 40 to 60 feet tall and a foot in 
diameter. The smooth bark is brownish 
red, and the young twigs are light green. 
The leaves are oblong, pointed at the apex, 
smooth on both sides, and have a sour 
taste. The numerous white urn-shaped 
flowers are in slender one-sided racemes, 5 
to 6 inches long, which hang in clusters at 
the ends of the branches. From the re¬ 
semblance of the blossoms to those of the 
little perennial herb of the garden, sour- 
wood is often called lily-of-the-valley tree. 
The popular names sourwood and sorrel 
tree are derived from the sour odor and 
flavor of the leaves and twigs. 

Sourwood grows in rich woods from 
southern Pennsylvania to western Florida 
and southern Alabama, westward to south¬ 
ern Indiana, the Arkansas Mountains and 
western Louisiana. It is most abundant in 
the mountainous tract of country occupied 
by the Alleghenies and the Blue Ridge, but 


SPACING FRAMES 


767 


eastward it extends in places as far as tide¬ 
water arid westward to central Tennessee. 
It is planted for ornament as far north as 
Massachusetts, but as a source of nectar it 
is chiefly valuable in the mountainous re¬ 
gions of North Carolina, South Carolina, 
and Tennessee. It flourishes on high dry 
soil, and is common on poor woodland 
ridges, but in the forest along the rivers, 
where the soil is rich and deep, it makes a 
much larger growth, and the forests are of¬ 



ten beautifully checkered in July by the 
white blossoms. On the Piedmont Plateau in 
North Carolina it is frequently a scraggy 
tree not exceeding 30 feet in height. In 
the dense forests the trunk is tall and un¬ 
branched, and furnishes fine straight- 
grained lumber used by cabinet makers. 
The name of the genus, Oxydendrum, is 
Greek, signifying sour wood. 

Sourwood begins blooming about June 
20, and the harvest from this source usu¬ 
ally lasts until the latter part of July. The 
urn-shaped corolla is pendulous and con¬ 
tracted at the mouth, so that the bountiful 
supply of nectar is protected both from 
rain and useless insects. Sourwood is con¬ 
sidered one of the most important honey- 
producing trees of the South. The nectar is 
secreted in such abundance that it may be 
shaken in small drops from the bloom. The 
honey flow is usually dependable; and in lo¬ 
calities, where it is abundant, the beekeeper 
seldom misses a harvest. Altho compared 
with some other honey plants the season is 
short, there is no difficulty in securing a 


profitable crop. In northwest North Caro¬ 
lina the surplus comes largely from this 
source, and the flow is reliable three years 
in five. At Brookneal, Virginia, there is a 
total failure about one year in four. As 
the honey flow comes so late the beekeeper 
has ample opportunity to build up strong 
colonies which can gather nectar very rap¬ 
idly during the short honey flow. 

Under favorable conditions, sourwood 
honey is produced in enormous quantities, 
but it is seldom found in the markets out¬ 
side of the region in which it is gathered. 
It is nearly all consumed in the localities 
where it is produced, as it is regarded ns 
one of the finest-flavored honeys in the 
United States, and often commands in local 
markets a premium of a few cents per 
pound. The honey is white or light colored, 
with a delicious, slightly aromatic flavor, 
and is very slow to granulate. It is, how¬ 
ever, often mixed with basswood honey, or 
with persimmon honey gathered earlier in 
the season. 

Few are acquainted with the merits of 
sourwood outside of the region where it is 
an important source of honey, and it is 
sometimes confused with black gum and 
sour gum, much to its disparagement. A 
beekeeper, familiar with the' honeys of 
basswood, tulip tree, clover, buckwheat, 
goldenrod, and aster, declares that it has 
no superior among the honey-producing 
trees of the United States either in its 
beautiful appearance or in the amount of 
nectar secreted. 

SPACING FRAMES.— In nature combs 
will be found spaced from 1%, 1V 2 , 1%, 
and sometimes up to two inches from cen¬ 
ter to center. Dzierzon, one of the very 
first to conceive the idea of a movable 
comb, gave l 1 /^ as the right distance until 
Wyprecht made accurate measurements in 
straw hives having straight combs built in 
them. Out,of 49 measurements, the aver¬ 
age distance was scant 1% inches. Baron 
von Berlepsch, by 40 other' measurements, 
verified this result. In the United States, 
prominent apiarists have found the dis¬ 
tance of natural-built combs averaged 1 
inches from center to center. It has been 
observed that, in the center of the brood- 
nest, the combs are spaced more closely 
than those on the outside, the latter rang- 


'G8 


SPANISH NEEDLES 


ing anywhere from 1% to 2 inches to 
centers. 

The author has measured the combs in 
hundreds of box hives in the Southland, 
and he finds that the average spacing for 
worker brood comb seems to be slightly un¬ 
der 1% inches. The store combs run all 
the way from 1^2 to 1% and even 2 inches. 
In a large number of cases it was noticed 
that the combs were spaced wider apart at 
the top of the box or comb, and closer to¬ 
gether toward the center and the bottom. 
The illustration shows a tendency that wav, 
but it is not so pronounced as a number of 
others that were seen. 



The “innards” of a box hive after the bees have 
been drummed out. Notice now irregularly the 
bees have spaced the combs and wider at the top. 


For worker brood it was apparent that 
nature indicates 1% inches; for drone 
comb, 1%? altho there are wide variations. 

Hundreds of these measurements were 
taken on colonies that were being trans¬ 
ferred ; and if nature were to be followed 
it would seem that 1% is the correct aver¬ 
age for worker comb, and lp 2 for drone. 
Store combs may have a spacing of 2 inches 
or more from center to center. 

The beekeeper should adopt that spacing 
which will give him the best results—the 
most brood and surplus honey. A large 
number of beekeepers are using 1% spac¬ 
ing for their frames. The reason for this 
is, principally, because they happened to 
start with this spacing. But not a few who 
have given special attention to the mat¬ 
ter, trying both spacings, agree that the 
right distance is 1%, or, if anything, a 
trifle scant, and some use quite successfully 
114-inch spacing. Many, indeed, who had 
self-spacing frames adapted for IV 2 inches, 


have gone to the enormous expense of 
changing over to the 1%. Similarly, some 
of those who have used 1% spacing have 
adopted V/ 2 . Brood comb is found to be, 
on an average, % inch thick; capped brood, 
one inch thick. On 1% spacing, this will 
allow !/2 inch between uncapped combs and 
% between combs of capped brood. 

The following paragraph is taken from 
an article published in Gleanings in Bee 
Culture, page 673, Yol. XVIII., written 
by Julius Hoffman, inventor of the Hoff¬ 
man frame, and it applies here exactly: 

If, for instance, we space the combs from 
center to center so as to measure 1 % instead 
of 1% inches, then we have an empty space 
of % inch between two combs of brood in¬ 
stead of %, as it ought to be; and it will 
certainly require more bees to fill and keep 
warm a % than a % space. In a % space, 
the breeding bees from two combs facing 
each other will join with their backs, and 
so close up the space between the two brood- 
combs; if this space is widened, however, to 
%, the bees cannot do this, and more bees 
will be required to keep up the needed brood¬ 
ing temperature. What a drawback this 
would be in cool spring weather, when our 
colonies are still.weak in numbers yet breed¬ 
ing most desirable, can readily be under¬ 
stood. 

Where wider spacing is adopted, there is 
apt to be more honey stored in the combs, 
and less of worker (but more drone brood). 
Close spacing, on the contrary (1%), tends 
to encourage the rearing of more worker 
brood, the exclusion of drone brood, and 
the storage of less honey below. This is 
important. 

Under the head of Swarming, subhead 
“The Dadant System of Swarm Control,” 
it will be seen that C. P. Dadant be¬ 
lieves that l 1 /^ 1 inch spacing tends to re¬ 
duce swarming, and that the regular 1%- 
spacing is too close. On the other hand, 
it may be said that the self-spacing Hoff¬ 
man frame adapted to 1% spacing will 
gradually, on account of propolis accumu¬ 
lations, increase to l 1 /^- 

For further information on the spacing 
of frames see Frames, Self-spacing ; Hive¬ 
making; Hives; Honeycomb. 

SPANISH NEEDLES (.Bidens aris- 
tosa ).—The honey has a golden color, ex¬ 
cellent flavor, and good body, weighing 




SPECIALTY IN BEES 


769 


fully 12 pounds to the gallon. It is so 
thick that there is little water to evaporate, 
and the cells can be sealed soon after they 
are filled. This plant has showy large- 
rayed heads, and yields immense quanti¬ 
ties of honey along the low bottom lands of 
the Mississippi and Illinois rivers. It is 
found in swamps from Illinois to Louisi¬ 
ana, blooming from August to October, 
and yielding a honey, which is superior to, 
or is unsurpassed by, that from any other 
fall flower. 

A typical Spanish needles swamp is lo¬ 
cated at the foot of the bluffs of the Illi¬ 
nois River where there is a broad expanse 
of low marshy land from 3 to 5 miles wide. 
This land is subject to an overflow from the 
river once a year, which usually occurs in 
early spring. A large portion of the soil 
is unfit for tilling purposes, and in conse¬ 
quence Spanish needles has secured a per¬ 
manent foothold to the exclusion of nearly 
all other plants. Early in September the 
bright yellow rays begin to appear and in 
a short time the whole district is aglow with 
the bloom, and its dazzling brilliancy re¬ 
minds one of a burnished sheet of gold. 
The bees revel in this great field of flowers, 
so rich in nectar, and rapidly secure a sur¬ 
plus. A single colony has stored 63 pounds 
of honey in six days, and 43 colonies pro¬ 
duced 2021 pounds in 10 days, an average 
of 47 pounds per colony. 

Another important Spanish needles re¬ 
gion is in the Kankakee Valley, where there 
are extensive swamps along the Kankakee 
River in northwest Indiana and eastern 
Illinois. Commercial apiaries usually range 
from 50 to 100 colonies, but at Hebron 
there are 300 colonies in one yard. 

There are many other species of Bidens 
widely distributed thruout America, all of 
which are probably of more or less value to 
bees. The common beggar-ticks (Bidens 
frondosa ) is one of the most abundant. 
They are all fall flowers, and usually grow 
in wet places—one species being aquatic. 

SPECIALTY IN BEES.—The question 
of making beekeeping a side line or hobby 
has already been pretty thoroly discussed 
under the head of Beginning with Bees, 
Backlot Beekeeping, Beekeeping for 
Women, Bees and Fruit-Growing, Bees 
and Poultry, and Farmer Beekeepers. 
25 


Under this head, “Specialty in Bees,” will 
be discussed the feasibility of making bees 
the sole means of livelihood. 

There are farmers who produce potatoes 
only. Others grow small fruits; still oth¬ 
ers, onions and celery. In the line of pro¬ 
fessions there are physicians who make a 
specialty of the eyes, some of the ears, and 
others both of the eyes and ears. Others 
give their whole time to the treatment of 
the lungs or the throat, and others to dis¬ 
eases of the skin. Some beekeepers spe¬ 
cialize on queen-rearing and others on ex¬ 
tracted honey. The number who confine 
their attention solely to the keeping of bees, 
while not large, is growing at a rapid rat?. 

Whether one shall keep more bees and 
drop all other pursuits will depend on a 
good many conditions. First is the ques¬ 
tion of locality; second, the man; third, 
the state of his finances. 

locality. 

No one should attempt to make a living 
entirely from bees unless he has a locality 
that is capable of supporting a large num¬ 
ber of colonies. (See Locality and Over¬ 
stocking.) In some places, probably not 
more than twenty-five or fifty colonies 
could be maintained to a yard. Two hun¬ 
dred parceled out in five or ten apiaries 
two miles apart would increase the expense 
of operation. To put a man at each yard 
would be out of the question. A horse and 
wagon would be too slow, because the 
apiarist would thus be one-third of the 
time on the road. An automobile truck is 
expensive. If one has a locality that will 
support five hundred to a thousand colo¬ 
nies in from ten to twenty yards, the gross 
earnings would warrant the purchase of an 
automobile truck and a runabout, perhaps, 
for making quick trips. (See Moving 
Bees and Out-apiaries.) As a rule, a few 
bees as a side line can be kept profitably 
almost anywhere; and therefore if one has 
a notion of making beekeeping an exclusive 
business he should seek some locality where 
there is an abundance of flora capable of 
furnishing a good table honey that will 
bring a good price, and a locality which, 
at the same time, is not already occupied 
by other beekeepers, thus overstocking. 
See Overstocking. 


770 


SPECIFIC GRAVITY OF HONEY 


THE QUESTION OF THE MAN. 

Some men who do well with a small busi¬ 
ness would make a failure with a large one. 
Going into beekeeping extensively requires 
not only capital and brains but a large 
amount of business ability. With the ele¬ 
ment of business ability comes the question 
of experience. Certainly no one should 
engage in the bee business in an extensive 
way unless he has had a large amount of 
practical knowledge of a kind that starts 
from the bottom and works upward. (See 
Beginning with Bees; also Backlot 
Beekeeping.) A large business gradually 
built up from a small beginning is much 
more sure of success, especially if the man 
who made the start is still the presiding 
genius of the large business. While one 
can sometimes hire a man of wide experi¬ 
ence, it is better for the boss to have the 
know how himself; otherwise, if his man 
leaves him for any cause he would be sadly 
crippled. Moreover, if he knows the busi¬ 
ness himself, his help can not impose on 
him by pretending to “know it all.” 
capital. 

Capital is another important requisite. 
This need not, however, be a serious obsta¬ 
cle if one would be willing to start with a 
small beginning and make the bees pay 
their own way, as is taught all thru this 
work. One will be much more likely to 
meet with success if he gradually enlarges 
his business, bearing in mind the danger of 
trying to expand too fast. 

specialist beekeepers; where located. 

The number of persons who make bee¬ 
keeping a specialty is constantly increas¬ 
ing; but most of the specialist beekeepers 
are located west of the Mississippi and 
north of the Ohio. Where alfalfa and sweet 
clover are grown extensively there will be 
found beekeepers who number their colo¬ 
nies by the thousand. The mountain-sage 
and orange districts of California make 
specialized beekeeping a possibility. As a 
general proposition, however, it may be 
stated that where there is one specialist 
beekeeper there are a thousand who com¬ 
bine the business of honey production with 
some other profession or business. 

SPECIFIC GRAVITY OF HONEY.— 

Ordinary well-ripened honey when ready 
for the market should run about 12 pounds 


to the gallon, normal temperatures, which 
would mean a specific gravity of from 1.40 
to 1.45, or on the Baume scale from 41 to 
43. (See Baume Hydrometer under Honey 
Analysis.) It should, however, be noted 
that a gallon can that will hold ; '-12 pounds 
of ripe honey at normal temperatures Vill 
hold only 11 pounds 12 ounces' when that 
honey is heated to 160 degrees to prevent 
granulation. When, however, this honey 
cools, 4 ounces more of cold honey can be 
added, but as a rule most gallon cans of 
honey contain that amount less than the 
12 pounds, and should be so labeled to 
conform to state and federal laws. 

There are some honeys that run about 
11 Y 2 lbs. to the gallon, but they should 
never be put in sealed cans nor marketed 
when as thin as that, as they are almost 
sure to sour. They should rather be stored 
in open vats or cans in a dry room for a 
few weeks, so that the excess of moisture 
can escape. Honey exposed in a damp at¬ 
mosphere will take on more moisture. It 
is, therefore, important that the artificial 
ripening process take place in a warm dry 
room, heated artificially if necessary. As 
a rule, it is not wise to extract honey in the 
eastern States unless three-fourths of all 
the cells are capped over; and sometimes 
then the honey should be left on the hive 
until all the cells are sealed. In the west¬ 
ern States where there is a drier atmos¬ 
phere, or during extremely hot dry weather 
in the East, a larger percentage of un¬ 
sealed cells may be permissible at the time 
the combs are extracted; but it is best to 
store in open cans for a short time before 
shipping. See Honey, Analysis of. 

When honey is not thoroly ripened—- 
where it runs a little short of 12 lbs. to the 
gallon, the thinner portion is apt to rise 
to the top while the heavier part will settle 
to the bottom (see Extracted Honey). The 
top will have a tendency to sour, and it will 
not be long before the whole mass will be 
involved. If the souring or fermenting pro¬ 
cess has not gone too far, the honey may be 
saved by heating, thus destroying the yeast 
plant. But if it has gone too far, nothing 
can be done but convert it into vinegar. See 
Vinegar. 

SPIKEWEED (Centromadia pungens). 
—A branching annual with spinescent 
sweet-scented leaves. The yellow flowers 


SPREADING BROOD 


771 


yield an amber-colored honey of good qual¬ 
ity, which granulates quickly. Carloads of 
spikeweed honey have been shipped from 
Fresno County, California. Jepson de¬ 
scribes spikeweed as “abundant on the 
plains of the lower San Joaquin, southward 
to southern California and westward to 
Walnut Creek and Alameda. On the alka¬ 
line plains of the upper San Joaquin this 
species covers tens of thousands of acres, 
and often forms thickets 4 or 5 feet high. 
It is also abundant in more or less alka¬ 
line land on the plains of Solano County, 
and forms extensive colonies in summer 
fields. It is a valued bee plant. 

SPRAYING FRUIT TREES. — See 

Fruit Blossoms. 

SPRAYING DESTRUCTIVE TO THE 
BROOD.—See Fruit Blossoms. 

SPREADING BROOD.—As is very well 
known, queens are inclined to lay their 
eggs in circles in the comb, the circle being 
larger in the center combs and smaller in 
the outside ones. The whole bulk of eggs 
and brood in several combs thus forms 
practically a sphere which the bees are 
able to cover and keep warm. When the 
queen has formed this sphere of brood and 
eggs she curtails her egg-laying for the 
time being until enough brood emerges 
to increase the size of the cluster, when 
she will gradually enlarge the circles of 
brood to keep pace with the enlarged ball 
of bees. 

Yet the queen very often is overcareful 
—that is, she errs on the safe side, so that 
when warm weather has fully set in she 
sometimes lays fewer eggs than she should 
in the judgment of the apiarist, and ac¬ 
cordingly he inserts a frame of empty 
comb in the center of the brood-nest. In 
this comb the queen may commence laying 
at once to unite, as it were, the two halves 
of brood. More often she does not. In 
that case more harm than good has been 
done. If the queen does fill the first one 
given she will be likely, if the weather is 
not cold, to go into the second comb and fill 
it with eggs on both sides; for nice, clean 
empty cells are very tempting to her. In 
a word, this operation of inserting empty 
combs in the center of the brood-nest is 
called “spreading brood,” its object being 
to increase the amount of brood, and thus 


insure a larger force of workers for the 
prospective harvest. 

While this spreading of the brood may 
be performed by experienced beekeepers 
because its stimulates the queens to greater 
egg-laying activity, yet when practiced by 
beginners and the inexperienced it gener¬ 
ally results in much more harm than good 
as already stated. A beginner without pre¬ 
vious experience might, on a warm day in 
early spring, think it high time to put 
empty comb in the center of the brood- 
nest. The queen immediately occupies it, 
filling it with eggs. This, of course, re¬ 
quires a large force of nurse-bees to take 
care of the young bees and hatching larvie. 
A cool spell of weather is almost sure to 
come on, with the result that the cluster 
of bees is contracted, leaving the brood that 
was forced outside, out in the cold, where 
it chills and dies. The outside edge of the 
cluster, in its effort to take care of this 
brood, is likewise chilled, and the colony 
suffers a check and setback far worse than 
had it been left to its own devices. 

Ordinarily the spreading of brood can 
be practiced safely only after settled warm 
weather has arrived. The beginner who 
desires to give extra combs for egg-laying, 
especially in the early spring, would do well 
to put those extra combs at the outside; 
but after settled warm weather has come, 
when the temperature does not go below 60 
degrees Fahrenheit at night at any time, 
he may insert a frame of empty comb at 
the center of the brood-nest. 

It should be borne in mind that the prac¬ 
tice of spreading brood has been largely 
abandoned, even by experienced beekeep¬ 
ers. When the queen has plenty of room 
somewhere in the brood-nest (and that 
“somewhere” should be outside the brood- 
cluster), both bees and queen will ordi¬ 
narily rear as much brood as they can 
safely and profitably care for. 

SPRING DWINDLING.—This is a mal¬ 
ady confined to bees outdoors or those just 
set out of the cellar, and appears only in 
spring—hence the name. It was once sup¬ 
posed to be a disease; but it has now been 
definitely determined to be only the nat¬ 
ural result of a severe winter on a colony 
too weak or a normal one not protected to 
stand the cold. Gradually the individual 


772 


SPRING DWINDLING 


members die off until the original bunch of 
bees is reduced to a few dozens. This deci- 
imation may be due to a low vitality on the 
part of the old bees that are inclined to 
die off anyway before spring, or it may be 
due to dysentery. (See Dysentery.) If it 
is caused by the first mentioned, it shows 
that the colony went into winter quarters 
with almost no young bees; that is to say, 
the great force representing the colony was 
made up of old bees whose length of days 
would naturally expire at the beginning of 
the spring, even under good or the best 
conditions; when, therefore, the conditions 
are not favorable, naturally these old bees 
die off much the sooner. 

On the other hand, if spring dwindling 
is due to dysentery, the condition of the 
colony in the fall previous, if it could be 
known, would probably show an insufficient 
protection, or a cluster too weak in the first 
place to stand even an ordinary winter, to 
say nothing of one that is exceptionally 
cold. Under Dysentery it is shown that 
this disease or malady, rather, is the result 
of overfeeding. Overfeeding is caused by 
an attempt on the part of the bees to keep 
themselves warm. A cluster too small, or a 
normal cluster in a single-walled hive, in a 
cold climate, will overeat; and as the bees 
have no opportunity for flight, their intes¬ 
tines become overcharged, resulting finally 
in purging, and this purging fouls up the 
whole hive. An examination down in the 
brood-nest at about this stage in the spring 
shows a small weakened cluster, bees un¬ 
easy and somewhat scattered, and combs 
emitting an ill-smelling odor of excrement. 
The bees have greatly distended abdomens, 
showing that they are overloaded with fecal 
matter, as explained under Dysentery. A 
normal colony should show a compact quiet 
cluster of bees. See Temperature. 

A good flight in warm weather will en¬ 
able diseased bees to cleanse themselves 
and make a new start. In fact, continuous 
warm weather is a relief for spring dwin¬ 
dling. But, unfortunately, in many locali¬ 
ties there will come a week or two of warm 
weather at which time bees will start 
brood-rearing. When a cold spell comes 
on, the already greatly attenuated force 
attempts to hover its brood, with the result 
that both brood and bees die. A change¬ 
able condition of weather, therefore, is 


hard on nuclei that are suffering from 
spring dwindling. 

In this connection, spring dwindling 
caused by dysentery may be due to bad 
food; but in most cases it is caused by 
insufficient housing—that is, a lack of 
proper packing. See Spring Manage¬ 
ment. 

There is a form of spring dwindling, or 
perhaps more properly speaking winter 
dwindling, that occurs in semi-tropical cli¬ 
mates, particularly in California. It is 
similar to the kind of spring dwindling 
that one encounters in the northern States 
of the East. In California, Virginia and 
many of the southern States the bees can 
fly nearly every day in the year. The 
sources that furnish nectar and pollen en¬ 
tice the old bees out of the hive, some of 
which never get back on account of a sud¬ 
den chilling of the atmosphere. These pollen 
sources also start breeding. It very often 
occurs that the emerging of the young bees 
does not keep pace with the old bees dying 
in the fields, with the result that the colonies 
become weaker and weaker, until a ten- 
frame colony will get down to about three 
frames of bees and little brood about the 
time that the first real honey flow comes on. 
In some localities in California the euca¬ 
lyptus, furnishing both nectar and pollen, 
is thought by some to do more harm than 
good, in that it starts brood-rearing during 
midwinter and forces the old bees into the 
fields, many never returning as explained. 
In most parts of California there is a se¬ 
vere change of temperature during mid¬ 
winter from the middle hours of the day 
to two or three o’clock in the morning be¬ 
fore daylight. These sudden drops in tem¬ 
perature cause a great deal of the brood 
to chill and at the same time hold back the 
queen. 

Much of the winter in the semi-tropical 
States is similar to spring weather in the 
northern and eastern States. In general 
characteristics the winter dwindling in 
these States is almost precisely the same as 
spring dwindling, with this difference, that 
there is never any dysentery. 

There is another kind of winter dwin¬ 
dling that is due to an entire lack of pollen 
both in the hives and in the fields. When 
that condition occurs, in semi-tropical cli- 


SPRING MANAGEMENT 


773 


mates, the colony will dwindle very rap¬ 
idly even tho there is plenty of honey in 
the hive. The remedy, of course, is to lay 
aside a set of combs containing pollen, 
when pollen is coming in freely, and put 
them in the hives during February or 
March or earlier if necessary. 

REMEDY FOR SPRING DWINDLING. 

Sometimes several of the nuclei that have 
been reduced by spring dwindling may be 
united; but in most cases this does little 
or no good. While the combined force of 
bees all in one hive look well at the time 
of uniting, yet in a few days this large 
force seems to have diminished very rap- 
pidly, and, unfortunately, it is no better so 
far as strength or appearance is concerned 
than any one of the several nuclei that 
went to compose it in the first place. 

Probably the best way to unite is on the 
Alexander plan, as given under the head of 
Uniting. If practiced early it will prevent 
spring dwindling. 

As a further preventive colonies should 
be made to rear brood as late in the fall as 
possible. If there is any fall flow, bees 
will rear brood naturally, and the hives 
will be filled with a large force of young 
bees. If there is no fall flow, stimulation 
should be practiced. (See Feeding.) This 
stimulative feeding may not start up brood¬ 
rearing if the queens are two or three 
years old. As a rule, it does not pay to 
keep queens longer than two years; and 
many think that they should not be older 
than one year. Young queens will lay 
readily in the fall if given stimulative 
feeding, while old ones may require consid¬ 
erable coaxing. It follows that one of the 
best preventives for spring dwindling is a 
young queen in the fall. Such queens will 
lay until a large amount of stores is used 
up in August and September, in the north¬ 
ern States, and the beekeeper should, there¬ 
fore, see to it that they have sufficient after 
they cease brood-rearing. 

For particulars on how to protect the 
colonies to avoid spring dwindling, see 
Spring Management and Wintering. 
For the causes that induce dysentery in 
colonies that spring dwindle, see Dysen¬ 
tery. For particulars on how to feed in 
the fall, see Feeding and Feeders, sub¬ 
head, ‘‘Feeding to Stimulate.” For the 


consideration of the question of uniting, 
see the Alexander method under the head 
of Uniting. 

SPRING MANAGEMENT. — All colo¬ 
nies should be gone over very carefully as 
soon as bees can fly, to determine their 
stores. Unless they have two or three 
combs of honey, stores should be taken 
from some other colonies that can spare 
them. If no hive has a surplus, the needy 
should be fed a thick syrup consisting of 
two parts of sugar to one of water. See 
Feeding, especially those instructions urg¬ 
ing fall rather than spring feeding. 

Feeders should be placed on top of the 
frames, and covered with packing. It may 
turn cold shortly after; and even if the 
syrup is left in the feeder, starvation will 
be averted, for the bees will cluster around 
it and help themselves as they have need.. 
When the weather is cool or cold the syrup 
should be given hot. 

If colonies have been well housed and 
fed in the fall as they should be, there will 
be no occasion for feeding or equalizing of 
stores. Of course, there is liable to be 
occasionally a colony which, by reason of 
bad stores, may have dysentery. In that 
case the front of the hive will be soiled 
with dark-brown spots, and there will be a 
quantity of dead bees in front of the en¬ 
trance and on the bottom of the hive. Such 
a colony, even with the best of nursing, 
may die before settled warm weather comes 
on. If considerable honeydew has been 
gathered during the previous summer, one 
is likely to find some spring dwindling and 
dysentery in some of the hives. Some 
honeydews will make a very fair winter 
food; but the majority of them, especially 
those gathered from hickory and oak, are 
bad. If this is the case as much of it as 
possible should be used in brood-rearing in 
the summer, and then sugar syrup should 
be fed. 

Some springs the weather will turn 
warm very suddenly with no natural pollen 
available. The warm weather may last sev¬ 
eral days. During this time brood-rearing 
will start up rapidly; and if there is no 
pollen in the hives the bees will be hunting 
around in the barns and stables and 
chicken-coops for bran or chopped feed. 
It is necessary at such times to give artifi- 


774 


SPRING MANAGEMENT 


cial pollen. Trays should be set out in 
sunny places, under cover if possible, con¬ 
taining a few quarts of rye or pea flour. 

Unless bees can have natural or artificial 
pollen when brood-rearing starts, consider¬ 
able brood will be found dead. On seeing 
this the beginner is apt to conclude his bees 
have some form of bee disease—possibly 
foul brood. If the brood dies shortly after 
a sudden warming-up spell, during which 
there is very little natural pollen in or out 
of the hives, the owner of the bees should 
await further developments. See Pollen, 
subhead, “Substitutes for Pollen.” 

When bees are taken out of the cellar it 
may be advisable to put them in double- 
walled packed hives. Generally one would 
consider that such hives are too expensive 
to maintain; but if they enable the bee¬ 
keeper to get a crop of honey they would 
be a good investment, because the first cost 
should be divided over a period of 
years. If one feels that he cannot afford 
double-walled hives he can very often use 
to advantage tar-paper wrappings, as 
shown under Wintering. 



Outer case used for spring protection. 


If the cluster of bees can not fill the 
whole hive it should be confined to the 
number of combs that it can occupy, after 
which layers of newspapers should be fold¬ 
ed over the frames, covering top and sides 
down to the bottom-board, when waste pa¬ 
per or leaves may be put in on the two 
sides and the spaces filled up. 

Another plan is to wrap a newspaper 
vertically around a frame of ordinary comb, 
and then tie with a string. The newspaper 
should be long enough to project beyond 
the end-bars on each end, so as to close up 
spaces between end-bars and the ends of 


the hive. When the wrapped comb is in¬ 
serted the bulging fold at top and bot¬ 
tom of the comb should close up the 
space between the cover and the bottom- 
board. This makes a close-fitting service¬ 
able division-board at little expense. Ad¬ 
ditional layers of papers can now be put 
over the top of the frames. It would be 
advisable, in addition, to set on top a half¬ 
depth or full-depth super and fill this with 
planer shavings or leaves. When the 
frames wrapped in paper are inserted on 
each side of the cluster, combs of honey 
can be put on the outside. As soon as the 
bees need more room or stores they will eat 
away the paper and occupy the whole hive. 

The newspaper packing above described 
costs nothing except the time employed, 
and that certainly would pay a big divi¬ 
dend, not only in the colder climates where 
bees dwindle in the spring, but in semi- 
tropical climates where bees suffer from 
chilly weather. 

If colonies wintered in the cellar are 
very weak it may be advisable to unite be¬ 
fore they are set out. See Uniting. 

One difficulty in uniting outdoor bees is 
that those moved to a new stand are quite 
inclined to go back to the old hive. This 
can be overcome to a great extent. ( See 
Uniting.)* Uniting in the spring is often 
unsatisfactory. Never unite two weak ones, 
but add a weak one to a medium, and thus 
make it strong. Unless the colony is very 
weak take out the surplus of combs that it 
does not occupy or use, and crowd the little 
cluster on as few frames as it can occupy. 
In that case, division-boards should be 
moved over, and the frames set over on the 
other side. The hive should be warmly 
packed, and the entrance contracted down 
to one inch wide to prevent robbing and to 
conserve heat. 

In going over the yard in early spring 
one is likely to find, if the bees are win¬ 
tered outdoors, one or more dead colonies. 
Their entrances should be shut up bee-tight, 
for otherwise on the first warm flight day 
they will be robbed out by the other bees, „ 
resulting in a general disturbance of the 
whole yard. (See Robbing.) Combs on 
which bees have died may be used later on 
by putting fresh bees on them. Unless 
they are very badly soiled with dysentery 
so they are fairly smeared over with a 



















































STATISTICS CONCERNING THE BEE AND HONEY BUSINESS 775 


brown excrement, or the stores are very 
bad, they can be nsed again. But badly 
soiled comb, or otherwise undesirable ones, 
should be put thru the wax-extractor. See 
Wax; also Dysentery. 

In early spring it may be necessary to 
rake out the dead bees in the entrances of 
some colonies. If a colony is strong it will 
usually do its own house-cleaning; but 
sometimes the dead accumulate in such 
numbers as actually to block the entrance. 
In all such eases there is danger that the 
few survivors may die outright. 

Perhaps very weak colonies may be 
found with a queen; while there will be 
another colony fairly strong without any. 
In that case it is best to unite these two, 
moving the weak colony over to the strong 
one. See Uniting; also Introducing. 

Some experienced beekeepers can “spread 
brood” in early spring; but the beginner 
will do well not to practice it. See Spread¬ 
ing Brood. 

It sometimes happens that there will be 
weak and strong colonies in the same yard. 
The latter will be too strong and the weak 
too weak. Some have practiced exchang¬ 
ing places with the two colonies. If they 
are next adjoining, this can be done very 
nicely; but the exchange should never be 
made except during warm weather. The 
flying bees of the strong colony will then 
enter the hive on their old stand where the 
weak colony has been placed. This will 
build it up while the old colony on the 
stand of the weak one will be depleted of 
bees. No harm to the brood will be done 
if the weather is warm and the entrance 
contracted. 

This plan is practiced to a considerable 
extent by some of our large beekeepers and 
particularly by Ira D. Bartlett of Michi¬ 
gan. 

STATISTICS CONCERNING THE 
BEE AND HONEY BUSINESS.—Except 
for some few States and some particular 
localities in some other States, there are no 
accurate figures concerning the number of 
beekeepers, the number of colonies of bees, 
and the amount of honey produced. It is 
true that the United States census for 1900, 
1910, and 1920, includes bees and honey 
among other rural industries and products; 
but, unfortunately, these reports, so far 


as they relate to bees and honey, are limit¬ 
ed to bees on farms of three acres or over, 
or farms of less acreage but which pro¬ 
duce over $250 worth of agricultural prod¬ 
ucts. As will be shown, such a classification 
excludes a very large number of beekeep¬ 
ers and practically all of the commercial 
honey-producers that produce the great 
bulk of the honey consumed out of the 
State where it is produced. While it is 
true that a large number of farmers keep 
bees, and while it is true that for a few 
States the great mass of beekeepers are 
likewise farmers, the fact remains that in 
other States, such as New Jersey, Rhode 
Island, Connecticut, southeastern New 
York, and eastern Pennsylvania, the popu¬ 
lation is largely suburban. The great mass 
of the people of those States are not far¬ 
mers but suburbanites; and not one suburb¬ 
anite in ten under the ruling of the census 
can be classified as a farmer. For example, 
the United States census for 1900, 1910, 
and 1920, credits New Jersey with having 
14,000, 10,000, and 12,000 colonies of bees 
respectively, or an average, covering 20 
years, of about 12,000 colonies of bees. Ac¬ 
cording to E. G. Carr, the State Apiarist 
and Bee Inspector, an actual count shows 
that in New Jersey there are over 36,000 
colonies of bees, with not all the territory 
counted. This shows that, on a conserva¬ 
tive estimate, counting only the colonies on 
the farms New Jersey has actually three 
times as many colonies as the census re¬ 
port shows. Almost the same ratio should 
apply to the number of beekeepers in that 
State, because so many suburbanites not 
listed as farmers keep bees. 

While no accurate count has been made 
of the number of beekeepers or the colo¬ 
nies of bees in other States having a large 
suburban population, like, for example, 
Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Rhode 
Island, if the same ratio should hold true 
in these States as in New Jersey, we should 
have to multiply their census figures, so far 
as they relate to bees or beekeepers, by 2 or 
3—more likely the latter figure. In the 
same way the suburban population around 
any large city, as we know from various 
private sources, contains a large number of 
beekeepers, not one of whom could be clas¬ 
sified as a farmer under the census rul- 
ing. 


776 


STATISTICS CONCERNING THE BEE AND HONEY BUSINESS 


THE UNITED STATES CENSUS REPORTS SHOWING BEEKEEPING ON FARMS. 


States. 

Farms reporting 

honeybees. 

1900 1910 1920 

census, census, census 

Total colonies of honeybees 

reported on farms. 

1900 1910 1920 

census. census. census. 

Av. Colonies 

per Beekpr. 

’00 ’10 ’20 
cen. cen. cen 

Pct.Farmer 

Bkprs, 1920 

Col. sq. mi. 

1920 census 

Av. value 

per colony 

1920 census 

Form of 

Honey 
Prod’ced 
Per cent 
Cb Ex Ch 

New Eng. .. 

| 10,083. 

7,1771 

6,449 

50,7131 

40,6271 

41,073 

5.01 

5 . 71 

6.4 

4.1 

.6 

$7.76 

661281 6 

Maine . ... 

2,496| 

1,371 

2,009 

10,857| 

7,592| 

12,639 

4.31 

5 . 51 

6.3 

4.2 

.4 

8.08 

74] 181 8 

N. Hamp.. 

1 1,288| 

1,002 

806 

5,520| 

4,644| 

4,191 

4.3] 

4.61 

5.2 

3.9 

.5 

6.45 

8 5 ] 14| 1 

Vermont... 

1 1,878| 

1,124 

1,038 

12,836| 

10,215! 

10,024 

6.81 

9 . 11 

9.6 

3.6 

1.1 

6.56 

69]24| 3 

Mass. . . . 

I 1,799| 

1,597 

1,341 

8,381| 

7.464| 

6.573 

4.71 

4 . 71 

4.8 

4.2 

.9 

9.26 

5 713 91 4 

Rhode Isl. 

I 370| 

285 

168 

1,681| 

1,2 6 71 

686 

4.51 

4.4] 

4.1 

4.1 

.8 

9.02 

919 01 1 

Conn. . . . 

1 2,2521 

1,788 

1.087 

11.438) 

9,445| 

6,960 

5.11 

5.3] 

6.4 

4.8 

1.5 

8.16 

52]421 6 

Mid. Atlantic| 54,027i 

39,183 

32,971 

362,9881 

291,659| 

262,728 

6.71 

7.41 

8.0 

7.8 

3.2 

6.76 

501471 3 

N. Y. 

I 22,7381 

15,259 

11,667 

187.200! 

156,3601 

127,858 

8.21 

10.2] 

L.1.0 

6.0 

3.1 

7.68 

471521 1 

N. Jer... 

1 2,3271 

1,627 

1.564 

14.1181 

10.484| 

12.451 

6.11 

6.4| 

8.0 

5.3 

1.8 

6.25 

36]63] 1 

Penn. . . . 

I 28.9621 

22.297 

19.740 

161.6701 

124,8151 

122,419 

5 . 61 

5 . 61 

6.7 

9.8 

3.4 

5.84 

5 613 91 5 

East N. Cen. 1126,6791 

99,714 

83.373 

654.9791 

545,9381 

556,344 

5.21 

5.5] 

6.7 

7.9 

2.5 

4.57 

47]44| 9 

Ohio . . . . 

I 34,4581 

23,203 

17.250 

151.3911 

98,2421 

105,675 

4.4| 

4.2 j 

6.1 

6.7 

3.2 

3.88 

5 81401 2 

Indiana. . . 

| 28.6321 

19.487 

15.942 

117,148! 

80,938| 

87,045 

4.1| 

4.2] 

5.5 

7.8 

2.6 

3.93 

5111413 5 

Illinois ... 

| 34,932| 

29,741 

27.830 

179 953| 

155.846! 

162.630 

5.21 

5.2]. 

5.8 

11.7 

3.2 

4.35 

5 213 8110 

Michigan 

| 18,122| 

16.892 

11,724 

100,397| 

115,274] 

93,348 

5 . 51 

6.81 

8.0 

6.0 

1.5 

5.63 

41 ] 58 ] 1 

Wis . 

1 10.5351 

10,391 

10.627 

106.0901 

95,6381 

107,646 

10.1| 

9.2] 

L0.1 

10.0 

2.1 

5.26 

3 516 41 1 

West N. Cen.|1 07,042|109,408 

85,228 

532.8771 

546,693| 

487,471 

5.0] 

5.01 

5.8 

7.8 

1.0 

4.59 

43]481 9 

Minn. . . . 

I 6,078| 

9,522 

9.665 

45.8771 

56,6771 

67.344 

7.5) 

6.01 

7.0 

5.4 

1.0 

5.71 

3416 51 1 

Iowa ... . 

| 28,977| 

28 935 

18.280 

138,811! 

160.0251 

138.319 

4.8] 

5.5] 

7.6 

8.6 

2.7 

4.75 

461511 3 

Missouri . 

I 41.1451 

40.110 

32.483 

205.1101 

203,569! 

157.678 

5.0] 

5.1| 

4.9 

12.4 

2.3 

4.03 

3 314512 2 

N. Dak. .. 

1 301 

79 

75 

279| 

49 51 

708 

9.3] 

6 . 31 

9.4 

.1 

.1 

7.93 

481521 0 

S. Dak . .. 

| 387| 

1,355 

1,851 

2,063| 

6,565] 

1 1,114 

5 . 3 1 

4 . 81 

6.0 

2.5 

.2 

6.96 

49144| 7 

Nebr . 

1 12.1301 

12.538 

9.113 

52.1431 

45.6251 

40.9711 4 . 31 

3 . 6 ( 

4.5 

7.3 

.7 

5.04]521421 6 

Kansas .. 

1 18.2951 

16.869 

13.761 

88.594! 

73.737| 

81,337 

4.81 

4 . 41 

5.9 

8.3 

1.1 

3.58|59|3L!10 

S. Atlantic.. 

1151 . 8 6 41 

L28.078 

112.036 

854.909| 

678.439] 

613,171 

5.61 

5.3] 

5.5 

9.6 

2.2 

3.79]38|34|28 

Delaware 

1 1.684| 

1.119 

446 

10.1871 

6.410! 

2.9761 6.01 

5.7) 

6.7 

4.4 

1.5 

3.97|47|27I26 

Md.-D. C. 

I 5.105| 

4.199 

2.724 

28 072| 

23.3071 

16 136| 5 . 51 

5 . 61 

5.9 

5.7 

1.3 

4.39!611311 8 

Virg . 

| 25,7441 

22,437 

20.221 

139,0641 

] 04.0051 

104.2671 5.41 

5.1! 

5.2 

10.9 

2.5 

4.78!63|19|18 

W. Virg.. 

1 25.240! 

24.035 

18.620 

111.4171 

110.6731 

89.873! 4.4| 

4.6] 

4.8 

21.3 

3.1 

5.10151114]35 

N. Ca*. . . 

! 41.0511 

36.248 

32 044 

244.5391 

189.1781 

163.956 

6.0! 

5 . 21 

5.0 

11.9 

3.1 

3.25|34|20|46 

S. Car 

I 16.272| 

12.528 

10.376 

93.958! 

75.4221 

58.028 

5.8| 

6.0! 

5.5 

5.4 

1.9 

3.13|47|22|31 

Georgia .. 

I 32 247| 

23.167 

23.1 71 

187 9191 

130 549! 

136 6981 5.8| 

5.61 

5 9 

7.5 

2.5 

2.56|25|44|31 

Florida .. 

1 4.521! 

4.345 

4.434 

39.7531 

38.895] 

41.2371 8.8| 

9.0! 

9.3 

8.2 

.8 

5 . 5 0! 1418 51 1 

E. So. Cen. 

.1133,2891 

L03.248 

108.113 

730.234! 

506.9621 

585.323 

5.5] 

4.91 

5.4 

10.3 

3.3 

3.24|32|44|24 

Ky . 

| 44,974| 

35,603 

34.665 

203,820| 

152.9911 

156.8891 4.51 

4 . 31 

4.5 

12.8 

3.9 

3.62]33|49!18 

Tenn. . . 

I 38,2251 

27.706 

30.961 

225.7881 

144.4811 

191 898| 5.91 

5.2] 

6.2 

12.2 

4.6 

3.64|29|36!35 

Alabama . 

.1 32.1001 

23.911 

25.266 

205.3691 

135.1401 

153.766! 6.4] 

5 . 71 

6.1 

9.9 

3.0 

2.50|25|52]23 

Miss . 

.1 17,990| 

16.028 

17.221 

95.2571 

74.3501 

82,770! 5.3| 

4.6| 

4.8 

6.3 

1.8 

2.96145|28|27 

W. So. Cen. 

I 91.811! 

61.317 

75.530 

559.1501 

379.8421 

422.4921 6.1| 

5.6| 

5.6 

7.6 

1.2 

45l!l4]51135 

Ark. . . . 

1 22.182! 

19.692 

22 993 

111.1381 

92.7311 

112.475 

5.0] 

4 . 71 

4.9 

9.9 

2.1 

2.99|36|24|40 

La . 

) 6.148| 

4.928 

5.522 

35.2311 

29.5911 

31.079 

5.71 

10.1| 

5.6 

4.1 

.7 

4.04|15|47|38 

Okla. ... 

| 3.438! 

4.816 

10,732 

20,1371 

19,413] 

46.743| 5.7] 

4.0 ] 

4.4 

5.6 

.7] 4.75|31|30|39 

Texas . . 

I 60.0431 

37.881 

36.283 

392.6441 

238.1071 

232.1951 6.5| 

6.3] 

6.4 

8.3 

1.2 

5.12 

716113 2 

Mountain .. 

■ | 12,176| 

10,213 

12.621 

146.482| 

172,654| 

206,005]12.0| 

16.9] 

16.3 

5.2 

.3 

8 . 5 413 71611 2 

Mont. . . . 

.1 234| 

795 

1,199 

1.8011 

6,313] 

11.9181 7.7! 

7.91 

9.9 

2.1 

.1 

10.83|56|41| 3 

Idaho . 

.1 2.3871 

2,368 

3.416 

19,240| 

21.9031 

35,9001 8.1| 

9.2] 

10.5 

8.1 

.6 

7 . 8 213 216 7! 1 

Wyo. . . . 

1 153! 

579 

842 

1.0201 

4,596| 

13 t 968| 6.7! 

7.91 

16.6 

5.3 

.2 

11.18|63|35| 2 

Colo. . . . 

1 4.518| 

3,563 

3.990 

59,7561 

71.434| 

63.253 

113 . 2! 

20.0! 

15.9 

6.7 

.9 

6.851561421 2 

N. Mex. . 

1 410| 

418 

750 

6,164| 

10.0521 

15.733|15.0[ 

24.0| 

21.0 

2.5 

.2 

7.48|44|46|10 

Ariz . ... 

1 489] 

441 

806 

18,9911 

23,770| 

28.174|34.7| 

53.9| 

38.4 

8.1 

.4 

8.89! 6|921 2 

Utah . . . 

1 3.707| 

1,873 

1.453 

33.8181 

26.1851 

25.061 

1 9.11 

13.9| 

17.2 

5.7 

.4 

8.791101891 1 

Nevada . 

1 278| 

176 

162 

5.6921 

8,4011 

11,998120.5! 

47.7| 

74.1 

5.1 

.2 

14.11!36|64| 0 

Pacific 

I 20,2451 

21,617 

24,596 

215,8991 

282,1921 

282,789|10.7| 

13.1| 

11.5 

10.5 

1.3 

7.44| 2 017 9 ] 1 

Wash. . . 

.1 4.435| 

5,886 

8.068 

30.8701 

33,884| 

56,806| 7.0] 

5.81 

7.0 

12.2 

1.0 

6-24| 301681 2 

Oregon .. 

.1 8,895| 

8.861 

7,702 

55,585! 

47,285| 

45.2641 6.21 

5 . 31 

5.9 

15.3 

.7 

5.811531431 4 

Calif. 

.1 6,915| 

6,870 

8,826 

129,4441 

201,0231 

180.719|18.7! 

29.1] 

20.5 

7.5 

1.7 

8.13lll|88] 1 

U. S. 

1707,216! 

585.955 

540.917 

4.108.23113.445.00613 467 39'6| 5.81 

5.91 

6.4 

8 4 

1.3 

5.6 613 615 61 8 


The United States Census, so far as it relates to bees and honey, is very inadequate and misleading, 
because it does not include the great army of back-lot beekeepers located in towns and cities nor those 
in suburban districts not on farms. Nor does it include (except in a few instances) professional bee¬ 
keepers who produce honey in ten-thousand pound lots and by the carload. The census is only valuable 
in showing beekeeping on farms. See text. For some good estimates see “Introduction” to this work. 
































































































STATISTICS CONCERNING THE BEE AND HONEY BUSINESS 


777 


Again, California, the State that un¬ 
doubtedly leads off in the number of its 
beekeepers and the amount of honey pro¬ 
duced, in spite of the fact that the census 
puts Texas ahead, has more commercial 
honey-producers than any other State in 
the Union. In California it may be said 
that at least three-fourths if not four-fifths 
of the honey-producers (the men who send 
honey out by tfie carload) live in the cities 
and towns and not in the outlying districts 
where their apiaries are located. They would 
not be included in the census reports. For 
example, some of the largest honey-pro¬ 
ducers in California, and, in fact, of the 
whole United States, live in San Diego, Los 
Angeles, San Bernardino, Riverside, Pasa¬ 
dena, Fresno,- and San Francisco. A vote 
has been taken at various conventions in 
California, and, in fact, all over the 
United States, showing that the largest 
honey-producers in the country are almost 
never listed in the census report—not be¬ 
cause the enumerators have refused to call 
upon them, but because, under the ruling, 
no beekeepers can be listed unless they are 
farmers or produce over $250.00 worth of 
farm products. 

There are several other States, such as 
Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Vir¬ 
ginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, 
Georgia, North Dakota, South Dakota, 
Washington, and Oregon, having a popu¬ 
lation very largely rural, where the census 
figures would be more accurate. If 25 per 
cent were added to their totals the figures 
would be reasonably correct. 

It will be admitted that the census re¬ 
ports, so far as they relate to populations 
of cities and towns, and the country at 
large, and to general products, will be 
reasonably accurate; but so far as they re¬ 
late to the production of commercial honey 
and the aggregate mass of honey produced, 
they are grossly inaccurate—so misleading, 
in fact, that they are a joke. After the 
1900 and 1910 census reports on bees were 
prepared, the deficiency in those reports, 
relating to the bee industry, was laid be¬ 
fore the Bureau, and a promise secured 
that, when the 1920 census was being 
prepared, the names of all beekeepers, 
whether in cities, in towns, or on the farm 
would be secured; but for some reason the 
matter was overlooked or not deemed pos¬ 


sible. At all events, when the 1920 figures 
were available, the same old inadequate 
scheme of taking account of only bees and 
their products on farms was put thru. 

Taking it all in all, the only value that 
the United States census has, is in giving 
something more than a guess at the number 
of bees and the amount of honey produced 
in States having no large cities and a rela¬ 
tively large rural population. Again, the 
census figures for 1900, 1910, and 1920 are 
very valuable in showing that beekeeping 
on farms, instead of going forward is going 
backward. This is easily explained on the 
ground that foul brood, both European and 
American, is cleaning out the farmer bee¬ 
keepers, and the business is now going more 
and more into the hands of the intelligent 
backlotter, intelligent farmer, and the com¬ 
mercial honey-producer. 

For the United States as a whole, the 
totals for all the States as to the amount 
of honey and wax produced could be mul¬ 
tiplied with entire safety by the minimum 
figure 2. It would probably be more ac¬ 
curate to use 3. When it comes to the num¬ 
ber of beekeepers in the United States, 
either of these multipliers would be alto¬ 
gether too high. A minimum of 25 per cent 
could be safely added, with the probability 
that 50 per cent increase would represent 
more accurately the number of beekeepers 
in the United States. This ratio of differ¬ 
ence should be explained on the ground 
that, while the number of beekeepers in 
the United States has not made a very 
great increase during the last twenty years, 
the actual amount of honey and wax pro¬ 
duced has increased by a ratio of from 
300 to 500 per cent. 

If any beekeeper wishes to know what 
his own individual State is doing he will 
have to apply a multiplying figure accord¬ 
ing to the conditions. If his State is large¬ 
ly suburban, like New Jersey, he can safely 
use the multiplier 3 as applying to both 
bees and honey. The same rule would ap¬ 
ply to Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and 
Connecticut. For New Hampshire, Ver¬ 
mont, Virginia, North Carolina, South Car¬ 
olina, Georgia, Kentucky, Tennessee, North 
Dakota and South Dakota, Missouri, and 
Arkansas 25 per cent should be added to 
the number of beekeepers and the amount 
of honey produced. For the States of 


778 


STINGS 


Iowa, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, 
New York, and Pennsylvania the number 
of beekeepers should be twice those of the 
census figures, and the amount of honey 
produced should be nearly three times as 
large. 

For the State of California it would be 
safe to add 100 per cent to the number of 
beekeepers, and 500 per cent to the amount 
of honey shown in the census. For the 
States of Montana and Wyoming, those 
having no city population, the figures of 
the census will be more accurate; but in 
those States beekeeping on a large scale is 
carried on as it is in California. The same 
ratio that would apply to the number of 
beekeepers would not apply to the amount 
of honey produced. Perhaps 25 per cent 
should be added to the number of beekeep¬ 
ers, and 500 per cent to the amount of 
honey produced. The same thing could be 
said of Arizona, Nevada, and Colorado. _ 

Texas, Florida, and Louisiana stand al¬ 
most alone by themselves. They have no 
large cities, and their population is largely 
rural. Most of their honey is consumed 
within their own borders; but because they 
have so large a number of commercial bee- 
'keepers, and because they have so large a 
rural population, they should hardly be 
put in any other class. It would, perhaps, 
be accurate to add 25 per cent to the cen¬ 
sus figures for the number of beekeepers, 
and 100 per cent for the amount of honey 
and wax produced. 

Ohio, Illinois, and Indiana are in a class 
by themselves. There is some very poor 
territory in those States, and some other 
territory that is most excellent for bee¬ 
keeping. All three of the States have a 
large percentage of suburban population— 
particularly Ohio and Illinois. It is safe 
to say that the census number for bee¬ 
keepers should be doubled, and likewise the 
amount of honey produced could be dou¬ 
bled. 

Alabama is the greatest bee and queen 
rearing State in the Union. A very large 
number of its beekeepers are living in 
Montgomery and the big towns. Scarcely 
one of these men would be listed in the 
census. We would have to add at least 25 
per cent to its figures. 

It will have to be admitted that the ratios 
suggested above are not based on accurate 


figures; but they are based on an intimate 
knowledge of bee supplies going into and 
the amount of honey shipped out of those 
States where beekeeping is carried on in 
a commercial way. It is reasonable to sup¬ 
pose that the States having a rural popu¬ 
lation are fairly shown by the census, pro¬ 
vided an increase of 25 and 35 per cent be 
made, both for the number of beekeepers 
and the amount of honey produced. 

STINGLESS BEES.— See Bees, Sting- 
less. 

STINGS. — Many persons, doubtless, 
would keep bees were it not for the natural 
fear of stings; but when their habits are 
thoroly understood this fear disappears. 
The average beekeeper pays no more atten¬ 
tion to a sting or two received on his fingers 
than the mechanic who bruises his knuckles 
when a wrench slips. When bees are prop¬ 
erly handled the number of stings can be 
reduced to a very low percentage. Very 
often one can work all day among his bees 
and not receive a single jab; and at other 
times, if he is a little careless, or if he 
takes chances, he may get a regular on¬ 
slaught of a dozen at a time. When, how¬ 
ever, one exercises ordinary precaution he 
will receive only an occasional sting; and 
even the effects of that, if he is quick 
enough, can be minimized to such an ex¬ 
tent that it will be difficult for him to find 
it an hour afterward. The writer once 
worked a whole month without a sting. 

As will be pointed out later, the moment 
a sting is received it should be removed 
instantly—the sooner the better. If it is 
left in the wound it will gradually work 
itself into the flesh by muscular contrac¬ 
tion, discharging the contents of the pois¬ 
on-sac, and the result will be far more se¬ 
vere than if it had been removed immediate¬ 
ly, care being taken, of course, not to 
squeeze the poison-sac during the opera¬ 
tion. 

It is always advisable for the beginner 
to wear a bee-veil and a pair of gloves at 
the start. A good bee-smoker, with the fuel 
burning well, should be at hand. The time 
selected for handling the bees should be 
between 10 o’clock in the morning and 3 in 
the afternoon of a warm day. The opera¬ 
tor should never stand in front of the en¬ 
trance—always to one side. A little smoke 


STINGS 


779 


should be blown in the entrance. The cover 
should next be lifted gently and more 
smoke blown between the cover and the 
hive before the hive is opened. More par¬ 
ticulars in regard to opening the hive are 
given further on under this head; also 
under Manipulation of Colonies, sub¬ 
head “How to Open a Hive;” and in the 
last part of the “A B C of Beekeeping.” 

Even after one does receive a sting he 
should go about his work as tho nothing 
had happened. If he does not allow his 
mind to dwell upon the pain he will not 
find it so severe. If a sting is received thru 
the clothing or a glove, it will be a mere 
prick, and can be instantly removed with¬ 
out getting very much of the effects of the 
poison. 

If one expects to be a beekeeper he 
should make up his mind that he can over¬ 
come his natural fear. He should under¬ 
stand that when properly handled and the 
directions are carefully followed as to 
time and conditions, bees will be as gen¬ 
tle as kittens; that even when their hive is 
torn to pieces, and their combs scattered 
here and there, they will not make a pro¬ 
test. If, however, Mr. Beginner thinks he 
knows it all, and proceeds to open up a 
hive without suitable protection, he may be 
severely stung, with the resuit that he will 
conclude beekeeping is an exceedingly haz¬ 
ardous business. On the contrary, it is one 
of the safest. The average young horse or 
a Jersey cow is more dangerous than a col¬ 
ony of bees; for either one of them, unless 
their habits are thoroly understood, can 
cause loss of life. If one attempts to step 
into a stall on a dark night, surprising the 
horse without saying “whoa!” or giving no¬ 
tice of his presence, he may be kicked 
clear across the barn. In the same way, a 
stranger who does not know the pranks of 
a Jersey cow will be dealt with so severely 
that he may conclude that the animal ought 
to be slaughtered rather than to be allowed 
to live. In the same way street cars, au¬ 
tomobiles, rowboats, are all sources of dan¬ 
ger; and it would be just as reasonable to 
avoid horses, cows, street cars, and auto¬ 
mobiles as it would be to avoid bees be¬ 
cause some people have been stung or even 
have lost their lives. Any one of them is 
safe when properly handled. 

Perhaps it may be urged that the pain of 


the sting could be endured provided there 
were no further swelling or disfigurement 
of the features. If one will wear a bee- 
veil carefully fitted to his clothing, there 
will not be very much excuse for having a 
swollen eye or a distorted lip. As a mat¬ 
ter of fact, after one has been stung a cer¬ 
tain number of times his system will be¬ 
come hardened or immune so there will be 
but little or no swelling. The average bee¬ 
keeper can be stung on his face or hands a 
great many times; and beyond the mere 
pain for two or three minutes there will 
be no after-effects except a slight soreness 
for a few hours at the point where the sting 
was received. The number of stings that 
one must get before he becomes immune de¬ 
pends somewhat on the individual himself. 
A very few never have any swelling, and 
others will become immune after a compar¬ 
atively small number of stings. Usually in 
a season’s operations one will become proof 
against swelling after a sting. 

Too much emphasis cannot be placed on 
the absolute importance of removing the 
sting the moment it is given. This can be 
done by quick rubbing or mashing motion, 
and very often one can parry or prevent a 
sting altogether by smashing the bee or 
brushing' it off before it can get in its work. 
The bee, in order to sting, must take time 
enough to sink in its claws before it can 
force its weapon thru the epidermis of its 
foe. At the precise instant that one feels 
the claws of a bee sinking into the skin he 
should dislodge it if he is in position to do 
so. Sometimes when he is holding a frame 
with a valuable queen on it he must “stand 
and take;” but even then the frame can be 
set down gently and the sting removed. 
Usually, if there is just a mere prick of the 
skin there will be little or no swelling, and 
the pain will be hardly noticeable. 

THE PROPER way TO REMOVE A STING. 

With the blade of a knife, scrape the 
sting loose, being careful not to break it 
off nor to press on the poison-sac. A 
pressure on the latter will force the poison 
into the wound, making it much worse. 

When a knife is not handy, push the 
sting out with the thumb or finger nail in 
much the same way. It is quite desirable 
that the sting be taken out as quickly as 
possible, for if the barbs (to be described 


780 


STINGS 


further along) once get hold of the flesh, 
muscular contraction will rapidly work 
the sting deeper and deeper. Sometimes 
the sting separates, leaving a part (one of 
the splinters, so to speak) in the wound. 
It has been suggested that care should be 
taken to remove every one of these tiny 
points; but after trying many times to see 
what the effect would be, the author con¬ 
cludes that they do but little harm, and 
that the main thing is to remove the part 
containing the poison-bag before it has 
emptied itself into the wound. When very 
busy, or having something in the other hand 
to make it inconvenient to remove the sting 
with a knife or finger-nail, rub the sting out 
against the clothing, in such a way as to 
push the poison-bag off sidewise; and altho 
this plan often breaks off the sting so as 
to leave splinters in the wound, there will 
be found little if any more trouble from 
them than usual. 

REMEDIES FOR BEE-STINGS. 

Medicines of all kinds are of so little 
avail, if of any use at all, that the best way 
is to pay no attention to any of them. This 
has awakened a great deal of arguing, and 
the remedies that have been sent, which the 
writers knew were good, because they had 
tried them, have been enough to fill this 
whole chapter. The author has tried a 
great many of them, and, for a time, im¬ 
agined they were of value; but after giving 
them a more extended trial, he has been 
forced to conclude that they were entirely 
futile. They not only did no good, but if 
the directions with the remedy were to rub 
it in the wound, they did positive harm. 
The friction would diffuse the poison more 
rapidly into the circulation, and make a 
painful swelling of what would have been 
very trifling, if let alone. It should be 
borne in mind that the poison is introduced 
into the flesh thru a puncture so minute 
that the finest cambric needle could not, ex¬ 
cept by enlarging the puncture, enter where 
the sting did, and that the flesh closes 
over so completely as to make it practically 
impossible for the remedy to penetrate this 
opening. Even if there is a remedy that 
will neutralize the poison in something the 
same way that an alkali neutralizes any 
regular acid, how is it possible to get it 
directly in contact with the poison? There 


is no way of doing it unless resort is had 
to a surgical operation. There is no rem¬ 
edy except to remove the sting immedi¬ 
ately, and then let the wound alone, and 
going on with the work without even think¬ 
ing about it. But, suppose one gets under 
the eye a sting that closes up that very 
important organ; shall he go on with his 
work? That depends. If it brings on 
headache or causes great discomfort, rest 
for the day. If one is not immune, he 
should keep very quiet after a hard sting, 
especially if the heart action is too high 
or there is shortness of breath. And in 
the meantime apply a cold wet cloth un¬ 
til the local fever is allayed. Sometimes 
applying a hot and cold wet cloth alter¬ 
nately brings relief. 

Kerosene was suggested as a remedy, and 
two beekeepers regarded it of such impor¬ 
tance that they almost got into a contro¬ 
versy about who was entitled to the honor 
of the discovery. After having received a 
very bad sting on the hand, the author 
went for the oil can and dropped oil on the 
spot for some time. As kerosene will re¬ 
move a rusty bolt or screw when nothing 
else will avail, and as it seems to have a 
wonderful power of penetrating all cracks 
and crevices, we began to have faith that 
it might follow the sting of the bee, and in 
some way neutralize the poison. But the 
only result was one of the most painful 
and lasting wounds we ever had. 

WHAT TO DO WHEN HORSES ARE STUNG A 
GREAT NUMBER OF TIMES AT ONCE. 

Severe eases of stinging are usually the 
result of carelessness, either from allowing 
combs to be scattered, causing robbing, or 
because a hive has been bumped over by 
careless driving, or by some animal allowed 
the range of the apiary. There are a num¬ 
ber of cases on record where horses have 
been stung to death; and it is hardly safe 
to hitch such animals within a few feet of a 
hive, nor yet to let them run loose in a 
bee-yard, altho a few sheep may be let in 
to keep the grass down to advantage. 

Chalon Fowls of Oberlin, 0., left a horse 
hitched near some hives of what he thought 
were gentle Italians; but by some means or 
other the animal bumped one of the hives, 
irritating the bees, causing them to rush 
out and sting. The horse, of course, began 


STINGS 


781 


to plunge and kick, with the result that he 
demolished completely all the hives within 
reach. Mr. Fowls said the horse, when he 
could get to him, was almost literally cov¬ 
ered with stings. He unhitched and led 
him away, and immediately called for a 
boiler of hot water. This was brought out 
as soon as it could be heated. Cloths and 
blankets were immersed in it, almost boil¬ 
ing hot, wrung nearly dry, and laid over 
the animal, now writhing in the severest 
agony. The moment Mr. Fowls applied the 
hot blankets he says the horse quieted 
down. During the escapade he himself was 
terribly stung in the face and on the hands; 
and he says that, as soon as the hot cloths 
were applied to his face he felt almost in¬ 
stant relief. The cloths were applied to the 
horse on every portion that was stung, and 
Mr. Fowls had the satisfaction of knowing 
that he could save his horse, which was 
soon as well as ever. 

In the summer of 1902 at one of the au¬ 
thor’s outyards we had an experience which 
we thought at the time would be fatal to 
both man and beast. It came about somewhat 
in this way: A neighbor, who had a field 
of timothy near the yard, had allowed his 
horse to eat grass within a few feet of 
the hives while he went to the further end 
of the field to look after some work. In 
the mean time the horse had managed to 
get over among the bees. The result was, 
she knocked over five hives, and was liter¬ 
ally covered with stings when our neighbor 
came up. Being a practical beeman as well 
as a horseman himself, he rushed into the 
fray, freed the horse, and started her for 
the barn. The animal was beginning to 
swell badly, and it was evident to him that 
she would die before relief could be given 
by a veterinary, even if called. He accord¬ 
ingly rolled up about a pound of common 
table salt in a paper, opened the animal’s 
mouth, and with the left hand grasped her 
tongue, pulling it out as far as he could. 
He then with his right hand shoved the salt 
clear down her throat, reaching to his 
elbow. This done, he quickly closed her 
mouth and elevated her head until he saw 
the wad of salt go down the gullet. In a 
short time the horse showed relief, for the 
salt probably neutralized, to some extent, 
the effect of the acid poison. It also acted 
as a physic; for when a horse is sick in the 


stomach he can not vomit, and it is neces¬ 
sary to give him something at once to keep 
the bowels open. In three or four hours 
the horse was greatly relieved. 

Our neighbor did not apply wet blankets 
wrung out of hot water; but the veterinary 
who was consulted afterward, said that the 
giving of the salt was one of the best things 
that could have been done, and added that 
he would have wrapped the animal up in a 
blanket wrung out of hot water. If to this 
water is added a small quantity of am¬ 
monia, all the better. 

The moral of this is to keep bee-yards 
fenced off so that no stock or horses can 
get in. It is also advisable to locate the 
apiary a few rods from any line fence or 
hitching-post. See Apiary. 

WHAT TO DO WHEN A PATIENT SUFFERS 
SEVERELY FROM ONE OR MORE STINGS. 

It is rare indeed that one sting causes 
any more than a local pain. Red blotches 
may break out all over the body. In other 
cases there may be a shortness of breath, a 
faintness, some nausea, and a weak heart 
action. When the heart is affected it is 
very important to keep the patient quiet 
and cool, and to get the services of a phy¬ 
sician at once to administer some heart 
stimulant. If the patient has been stung a 
great many times, cloths should be wrung 
out of hot water and applied to the body. 
Feet and hands should be kept warm, and 
the patient, if he has a weak pulse and 
difficulty in breathing, should be placed 
near an open wndow, or, better still, out 
on the porch where the cool breezes can 
strike him. If there is no air stirring, it 
would be well for some one to keep up a 
vigorous fanning of the face. The body 
should be warmly covered and protected 
until the doctor arrives. Where electricity 
is available an electric fan may be made to 
play across the face of the patient. 

When one suffers a shock and shows a 
weak pulse (and these cases are rare) he 
should, after he recovers, carefully refrain 
from attempting to do any hard manual 
labor for two or three weeks as he will 
probably suffer from the shock. He should 
avoid becoming overheated, and for a day 
or two after being stung he should be very 
quiet, keeping as cool as possible. Any 
exertion may bring back the old trouble of 


782 


STINGS 


weak pulse, and this of course introduces 
an element of danger, if not the danger of 
leaving a permanent legacy of a bad heart. 

Where there is no weak action of the 
heart, that is, the pulse seems to be good, 
but one suffers from a general fever over 
the body with red blotches all over, appli¬ 
cations of cold cloths wrung out of water 
sometimes are sufficient to bring relief. 
Sometimes hot applications are better still, 
and very often it happens that hot and 
cold in alternation prove beneficial. 

HOW ONE WHO IS SERIOUSLY AFFECTED BY 
A SINGLE STING MAY BECOME COM¬ 
PARATIVELY IMMUNE TO THE POISON. 

There are some who are so seriously 
affected by the bee-sting poison that even 
a single sting will cause the body to break 
out in red blotches. Only one person in ten 
thousand is thus affected. So rare are the 
reported cases that the editors of Gleanings 
in Bee Culture, a journal with a circulation 
of over 25,000, do not hear of them once in 
ten years. But th ere are quite a number of 
others who are less affected, but who aver 
that a single sting produces great discom¬ 
fort. While there is no danger of loss of 
life, the results of a sting are such that 
they have been obliged to give up the 
delightful pastime of keeping bees, very 
much to their regret. All such persons were 
formerly advised when going among bees, 
to be veiled and to wear gloves. But ir 
late years a better remedy has been found. 
It was suggested by the fact that the aver¬ 
age person becomes less and less affected 
by the bee-sting poison. Inasmuch as the 
human system has the power to withstand 
increasing doses of many poisons, after the 
first one, why should it not be able to make 
itself immune to a certain extent against 
the virus of a bee-sting? It is a well- 
known fact that opium and morphine 
fiends are able to take doses of those drugs 
in amounts that would kill ten people who 
are not in the habit of taking them. The 
same thing is true of alcohol. It is evident 
if one who is very seriously affected by 
bee-sting poison would just merely prick 
himself with a sting and then brush it off 
before it has had time to throw much of 
its virus into the wound, the after-effects 
would not be very serious; and that if the 
dose were repeated some four or five days 


afterward, or about the time the effect of 
the previous sting had passed away, he 
could, by continuing this process, ultimate¬ 
ly apply the dose at more frequent inter¬ 
vals until in time his system would be no 
more affected than that of an ordinary 
person. 

An interesting case came under observa¬ 
tion. A boy, when stung, became so af¬ 
fected that his body would break out in 
great red blotches; his breathing grew dif¬ 
ficult, and his heart began to pound. It 
was really a question whether there was not 
danger of losing his life. Nevertheless he 
was very desirous of engaging in beekeep¬ 
ing, and determined to work with bees. A 
live bee was pressed on the back of his 
hand until it merely pierced his skin with 
the sting. It was removed immediately; and 
since no serious effect followed another 
sting prick was administered inside of four 
or five days. This was continued for some 
three or four weeks, when the patient be¬ 
gan to have a sort of itching sensation all 
over his body. The hypodermic injections 
of bee-sting poison were then discontinued. 
At the end of a month they were repeated 
at intervals of four or five days. Again 
after two or three weeks the itching sensa¬ 
tion came on, but it was less pronounced. 
The patient was given a rest of about a 
month, when the doses were repeated as 
before. He then went to school and was 
not back for eight or nine months. On his 
return the applications were given again, 
when it was plainly noticeable that the 
after-effects were becoming ‘markedly less. 
He then went out into the bee-yard and 
was stung occasionally, but, beyond a small 
local swelling, there was no unpleasant ef¬ 
fect. 

Some months afterward he was assisting 
at one of the yards, when, without warning, 
a colony of bees that was being handled 
made a most furious attack on both the 
men. The young man who had been tak¬ 
ing the immunizing doses of bee-virus re¬ 
ceived, he estimates, ten or a dozen stings 
all over his body. He had no veil nor 
gloves, for the other man was doing the 
work with the bees. He expected serious 
consequences; but, greatly to his surprise 
and gratification, no unpleasant effects fol¬ 
lowed. What was more, there was no swell¬ 
ing. It should be remembered that this 


STINGS 


783 


person used to be so seriously affected that 
a single sting’ would cause his parents to 
worry, for they feared he would not he 
able to survive the attack. He now handles 
bees with the same freedom that any ex¬ 
perienced beekeeper does. 

HOW TO AVOID BEING STUNG. 

If the reader will turn to the A B C of 
Beekeeping, also Manipulation of Colo¬ 
nies, subhead “How to Open a Hive,” and 
if he will read carefully the beginning of 
this article, he will have a general knowl¬ 
edge of how to avoid stings. It will be 
proper at this point to summarize and to 
amplify some things already said. The 
subject is so important that it cannot be 
gone over too fully, even at the risk of 
repetition. Whether one will be able to 
make a success of beekeeping or not, will 
depend very largely on how carefully he 
follows the directions given below. 

1. He should have a good bee-smoker 
with the fuel well ignited. The author 
prefers greasy waste, which is procurable 
at almost any machine shop or garage, and 
can usually be had for the asking. See 
Smokers. 

. 2, He should have a bee-veil that is 
securely attached to the hat and to the 
waist or shirt. See Veils. 

3. His clothing should be loose, not fit¬ 
ting closely to the body; a blouse or shirt 
with sleeves buttoned or tied securely 
around the wrists should be worn. If he 
is shaking bees from the combs, he should 
have his trousers stuck in his socks or 
folded around the ankles, holding them in 
place by means of strings. The shoes 
should be high enough to project under the 
trousers; and in the case of a woman the 
skirt should be long enough to reach the 
tops of the shoes. Or, better yet, let her 
wear a farmerette suit. Some of these 
suits are very neat and becoming. When 
bees are shaken on the ground care should 
be taken not to allow them to crawl up on 
the feet. If perchance they do get on the 
foot, it should be stamped on the ground, 
jarring them off. When the weather will 
permit, the man should have both his coat 
and vest off. A very good suit is that 
worn by garage men and railroad engi¬ 
neers in the form of a union overalls suit. 


Those who are very timid should wear 
gloves or gauntlets. See Gloves. 

4. One should never stand in front of a 
hive—always at one side or in the rear. 
When bees are flying to the fields back and 
forth they are more liable to sting, appar¬ 
ently working on the assumption that the 
obstruction has no business to be in the 
way. 

5. A good hive-tool is important. In the 
absence of a special tool, a screwdriver or a 
knife with a strong blade may be used. 

6. The middle hours of the day, if one is 
a beginner, should be selected for the 
manipulation of bees. . The novice should 
never attempt to open a hive on a cool or 
chilly morning, or late in the afternoon, 
and never after a chilly rain. 

7. One should avoid opening a hive or 
going out into the apiary at a time imme¬ 
diately after a heavy rain or after any 
other cause that suddenly checks or stops 
the honey flow. Either a rain or a cold 
spell may stop the secretion of nectar. The 
more sudden the stoppage, the Grosser will 
be the bees; and when they work on buck¬ 
wheat or honeydew, they are apt to be 
cross when the flow stops along during the 
middle houi-s of the day, until it begins 
again during the afternoon. 

8. Having selected a favorable time for 
the manipulation, the beginner should blow 
one or two puffs of smoke into the 
entrance of the hive. With a hive-tool, 
screwdriver, or knife, he should separate 
the cover from the hive by merely entering 
the blade, leaving a gap wide enough for 
the entrance of smoke, but narrow enough 
to prevent the exit of bees. A couple of 
puffs of smoke should be forced into the 
crack made by the hive-tool, after which 
the cover may be lifted and more smoke 
blown over the frames. The cover may 
be set down by the side of the hive. How¬ 
ever, it is usually advisable to jar the bees 
from the cover by giving a sharp blow on 
the ground just in front of the entrance, 
when they will quickly run in. This is im-, 
portant, because the crawling bees on the 
ground are quite liable to get under the 
clothing; and a crawling bee always moves 
upward. 

9. Before proceeding further, the opera¬ 
tor should carefully note the behavior of 
the bees. If they crowd up closely between 


784 


STINGS 


the frames, making quick movements, and 
one or two start flying up as if about to 
attack, more smoke should be blown over 
the combs. If, however, a few of them 
crawl leisurely over the combs, apparently 
paying no attention to anything, the frames 
may be separated with a hive-tool or a 
screwdriver; but the smoker should be 
kept conveniently in the other hand; and 
if at any moment the bees show a disposi¬ 
tion to rush out or sting, more smoke 
should be used. 

10. If there is a division-board in the 
hive it should be removed. The frames 
should be separated on either side of the 
one that is to be taken out. If the operator 
or beginner is timid he should blow smoke 
over the tops of the frames, and then very 
quietly lift the frame selected, being care¬ 
ful to avoid jerks or quick movements, and 
especially careful not to roll the bees over 
when pulling it out. This cannot be em¬ 
phasized too strongly. Crushed or maimed 
bees may stir up the colony to a fighting 
pitch. This should be avoided by all means. 
After the first comb is removed, the others 
may be taken out very easily. 

11. The operator should not only avoid 
mashing or killing bees, but he should 
never jerk the hands back, even if two or 
three bees do rush out and make a bluff 
as if they were about to sting, which they 
will seldom do. If the hand is held 
stationary when they make these onslaughts 
they will seldom sting; but if the hand is 
jerked backward it may be stung by two 
or three bees. Just the moment that a 
bee inserts its claws the hand should be 
withdrawn, and, when away from the hive, 
quickly rubbed against the clothing in such 
a way as to brush the bee off before it can 
sting. 

12. One should learn to distinguish be¬ 
tween bees that are angry and those that 
are flying about aimlessly. Cross bees will 
be detected by their high keynote and their 
quick darting movements in flight. A bee 
that nervously flits back and forth before 
the face, giving out a high keynote, is 
cross, and will sting unless the operator 
has his face protected by a veil. The best 
thing to do with such bees is to pay no 
attention to them, if protected. 

13. When replacing the frames, they 
should be put back in the same order they 


were in originally, being careful not to 
pinch any bees. 

14. Bees are much more inclined to sting 
during a time when there is a dearth of 
honey, and when robbing has been allowed 
to get started. (See Robbing.) One 
should not leave a hive open very long 
when stray bees from other hives are hov¬ 
ering over the tops of the combs, now and 
then darting into the hives or on to the 
combs, attempting to steal. 

15. After the hive has been opened up 
and has stood for a while without any 
manipulation, the frames left in the hive 
should receive two or three puffs of smoke 
before handling. This is to drive down 
the guards. 

16. Hot breath from a human being or 
an animal when combs are handled very 
often starts bees to rush off the combs by 
the dozen and alight on the veil. If one 
has no face protection he may receive a 
dozen stings in the fraction of a second. 

37. Bees are more apt to sting a man or 
an animal when he is sweaty and gives off 
a strong odor. However, the practical 
beekeeper pays but little attention to what 
his condition may be. His experiences 
will determine what to do if the bees show 
a disposition to be cross. At such times 
the smoker should always be ready. It is 
the indispensable implement in the yard, 
and should be in condition to give off a 
volume of smoke at any instant—not that 
one’s life depends on it, but rather to save 
time and to avoid stings. 

38. Children should not be allowed to 
race thru a bee-yard when bees are busy in 
going to the field, or at any other time 
when they might be a little cross. They 
should be cautioned to go around the 
apiary. While the children of beekeepers 
sometimes become careless, they should 
avoid, as far as possible, doing anything 
that will cause unnecessary irritation to the 
bees, thereby provoking them to sting. 

19. Never hitch a team or a horse near 
a hive of bees. A single sting will some¬ 
times cause a horse to break loose, rush 
thru the yard, knocking over hive after 
hive. If for any reason he becomes en¬ 
tangled in his harness he will be stung to 
death, and at the same time the life of the 
owner may be in danger in trying to save 
the animal. When hives are knocked oyer 


STINGS 


785 


as the result of a runaway horse or team, 
there is liable to be a general stinging 
fracas. The owner should not be tempted 
to go into a yard at such times without 
veil and gloves, and a smoker well ignited. 
To do so without protection is only inviting 
disaster. 

WHAT KINDS OF BEES STING WORST. 

The general decision now is, that pure 
Italians, Caucasians, and Camiolans are 
the most easily handled. (See Races of 
Bees.) Not only do they sting less, but 
as they keep their places on the combs 
without getting excited when the hives are 
opened properly, they are far less likely 
to get under one’s clothing than black 
bees. Queenless bees are not as quiet as 
those that have a queen. It may be be¬ 
cause they seldom work with energy, and 
have therefore no fresh accumulation of 
stores that would tend to put them on their 
good behavior. All bees are much worse 
after a sudden stoppage of nectar secre¬ 
tion, especially after a basswood or buck¬ 
wheat flow. A great many stings are re¬ 
ceived from bees that are in no way badly 
disposed at all, simply from getting pinched 
accidentally while on the person of the 
beekeeper. 

The pure races may be handled all day, 
with no mishap; but after working among 
the old-fashioned blacks or hybrids one 
often finds a dozen or more under the coat, 
in the sleeves, if they can get up, and, 
worst of all, up the trousers, unless the 
precaution has been taken to tuck them 
into the boots—or stockings when wearing 
low shbes. (See Veils.) This one thing 
alone should decide one in favor of the 
Italians, if they were no better than the 
blacks in other respects. Hybrids, as be¬ 
fore stated, are worse to sting than either 
of the races when pure; while Cyprian and 
Holy Land bees are so much worse still, 
that sometimes smoke has no effect on 
them. See Cyprians, under Italians; also 
Races of Bees. 

bee-sting poison. 

When bees are very angry and elevate 
that portion of their bodies containing the 
sting, a tiny drop of some transparent 
liquid can often be seen on its point. This 
liquid is the poison of the bee’s sting. It 
has a sharp, pungent taste; and when 


thrown in the eyes, as sometimes happens, 
it has a stinging, acrid feeling, as if it 
might be a compound of cayenne pepper, 
onion-juice, and horseradish combined; 
and one who tastes or gets it in his eyes, 
concludes it is not so strange that such a 
substance, introduced into the circulation, 
should produce severe pain and local fever 
for a few hours. 

HOW IT IS DONE. 

It is quite an interesting experiment to 
let a bee sting one on the hand, and then 
observe the whole performance without 
disturbing it. After the bee has worked 
the sting so deeply as to be satisfied, it 
begins to find itself a prisoner, and to 
consider means of escape. It usually gets 
smashed at about this stage of proceedings 
unless successful in tearing the sting— 
poison-bag and all—from the body; how¬ 
ever, if allowed to work quietly it seldom 
does this. After pulling at the sting to 
see that it will not come out, it seems to 
consider the matter a little, and then com¬ 
mences to walk around the sting, in a cir¬ 
cle, just as if trying to twist a screw out 
of a board. If one can be patient and let 
the bee alone, it may work it out, but in 
most cases the sting either tears out from 
the body of the bee or breaks off. In 
either case it should be removed from the 
flesh at once. 

ODOR OF BEE-STING POISON. 

After one sting has been inflicted, there 
seems a much greater chance of getting 
more stings. Mr. Quinby has suggested 
that this is owing to the smell of the 
poison, and that- the use of smoke will 
neutralize this scent. It is advisable to 
blow smoke on the wound. The heat re¬ 
lieves the pain somewhat, and the smoke 
does, no doubt, obscure the bee-sting odor. 

POISON OF THE BEE-STING AS A REMEDIAL 
AGENT. 

For some years past there have been 
running in the daily press many reports 
in regard to the agency of bee-stings in 
the cure of certain forms of diseases, espe¬ 
cially rheumatism. From the facts put 
forth, any candid reasoner will have to 
admit that being stung frequently does 
have the effects of relieving certain forms 


786 


STINGS 


of rheumatism, lumbago, paralysis, and 
perhaps dropsy. 

Numerous accounts have also appeared 
of various persons affected with rheuma¬ 
tism being greatly relieved by stings, espe¬ 
cially on the affected parts. Some others 
have reported that they could discover no 
appreciable effect one way or the other. 

It has happened at various field-day 
gatherings of beekeepers that certain par¬ 
ties who read these reports, having suf¬ 
fered severely because of rheumatic pains, 
have presented themselves and asked to 
have experts cause the bees to sting them 
on the affected parts. The operator picks 
a bee from a comb by the wings and presses 
it against the flesh until the sting is driven 
into the skin. This has been done on sev¬ 
eral occasions, and in each case the patients 
have said they experienced relief. 

At the Jenkintown field-day meeting, 
June 26, 1906, an old gentleman got up on 
the platform, and, before about one thou¬ 
sand people, stings were applied to his 
arm until nearly a hundred were imbedded 
deeply in the flesh. Did it hurt? Oh, yes! 
But the induced fever of the stings, he 
said, seemed to bring a warmth and toning 
of the muscles that were after all a relief: 
for, strangely enough, this large number of 
stings does not seem to affect a rheumatic 
leg or arm as it does a healthy member. 

It is a well-known fact that the homeo¬ 
pathic school has for many years used bee¬ 
sting poison in a remedy called “apis mel- 
lifica.” There are large wholesale drug- 
houses that buy stings taken from live bees. 
The stings are then dropped into small 
vials containing sugar of milk. Orders for 
bee-stings to the extent of 10,000 in one 
lot have been filled repeatedly. From a 
frame of live bees placed in a convenient 
position a bee is picked up with a pair 
of broad-nosed tweezers and immediately 
crushed. This act forces out the sting, 
which is immediately grasped by another 
pair of fine-pointed tweezers, when they 
are given a sharp rap over a wide-mouthed 
bottle. In this way the stings are extracted 
one by one until the whole number has been 
pulled. But the operator, after having ex¬ 
tracted four or five thousand stings, ex¬ 
periences a sort of tingling and itching 
sensation in the face, and finds he has to 
take a rest of some days before he can re¬ 


new his work. At other times he can ex¬ 
tract only a few hundred a day when that 
itching sensation will reappear. This is 
probably due to the fact that he inhales 
some of the fumes of the poison, which, 
entering the lungs, is absorbed by the blood 
and carried thru the system. 

At other times a pound or so of bees is 
put into a large wide-mouthed bottle or 
jar of alcohol. But the poison of the 
stings extracted in this way must neces¬ 
sarily be mixed with the other juices of 
the bees. 

Homeopathic physicians have “apis mel- 
lifica,” thus made from bee-stings, supplied 
to them in the form of a liquid. It smells 
not unlike bee-sting poison, and is often 
given internally to relieve the pain of 
rheumatism or swellings in general. But 
it is evident that a hypodermic injection 
of the bees, given directly on the affected 
part, would be a hundred times more pro¬ 
ductive of good results, assuming, of 
course, the poison does have a remedial 
effect. 

SMOKE NOT ALWAYS A PREVENTIVE OP 
BEE-STINGS. 

There are some colonies that, under some 
conditions, can not be conquered, even with 
smoke. If the atmosphere is a little chilly, 
or immediately after a rain, or if the sup¬ 
ply of nectar has suddenly stopped short 
off, a few colonies may be very hard to 
handle. While most bees under these con¬ 
ditions will yield to smoke, it seems to 
infuriate others. The only thing to do is 
to let them alone for the time being; then 
the next day or two, when the weather is 
favorable, blow a little smoke in at the 
entrance, raise the cover very gently, blow 
in a few whiffs more, when, presto! the 
fiends of the day before are as gentle as 
one could wish. 

MECHANICAL CONSTRUCTION AND OPERATION 
OF THE STING. 

After a bee has delivered its sting, and 
torn itself from that member, a bundle 
of muscles partly enveloping the poison- 
bag will be noticed. The curious part of 
it is that for some considerable time after 
the sting has been detached from the body 
of the bee, these muscles will work with a 
kind of pump-like motion forcing the sting 


STINGS 


787 


further into the wound, as if they had a 
conscious existence and burned with desire 
to wreak vengeance on the party attacked. 
Even after the sting has been pulled from 
the flesh, and thrown away, if it should 
stick in the clothing so the flesh will come 
in contact with it, it will commence work¬ 
ing again, pull itself into the flesh, and 
empty the poison into the wound, precisely 
as if the living bee were itself working it. 

The author has suffered many times 
from a sting unconnected with any bee. It 
would hold life enough to give a very pain¬ 
ful wound, for some minutes afterward. 

Muscular contraction of the sting has 
taken place under the field of the micro¬ 
scope 20 minutes after being detached from 
the bee. This phenomenon is wonderful, 
and, while watching the sting sink into the 
rim of a felt hat, one can ponder on that 
wonderful thing, animal life. Why should 
that isolated sting behave in this manner, 
when the bee to which it belonged was 
perhaps far away, buzzing thru the air? 
Why should this bundle of fibers and 
muscles behave as if it had a life to throw 
away? 

Under the microscope the sting is found 
to be a beautifully fashioned and polished 
instrument, whose delicate taper and finish 
make a most surprising contrast with any 
instrument man has been able to produce. 
In shape it appears to be round; but it is, 
in reality, egg-shaped, of a dark-red color, 
but transparent enough to show the hol¬ 
low. 

The sting proper is composed of three 
parts—the outer shell, or husk, D, and two 
barbed spears that slide partly inside of it. 
Fig. 2 shows the spears. The barbs are 
much like those on a common fishhook; 
and when the point of one spear, A, pene¬ 
trates far enough to get one barb under the 
skin, the bee has made a hold, and has no 
difficulty in sinking the sting its whole 
length into the wound; for the pumping- 
motion at once commences, and the other 
spear B, slides down a little beyond A, 
then A beyond B, and so on. With a 
motion like that of a pair of pump-handles, 
these spears are operated by small but 
powerful muscles attached thereto. These 
muscles will work, at intervals, for some 
time after the sting has been tom from 
the bee, as has been explained. They work 


with sufficient power to send the sting 
thru a felt hat or into a tough buckskin 
glove. . It is interesting to watch the bee 
while attempting to get its sting started 
into the hard cuticle on the inside of the 
hand. The spears often run along the 
surface diagonally, so that it can be seen 
how they work down by successive pumps. 

It was formerly supposed that the ducts 
00 were for the purposes of conducting 
the poison from the poison-bag up the 
barbs; but Snodgrass, of the Bureau of 
Entomology, has shown that this is a mis¬ 
take. 



Bee-sting magnified. 


Fig. 3. is a transverse section, sliced 
across the three parts, at about the dotted 
line D. A and B (Fig. 2) are the barbed 
spears; F and G (Fig. 3) the hollows to 
give them lightness and strength; H, H, 
the barbs. It will be observed that the 
husk, D, incloses but little more than one- 
third of the spears. The purpose of the 
main shaft C is to hold the spears in place, 
and to allow them to slide easily up and 
down, also to direct them while doing this 
work. To hold all together, there is a 
groove like a sliding dovetailed joint in 
both spears, with a corresponding projec¬ 
tion in the husk, which fit each other as 













788 


SUGAR 


shown. (See Fig. 3.) This allows the barbs 
to project to do their work, and yet holds 
all together tolerably firm—tolerably firm, 
for these spears are very easily tom out 
of the husk; and after a sting is extracted 
they are often left in the wound, like the 
tiny splinters before mentioned. When 
torn out and laid on a slip of glass they are 
scarcely visible to the naked eye; but under 
the microscope they appear as in Fig. 2. 

Stings do not all have the same number 
of barbs. There are as few as seven and 
as many as nine. The two spears are held 
against each other as shown in Fig. 3, and 
it will be observed that the shape and the 
arrangement of the three parts leave the 
hollow, E, in their center. The working of 
the spears also pumps down poison, and 
quite a good-sized drop will be collected on 
their points, as can be readily seen under 
the microscope. J. R. Bledsoe found a 
valve that lets it out of the poison-bag 
into this wonderful little pump, but pre¬ 
vents its returning. The drop of poison, 
after lying on the glass a few minutes, dries 
down and seems to leave a gummy sub¬ 
stance that crystallizes into strange and 
beautiful forms, a diagram of which is 
shown in Fig. 4. 

SUCROSE.—See Cane ' Sugar. 

SUGAR.—The term sugar is applied by 
common consent to the white sugar com¬ 
mercially prepared from the sugar cane 
and the sugar beet, or sucrose. To the 
layman, and possibly to the chemist, the 
word “sugar” means white granulated 
sugar; if it is powdered, the adjective 
“powdered” is added to sugar as “pow¬ 
dered sugar;” if it is moist and soft, and 
either white or only slightly yellow in 
color, it is termed “soft sugar;” while if 
it is brown in color, moist and soft, it is 
termed “brown sugar.” In distinction the 
word “sugars” refers to the whole class 
of sugar, of which there are some 150 or 
more, many of which are rare and some of 
more common occurrence. Grape sugar is 
the sugar dextrose, while fruit sugar is the 
sugar levulose. See Invert Sugar. 

Common sugar is composed of the ele¬ 
ments in the following proportions: Car¬ 
bon, 12 parts; hydrogen, 22 parts; oxy¬ 
gen, 11 parts. It is found free in nature 
in many roots, as beets and turnips; in the 


stems of plants, as sorghum, sugar cane, 
cornstalks, and in the sap of trees like 
maple, birch, etc., and in many fruits. It 
has never been commercially prepared from 
the elements. 

A white sugar or granulated sugar is 
practically pure sucrose, while the varying 
off-colored sugars ranging from light- 
yellow to brown are mostly mixtures of 
crystals of sucrose surrounded with molas¬ 
ses. These yellow or brown sugars are all 
produced by the refineries from the liquors 
after the production of the white grades. 
Formerly one had brown sugars direct 
from the cane, but now these are not pro¬ 
duced to any extent in this country. 
Louisiana sugars in hogshead used to be 
these old brown sugars. 

There has always been a discussion as to 
whether white sugar made from beets is 
the same in every particular as that made 
from sugar cane. Both contain practically 
the same amount of sucrose, also water and 
mineral matter, but the organic impurities 
which may amount to from .05 to .1 per 
cent are often different in beet white sugar 
from those in cane white sugar. These im¬ 
purities may play a part in some manufac¬ 
turing processes, and prevent the use of 
beet sugar in all places where cane sugar 
has been used. However, as a sweetener 
and for table use or for jelly or preserving 
work it is doubtful whether there is any 
notable difference between beet and cane 
sugar. See Cane Sugar. 

SUMAC (Rhus ).—This genus is repre¬ 
sented in the United States by about 15 
species. Most of them are shrubs, but a 
few are small trees and one is a shrubby 
vine. The large handsome leaves are tri¬ 
foliate, or odd-pinnate presenting a fern¬ 
like appearance. The pinnate-leaved spe¬ 
cies are highly ornamental as foliage 
plants, and in autumn display the most 
brilliant red and scarlet colors. The small 
flowers are borne in dense clusters, or pan¬ 
icles, at the ends of the branches or in the 
axils of the leaves. The stamens and pis¬ 
tils are usually in different flowers, one 
tree or shrub bearing only staminate flow¬ 
ers and another only pistillate. In the 
common staghorn sumac the staminate flow¬ 
ers are in large white clusters while the pis¬ 
tillate are in dense green clusters, which 


SUMAC 


789 


stand well above the foliage. The white 
flowers yield both nectar and pollen and 
attract many more insects than do the 
green, which offer only nectar; but honey¬ 
bees visit both kinds. The sumacs may be 



Sumac, smooth (Rhus glabra). 


divided into two groups; the non-poison- 
ous sumacs and the poisonous sumacs. 

Staghorn Sumac (Rhus typhina). This 
species reaches a height of 10 to 25 feet, 
and has orange-colored wood and crooked 
branches, covered with soft, velvety hairs, 
resembling the horns of a stag. The clus¬ 
ters of fruit are clothed with acid crimson 
hair. The staghorn sumac grows in dry 
soil from Nova Scotia westward to Mis¬ 
souri. The flowers are visited by honey¬ 
bees in large numbers; and, as the nectar 
is unprotected, by a great company of 
other insects. The flowers appear in June 
and July. 

Smooth Sumac (Rhus glabra). Upland 
sumac. Scarlet sumac. This species is an 
irregularly branched shrub, seldom more 
than 10 feet tall. It has a very wide dis¬ 
tribution, extending from Nova Scotia to 
Florida and westward to Mississippi and 
Minnesota. In Connecticut, where much 
of the surface is covered with glacial mor¬ 
aines, it is very common in hillside pas¬ 
tures, and along stone walls. The bloom¬ 
ing period lasts for about three weeks, 
from July 8 to the beginning of August. 
The flowers secrete nectar very freely on 
hot clear days, but in cloudy, foggy, or 
cool weather the flow ceases almost entirely. 


If there are “hot waves” in July strong 
colonies will bring in 20 pounds of honey 
during an ideal day, and will store from 40 
to 100 pounds each. But if there is much 
cool or rainy weather there may not be ah 
average of 20 pounds to the colony. At its 
height the flow is Very rapid and heavy. 
While the bees are busy on the bloom there 
is a very strong odor in the apiary, and 
the new honey is more or less bitter to the 
taste. Fortunately, the bitterness is only 
transient, and by winter the honey is edi¬ 
ble. 

One must eat sumac honey to appreciate 
it, says Latham. There is a richness, but 
at the same time a mildness about it, that 
will suit the most sensitive taste. Once a 
customer, always a customer, if one buys 
sumac honey. When pure the honey has a 
golden color. If properly ripened, it has 
no noticeable odor, but is very heavy, and, 



Sumac flowers and leaves (Rhus glabra). 


like apple-blossom honey, waxes instead of 
candying. It is safe to say that much of 
Connecticut would be worthless to beekeep¬ 
ers but for this plant. 

The bloom also yields a large amount of 
pollen, great loads of which the bees bring 
in during a slow flow. Even during the 











790 


SUNFLOWER 


height of the honey flow the bees gather 
pollen during the morning hours, before the 
sun has stimulated the nectaries. Later in 
the day little pollen is brought in. 

In Georgia there are several species of 
sumac, which are valuable, but the most im¬ 
portant is Rhus copallina , common names 
of which are dwarf sumac, and mountain 
sumac. This species extends from Maine 
to Florida and Texas and westward to Min¬ 
nesota. In a few localities in north Geor¬ 
gia it is the main source of marketable 
honey. In this State it blooms in August. 
In Texas in favorable seasons, depending 
upon rain, it also yields a surplus. In 
southern California Rhus laurina may yield 
one or more extractings of an amber-col¬ 
ored honey with a strong flavor. 

SUNFLOWER (Helianthus annuus ).— 
An extensive American genus embracing 
60 or more species. The common sunflower 
grows wild thruout the West, especially 
from Minnesota to Texas on the prairies 
and waste lands lying between the Rocky 
Mountains and the Mississippi River. In 
Nebraska it becomes a “veritable herba¬ 
ceous tree,” and completely takes possession 
of large waste areas 10 to 25 or more acres 
in extent. The tall plants also grow along 
the roadsides and about cities and towns. 
This species is likewise common in Califor¬ 
nia, and one year M. H. Mendleson of Ven¬ 
tura extracted a carload of wild sunflower 
honey, but the yield had never before been 
so large. According to Richter, the honey 
is amber-colored, with a characteristic fla¬ 
vor not disliked by many. Scholl says that 
in Texas bees gather much propolis both 
from the flowers and leaves. The stems 
yield a textile fiber, the seeds oil, and the 
flowers a yellow dye. Many other species 
of sunflower are exceedingly common both 
in the West and South. The Jerusalem ar¬ 
tichoke (H. tuberosa ) is a good honey 
plant, and bees visit the flowers in myriads. 
In Contra Costa County, California, there 
are acres of this plant growing wild. The 
tubers are used as a vegetable. 

“WILD SUNFLOWER OF FLORIDA.” 

This name is rather loosely applied by 
beemen of Florida to various species of 
Compositae that grow over the southern 
half of the peninsula, including Gaillardia 


lanceolata, Helianthella, Coreopsis , and 
burr-marigold. South of a line drawn thru 
Stewart and Osprey, the one on the east 
coast and the other on the west, there are 
thousands of acres of these beautiful 
plants, which resemble the Spanish needles 
and Chrysopsis of the North. They extend 
as far north as Osceola, but beemen of the 
southern third of the State are most 
enthusiastic over them. The “savannas” 
about the edges of the Everglades seem to 
be their best habitat, while they are not 
common on high pine land. The blooming 
period is in September and October. The 
yield is rather unreliable, and nectar is 
secreted only during very dry falls. A 
fair crop can be counted on about every 
two or three years; a “bumper” about 
once in five years. The honey is amber, 
fairly good body and rather mild; but it 
is, after all, a fall-flower crop, and by no 
means ranks with the best honeys. It is 
fine for putting the colonies in good condi¬ 
tion for the close of the year. 

SUPERSEDURE OF QUEENS. — Su- 

persedure is the replacing of an old or 
failing queen with a young one and is one 
of the natural impulses under which queen- 
cells are built. A colony in a large hive or 
hollow tree may not east a swarm or be 
deprived of their queen by accident for 
several seasons. But every queen grows 
old and must be superseded. Cells built 
under the supersedure or swarming impulse 
are more uniform in size and better fed 
than any others. One can usually tell un¬ 
der which impulse the cells are built. If 
under the supersedure impulse, the queen 
will not lay fast enough to keep up with 
the hatching brood. 

SUPERS.—See Comb Honey, Appli¬ 
ances for; also Hives. 

SWARMING.—The term “swarming” is 
applied to the act of a family of bees 
leaving their home to establish a new home 
elsewhere. In the broadest sense the term 
includes not only reproduction of colonies 
by normal swarming when the colony di¬ 
vides itself by part of the bees leaving, but 
also swarming out from various causes 
when the entire colony migrates. The term 
is sometimes applied to the division of 


SWARMING 


791 


colonies, as in artificial swaiming. Usually 
the term swarming means the issuing of 
normal swarms when the colony is pros¬ 
perous, only a part of the bees leaving the 
hives. Normal swarming is, therefore, a 
division of the colony for the purpose of 
reproduction. The term “swarming out” is 
usually applied to the migration of the 
entire colony as in the case of lack of food 
(hunger swarms), recently hived swarms 
that are dissatisfied, swarms that leave be¬ 
cause of American foul brood, and small 
nuclei that swarm out with the young queen 
when she takes her mating flight or be¬ 
cause the little colony is dissatisfied. The 
migrating family of bees is called a swarm, 
tho this term is sometimes applied to the 
colony after it has established itself in its 
new home, to distinguish the new colony 
from the parent colony. In a strict sense 
the term swarm applies only during migra¬ 
tion. As soon as a swarm establishes itself 
in its new home it is called a colony. 

CHAIN OF EVENTS LEADING UP TO SWARMING. 

A colony of bees that is normal and pros¬ 
perous increases its brood in the spring as 
its adult population increases, either until 
all the available brood-comb is occupied or 
until the queen reaches the limit of her ca¬ 
pacity in egg-laying. Early in the spring- 
only worker brood is reared, but when the 
colony becomes stronger the rearing of 
drone brood is begun, thus providing for 
male bees in anticipation of swarming. Fi¬ 
nally, when the brood-chamber becomes 
crowded with emerging and recently 
emerged young bees and the combs are well 
filled with brood, several queen-cells may 
be started. When eggs are placed in these 
partially built queen-cells the colony has 
then taken definite steps in preparation for 
swarming, the swarm usually issuing eight 
or nine days later at about the time the 
more advanced queen-cells are sealed. The 
exact time of the issuing of the swarm de¬ 
pends to some extent upon the weather. 
Sometimes it must be postponed a few 
days on account of rain, and sometimes 
during hot weather the swarm will issue 
before any of the queen-cells are sealed, 
especially if the bees are Italians. Normal 
swarms usually issue between 10 a. m. and 
2 p. m. In hot weather most of the swarm¬ 
ing is over by noon. 


SYMPTOMS OF SWARMING. 

In their natural state and when neglected 
or poorly managed the bees usually slow 
down in their work after queen-cells have 
been started in preparation for swarming, 
especially during a few days just previous 
to the time the swarm issues. The field 
workers in increasing numbers stay in the 
hive instead of working in the fields, bring¬ 
ing about a crowded condition sometimes 
resulting in a great cluster of bees hanging- 
on the outside of the hive. This clustering 
on the outside of the hive was formerly 
considered a symptom of swarming pro¬ 
vided it occurred during a honey flow, but 
it is by no means a reliable symptom. Clus¬ 
tering out during warm weather when there 
is a dearth of nectar is quite another thing 
and has nothing to do with swarming. 

A more reliable symptom that the colony 
is preparing to swarm is a lack of the 
usual flight at the entrance, due to many of 
the field bees staying at home. When this 
is noticeable, by looking into the supers it 
will be noted that they are crowded with 
bees, sometimes wedged into every nook 
and corner, this being quite unlike the nor¬ 
mal condition in the supers. These idle 
bees are usually filled with honey, which 
makes them appear unusually large be¬ 
cause of their distended abdomens. These 
conditions when present during a honey 
flow are practically a sure indication that 
the colony is preparing to swarm. In well- 
managed colonies this slowing down of field 
work does not always occur, but little if 
any difference in the work being noticeable 
even on the day the swarm issues. 

The only certain indication of swarming 
is the presence of queen-cells containing 
eggs or larvae during the swarming season. 
By noting the advancement of the queen- 
cells it is often possible to predict on what 
day the swarm will issue. Queen-cells built 
under the swarming impulse are sometimes 
called “swarming cells” to distinguish them 
from queen-cells built at other times to 
supersede the old queen. See How to Dis¬ 
tinguish Between Sw t arming Cells and 
Supersedure Cells, page 815. 

THE PRIME SWARM. 

When the first swarm issues a varying 
proportion of the adult bees, together with 
the old queen, fly from the hive, leaving be- 


792 


SWARMING 


hind them some adult worker bees, a large 
number of unemerged young bees, and sev¬ 
eral unemerged young queens. This is called 
the prime swarm to distinguish it from 
after-swarms which may issue from the par¬ 
ent hive about a week later. The number 
of bees that accompany the swarm depends 
somewhat upon the weather. Swarms are 
usually smaller when the weather is cool 
and larger when the weather is hot. 

Just why some go and others stay is not 
known. While the division may be some¬ 
what according to age, there is apparently 
no fixed rule for this. Many of the older 
field bees remain in the parent colony, and 
often during hot weather many bees too 
young to fly attempt to accompany the 
swarm. Some of the drones accompany the 
swarm, but many of them remain in the 
hive. Sometimes three-fourths or more of 
the bees go with the swarm. Swarms from 
strong colonies sometimes weigh from 10 to 
15 pounds, but usually they weigh less. 

Sometimes the queen leaves the hive 
among the first, but oftener she leaves after 
half or more of the swarming bees have 
left, and sometimes she is among the last 
to leave. Occasionally she does not find 
her way out of the hive at all, in which ease 
the swarm will return unless it unites with 
another swarm having a queen. 

As the swarming bees rush from the hive 
they circle about in the air, covering a 
wide area at first but gradually drawing 
together and finally clustering on some con¬ 
venient support such as the limb of a tree. 
After an interval usually varying from 
about 15 minutes to several hours, or even 
in exceptional cases a day or more, they 
break cluster and fly away to find a new 
home. Occasionally a swarm will leave the 
hive and go directly to a hollow tree or 
empty hive, apparently having previously 
selected their new home; but, as a rule, 
they cluster near the apiary before going 
aw T ay. 

There is considerable evidence indicating 
that scouts are sent out to find a new home 
either previous to swarming or while the 
swarm is clustered. Many have noticed a 
few bees working around a hollow tree or 
an empty hive shortly before a swarm came 
and entered, and the remarkable directness 
of the flight of the swarm from the hive or 
clustering place to a hollow tree or other 
suitable abode would be difficult to explain 


in any other way. For this reason the ad¬ 
vice is usually given to hive the swarm as 
soon as it has clustered and move it away 
so returning scouts cannot lead the swarm 
away. Sometimes swarms travel several 
miles before finding a new home, clustering 
and breaking cluster several times while on 
the way. 

Swarming bees are usually good-natured 
and pay little if any attention to the bee¬ 
keeper, even when he walks about in the 
midst of the circling bees. Sometimes, how¬ 
ever, after they have been clustered for 
some time they will sting viciously when 
disturbed, especially if they have remained 
clustered for several hours or overnight. 
There is also considerable difference in the 
way the bees behave depending upon the 
weather, so it is not safe to assume that 
swarming bees are always good-natured. 

Before leaving their hive, the swarming 
bees fill themselves with honey, so that they 
take their lunch with them when seeking a 
new home. They are, therefore, prepared 
to begin building comb in their new home 
almost immediately. Within a few days 
the newly formed colony becomes well es¬ 
tablished. The queen begins to lay in the 
newly built combs before the cells are fully 
drawn out, and, if nectar is abundant, 
comb-building and the storing of honey are 
carried on rapidly. During the first few 
days the bees build only worker comb; but 
usually, after building the equivalent of 
four to six standard frames of comb, they 
begin to build drone-sized cells. If the 
queen is old they usually begin to build 
drone-cells earlier than if the queen is 
young and vigorous. Apparently when 
the bees build worker comb faster than the 
queen can fill it with eggs, they begin build¬ 
ing the larger cells, these being for the 
storage of honey. If a swarm is hived on 
one or two empty combs, the remainder of 
the hive being vacant, the bees begin at once 
building drone-sized cells. 

AFTER-SWARMS. 

About a week after the prime swarm is¬ 
sued the first of the young queens emerges 
from her cell if the swarm issued at the 
time the first queen-cells were sealed. In¬ 
stead of destroying the other young queens 
and permitting this first-emerged young 
queen to become the new mother of the col¬ 
ony, the bees, if left alone, usually swami 


SWARMING 


793 


again, this after-swarm being accompanied 
by the young queen. If the beekeeper does 
not interfere other after-swarms usually is¬ 
sue with an interval of one or two days be¬ 
tween, each being smaller than the preced¬ 
ing until there are no longer enough bees 
left to divide among the remaining young 
queens. 


fuses the workers so they cease guarding 
the unemerged queens, and several may 
emerge at once while the hive is open. When 
subsequent after-swarms issue there may be 
several young queens at large in the hive, 
and sometimes several of them accompany 
the swarm. 

When the first young queen emerges she 



A cross of bees that are not cross. * 


Apparently after the first young queen 
emerges the bees hold the other young 
queens prisoners within their cells until the 
first after-swarm issues. If the hive is 
opened just before the issuing of the first 
after-swarm, usually but one of the queen- 
cells will be found vacant; but the disturb¬ 
ance of opening the hive apparently con- 


begins “piping” (see Queen-rearing, sub¬ 
head Queen's Voices), and her rivals con¬ 
fined in their cells answer her call. This 
“piping” can best be heard in the evening 
and usually may be expected about a week 
after the issuing of the prime swarm. When 
“piping” is heard in the evening an after¬ 
swarm may be expected the next day un- 












794 


SWARMING 


less the weather is prohibitive. If other 
after-swarms are to follow, the piping may 
again be heard after one or more after- 
swarms have issued. Each after-swarm 
seeks a new home where it establishes itself 
as a new colony. If sufficient food is avail¬ 
able these little colonies may build up to 
normal strength for winter; but too often 
they are not able to do so, for sometimes 
the last of the after-swarms to issue con¬ 
tains less than a pint of bees. 

When further swarming is given up, 
sometimes after the casting of from two to 
five after-swarms, all but one of the re¬ 
maining young queens are killed. About 
10 days after emergence the surviving 
young queen usually begins to lay, and the 
parent colony again takes up brood-rearing. 
This makes an interval of about 16 days 
when no eggs were laid in the parent col¬ 
ony. 

PRIME SWARM WITH A YOUNG QUEEN. 

Conditions somewhat similar to those in 
after-swarming are sometimes brought 
about without the issuing of a normal prime 
swarm accompanied by the old queen. If 
the old queen is failing or is removed from 
the hive by the beekeeper or is lost thru 
accident, the bees proceed to rear another. 
Instead of rearing but one queen they build 
several queen-cells, and if the colony is 
prosperous at the time the first one of 
these young queens emerges, and especially 
if nectar is abundant in the fields, the bees 
usually swarm instead of permitting the 
young queen to destroy the others. In this 
case the first swarm is accompanied by a 
young queen, and after-swarming follows 
in one or two days instead of after an in¬ 
terval of a week or more as when the prime 
swarm is accompanied by the old queen in 
the normal way. In such cases the first 
swarm, tho accompanied by a young queen, 
may be as large as the normal prime swarm. 

It will be noted that after-swarming is a* 
result of a plurality of young queens and 
that in nature the division is often carried 
too far for safety, since many of these 
little swarms are doomed to perish the fol¬ 
lowing winter, and sometimes the parent 
colony is so depleted by excessive aftei’- 
swarming that it fails to store enough hon¬ 
ey for winter. Obviously the beekeeper 
cannot afford to permit the bees to carry 


out their program of swarming in their 
own way as described above. He therefore 
manages to prevent after-swarming (see 
After-swarming) and also, as far as prac¬ 
ticable, to eliminate all swarming. 

THE SWARMING SEASON. 

Normal swarming takes place during a 
more or less well-defined period called the 
“swarming season.” In some localities 
there are two or more swarming seasons 
during the year, but usually most of the 
swarming takes place within from two to 
six weeks. The swarming season for any 
locality comes at about the time the colony 
has the greatest amount of brood and 
emerging young bees in the spring. The 
swarming season may begin as early as 
March in the extreme south, while in the 
far north it may not begin until the first of 
June or even later. If the colonies are not 
strong enough and prosperous enough to 
build up to great strength early in the 
spring, the swarming season may come later 
after the colonies have built up to swarming 
strength. In localities where there is an 
early honey flow in the spring, followed 
later by a fall honey flow, there may be a 
secondary swarming season during the fall 
honey flow. For example, in some parts of 
the buckwheat region the bees will swarm 
in May or June when sufficient nectar is 
available from fruit bloom and clover, then 
again in August or even in September dur¬ 
ing the fall honey flow. Where the early 
and late honey flows overlap each other, 
forming a long continuous honey flow, the 
swarming season may be greatly prolonged, 
especially if the bees were not uniform in 
strength in the spring, so that some become 
strong enough to swarm early while others 
reach swarming strength later. Swarming 
does not often occur after the close of the 
honey flow. If preparations for swarming 
have been delayed until near the close of 
the honey flow, the bees often tear down 
the queen-cells and give up swarming as 
soon as nectar becomes scarce. On the 
other hand, early in the spring colonies 
often swarm even when not enough nectar 
is available to keep them from starving un¬ 
less fed by the beekeeper. The instinct to 
swarm is much stronger when the colony 
first reaches swarming strength than after¬ 
wards, 


SWARMING 


795 


LOSS PROM SWARMING. 

In the days of the box hive when honey 
was obtained by killing some of the colonies 
in the fall, swarming was considered de¬ 
sirable because in this way the number of 
colonies for slaughter was increased. Mod¬ 
ern beekeeping has entirely reversed this 
view, swarming now being considered ex¬ 
tremely undesirable. Up-to-date beekeepers 
are careful to reduce swarming to the great¬ 
est possible degree and where it can be 
done profitably prevent it entirely. In¬ 
crease can be made to better advantage ar¬ 
tificially (see Increase), for this cun be 
done at the convenience of the beekeeper 
instead of watching the apiary every day 
during the swarming season in order to take 

care of issuing swarms. 

. . , 1 BP 

"Where swarming is not controlled by the 

beekeeper, the loss from absconding swarms 
and from the interruption in the work of 
the bees often causes the loss of good crops 
of honey which might otherwise have been 
obtained. In those localities where swarm¬ 
ing occurs during the honey flow, as in 
most northern locations, swarming if un¬ 
trolled causes great loss, often preventing 
the bees from storing any surplus at all; 
for if colonies are permitted to divide their 
working force into two, three or more parts 
during the honey flow, this division usually 
marks the end of storing honey in the su¬ 
pers for the season unless the honey flow is 
unusually long—long enough to permit each 
division again to build up strong enough to 
work in the supers. 

In some regions as in parts of the South, 
the swarming season comes six or eight 
weeks before the main honey flow. In such 
cases if after-swarming is prevented and 
both the swarm and the parent colony have 
sufficient stores to build up to full strength 
again before the honey flow, the division is 
advantageous; but, even in such cases, it is 
usually less trouble for the beekeepers to 
make the division instead of permitting the 
bees to do so. 

BEEKEEPERS 7 PREPARATION FOR SWARMING. 

The beekeeper should have on hand some 
extra hives containing empty combs or 
frames with full sheets of foundation for 
hiving swarms that issue, unless he expects 
to practice the requeening method men¬ 
tioned later for swarm control. These 


should be prepared in advance of the 
swarming season, so that it will not be 
necessary to nail up the hives and put the 
sheets of foundation in the frames after 
the swarm has issued. It is not necessary 
to have as many empty hives as there are 
colonies in the apiary, for under good man¬ 
agement only a part of the colonies will 
swarm even during a season when the bees 
are much given to swarming. Some make 
it a rule to have half as many empty hives 
as there are colonies of bees if considerable 
increase is desired, but the beekeeper who 
has several hundred colonies and does not 
care for further increase may provide only 
one extra hive for every four or five colo¬ 
nies, and in some cases much less than this. 

As a preventive measure for swarming as 
well as for the purpose of securing as much 
honey as possible, an abundance of supers 
should be provided so that the bees can be 
given all of the super room they will need 
during the season. In the production of 
extracted honey it is important to have 
plenty of empty combs for the extracting- 
supers. If these are not to be had, the ex- 
tracting-supers should be supplied with 
frames containing full sheet: of founda¬ 
tion. Empty combs are not only better for 
the purpose of producing the largest pos 
sible crop of extracted honey, but at the 
same time they are better so far as the 
prevention of swarming is concerned. For 
comb-honey production' the comb-honey 
supers should be supplied with sections con¬ 
taining full sheets of foundation which 
nearly fill the sections. This not only re¬ 
sults in more surplus honey as well as hon¬ 
ey of a finer appearance, but also helps to 
reduce swarming, inasmuch as combs are 
built more rapidly when full sheets of 
foundation are used than when narrow 
strips only are used. 

Some time before the swarming season, 
preferably during the fruit bloom period 
of early spring, the queen of each colony 
should be found and her wings clipped, as 
explained under Queens. Most honey pro¬ 
ducers today consider this important, be¬ 
cause it is much easier to handle any 
swarms that may issue and because it pre¬ 
vents the escape of the swarms if the bee¬ 
keeper is absent. While some of the queens 
may be lost if swarms issue while the bee¬ 
keeper is away, it is better to lose the queen 
than to lose the whole swarm. Of course, 


796 


SWARMING 


if a swarm issues during the beekeeper’s 
absence and loses its queen because she is 
clipped, the swarm having returned to the 
hive, it is necessary for the beekeeper to ex¬ 
amine the bees carefully within a week to 
destroy all but one of the queen-cells be¬ 
fore any of the young queens can emerge, 
since otherwise a swarm would issue ac¬ 
companied by a young queen. If the queen’s 
wings are clipped early in the spring, dur¬ 
ing fruit bloom if possible, it is not difficult 
to find the queen because there are not so 
many bees in the hives at this time. 

During recent years beekeepers have 
made such great progress in the matter of 
the prevention of swarming that some 
claim it does not pay to clip the wings of 
the queen because only a few swarms ever 
issue. . In some localities where swarming is 
easily prevented it does seem useless to find 
and clip the queens every spring when 
practically none of them ever attempt to 
swarm; but in locations where swarming is 
troublesome the beekeeper will feel much 
safer, especially in out-apiary work, if all 
of the queens are clipped. 

Some object to clipping the queens on 
the ground of the difficulty in finding them; 
while others are timid about picking up the 
queen to clip her wings, fearing they might 
injure her. Again, there are cases where 
the combs cannot be taken out of the hives 
to find the queen on account of being built 
crosswise. In all such cases the Alley trap, 
as described under Drones, can be used. 
This does practically the same thing as 
clipping the queen’s wings, but goes a step 
further since it catches the queen and holds 
her a prisoner until the beekeeper can take 
care of the swarm. 

HOW TO HIVE A SWARM. 

When the queen’s wings are clipped or 
when the Alley trap is used, hiving swarms 
is a simple matter. The parent hive is 
moved away while the swarm is out and a 
new one put in its place, so that the bees 
upon missing their queen will return and 
enter the new hive. See Aeter-swarming. 

While the author does not recommend 
that swarms be permitted to issue without 
either the queens’ wings being clipped or 
the use of the Alley trap, many swarms are 
permitted to issue in this way, therefore 
directions are here given for hiving such 
swarms. 

When a swarm issues it is not necessary 


to ring bells or beat tin pans as was for¬ 
merly done in order to induce the bees to 
settle. So far as can be determined, such 
a procedure has no effect whatever upon 
the swarming bees. In most cases after 
circling about for a short time, the bees 
will form a cluster without any help on the 
part of the beekeeper. It is sometimes a 
help to use a spray pump or a hose to 
throw water among the flying bees to pre¬ 
vent two swarms from uniting while in the 
air or to drive the swarming bees away from 
tall trees to induce them to cluster in a 
more convenient location. Throwing water 
among the flying bees is sometimes also use¬ 
ful to-stop a swarm that is leaving for the 
woods. A good drenching may cause them 
to cluster instead of absconding. Ordinarily, 
however, nothing need be done until the 
bees have clustered. 

If they cluster on a limb of a tree or 
bush where they can be conveniently 
reached, one of the simplest ways of hiving 
them is to cut off the limb above the clus¬ 
tered bees and carry it to the hive. Care 
must be taken in cutting off the limb not to 
jar it or the bees may drop off from the 
limb, take wing and cluster elsewhere. When 
the swarm is carried to the hive the limb can 
be laid down gently in front of the hive 
so that the bees will be as near as possible 
to the entrance. Some of the bees are then 
gently pushed into the entrance by means 
of a feather or twig so that they will start 
running in. As soon as they begin to run 
into the hive they set up a call for their 
comrades to follow, this probably being 
done by odor. When the bees are running 1 
into the hive rapidly the limb can be 
shaken to dislodge the remainder of the 
bees if it is desirable to hasten matters, but 
if there is no hurrv about hiving the swarm 
on account of the possibility of other 
swarms issuing and uniting with it, the 
bees can be left to take their time in crawl¬ 
ing into the hive. 

If the bees cluster on a limb that cannot 
well be spared or that is too large to cut 
off, they can be shaken from the limb into 
a basket, then carried to the hive and pour¬ 
ed out in front of it when they should im¬ 
mediately begin to run into the hive. WTen 
bees are poured out from a basket in this 
way some of them may start to run in the 
wrong 1 direction, but they can be guided 
toward the entrance by means of a feather 


SWARMING 


797 


or brush. It is well to place a wide board 
in front of the hive on which to pour the 
swarm when hived in this way. 

Sometimes it is more convenient to carry 
the hive to the cluster than to carry the 
cluster to the hive. In such cases the "hive 
should be carried to its permanent location 
as soon as the bees have entered. Where 
there are many colonies in the apiary 
swarms should be hived as quickly as pos¬ 
sible or other swarms may issue, and sev¬ 
eral of them unite if not cared for prompt¬ 
ly. 



This swarm of bees issued June 7 from a colony 
of bees that produced 180 pounds of comb honey 
the same season. 


If a swarm clusters on a limb too high to 
be reached from the ground, it is sometimes 
necessary to use a ladder to reach them. If 
the bees cluster on a limb too large to be 
cut or shaken, part of them can sometimes 
be scooped up in a dipper and poured out 
at the entrance of the hive. In such cases 
it is well to put the hive on a stepladder or 
a box so its entrance will be against the 


cluster. By scooping up some of the bees 
or by brushing them so they will fall upon 
the alighting-board of the hive, they can be 
induced to enter and set up a call for their 
comrades to follow. 

HOW TO GET A SWARM FROM AN 
INACCESSIBLE LIMB. 

Sometimes a swarm will alight upon a 
limb beyond the reach of any ladder. Pos¬ 
sibly, also, the limb upon which the bees 
are clustered is so far out from the body 
of the tree that it would not sustain the 
weight of any one climbing after them. 
Such a swarm can usually be reached in 
the following manner: A stone about as 
large as the single fist is tied at the end of 
a good line. If one is not a good thrower 
himself he can get some boy who is a good 
ballplayer to perform the throwing act. 
He should uncoil a considerable quantity 
of the line, and then throw the stone into a 
crotch if one is near the swarm. If he is 
lucky enough to land the stone in the 
crotch, he should draw gently on the line 
until the stone catches in the fork. One 
quick jerk will dislodge the bees, and after 
that the limb should be kept in a tremble 
until the bees cluster on some other spot, 
which they will do presently if the limb is 
kept agitated for five or ten minutes. They 
may cluster higher up, but the probabilities 
are they will seek some other spot more 
accessible. 

If there is no convenient crotch at the 
right point, the stone should be thrown so 
it will pass over the limb, taking about one 
foot of line. The string should be given 
a good jerk, causing the stone with the 
line to whirl around the limb a couple of 
times. If one does not succeed in doing 
this the first time or two, a third or fourth 
attempt may be successful. It is not a 
very difficult trick; but the main thing is 
to get the line attached to the limb at some 
point near the swarm. 

Some throw a line over a limb above the 
swarm and then use the line to draw a 
light rope over the limb to which a hive can 
be attached. If the hive can be brought up 
close to the cluster and the limb shaken to 
dislodge the bees, so that many of them 
will fall into the uncovered hive, the entire 
swarm may then enter the hive when it 
can easily be lowered to the ground. 










798 


SWARMING 


HOW TO BRING A SWARM HOME FROM A 
DISTANCE. 

A swarm will sometimes escape and be 
traced a mile or so from the beeyard. At 
other times a farmer will report that a 



Carrying a captured swarm on a bicycle. 


swarm of bees is hanging to one of his 
trees, and that, if the beeman will come 
and hive them, he can have them. A good 
swarm is sometimes worth going after; but 
how shall it be brought back with the least 
expenditure of time when bees are swarm¬ 
ing at home? A boy can be sent on a 
bicycle, equipped with a burlap sack, a 
pair of pruning-shears and a smoker, these 
latter fastened to the rider. The bicycle 
enables him to make a quick trip, and on 
arrival the bag is quietly slipped around 
the swarm of bees, clustered on a limb of a 
tree, and the bag tied. The pruning-shears 
cut the limb, when the bag and all are slung 
over the handle-bars, or carried in one 
hand while the other guides the machine 
home. 


PLURAL SWARMS UNITING. 

Sometimes when the swarming-note is 
heard in the apiary other colonies seem to 
catch the excitement and issue one after 
another while the first is still in the air. 
Of course if the wings of the queens are 
not clipped they will unite in one, and as 
many as a dozen have been known to come 
out in this way and go to the woods before 
anything could be done to stop them. If 
for no other reason the wings of all queens 
should be clipped. Even then if a stray 
virgin queen is present all the bees may 
unite as one swarm, taking her along. 

When the queens are clipped, they can 
be caught and caged as the swarms issue; 
then the large cluster of bees can be divided 
up into as many parts as there are queens 
and hived in the ordinary way, each division 
being given one of the queens. 

SOME HANDY SWARMING-DEVICES. 

Almost every apiarist has his own pe¬ 
culiar notion as to how a swarming-device 
should be constructed. Some of these im¬ 
plements are very ingenious, and of valu¬ 
able assistance during the swarming sea¬ 
son. Their particular use is to remove 
a swarm after it has clustered, arid place 
it in the hive where it is desired that it 
take up a new abode. The first one to 
which attention is called, not because it 
is the best but because it is the simplest, 
is a sort of butterfly-catcher. 



A simple and inexpensive swarm-catcher. 


The hoop is made of band iron, about 
20 inches in diameter. The ends are se¬ 
cured, as shown, to a suitable pole. When 
the bag is attached to the hoop, it is de- 
















































































SWARMING 


799 


signed to be put up under the swarm, and 
the hoop is then made to cut off the clus¬ 
ter so that the bees will fall into the bag. 
It is then turned edgewise, so as to confine 
them while being taken down and carried 
to the hive. It may be necessary to hold 
the bag in the air to catch the flying bees. 
These will shortly cluster on the outside. 
As the bag is made of cheese-cloth, the 
bees inside have plenty of air. To empty 
the bees turn it inside out. 

a. e. manum’s swarming-device. 


This consists of a wire-cloth basket made 
in the shape of an inverted pyramid, and 
pivoted at the opposite corners so as to 



Manum’s swarm-catcher device. 


hang always in an upright position. When 
a swarm is captured the basket may be 
grasped by the ring at the small end, and 
inverted, dumping the bees into the hive 
prepared for them. 

As soon as the cluster beginning to form 
on a tree or bush is half or nearly com¬ 
pleted, the basket is shoved up to and 
around the cone of bees. An assistant, if 
present, gives the limb a jar so as to dis¬ 
engage the bees into the basket. In case no 
one is ready to assist, a sliding movement 
of the basket will precipitate the cluster 
into the wire-cloth'cage, when it is quickly 
lowered. This operation, in passing down 
thru the limbs, will usually catch the wire- 
cloth lid, and close it with a slam. In case 
it is not closed, the apiarist does it himself. 


Half or two-thirds of the bees are generally 
confined. In all probability the queen is 
there also. As the bees can not get out, 
those still flying in the air will very readily 
cluster on the wire cloth, surrounding the 
majority of their companions inside. To 
make this more expeditious the tripod is 
adjusted and the cage suspended in the air 
right where the bees are flying thickest. 
In five or ten minutes the remainder of the 
bees will be clustered on the outside. At 
this stage of the proceeding the apiarist 
comes forward, folds the two short legs 
against the pole, grasps it at its center of 
gravity and walks off to the hive, which he 
has previously prepared. 

One of the special features of the Manum 
arrangement is that the basket can be ad¬ 
justed to almost any position, all the way 
from two to ten feet from the ground. All 
that is necessary is to adjust the tripod so 
that the basket will be held where the bees 
are flying. In the meantime, unless the 
hive is already prepared, the apiarist has 
ample time to get it ready. After this he 
can return to the swarm just now clustered. 
Most of the devices require to be held until 
the cluster has settled. It is a tedious job 
to hold a pole at arm’s length, with face 
upturned. 

In the absence of any special tools or 
appliances one can extemporize in a very 
few minutes a swarm-catching device out 
of the ordinary material on a farm. A 
small sapling, long and slender, is cut. All 
the branches are trimmed off, care being 
taken to leave a fork or crotch in the end. 
This extemporized swarming-pole should 
be generally from 12 to 15 feet long. A 
common bushel basket is hooked into the 
fork at the end of the pole. The combina¬ 
tion is almost as good as the one just de¬ 
scribed, with the further advantage that 
the basket can be detached from the fur¬ 
ther end of the pole as soon as the swarm 
is caught. 

After being booked on to the end 
of the pole, the basket is elevated to a point 
just below where the swarm is hanging on 
the tree. It is gradually pushed up until 
the swarm is nicely placed therein. The 
pole is given a sharp push upward, care 
being taken not to unhook the basket. This 
sudden jar will dislodge the swarm; and 
before the bees have an opportunity to 
take wing, the basket is lowered and un- 








800 


SWARMING 



S. D. Chapman of near Mancelona, Mich., and his method of hiving swarms with a forked pole and a 

bushel basket. 


hooked from the end of the pole. It may 
now be dumped in front of the hive where 
it is to be placed. In all probability a few 
more bees may cluster back on the old spot. 
If so, the operation is repeated, after which 
the second bunch of bees is placed where 
the first was dumped. 

THE SWARM-HIVING HOOK. 

With most of the liiving-devices a hiving- 
hook can be used to considerable advantage 
at times. It is simply an iron hook mounted 
on the end of a long pole, and resembling, 
somewhat, a shepherd’s crook. One of the 
hiving-devices is passed beneath the swarm. 
This hook can be used to reach over, grasp 
the limb on which the swarm is clustered, 
and by one or two smart jerks jar the bees 
into the basket, bag, or box. 

spray-pump for controlling swarms 

WHILE IN THE AIR. 

One of the most useful implements in 
the apiary when queens are not clipped is 
a good hand force-pump. A swarm of 
bees in the air with a queen that might 
otherwise circle about for fifteen or twenty 
minutes can usually be made to cluster in 
from two to five minutes by its use. 
Whether the fine particles of water dampen 
the wings, and so impede their flight, or 
cause the bees to think it is raining, or 


both, and that therefore they had better 
cluster at once, can not be proved; but 
certainly the spray has a very decided 
effect. One who becomes moderately ex¬ 
pert will be able not only to make the bees 
settle but to compel them to clustdt on some 
point easily accessible to any of the ordi¬ 
nary hiving-devices just described. Occa¬ 
sionally a swarm will make for the top of a 
tall tree. With a pump they can be headed 
off, causing them to settle on a lower 
branch. Even when a swarm is clustered 
twenty or thirty feet from the ground, by 
adjusting the stream nozzle and letting it 
play directly on the swarm itself, it can, 
many times, be dislodged, thus causing the 
bees to take wing and finally settle again 
upon a lower limb or bush. Again, sev¬ 
eral swarms may come out simultaneously, 
and two or more attempt to cluster to¬ 
gether. By the timely use of the spray, 
each swarm can be kept separate by damp¬ 
ening the wings of the stragglers of the 
two swarms about to come together. A 
good many times a swarm that is about to 
abscond can be headed off and made to 
cluster. 

THE SWARM-CATCHER. 

This is simply a large wire-cloth cage, in 
the shape of an oblong box, about three or 










SWARMING 


801 


four feet high, by 12 or 15 inches square, 
one end being open, and made to fit against 
an ordinary hive-front. 

It very often happens that the apiarist 
is on hand just at the time the swarm 
begins to pour out from the entrance. 
With one of these wive swarm-catchers han¬ 



dy he simply attaches the mouth to the en¬ 
trance, and the outpouring bees fly pell-mell 
into the top of the cage, and are there con¬ 
fined. When the apiarist succeeds in catch¬ 
ing two-thirds of the bees, the rest will clus¬ 
ter on the outside. The cage is set mouth 
end down very near where the bees come 
forth. Meanwhile the apiarist prepares 
his hive, if he has not already done so, and 
then brings the cage of bees and dumps 
them into the hive, replaces the cover, and 
the swarm is hived without having had any 
swarm in the air—not even giving them a 
ghost of a chance to fly all over the neigh¬ 
borhood, and possibly finally alight upon 
the limb of a tree 40 feet from the ground. 
But it should be borne in mind that the 
swarm-catcher is serviceable only when the 
apiarist happens to be on the ground just 
as the bees are beginning to pour forth. 

A large cage that comes down over the 
whole hive is much better than something 
adjusted to the entrance, because it can be 
set down over the hive and proceedings 
stopped. As soon as the bees are all out, 
the cage is lifted gently, and carried to the 
hive where it is proposed to dump the 
swarm. The cage is held squarely over the 
prepared hive with its cover oft, and given 
one quick jolt. This will dislodge the bees 
so that most of them will land in and 
26 


around the hive. As soon as they have 
settled, the cage is removed and the cover 
put on the hive. 

THE AUTOMATIC HIVING OF SWARMS. 

For many years back there has been an 
effort on the part of beekeepers of an 
inventive turn of mind to get up an ar¬ 
rangement that would automatically hive 
swarms in the absence of an apiarist or 
attendant; and since out-apiaries have be¬ 
gun to assume such importance where the 
production of honey is carried on ex¬ 
tensively, some sort of device that will 
hive the swarms automatically—yes, do the 
work just as well as if the apiarist were 
present himself, is greatly to be desired. 
Several devices have been introduced; but 
most of them have been proved to be more 
or less a failure. 

The general plan contemplates some 
scheme having an empty hive placed near 
the colony expected to swarm. This empty 
hive may be alongside, in front of, or 
below the other one. In the case of the 
first-mentioned plan, an entrance-guard is 
placed in front of each hive; and con¬ 
necting the two is a tube of wire cloth or 
perforated zinc. When the swarm comes 
forth, the queen, finding herself barred by 
the perforated metal, runs along until she 
finds the tube communicating with the 
entrance-guard of the other hive. In this 
tube she runs up against a bee-escape or 
wire-cloth cone. She passes this; but, 
being unable to return, is compelled to 
enter the entrance-guard of the new hive. 
Upon discovering that the queen is not 
with them, the bees rush back to the old 
stand; a part of them find the queen in 
front of the new hive, enter with the 
queen and “set up housekeeping.” But 
the plan often fails because the majority 
fail to find her, and re-enter the parent 
colony. 

WHERE TO LOCATE NEWLY HIVED SWARMS. 

Wherever the swarming season comes on 
during the main honey flow, as in the clover 
region of the northern States and the or¬ 
ange region of southern California, the 
early-hived swarms should be located on the 
old stand, the old hive being placed close to 
one side if comb honey is being produced, 
or placed on top of the supers if extracted 
honey is being produced, in order to keep 



















802 


SWARMING 


the working force of the colony together in 
the same hive while the honey flow lasts. 
(See After-swarming, also Artificial 
Swarming.) In comb-honey production 
the parent hive should be moved away a 
week after hiving the swarm in order to 
draw away the young bees that have learned 
to fly in the mean time, adding them to 
the colony on the old stand, thus strength¬ 
ening the colony that is working in the 
supers and at the same time preventing 
after-swarming. 

In locations where the swarming season 
occurs several weeks previous to the main 
honey flow, so that both the parent colony 
and the swarm can be built up to full¬ 
gathering strength before the honey flow, 
it is not necessary to carry out this pro¬ 
cedure, but all after-swarming should be 
prevented either by moving away the par¬ 
ent colony just before the young queens 
emerge or by killing all but one of the 
queen-cells. If after-swarms were permit¬ 
ted to issue the parent colony would be de¬ 
pleted too much to build up before the 
honey flow, and the after-swarms would be 
too small to be productive. 

WHAT TO USE IN THE NEW HIVE WHEN 
HIVING SWARMS. 

For extracted-honey production either 
empty combs or full sheets of foundation 
may be used in the new brood-chamber 
when hiving swarms. When there are not 
enough empty combs for a full set in each 
hive, usually a few empty combs are used 
and the remaining spaces filled out with 
frames containing full sheets of founda¬ 
tion. Sometimes only one empty comb is 
used, the rest of the frames containing full 
sheets of foundation. This is better than 
to use a full set of frames of foundation. 

For comb-honey production it is not ad¬ 
visable to use a full set of empty combs in 
the new brood-chamber when hiving swarms, 
for when this is done the bees are inclined 
to store their honey in these combs, neglect¬ 
ing the work in the supers. This is especial¬ 
ly true for colonies that are of only me¬ 
dium strength. For this reason it is bet¬ 
ter to use full sheets of foundation in the 
brood-chamber when hiving swarms in 
comb-honey production. When this is 
done at least one empty comb should 
be used to reduce the tendency to swarm 
out, as sometimes occurs when frames of 


foundation exclusively are used in the new 
brood-chamber. If no empty combs are 
available for this purpose, it is well to 
place an empty hive-body under the new 
brood-chamber for two or three days if the 
bees are inclined to swarm out. 

At one time it was thought best to use 
only narrow strips of foundation in the 
frames in the new brood-chamber, on the 
theory that the bees will then be compelled 
to store their honey in the supers on ac¬ 
count of the greater length of time neces¬ 
sary to build comb in the brood-chamber 
when the narrow strips of foundation only 
are used. Under some conditions this plan 
gives excellent results in comb-honey pro¬ 
duction; but it is open to the serious objec¬ 
tion that entirely too much drone comb is 
built in the brood-frames, and also there is 
a tendency to store pollen in the sections 
during the first few days after being hived 
since there is no comb in the brood-chamber 
in which to store pollen. This latter objec¬ 
tion can be overcome by using one empty 
comb in the new brood-chamber to catch 
the incoming pollen; but this would, to a 
certain extent, defeat the purpose of the 
use of narrow strips of foundation only, 
for it would afford a place for immediate 
storage of nectar in the brood-chamber in¬ 
stead of in the sections. Another objection 
to the use of empty combs in the new brood- 
chamber in connection with frames contain¬ 
ing only narrow strips of foundation is 
that the bees would begin the building of 
drone combs just that much sooner. Usually 
the bees will build the equivalent of four 
or five standard frames of worker comb 
before they begin building drone comb. For 
this reason some beekeepers have advocated 
contracting the new brood-chamber to five 
standard frames when hiving swarms, but 
this plan has been largely abandoned be¬ 
cause it leaves the colony destitute of hon¬ 
ey and greatly weakened at the end of the 
season. 

It is sometimes convenient to hive swarms 
on combs containing honey. When combs 
of honey which are. mostly unsealed are 
used the bees will begin to transfer the 
honey into the supers almost immediately 
after being hived; but if combs of sealed 
honey are used the bees will often sulk or 
work with less vigor in the supers, appar¬ 
ently objecting to uncapping and trans¬ 
ferring the sealed honey to the supers. It 


SWARMING 


803 


is sometimes a good plan in comb-honey 
production to have frames of foundation 
drawn out in the second story of the 
strongest colonies at the very beginning of 
the honey flow to hold down swarming, and 
then use these newly built combs containing 
unsealed honey on which to hive swarms. 

If the beekeeper runs out of hives and 
frames during the swarming season he can 
utilize the hive of a parent colony, choosing 
one that swarmed ten days or more pre¬ 
viously. In this case the bees in the parent 
colony can be shaken from their combs in 
front of the recently hived swarm standing 
by its side (see Where to Locate Newly 
Hived Swarms, page 801) ; then this hive, 
together with the comb containing now only 
sealed brood, can be used for hiving an¬ 
other swarm. When such combs are used 
there are so few vacant cells that the bees 
will not neglect super work on account of 
the empty combs below, but the few cells 
that are vacant will soon be occupied by 
eggs which the queen will lay soon after the 
swarm is hived. As the remaining brood 
emerges the vacated cells are usually pre¬ 
pared for eggs until toward the close of the 
season when the bees will put in more 
honey. 

When either narrow strips of foundation 
or full sheets of foundation are used in the 
new brood-chamber a queen-excluder should 
be placed between the brood-chamber and 
the supers at the time of hiving the swarm, 
since otherwise the queen would probably 
establish a brood-nest in the supers. 

SWARMING OUT. 

Sometimes newly hived swarms “swarm 
out,” deserting their new hive and abscond¬ 
ing if the queen is not clipped. They may 
do this within an hour or two after being 
hived or the next day and sometimes even 
on the third day after being hived. Swarm¬ 
ing out may occur either with natural 
swarms or artificial swarms. The tendency 
for newly hived swarms to swarm out is 
greater some seasons than others. This 
trouble is apparently a result of a lack of 
room in the new hive or of discomfort from 
some other cause, tho sometimes newly hived 
swarms will leave the hive when there is no 
apparent cause for their dissatisfaction. 

Swarming out can be prevented, or at 
least greatly reduced, by placing an empty 
hive-body below the new brood-chamber for 


two or three days; by providing ample ven¬ 
tilation and shade for the new hive at the 
time of hiving the swarm, and by using 
one or more empty combs which had been 
previously used for brood-rearing in the 
new brood-chamber instead of frames of 
foundation exclusively. 

If the queen is clipped, colonies that 
swarm out can not abscond unless by chance 
they unite with another swarm that has a 
queen able to fly that happens to be out at 
the same time. When bees swarm out they 
can be handled in the same manner as a 
swarm with a clipped queen (see directions 
under After-swarming), by simply cag¬ 
ing the queen, thrusting the cage into 
the entrance and waiting for the swarm 
to return. Sometimes it is not necessary 
to make any change of conditions to 
induce the bees to stay after they have 
swarmed out once or twice. Sometimes, 
when bees swarm out they become demor¬ 
alized and do not all return to their 
own hive, some going into adjacent hives. 
When bees swarm out in the absence of the 
beekeeper the queen is liable to be lost by 
entering another hive. If the queen is not 
clipped it is well to place an entrance 
guard or an Alley trap over the entrance 
for a few days if the bees are inclined to 
swarm out. This will prevent the escape 
of the queen, and the bees will return to 
their hive. 

THE CAUSE OF SWARMING. 

Since swarming is the natural method 
of reproduction of colonies, upon which 
the existence of the species depends in 
nature, beekeepers are willing to accept the 
deeply seated reproductive instinct as the 
fundamental cause of swarming, but they 
want to know just what calls forth this in- ' 
stinct at certain times and why it is appar¬ 
ently dormant at other times. It is well 
known that some colonies go thru the 
season piling up a large surplus of honey, 
apparently without a thought of swarming, 
while other colonies in the same apiary 
stubbornly persist in carrying out their 
program of swarming; that some seasons 
practically all colonies go thru the season 
without attempting to swarm, while in 
other seasons a majority of the colonies at¬ 
tempt to swarm; and that in some localities, 
as in some parts of the tropics, well-man- 
aged colonies seldom swarm, while in other 


804 


SWARMING 


localities, especially in the far north, 
swarming is troublesome nearly every sea¬ 
son. No wonder that beekeepers have been 
searching for the thing that throws the 
switch which leads some colonies headlong 
into swarming, while others continue on 
the main track of gathering and storing 
honey. 

INFLUENCE OF HEREDITY. 

In the search for the thing that throws 
the switch, some have looked upon the ten¬ 
dency to swarm as an inherited trait that 
might be bred out; and at one time Ameri¬ 
can beekeepers made a serious effort to 
eliminate swarming by careful selection of 
breeding stock. Some even claimed actual¬ 
ly to have accomplished this, but today it 
is generally agreed that a non-swarming 
strain of bees can not be developed by 
breeding. The swarming tendency has been 
greatly reduced, of course, by the elimina¬ 
tion of stock too much given to swarming 
without sufficient excuse. 

INFLUENCE OF SIZE OF HIVES. 

Lack of sufficient room is generally rec¬ 
ognized as contributing to the tendency to 
swarm. As a rule, colonies in large hives 
swarm less than colonies in small hives. 
Formerly much was said about colonies of 
bees established in attics never swarming, 
because such colonies had the whole attic 
for a hive. But swarms do issue from colo¬ 
nies housed in attics and other large cavi¬ 
ties, and have been known to issue from 
colonies established under the eaves of 
buildings, having the whole out-of-doors 
for a hive. Swarms sometimes issue from 
the largest of hives, even when tiered up 
five or six stories high. Swarms have been 
known to issue from two-story hives having 
20 combs of which only four or five con¬ 
tained brood, the rest of the combs being 
practically empty and not occupied by the 
little colony. 

While large hives and an abundance of 
room in the form of good empty comb 
greatly reduce swarming, they do not pre¬ 
vent it in all localities every season. 

INFLUENCE OF THE HONEY FLOW. 

It has been said that bees swarm because 
of the honey flow, which makes them feel 
sufficiently prosperous to divide the colony 
and build a new home. In the North 


swarming does usually come during the 
early honey flow; but in some localities, es¬ 
pecially in the South, swarming occurs be¬ 
fore the main honey flow, swarms some¬ 
times issuing Avhen the colonies are gather¬ 
ing scarcely enough for a living. In some 
places swarming ceases entirely on the ar¬ 
rival of the honey flow, while in other 
places swarming usually begins at the be¬ 
ginning of the main honey flow. 

While the honey flow often influences 
swarming, it can not be considered the 
cause. 

INFLUENCE OF DRONES. 

The presence of drones and drone brood 
has been considered as the cause of swarm¬ 
ing. Working on this theory Aspinwall 
constructed wooden combs by drilling holes 
into the ends of blocks of wood to form the 
cells in order to have all cells of worker 
size to prevent the rearing of drones. After 
years of research along this line he aban¬ 
doned this theory of the cause of swarming 
and took up another theory to be men¬ 
tioned later, which finally resulted in the 
invention of a non-swarming hive. In this 
hive instead of eliminating the drones he 
provided wide spaces between the combs, 
inserting in these spaces slatted dividers to 
prevent comb-building in these spaces. 

INFLUENCE OF AGE OF QUEEN. 

Old queens have been put forth as the 
cause of swarming. Some said that the old 
cpieen becomes broody in her second year. 
Others said that a queen, after laying so 
many eggs in the spurt of spring brood¬ 
rearing, becomes tired and seeks a rest by 
swarming. 

At one time it was believed by many that 
a queen does not swarm during the first 
season of her life, and several beekeepers in 
the North tried to prevent swarming by re¬ 
queening their colonies in the spring with 
young queens from the South—only to find 
that many colonies so treated swarmed, 
tho, of course, they no doubt had less 
swarming because of the young queens. 

Much of the trouble from swarming in 
colonies having old queens, is no doubt from 
supersedure during the swarming season 
(see Supersedure of Queens) when colo¬ 
nies often apparently depart from the orig¬ 
inal plan of supersedure and swarm be¬ 
cause queen-cells are present. In many re- 


SWAKMING 


805 


spects such swarming is quite different from 
normal swarming. 

Gravenhorst, a German writer, laid down 
the rule that a colony having a laying 
queen reared this season will not swarm this 
season, provided the queen was reared in 
this colony. If she was reared elsewhere, 
the colony may swarm this season. But we 
know that if the old queen is removed at 
swarming time and all queen-cells (if any) 
are destroyed, then all queen-cells again de¬ 
stroyed ten days later, a young laying queen 
from another colony may be given a few 
days later with the same safety from fur¬ 
ther swarming as tho the young queen had 
been reared in this colony. 

The important thing to note here is that 
when a young queen is reared in this colony 
this year, there is (except in some cases of 
supersedure) an interval of at least 16 days 
during which no eggs are laid. When a 
similar break in brood-rearing is brought 
about by removing the queen, it does not 
make any difference whether the young 
queen is reared in this colony or elsewhere, 
so far as swarming is concerned. Even 
when the old queen is given back to the col¬ 
ony after 16 days, there is usually no fur¬ 
ther swarming. 

Apparently the condition of the colony 
brought about by the period of queenless- 
ness has more to do with the prevention of 
swarming than the age of the queen. 

HOW YOUNG BEES CONTRIBUTE TO 
SWARMING. 

Gerstung, a German investigator, put 
forth the theory that swarming is brought 
on by a preponderance of young bees. This 
fits in well with the well-known fact that 
the swarming tendency is strongest early in 
the season when young bees are emerging 
in greatest numbers, as well as explaining 
why swarming is worse in those localities 
where the bees build up most rapidly in the 
spring and during those seasons when be¬ 
cause of favorable conditions building up is 
most rapid, thus resulting in an unusual 
number of emerging and recently emerged 
young bees. This theory would also ex¬ 
plain why colonies are willing to give up 
swarming when their brood is taken away 
as in artificial swarming, as well as why the 
swarming impulse disappears completely 
about 20 days after removing the queen 
when the dequeening plan is used to pre¬ 
vent swarming. 


Using this theory as a basis, comb-honey 
producers about 20 years ago worked out 
plans by which the brood and youngest bees 
were taken from the colony at swarming 
time, kept in a separate hive until old 
enough to do field work and then returned 
to the main colony. Producers of extract¬ 
ed honey, instead of putting the brood and 
young bees into a separate hive, placed the 
chamber containing the brood above the 
queen-excluder, the queen being confined 
below, thus separating the young and 
emerging bees from the colony below. In 
1908 E. E. Coveyou advised placing the 
chamber of emerging bees above the supers 
to separate them still further from the col¬ 
ony. (See Gleanings in Bee Culture, 1908, 
pages 640-641.) This was further empha¬ 
sized by A. C. Allen in 1910 (American Bee 
Journal, page 94) and by Chalon Fowls in 

1915 (Gleanings in Bee Culture, 1915, page 
574). Mr. Fowls especially emphasized the 
importance of having all the young bees in 
the old brood-chamber above the supers, 
having only bees old enough to work in the 
fields in the new brood-chamber below. 

The Aspinwall non-swarming hive was 
based' upon the young-bee theory as the 
cause of swarming. It provided extra room 
for these young bees between the combs. 

Gerstung, however, carried his theory so 
far as to attempt to explain swarming as 
caused by an excess of nurse bees in pro¬ 
portion to the number of larvae to be fed, 
the unused larval food causing a physiologi¬ 
cal condition in the nurse bees bringing on 
the swarming impulse. He evidently quite 
forgot that when an artificial swarm is made 
by shaking there are no larvae to feed dur¬ 
ing the first three days; yet the bees are 
willing to give up swarming if properly 
handled, even tho these same nurse bees 
are shaken with the older bees and there 
should be a much greater excess of larval 
food than before shaking. Under condi¬ 
tions mentioned below colonies made up 
largely of older bees have been known to 
swarm, tho this is quite unusual. 

While a large proportion of young bees, 
no doubt, contribute to bringing on swarm¬ 
ing, they alone evidently are not always the 
cause. 

HOW FIELD BEES CONTRIBUTE TO SWARMING. 

During the honey flow from clover in 

1916 the plants apparently did not begin 


806 


SWARMING 





Aspinwall hive dissected, showing brood-frames and slatted dividers. 


to yield nectar until late in the forenoon, 
since the bees did not go to the fields until 
about 11 o’clock. During these hot forenoons 
the great army of field bees remained in the 
hives, crowded into the space below the 
frames and pushing upward among the 
combs, apparently waiting for the signal to 
rush to the fields. But few, if any, field 
bees could be found in the supers during 
the forenoons, but the brood-chamliers, es¬ 
pecially the lower portion, were literally 
jammed with these old workers. Just pre¬ 
vious to the honey flow the field bees had 
been confined to their hives by several 
weeks of almost continuous rain, and when 
the honey flow finally came they staid at 
home during the sultry forenoons waiting 
for the nectar to come. Excessive swarming 
was reported that season wherever this con¬ 
dition existed. 

The author has carefully gone over the 
back volumes of the bee journals for re¬ 
ports of seasons of excessive swarming; and 


in every case, excessive swarming was at¬ 
tended by some factor which caused the 
field bees to stay in the hives during the 
heat of the day, such as rain or the flowers 
yielding only a part of the day. 

While a large proportion of bees too 
young for field work is apparently condu¬ 
cive to swarming, if to these is added the 
great horde of field bees all trying to stay 
within the already crowded brood-chamber, 
the congestion and discomfort are too much 
for even the best-bred bees, which at such 
times often forget their manners and 
swarm most unreasonably. 

ONE FACTOR ALWAYS PRESENT IN SWARMING. 

Fifty years of accumulated experience of 
beekeepers waging a bitter fight against 
swarming indicates that one thing is always 
present in normal swarming, so far as the 
prime swarm is concerned, whether the hive 
is large or small, whether the colony is weak 
or strong, whether the queen is two years 










SWARMING 


807 


old or two weeks old. This one thing- that 
is always present is a congestion of bees 
within the brood-nest, bringing to the col¬ 
ony a feeling of strength or a need for ex¬ 
pansion. 

This, then, must be the cause of swarm¬ 
ing. The many other things, often men¬ 
tioned as the cause but which are not always 
present, are contributory to swarming only 
inasmuch as they may help to bring about 
the crowded condition within the brood-nest 
(not in the entire hive), which suggests to 
the colony its strength or need for expan¬ 
sion. 

If this congestion is brought about in 
weak and medium colonies by the colony’s 
confining its work to the brood-chamber, 
leaving the supers and remote brood-combs 
vacant and crowding the queen by sur¬ 
rounding the brood-nest with honey, the 
congestion within this little brood-nest is as 
real and as potent in bringing on the 
swarming impulse as tho the colony 
were 20 times as strong. The remedy is 
stronger colonies or a strain of bees less 
inclined to crowd the queen in this man¬ 
ner. If the congestion and discomfort are 
brought about by a lack of ventilation or 
shade, the remedy is obvious. If the con¬ 
gestion is caused by a preponderance of 
young bees which are inclined to stay in 
the brood-nest too long, the remedy is to 
invite these youngsters upstairs by giving 
a set of attractive empty combs immediate¬ 
ly above the brood-combs, or if comb honey 
is being produced, a skilful management of 
the supers to attract the younger bees into 
the supers to the greatest possible degree. 
If the congestion is brought about by field 
bees staying at home as they often do, 
even when nectar is plentiful, because the 
hive is already crowded and uncomfortable, 
the remedy is to invite more bees upstairs 
and give more ventilation if needed. How 
foolish for field bees to stay at home be¬ 
cause the hive is not comfortable, when by 
doing so they orly add to the discomfort! 

Congestion of the brood-nest is a matter 
of distribution of the bees rather than 
numbers, for the hive can be expanded to 
accommodate all; but the bees must be in¬ 
duced to expand their work also as the hive 
is expanded. If most of the bees can be 
induced to -leave the brood-nest, going 
either into the supei's or to the fields, all is 
well. If the congestion in the brood-nest is 


caused by field bees staying at home during 
the heat of the day waiting for the flowers 
to begin to yield, the problem becomes more 
difficult; but here again anything that adds 
to the comfort of the colony should help. 
Anyway, it is some comfort to know the 
cause of swarming even tho we have not 
yet learned how to remove it in every case. 

PREVENTION OF SWARMING. 

Under this head will be considered the 
methods which reduce the tendency to swarm. 
Swarm-preventive measures, as here consid¬ 
ered, are those which result in fewer colo¬ 
nies building queen-cells preparatory to 
swarming. After a colony has started to 
build queen-cells in preparation for swarm¬ 
ing, especially after the queen-cells are well 
developed, the beekeeper may apply some 
measure to prevent the issuing of a swarm, 
such as removing the queen or making an 
artificial swarm. These are really remedial 
measures instead of preventive measures 
and are accordingly discussed under a sep¬ 
arate head. See Remedial Measures. 

The reader will understand from the dis¬ 
cussion on preceding pages that swarm-pre¬ 
ventive measures which work well in one 
locality may fail entirely in another; and 
that measures which prevent swarming one 
season may fail to do so the next; and 
that measures which will prevent swarming 
in one colony may fail to do so in another 
colony in the same apiary. However, 
swarming can be greatly reduced for any 
locality during any season, and in some lo¬ 
calities entirely prevented by careful at¬ 
tention to well-known preventive measures. 

Following is a summary of some of the 
most important swarm-preventive measures. 
It will be noted that, with the exception of 
the first and the last items in the list, each 
of these is directly concerned with the pre¬ 
vention of congestion and discomfort with¬ 
in the brood-nest itself; or, in other words, 
the removal of the cause of swarming as 
given on the preceding pages. No doubt if 
all of the facts were known, even the first- 
mentioned item, that of the selection of 
stock less inclined to swarm, would also be 
included in the list of measures tending to 
reduce congestion and discomfort within 
the brood-nest, since some strains of bees 
are much more inclined to crowd the brood- 
nest than other strains. 


808 


SWARMING 


(1) BREEDING T!0 REDUCE SWARMING 
TENDENCIES. 

When things are allowed to take their 
own course in the apiary most of the in¬ 
crease is made during the swarming sea¬ 
son, and the queens are reared from swarm- 
ing-cells. The question has been raised 
whether such queens will not inherit more 
of the swarming tendency than those reared 
under the supersedure impulse. There can 
be no doubt that the indiscriminate use of 
queen-cells taken from swarming colonies 
will result in much poorer stock, but the 
fact that the queen-cells were built in prep¬ 
aration for swarming instead of for super¬ 
sedure probably does not change the ten¬ 
dency of the resulting queen toward swarm¬ 
ing. 

So far as is known, there is no objec¬ 
tion to the use of swarming-cells from colo¬ 
nies that are otherwise desirable, but that 
have been forced to swarm thru neglect or 
bad management. Neither is there any ob¬ 
jection to having queen-cells built in 
swarming colonies, the larvae for which 
have been transferred from the colonies 
having the breeding queens. Since swarm- 
ing-cells are built at the time the colony is 
quite prosperous such cells usually result 
in fine, vigorous young queens. 

The strain of bees can be greatly im¬ 
proved by killing the queens of any colony 
which prepares to swarm when there is no 
excuse for swarming, and replacing them 
with queens reared from colonies which 
show less tendency to swarm under the 
same conditions. 

(2). LARGE BROOD-CHAMBERS TO CONTROL 
SWARMING. 

In the colder climates, brood-rearing is 
usually carried on with a rush during the 
spring, and for a short time at least the 
colonies will have a larger amount of brood 
than in warmer climates. During this short 
(and intensive) brood-rearing period it is 
important that the queen shall have all of 
the room she can occupy for brood. If the 
brood-chamber is too small for the capacity 
of the queen, the colony will become crowd¬ 
ed and probably swarm. For this reason 
some beekeeepers prefer to use brood-cham¬ 
bers larger than the standard ten-frame 
hive of Langstroth dimensions. Some use 
the Jumbo hive, especially for extracted- 


honey production; while others prefer a 
hive even larger than the. ten-frame Jumbo, 
some advocating using these frames in 
hives holding eleven, twelve or thirteen 
frames. 

Those who use the regular standard hive 
usually add a second story in the spring as 
soon as the queen needs more room. Since 
it is for a short time only that more room 
is needed, one of the regular extraeting- 
supers is loaned temporarily to the use of 
the queen and becomes a part of a larger 
brood-chamber. After the peak of the 
spring brood-rearing period has passed, the 
queen can be put into the lower hive-body 
and the other one again becomes an ex- 
tracting-super, if extracted honey is being 
produced. Many comb-honey producers 
use the same plan, leaving on the second 
story until the beginning of the honey flow 
when the hives are reduced to a single story 
and the comb-honey supers put in place. 
The extra hive-bodies that are removed are 
then either tiered up on certain colonies set 
aside for this purpose, or are used in mak¬ 
ing increase. If no increase is desired, the 
extra hive-body, together with the extra 
combs of brood and honey and enough bees 
to take care of them, can be used to make 
a good-sized nucleus, which should be sup¬ 
plied with a ripe queen-cell and the hive 
placed close beside the original hive. At 
the close of the season the two colonies 
can be united by the newspaper plan (see 
Uniting Bees). In the majority of cases 
the young queen will be retained when no 
attention is paid to the queens, but to in¬ 
sure this the old queen should be killed. 

An excellent plan for supplying an 
abundance of room for early brood-rearing 
to prevent swarming and at the same time 
greatly stimulate brood-rearing with the 
standard 10-frame hive when producing ex¬ 
tracted honey, was described in Gleanings 
in Bee Culture in 1908 by E. D. Townsend 
as follows: 

E. E. Coveyou of Petoskey, Mich., has a 
very good plan for handling his bees during 
the fore part of the honey flow. He uses ten- 
frame hives, and before the honey flow he 
gives the colonies another story of combs 
without putting an excluder between. The 
cells of these combs should be of the worker 
size, for the queen is allowed full sway 
thru this story until the colony needs a 
third one. At the time this third story is 
given, the queen is placed below in the 


SWARMING 


809 


first story, a queen-excluder is put on, and 
then the third story of empty combs put 
over it. Finally, on top of all, the second 
story partly full of honey and brood is add¬ 
ed. This plan has the advantage of giving 
the colony an abundance of comb room and 
also an unlimited amount of breeding space 
for the queen during the critical swarming 
period previous to the honey flow. 

When the bees are wintered in a single 
story, the second story should be given a 
little before the combs in the lower story 
are completely filled with brood, honey, and 
pollen, and at least several of the combs in 
the second story should be old dark brood- 



-, 


QUEEN 
& BROOO 

— 

BROOD 

CHAMBER 


-?58 


Previous to the honey 
flow the queen occu¬ 
pies both stories. 


combs to attract the queen above promptly. 
Since in the North this second story should 
be given about the first of May (sometimes 
even the latter pait of April in well-win¬ 
tered colonies) the hives, if packed, should 
be left in the packing-cases and the packing 
material replaced around the upper story. 
If enough early honey is stored in the up- 


BROOD 


SUPER 

Q UEE N 

BROOD 

CHAMBER 




Queen is put below ex¬ 
cluder and brood plac¬ 
ed above the super. 

per story to crowd the queen there (which 
often happens with strong, well-wintered 
colonies in the spring even when weak ones 
in the same apiary are starving), a third 
story of empty combs should be given even 


tlio the main honey flow is still several 
weeks in the future. To save trouble when 
putting the queen down later, it is well to 
put the queen-excluder over the second 
story to keep the queen out of the third 
story. When strong colonies are managed 
in this way the queen usually abandons the 
lower story soon after the second story is 
given, but carries on her work of filling the 
second story with apparently increased 
vigor. 

After the queen has been above so long 
that most of the brood left in the lower 
story has emerged, she should be put down. 
This will usually be about three weeks after 
the second story was given if the queen 
went up promptly when the second story 
was given. To put the queen below, some 
prefer setting off the second story and 
hunting out the queen, when she is simply 
picked up and transferred to the lower 
story; while others prefer to shake the 
bees from the combs of the second story, 
to be sure that the queen is put below, in¬ 
stead of finding her. 

Strange as it may seem, putting the 
queen back into the lower story and con¬ 
fining her there by means of the queen- 
excluder is a swarm-control measure of 
great importance, just as inviting her into 
the second story was a few weeks previous¬ 
ly. At first thought one might expect that 
limiting the queen to a single story should 
increase the tendency to swarm. To have 
confined the queen to the lower story earlier 
in the season without having permitted her 
to go into the second story would result in 
swarming in many cases, but conditions 
now are quite different. 

The bees are now compelled to establish 
their brood-nest anew in the lower story, 
which at this time contains but a little 
brood. This brood is rapidly emerging, and 
the colony behaves much like a newly hived 
swarm. There is usually considerable pol¬ 
len stored in the lower set of combs, which 
probably retards the work of the queen to 
some extent; but, where the honey flow is 
short, this is often an advantage. The con¬ 
ditions are as tho an artificial swarm had 
been made, the swarm being in the lower 
story, below the supers and the parent col¬ 
ony above the supers, but all the bees are 
in the same hive. 

Nine or ten days after the brood was put 
up and the queen put'down, all queen-cells 























810 


SWARMING 


built in the top story not needed in nuclei 
may be destroyed and this former brood- 
chamber left on the hive as a super. It is 
not always necessary to destroy these queen- 
cells if this brood-chamber now on top is 
separated from the lower brood-chamber by 
at least two standard-depth supers. The 
emergence of young queens in the top story 
then usually causes no trouble. By pushing 
one of the upper stories forward far 
enough to form an opening at the back the 
drones can escape from the hive, and a 
young queen may be permitted to go forth 
to mate thru this opening. 

While this plan can not be depended 
upon everywhere to prevent all swarming, 
if properly put into effect it should be as 
•effective as or more so than a larger brood- 
chamber on account of the added stimulus 
to brood-rearing resulting from the estab¬ 
lishment of a new brood-nest above, then 
later below the excluder in a set of combs 
being rapidly 'vacated by emerging young 
bees. It should be noted that the standard 
10-frame brood-chamber is ample for the 
queen except possibly during a few weeks 
in the spring when she is permitted to go 
into one of the extracting-supers tempo¬ 
rarily. 

(3). IMPORTANCE OP PERFECT WORKER. 

COMB. 

Not only does a large amount of drone 
comb in the brood-chamber result in the 
rearing of a great number of drones, which 
can only be in the way, and help bring 
about a crowded condition within the brood- 
chamber, but also every cell of drone comb 
or every distorted cell that cannot be used 
for rearing workers really reduces the size 
of the brood-chamber so far as brood-rear¬ 
ing is concerned. 

(4). BARRIERS IN THE WAY OP THE QUEEN. 

There should be no barriers in the way 
of the free expansion of the brood-nest in 
the spring. If combs which are unsuitable 
for brood-rearing are between good combs, 
the poor combs stand in the way as a bar¬ 
rier. Sometimes rather than to cross such 
a barrier the queen will confine herself to 
one side of the hive and the colony will be¬ 
come crowded even with an abundance of 
empty comb beyond. This is more liable 
to happen with weak colonies than with 
strong ones; but, even with strong colonies, 
there should be nothing in the way of the 


free expansion of the brood-nest in the 
spring. If two stories are used for brood¬ 
rearing it is important that the combs in 
the lower story at least have worker-cells to 
the top-bar so that the queen will pass 
readily up into the second story. When 
there is an abundance of room in the second 
stoiy the queen, after beginning work there, 
often abandons the lower story entirely un¬ 
less she becomes crowded in the upper story. 
Before this happens, the queen should be 
put below again so that the colony need 
not be crowded for room for brood-rearing. 

(5). PROVIDING ABUNDANT VENTILATION. 

If the entrance is very much contracted 
it renders it extremely difficult for the 
bees to ventilate the hive properly. This 
is a very important factor, especially in a 
hot season. Therefore at the beginning of 
the honey harvest all colonies should have 
their entrances very much enlarged; and 
if any of the colonies still seem inclined to 
cluster and loaf, more ventilation should be 
given by placing four %-inch blocks be¬ 
tween the hive and the bottom-board. This 
will provide an opening on all four sides. 
While the bees will use the front entrance 
mainly, they will also fly from the others. 
With so much ventilation the bees, unless 
the colonies are extraordinarily strong, 
will go back into the hive and go to work. 
Some beekeepers go so far as to claim 
that the procedure will almost entirely 
eliminate swarming. 

During the swarming season the weather 
may be very hot or even sultry, but, no 
matter what the outside temperature, it is 
very important that the internal tempera¬ 
ture be kept down to about 96. If it goes 
much higher, a large portion of the bees 
will be forced outside. 

By giving plenty of bottom ventilation 
it will take fewer bees to keep the hive cool 
than when a restricted entrance is used. In 
this connection it may be well to explain 
that one set of bees will place themselves 
in such a position that they force a current 
of air into the hive, and another set forces 
the warm moist air out of it. After the 
bees have been heavily at work in the field, 
if one will light a match and hold it in 
front of the entrance, he will find there is 
a strong current of air going in on one side 
and another strong current going out at 
the other side. Sometimes the air seems to 


SWARMING 


811 


go in at both sides and come out in the 
center. See Ventilation. 

During extremely hot weather many 
extracted-honey producers use Dr. Miller’s 
plan of “staggering” the stories—that is, 
the second story is shoved forward enough 
to leave a ventilating space of half an inch 
at the back between the two stories. The 
third is shoved back to leave a similar 
space at the front between the second and 
third. The fourth is shoved forward, etc.; 
and, last of all, the cover is shoved for¬ 
ward to leave another half-inch space. 
When raising comb honey it is necessary 
to keep the supers warm enough so that 
comb-building may continue at night. 
Therefore stories should not be “staggered” 
in comb-honey production. 

When the hives are not blocked up to al¬ 
low additional ventilation a large space be¬ 
tween the bottom-bars of the frames and 
the floor of the hive is advantageous in hot 
weather. In hives as ordinarily made in 
this country this space is % of an inch, 
which is about as much as can be given 
without bees’ building combs below the bot¬ 
tom-bars of the frames, especially in comb- 
honey production. A space two inches deep 
or more would be better still, so far as 
swarming is concerned, if the bees would 
not build comb in this space. Such a 
space can be used, however, by putting a 
slatted rack under the frames to prevent 
the bees from building comb in this space. 
This affords a large amount of room 
for the field bees during the night as well 
as during the day if the flowers yield only 
a part of the day, and also provides an 
abundance of ventilation. 

In order to add to the space between the 
combs in the brood-chamber C. P. Dadant, 
who uses the large Quinby frame, prefers 
to have these spaced 1^2 inches from cen¬ 
ter to center. Mr. Dadant regards this 
wider spacing as quite important in reduc¬ 
ing the tendency to swarm. 

(6). GIVING SHADE. 

Practically the same reasons that apply 
for giving an abundance of ventilation also 
apply here. A colony in a hive that is 
exposed to the direct rays of the sun has 
a much more difficult problem in keeping 
the interior of the hive cool than when the 
hive is in the shade. Under the head of 
Apiaries, various means for shading the 


hive are illustrated and described. If a 
hive is exposed to the hot sun it requires a 
good many bees to keep up the ventilation, 
and these bees might otherwise be in the 
field at work. 

Painting the hive white adds to the com¬ 
fort of the bees, because the light color re¬ 
flects the rays of the sun and prevents the 
hive from being heated as much as would 
be the case if it were a darker color. 

(7). barriers of sealed honey around 

THE BROOD-NEST. 

Colonies that are weak or only of medium 
strength at the beginning of the honey flow 
are inclined to store the honey in the brood- 
chamber adjacent to the brood, thus sur¬ 
rounding the brood-nest with honey. When 
the brood-nest is crowded in this way, the 
bees are not inclined to pass over the fin¬ 
ished sealed honey readily to go into the 
supers when given. Such colonies, there¬ 
fore, block off and occupy only a portion of 
their hive, and crowd this limited portion 
even tho empty combs are given in the su¬ 
pers above. On the other hand, the strong- 
colonies readily expand beyond such bar¬ 
riers. For this reason it is often more dif¬ 
ficult to prevent swarming in colonies of 
medium strength than in strong ones. Bar¬ 
riers of this kind between the brood-nest 
and the supers are especially objectionable 
in colonies of medium strength. This part 
of swarm prevention, therefore, reaches 
back to the spring, the winter, and the pre¬ 
ceding fall and late summer management. 

(8) IMPORTANCE OF STRONG COLONIES. 

Strange as it may seem, it is usually eas¬ 
ier to prevent swarming in strong colonies 
than in weak or medium colonies. Strong- 
colonies expand readily in the supers when 
they are needed and push their work beyond 
barriers that would ordinarily stand in the 
way of expansion of weak colonies. In 
this way the bees of a strong colony dis¬ 
tribute themselves thruout the hive and su¬ 
pers, thus relieving the brood-nest from 
congestion. Not only for swarm prevention 
is it desirable to have the colonies uniform¬ 
ly strong in the spring; but, as is well 
known, this is one of the first requirements 
in producing a large crop of honey. For¬ 
tunately, therefore, this phase of swarm 
prevention is simply good beekeeping. 


812 


SWARMING 


(9) EARLY WORK IN SUPERS. 

Since the tendency to swarm is stronger 
during the early part of the honey flow if 
the colonies are strong in young bees at 
that time it is important that each colony 
expand into and occupy promptly the first 
super that is given. To accomplish this it 
is necessary that the first super be attract¬ 
ive to the young hive-workers. If supers, 
either for comb honey or for extracted 
honey, having only foundation be given to 
a strong colony just before the honey flow, 
the bees will not take possession of them 
and begin work on the foundation to any 
extent until the honey Uoav has actually be¬ 
gun. In the meantime the colony may be¬ 
come crowded for room. The addition of 
this super, therefore, does not affect the 
distribution of the bees until they take pos¬ 
session of and occupy the super, while in 
the meantime conditions for swarming may 
develop rapidly. On the other hand, if a 
super of empty combs is given to a strong 
colony some time previous to the honey 
flow, the younger bees in great numbers 
immediately take possession of the super 
and begin to repair the comb and to pre¬ 
pare it for use. 

The first super for extracted-honey pro¬ 
duction should be supplied with empty 
combs if these are available. If not enough 
empty combs are at hand for this, at least 
half of the frames in each super should 
contain empty combs. If no empty combs 
are available, some of the combs of brood 
should be taken from the brood-chamber 
and put into the super to induce the bees 
to move up promptly. 

The first comb-honey supers are usually 
put on later than supers for extracted hon¬ 
ey. They should contain some sections in 
which the combs are already built, which 
were saved from the previous year. These 
combs will induce the bees to occupy the 
super earlier than would be the case if only 
foundation is used in the section. 

It should be remembered that, in the case 
of comb honey, the room that can be occu¬ 
pied by the bees in the super actually de¬ 
creases from the time the bees begin to 
build combs until the combs are completely 
drawn out. This makes it necessary for 
some of these bees to go back into the brood- 
chamber, which is exactly what they should 
not do, so far as swarm prevention is con¬ 


cerned. The super workers forced out of 
the super back into the brood-chamber, add¬ 
ed to those emerging rapidly in the brood- 
chamber, give a large number of bees there 
which must remain unemployed until they 
are old enough for field work unless addi¬ 
tional super room is given. 

During the early part of the honey flow 
when swarming is imminent, additional su¬ 
pers should be added as the bees need them 
before any of the workers are crowded back 
into the brood-chamber. If the honey Aoav 
is good, the additional supers should be 
given as fast as the bees can be induced to 
occupy them, in order that the expansion of 
the Avork and the room in the supers shall 
keep pace with the oncoming of the young 
workers. Each neAvly added super should 
be so accessible, comfortable, and attractive 
that young bees will come up and occupy it 
at once, which they may fail to do if the 
newly added supers are too hot, too cold, 
too remote, difficult to Amntilate, or other¬ 
wise unattractive. During the latter part 
of the honey flow as the sAvarming season 
begins to wane, bees may be crowded as to 
super room to induce them to finish the 
work well and concentrate the honey in 
fewer supers, but by this time there is less 
danger of swarming. See Comb Honey, to 
Produce, subhead Tiering up. 

(10) room in combs for ripening nectar. 

It should also be remembered that the 
thin incoming nectar requires more room in 
the combs than it does after it has been 
ripened. Besides this the bees do not fill 
the cells full of thin nectar but place only 
a small amount in each cell in order that it 
may be more promptly ripened. For this 
reason it is necessary to provide more 
super room than would be needed other¬ 
wise. When adding supers it is well to 
keep in mind this extra need for room for 
ripening nectar as Avell as for the storage of 
ripened honey. 

(11) REMOVING ONE OR TWO COMBS OF 
BROOD. 

It is somtimes advisable to take out one 
or two combs of brood from the brood- 
chamber and place them in the super, put¬ 
ting in their place empty combs in order 
to give the queen more room if she becomes 
crowded. In addition to giving the queen 
more room, there is no doubt some advan- 


SWARMING 


813 


tage in having these young bees emerge in 
a super, possibly at the top of the hive, re¬ 
mote from the brood-chamber in order to 
bring about a better distribution of the 
young bees thruout the hive. This plan is 
not so well adapted to comb-honey produc¬ 
tion altho some who produce comb honey 
remove one or two frames of brood from 
colonies that are crowded, giving these re¬ 
moved combs to nuclei or weak colonies. 

( 12 ) DESTROYING QUEEN-CELLS. 

In some cases destroying queen-cells is 
really a remedial measure; but, if destroyed 
when first started and more super room or 
more ventilation is given at the same time, 
it may be proper to consider destroying 
queen-cells as a preventive measure. There 
are same very nice points in cell-killing. As 
Dr. Miller had the largest experience of 
any man in the United States, if not in the 
world, the author asked him to give his 
views; and the reader will do well to go 
over very carefully what he said: 

I have yours asking some questions about 
cutting out cells to combat swarming, and 
proceed to reply. We don’t call it cutting 
cells here, but “killing cells,” the term 
“cutting cells” being applied to cutting 
out ripe queen-cells that are to be used for 
rearing queens. When we find queen-cells 
constructed as a preparation for swarming, 
we nei r er cut them out. If a cell contains a 
larva several days old, it is simply mashed 
with the end of the hive-tool. If an egg or 
a small larva is in the cell, it may be mashed 
or the egg or larva may be dug out. In 
either case the work is very quickly done, 
and a very slight defacement will cause the 
bees to reject the cell. 

We begin looking for swarming cells just 
as soon as we think there is any danger of 
their being started, or a little before. The 
first time we look in a few of the strongest 
colonies—perhaps the first of June, before 
the bees begin to store from white clover— 
and if we find no cells started in these we 
go no further, for if the strongest have not 
thought of swarming the weaker ones may 
be trusted for a time longer. After that we 
try again in eight or ten days. Ten days may 
be as well as a shorter time. Indeed, as the 
young queen will be started from the egg 
there is no danger that she will go off with 
a swarm under fifteen days. But if we go 
beyond ten days, complications may arise bv 
means of swarming with the old queen, and, 
as there is some danger of delays from rainy 
weather or other cause, it is not a bad nlau 
to make eight days the period. Then if it 
is delaved a dav or two for any cause, we 
are still all right. 

The second time we look jsgaii) in the 


strongest colonies, and if no cells are found 
in these we go no further. But whenever we 
find one or more cells started in any one of 
these strongest colonies, then every colony 
must be examined. At least that will be the 
way early in the season; later on there will 
be exceptions. 

Some one may ask at what stage of the 
growth of queen-cells they are destroyed. 
At any or all stages. In fact, no thought is 
given to whether advanced cells or only eggs 
are to be found. Every eight or ten days we 
go thru each colony and kill all cells found. 

At the first overhauling and at any sub¬ 
sequent one so long as no cells have been 
found at a previous overhauling, the bees 
are shaken from each comb. One sharp shake 
will usually leave the comb clean enough. 
This, allows the cells to be more easily seen, 
whereas if all the bees are left on, some cells 
may escape detection. If no cell is found, 
then the page of the colony is found in the 
record book, and the entry “no c.” is made 
after the date. Some years we have omitted 
such entry so long as no cells have been 
found in the colony that season, leaving it 
to be understood that so long as no entry 
as to cells appears, no cell has been found. 
But it is a little safer to' make the entry, 
for then we can be sure that we have not 
killed cells and forgotten to make the entry. 

When at any time cells are found, they are 
of course killed, and the entry of that kill¬ 
ing is made with some degree of particu¬ 
larity. The entry “k 1 eg” means killed 
one egg; “k 2 eg” means killed two eggs; 
“k 1 c” means killed one unsealed cell; 
“k 1 s c” means killed one sealed cell. 
Often there will be killed one or more eggs 
and one or more grubs, when the short but 
comprehensive entry will be made, “kc,” 
meaning killed cells. Indeed, that is the 
most common entry made. 

After the first time around, before open¬ 
ing a hive, the book is always consulted as 
to previous history, and if cells have been 
previously killed it is a matter of some 
judgment as to what is to be done. If the 
previous entry was “ke” there is a good 
chance that the bees are bent on swarming, 
and it will not do to shake the bees off 
the comb, for we may want to find the 
queen, and stirring up the colony by shaking 
the bees would make the finding difficult. So 
the combs are carefully examined without 
shaking the bees off. If no cells are found 
after thus looking over the combs, or at 
least a good part of them, then the bees are 
shaken off the combs and a thoro examina¬ 
tion made. Instead of this, we are more 
likely to find a number of cells well ad¬ 
vanced, in which case some sort of treat¬ 
ment that involves finding the queen will 
usually be decided upon, and the queen will 
be found before any combs are shaken. This 
shows the importance of examining the rec¬ 
ord before opening the hive, for without 
that we would not know whether to shake 
the combs or not. 

The beginner is very likely to think that 


814 


SWARMING 


all that is necessary to prevent swarming is 
to continue regularly killing cells, believing 
that there will be no swarming so long as no 
ceils are allowed to approach the sealing 
stage. But it doesn’t work out that way. 
After a colony once fully gets into the no¬ 
tion of swarming, it seems only to make it 
more stubborn to have its cells killed, and 
finally it may swarm with nothing further 
than eggs in queen-cells, if indeed there is 
that much preparation. 

So it is a matter of some nicety to decide 
when it is wise to continue to depend upon 
killing cells and when to resort to some 
other measures. Suppose a colony had cells 
killed June 10, and it is again visited June 
18, 19, or 20, and at this time nothing fur¬ 
ther than eggs are found in queen-cells. No 
trouble to decide in this case. Kill the eggs, 
and continue killing them each time no fur¬ 
ther advance is made. It sometimes happens 
that eggs are found upon one or two visits, 
and then the bees go thru the rest of the 
season without any further thought of 
swarming. 

Suppose, however, that in the same hive, 
upon visiting it June 18 or 20, we find 
queen-cells in number, some of them well 
advanced or even sealed. In this case it 
will be useless to think of depending upon 
any further cell-killing. 

Between these two extremes, only eggs 
and many advanced cells, come all degrees 
of advancement, and it is not easy to know 
where to draw the line. If only small lar¬ 
vae are found, they may be considered the 
same as eggs, and killing cells continued. 
Something depends on the number of cells 
found. If not more than three or four, even 
tho quite well advanced, it may be counted 
safe merely to kill them. Something, too, 
depends upon the time. Early in the sea¬ 
son the bees are more persistent about 
swarming, whereas later the killing of cells 
may be more relied on, even tho well ad¬ 
vanced. Also cells late in the season may 
mean superseding the queen, especially if 
the cells be few in number. 

It is no little trouble to keep killing cells 
every eight or ten days, and the question as 
to how efficient the plan is is a fair one. 
Also, it is a matter of some consequence to 
know what bearing this sort of management 
has upon the crop. These questions may be 
fairly well answered by quoting from Glean¬ 
ings in Bee Culture for 1905, page 1174, 
where I reported: 

“Of 160 colonies run for comb honey that 
were fair subjects for comparison, 13% per 
cent went thru the season without ever of¬ 
fering to start queen-cells; 12% per cent 
started cells one or more times, but gave it 
up when their cells were destroyed; and 73% 
per cent seemed so bent on swarming that 
they were treated by being kept queenless 
ten or fifteen days. The colonies that were 
left with their queens all the time aver¬ 
aged 36% per cent more sections than those 
that were treated. But that’s better than 


they would have done if. left queenless for 
twenty-one days, which would have been 
the case practically if swarms were shak¬ 
en.” Altho it is mentioned that treatment 
was given that left colonies queenless ten 
or fifteen days, it should be said not often 
did the time extend beyond ten days. 

Of course seasons differ: but likely enough 
1905 was about the average. It should be 
remembered that this was with 8-frame hives 
run for section honey. With larger hives, or 
with extracted honey, the result would have 
been better. 

One trouble with so much shaking of bees 
off the combs is that it sometimes happens 
that on a certain visit we find a colony with 
no cells and then at the next visit queenless, 
the queenlessness in some way no doubt 
caused bv the operator. 

I said that early in the season every col¬ 
ony must be examined and cells killed, but 
later in the season there were exceptions. 
Those exceptions become more numerous as. 
the season advances, and occur whenever a 
young queen of the current season’s rearing 
is introduced. We then write in the record 
book the word “Pass,” and for the rest of 
the season that hive will not again be 
opened. It is possible that a colony with 
such a young queen may swarm, but it so 
rarely happens that it is not worth while 
to keep watch for it. When a colony is 
treated for swarming, if its queen is not a 
little better than the average, it is always 
desirable that she shall be replaced by a 
young queen, and thus the ranks of the 
“Passers” are constantly recruited, and the 
work of killing cells is lightened. 

When it is best to stop the business of 
killing cells it is not easy to say; but hardly 
much before the waning of the fall flow. 
If continued too late it may interfere with 
those colonies that want to supersede their 
queens. But killing cells in the later months 
is by no means so important as earlier, for 
a swarm in August will interfere very little 
with the crop as compared with one in June. 


REMEDIAL MEASURES. 

After everything has been done that is 
possible to prevent swarming, conditions 
beyond the control of the beekeeper may 
bring about preparations for swarming in 
some of the colonies. When any colony per¬ 
sists in building queen-cells preparatory to 
swarming and refuses to yield to preven¬ 
tive measures it is necessary either to ap¬ 
ply a remedy to prevent the issuing of the 
swarm or permit the swarm to issue and 
hive it as previously described. When the 
beekeeper can be among his colonies every 
day during the swarming season it is usu¬ 
ally just as well to permit the bees to com¬ 
plete their program as to swarming and to 


SWARMING 


815 


hive the swarms that issue in such a man¬ 
ner that the crop of surplus honey shall not 
be reduced. (See After-swarming.) A bee¬ 
keeper who operates out-apiaries or one 
who is away from the bees during the day 
finds it necessary to treat the colonies to 
prevent the issuing of swarms at a time 
when he can not be in the apiary. 

Generally speaking, there are two reme¬ 
dial measures which will satisfy the bees 
as to swarming without the swarm’s issuing. 
One of these is the making of an artificial 
swarm (see Artificial Swarms) ; and the 
other is the removal of the queen, destroy¬ 
ing all queen-cells at the time the queen is 
removed and again nine or ten days later, 
then introducing a young laying queen, or, 
in some cases, giving the colony a queen¬ 
cell. In the one case the beekeeper brings 
about a condition similar to that of the 
recently-hived natural swarm, and in the 
other case a condition similar to that of 
the parent colony. 

When the beekeeper expects to be absent 
from the apiary during the day during the 
swarming season he should use every pre¬ 
caution to prevent swarming. Then as the 
swarming season approaches he should ex¬ 
amine the strongest colonies to determine if 
queen-cells are being built in any of them. 
If any are found it now becomes necessary 
either to begin a systematic examination of 
each colony every week or ten days during 
the swarming season to find which colonies 
are preparing to swarm and to treat those 
which need treatment; or, to treat all the 
colonies whether preparing to swarm or 
not. Usually the first method is the one 
used. The uncertainty of weather condi¬ 
tions in many parts of the country during 
the swarming season makes it difficult to 
work out a system that gives good results 
year after year by which all the colonies 
are treated at the same time when produc¬ 
ing comb honey. In extracted-honey pro¬ 
duction, however, such a system can well 
be worked out to suit the conditions of the 
locality and the season. 

If the plan of treating only those colo¬ 
nies which prepared to swarm is carried 
out, it often pays to destroy queen-cells in 
those colonies which are just starting queen- 
cells. Some colonies will give up swarming 
if other conditions are favorable when 
queen-cells are destroyed, provided the cells 
contain only eggs or very §fng,lj larvae. 


HOW TO DISTINGUISH SUPERSEDURE CELLS 
FROM SWARMING CELLS. 

When bees are preparing to supersede 
their queens they usually build only a few 
queen-cells instead of building many as 
they do when preparing to swarm. Some¬ 
times only one or two queen-cells are start¬ 
ed, then later the bees may start other cells, 
so that there may be queen-cells in all 
stages of development from one contain¬ 
ing only an egg to one or more from which 
the young queen is almost ready to emerge. 
On the other hand, when preparing to 
swarm the bees usually start a number of 
queen-cells, sometimes as many as a dozen 
or more at about the same time, so that 
they are all in about the same stage of 
development. 

It is also possible to tell supersedure cells 
from swarming cells by the condition of 
the colony. In the case of supersedure 
cells there are usually indications of the 
queen’s beginning to fail, such as a some¬ 
what scattered condition of the brood, 
while in the case of swarming there is usu¬ 
ally an unusual amount of brood in the 
hive. It must be remembered, however, 
that colonies may start queen-cells under 
the supersedure impulse, and, if during the 
swarming season, the presence of these cells 
apparently causes them to switch over to 
the swarming impulse. 

REMOVING THE BROOD A REMEDY FOR 
SWARMING. 

When a colony is found having well-ad¬ 
vanced queen-cells during the swarming 
season, thus indicating that it will send out 
a swarm within a few days, it is not neces¬ 
sary to wait until the bees get ready to 
swarm, but a swarm can be made artificially 
at once. See Artificial Swarming. 

THE DEMAREE PLAN. 

The usual procedure when producing ex¬ 
tracted honey is simply to find the queen 
and put her, together with a comb contain¬ 
ing a small patch of brood, into an empty 
hive-body, filling out the remainder of the 
hive with either empty combs or frames of 
foundation. This new hive-body is now put 
in place of the old one, a queen-excluder is 
placed on top of it and the supers put in 
place above the excluder. The queen-cells 
are then destroyed in the old brood-eham- 


816 


SWARMING 


ber, after which it is placed on top of the 
supers as tho it were another super, which 
it becomes in fact after the brood has 
emerged unless it be taken away a week 
later to make increase. Instead of finding 
the queen some prefer to shake all the bees 
from their combs, shaking them back into 
the old brood-chamber and putting the 
combs of brood without bees into the new 




r 

BROOD 
& HONEY 


SUPER 

C3 



SUPER 


QUEEN 


BROOD 

CHAMBER 


The Demaree plan. The queen, together with one 
comb of brood, is placed in a new brood-chamber 
and the old brood-chamber is placed on top of 
the supers. 

brood-chamber. The parent colony is now 
on top of the supers and the artificially 
made swarm is below the supers, but all 
the bees are in the same hive. When treat¬ 
ed in this way the bees usually behave as 
tho they had swarmed, and go to work tvith 
great energy. 

Some seasons the swarming instinct is so 
strong that it is necessary to take away the 
comb containing’ brood which was put in 
the new brood-chamber after a couple of 
days or the bees may build queen-cells on 
this comb and swarm. Where there is trou¬ 
ble of this kind, it is well to put one or 
two empty brood-combs in the new brood- 
chamber at the time of making the arti¬ 
ficial swarm instead of giving a comb con¬ 
taining a small patch of brood. 

The bees usually build queen-cells in the 
old brood-chamber now on top of the su¬ 
pers. These should all be destroyed nine 
days after making the artificial swarm un¬ 
less there are at least two full-depth supers 
between the new brood-chamber below and 
the old brood-chamber above, when it ap¬ 
parently causes no trouble if young queens 


emerge above. One of the supers should be 
pushed forward on the hive far enough to 
permit drones to get out of the hive, since 
otherwise they would worry themselves to 
death in trying to get out, and obstruct the 
passage thru the excluder. 

REMOVING THE BROOD WHEN PRODUCING 
COMB HONEY. 

For comb-honey production the proced¬ 
ure is similar except that the parent colony 
is not placed above the supers, for this 
would result in the surface of the newly 
built combs in the sections being soiled from 
the old comb above. The removed brood is, 
therefore, put into a separate hive which is 
placed close beside the original colony, and 
enough bees are left on the combs of brood 
to take care of them. Usually the bees 
should be shaken from all but two of the 
combs of brood, those left on the two combs 
being enough to take care of the brood. The 
combs containing the best queen-cells should 
not be shaken, since to do so would injure 
the young queens in the cells. This parent 
colony in artificial swarming is to be left by 
the side of the artificially made swarm for 
a week or until about the time for the 
young queens to emerge, when it should be 
moved to a new location to prevent after- 
swarming in exactly the same manner that 
the parent colony in natural swarming is 
handled. See After-swarming. 

REMOVING THE QUEEN A REMEDY FOR 
SWARMING. 

If only those colonies which attempt to 
swarm are to be treated, it is necessary to 
examine the colonies every nine or ten days 
to determine which are preparing to swarm. 
When colonies are found that are building 
queen-cells preparatory for swarming, the 
queen should be taken out at once. If it is 
desirable to keep her, she may be placed in 
another hive together with the comb of 
brood in which she was found, thus form¬ 
ing a nucleus. If the queen is not of spe¬ 
cial value she can be killed at once. 

This plan for swarm control requires as a 
preparation that queen-cells be started in 
time to have young laying queens about ten 
days after the old queen is taken out of 
the hive. It is, therefore, necessary to start 
queen-rearing a little before the colonies be¬ 
gin to build cells preparatory to swarming, 
and for best results there should be enough 














SWARMING 


817 


nuclei so that young’ laying queens will be 
on hand in sufficient numbers to replace all 
queens whose colonies prepare to swarm. 
While the old queen could be saved in a 
nucleus and given back to the colony after 
an interval of ten days or more of queen- 
lessness, it is much better to rear young 
queens for this purpose and kill the old 
one. 

If queen-cells have already been started, 
these should all be destroyed at the time 
the queen is removed. Ten days later all 
queen-cells should again be destroyed, care 
being taken that none are overlooked. Either 
at this time or a few days later a young lay¬ 
ing queen should be introduced by means 
of an ordinary introducing cage. (See In¬ 
troducing.) To do this the cage may sim¬ 
ply be thrust into the entrance of the hive 
with the candy end of the cage inward. 
When the cage is placed in the entrance in 
this way it is not necessary to open the 
hive to see if the queen has been released. 

Some beekeepers, instead of introducing 
a young laying queen, destroy all but one 
of the queen-cells and permit the colony to 
raise its own queen from this remaining 
queen-cell. A serious objection to this plan 
is that the swarming instinct is still present 
at the time this young queen emerges, which 
sometimes results in a swarm issuing led by 
this young queen, thus leaving the colony 
hopelessly queenless, and, if in an out- 
apiary, the swarm absconds if no one is 
present to hive it. 

Those who have not provided for young 
laying queens at the swarming season can 
still use this plan by taking out the old 
queen, keeping her in a nucleus for ten days 
or more, then reintroducing her into the col¬ 
ony, being sure, of course, that no queen- 
cells are permitted to develop in the mean¬ 
time. It is not necessary to return the same 
queen, but a queen may be taken from any 
colony for this purpose. If the original 
queen is to be returned to the colony she 
may simply be caged within the hive during 
the interval of ten days instead of being 
taken from the hive, and then a few days 
after the queen-cells have been destroyed 
she may be released among the bees. When 
the old queen is returned to the colony in 
this way, however, the tendency to prepare 
to swarm again is considerably greater than 
when a young queen that has just begun to 
lay is given. A colony to which a young 


queen is given after an interval of queen- 
lessness of at least ten days is more nearly 
like the parent colon 3 r in nature and usually 
does not prepare to swarm again the same 
season. 

It sometimes happens that a colony 
swarms during the absence of the bee¬ 
keeper, and if the queen is clipped she may 
be lost. In such cases the colony has really 
dequeened itself, and the subsequent treat¬ 
ment is the same as tho the beekeeper had 
taken the queen away at the time the swarm 
issued. It must be remembered, however, 
that the swarm usually does not issue until 
about the time the queen-cells are sealed, 
and it is therefore not safe to wait ten days 
before destroying the queen-cells. The only 
safe plan is such cases is to destroy all 
queen-cells five days after the swarm issued, 
then again five days later when a young 
laying queen may be introduced. 

Where a system for dequeening all the 
colonies and later requeening them is work¬ 
ed out suitable to the conditions of the lo¬ 
cality, there are various plans by which the 
removal of the queen can be greatly simpli¬ 
fied. For instance, the queen can be per¬ 
mitted to occupy two stories during the 
building-up period of spring; then, four or 
five days before the queens are to be taken 
away, a queen-excluder can be inserted be¬ 
tween the two hive-bodies, thus confining 
the queen to one of them. On the fourth 
day afterward or later, one can quickly de¬ 
termine which hive-body the queen is in by 
looking for eggs, for by this time all of the 
eggs in the hive-body from which the queen 
was excluded will have hatched. The hive- 
bodv, which contains eggs and therefore 
the^queen, can then be taken away, sup¬ 
plied with a bottom and cover, and set be¬ 
side the original hive. If this is done at 
the beginning of the honey flow the supers 
can then be put on the original hive, which 
can now be left alone for ten days when 
all the queen-cells must be killed and a 
young laying queen introduced. Great 
care is necessary in destroying the queen- 
cells to see that none are overlooked. In 
order to be sure of this it is usually neces¬ 
sary to shake the bees off from the brood- 
combs, for sometimes queen-cells are hidden 
away in the space between the lower edge 
of the comb and the bottom-bar of the 
frame. The old queen in the brood-chamber 
which was removed can be easily found 


818 


SWEET CLOVER 


after most of the bees have gone back to 
the original hive—much more easily than 
she could have been found in the full col¬ 
ony. 

SWEET CLOVER (. Melilotus . Greek 
word from meli, honey, and lotus, a legumi¬ 
nous plant).—There are about 20 species of 
sweet clover, natives of Asia, Africa, and 
Europe. Nine species are found in France. 
Four have been introduced into North 
America. The sweet clovers were known to 
the ancient Greeks more than 2,000 years 
ago, and in the Mediterranean region were 
valued as honey plants, as well as for for¬ 
age and green manure. They are now dis¬ 
tributed over the entire civilized world, 
usually growing on waste land; but in Aus¬ 
tralia, South Africa, and the United States 
they have been cultivated with remarkable 
success. Many species of sweet clover have 
been more or less utilized in the old world, 
but those most commonly cultivated in the 
United States are: The white biennial 
sweet clover ( Melilotus alba), white annual 
sweet clover (Melilotus alba var. annua), 
the large yellow biennial (M. officinalis), 
and the small yelloAv annual (M. indica). 
The white annual sweet variety, commonly 
known as Hubam, will be described farther 
on under a separate head. 

The large yellow biennial sweet clover 
(M. officinalis) is also called yellow meli- 
lot, balsam-flowers, heart’s clover, and 
king’s clover. It was introduced into this 
country from Europe, and grows well in 
waste places both in the northern and 
southern States. Yellow sweet clover is a bi¬ 
ennial plant, storing in its roots the first 
season a reserve food supply, which is util¬ 
ized in producing seed the second season. It 
closely resembles white sweet clover; but it 
has finer stems and does not grow as tall, 
seldom attaining a height of more than 3 to 
5 feet. The flowers are yellow, in long- 
racemes, and bloom about two weeks earlier 
than those of the white species. It is thus 
valuable to the beekeeper, since it affords 
bee pasturage earlier in the season. Nec¬ 
tar is secreted freely and the honey does 
not differ essentially from that of white 
sweet clover. It is less easily exterminated, 
as the mower frequently passes over the de¬ 
cumbent stems, which thus remqin to re¬ 


seed the land. It is much less generally 
cultivated than the white species. 

The small yellow annual sweet clover 
(M. indica), or bitter clover, grows wild in 
southern California and Arizona. It may 
easily be distinguished from the preceding 
species by its much smaller yellow flowers. 
The annual does not succeed well in other 
sections, and the biennial yellow sweet clo¬ 
ver should be given the preference. In Ohio- 
the annual was planted in a field which had 1 
been limed and inoculated with the proper 
bacteria. The seed germinated fairly well,, 
but the plants grew so poorly that the crop 
was a complete failure. Melilotus indica 
is the only one of the sweet clovers which 
will make a satisfactory winter growth in 
California. It is suitable for a green ma¬ 
nuring crop and has been used in the citrus 
groves of both California and Arizona. The 
annual white sweet clover (Hubam) prob¬ 
ably would do well there; but at this writ¬ 
ing it has not been tried. 

The seed of the annual yellow is largely 
obtained from the screenings of wheat, and 
unless thoroly recleaned is likely to con¬ 
tain much weed seed. Many samples of 
this seed also show from 5 to 20 per cent 
of hard seeds, which do not germinate the 
first season. It is advisable, therefore, to 
sow from 20 to 35 pounds of seed per acre, 
when all the land in the orchard is planted. 
The seed is very small and should be broad¬ 
casted in dry soil and lightly harrowed into 
the surface. The land should then be irri¬ 
gated as completely as possible in order to 
obtain a uniform stand. In the citrus sec¬ 
tions bitter or annual yellow clover should 
be sown by the middle of October or a satis¬ 
factory growth can not be obtained by 
ploughing time. When used as a green 
manure, it has increased the yield of the 
following crops more than any other le¬ 
gume listed in this section. It is practically 
immune to the attacks of plant-lice. 

White sweet clover (ill. alba) is also 
known as Bokhara clover, white melilot, bee 
clover, honey clover, tree clover and honey 
lotus. White sweet clover was introduced 
into the United States by European colo¬ 
nists as early as 1738, but its value was not 
recognized to an appreciable extent until 
within the last 30 years. More than half 
of the States passed laws classing sweet 
clover gs a noxious weed, Supervisors of 


SWEET CLOVER 


819 


roads were required in Ohio to mow it as 
well as Canada thistle, burdock, teasel, and 
other pernicious plants. Many farmers de¬ 
voted a large amount of their time to en¬ 
deavors to eradicate it, and there yet re¬ 
main a few uninformed persons who re¬ 
gard it as a dangerous weed. But gradu¬ 
ally its value became recognized, and today 
there is not an agricultural experiment sta¬ 
tion in this country that does not recognize 
its worth and approve of its cultivation. 

White biennial sweet clover is an herb 
with smooth branching stems, and com¬ 
pound leaves composed of three oblong 
leaflets. The first season it grows 18 to 20 
inches tall and stores up in a very large 
taproot reserve foods for a rapid and vig¬ 
orous growth the following season. The 
second year it makes a growth of 8 to 12 
feet, blooms profusely, and dies after ma¬ 
turing its seed. The small white flowers re¬ 
semble those of white clover, but are in 
long slender racemes instead of heads. The 
pod is egg-shaped, wrinkled, and contains 
a solitary seed. Young plants resemble al¬ 
falfa, both species belonging to the legume 
family; but it may readily be distinguished 
by the color of its bloom. 

The plant has a strong odor, and the 
leaves a bitter taste due to cumarin. Cu- 
marin is a vegetable substance usually ob¬ 
tained from the Tonka bean, but also oc¬ 
curring in sweet clover and some other 
plants. It is well known to physicians and 
has long been used as a corrective, tonic, 
and antiseptic in intestinal disorders. It 
imparts a characteristic flavor to certain 
kinds of Swiss cheese. Cumarin is believed 
to lessen the danger of bloating in cattle, 
which sweet clover causes much less fre¬ 
quently than the time clovers and alfalfa. 
It is much less bitter in early spring than 
later in the season. Cattle may at first 
refuse to eat the hay, but by sprinkling it 
with brine, this difficulty may be readily 
overcome. Possibly cumarin contains a nar¬ 
cotic principle, for stock soon become fond 
of sweet clover hay, and often give it the 
preference to other forage plants. Much 
effort has been made to obtain a variety of 
sweet clover free from cumarin, both by 
selection and by hybridizing the white spe¬ 
cies with smaller less valuable species of 
this genus which are not bitter. An at¬ 
tempt has also been made to introduce less 


bitter races from foreign countries. It 
may, however, be doubted if this is desir¬ 
able, as the presence of cumarin may be a 
medicinal benefit, and the dislike of stock 
to the bitter flavor can readily be over¬ 
come. 

White sweet clover in many parts of the 
country is utilized for pasturage and hay 
and, to a less extent, for ensilage, as, with 
the possible exception of alfalfa, no other 
legume will furnish from spring until fall 
more nutritious forage. It is also a great 
soil-improving crop. By means of its large 
roots it breaks up the deeper layers of the 
soil, and when ploughed under adds a large 
amount of humus to its constituents. In 
common with other legumes it increases the 
amount of nitrogen in the soil by the aid of 
the nitrogen-fixing bacteria which live in 
the tubercles on the roots. It is also a valu¬ 
able honey plant, secreting nectar freely in 
all sections of the country. In the follow¬ 
ing pages of this article its uses will be 
described at greater length. 

WIDE DISTRIBUTION AND ADAPTABILITY. 

White sweet clover is adaptable to great 
extremes of climate and soil, and will pro¬ 
duce a valuable crop of forage in sections 
where alfalfa and red clover will not suc¬ 
ceed. It is as vigorous in the severe cli¬ 
mate of Quebec, Canada, as in middle Ala¬ 
bama. It thrives in the semiarid regions of 
Utah and Colorado as well as in western 
Washington, where there is a rainfall of 
over 100 inches. White sweet clover will 
grow on rocky limestone knolls and hills, 
almost bare of vegetation, and in a few 
years furnish excellent pasturage. I f 
planted on poor, sterile land it will deepen 
and enrich the impoverished soil and again 
render it productive; but it requires a com¬ 
pact seed bed, and should not be planted 
on loose sand. It is more tolerant of poor 
drainage, overflow, and seepage than either 
alfalfa or the clovers. It will grow well on 
wet lands near large reservoirs, which are 
useless for ordinary crops; but it can not 
be planted in the rice lands of the South. 
Provided they contain lime and the re¬ 
quired bacteria, both clay and sandy loams 
will yield a good crop of this legume. It 
will endure more acid than clover and more 
alkali than alfalfa. While it grows most 
luxuriantly in fertile ground it can be 


820 


SWEET CLOVER 


seeded for pasture on the poorest fields. 
Eroded and gullied lands with thin and 
much depleted soils can be reclaimed and 
built up by its use. It is often abundant by 
the roadsides, on canal banks, and in waste 
places. It is destined to be the most valu¬ 
able and most extensively cultivated legumi¬ 
nous crop in North America. 

SWEET CLOVER HONEY. 

White sweet clover honey is usually wa¬ 
ter-white, but in parts of the East and in 
California it is reported to have sometimes 
a greenish tinge; and, like alfalfa honey, 
under certain conditions the color may be 
light amber. The flavor is suggestive of 
vanilla; by many it is regarded as a little 
too strong, while others describe it as mild. 
When the nectar is secreted very freely the 
characteristic flavor is less pronounced; 
thus the flavor, like the color, is somewhat 
variable. Sweet clover honey in the West, 
is generally mixed with that from alfalfa, 
and in the central States with white clover 
honey, forming a blend that is superior to 
either honey alone. Honey-distributors 
prize it highly for mixing with other 
honeys. The body is medium. The honey 
from yellow sweet clover is essentially the 
same as that from the white species, but it 
blooms about two weeks earlier and in a 
few instances has been reported superior 
for bee pasturage. Sweet clover honey is 
now marketed by the carload, and the qual¬ 
ity is generally admitted to be excellent 
whether in the comb or extracted. It al¬ 
ways commands good prices. The present 
distribution and the future outlook of this 
honey plant deserve the careful considera¬ 
tion of every beekeeper. Its cultivation is 
receiving today more attention than that of 
any other fodder plant in North America. 

SWEET CLOVER AS A HONEY PLANT. 

Altho many experiments have been made, 
beekeepers have as yet failed to discover 
any honey plant which it is profitable to 
cultivate for honey -alone. Sweet clover is 
almost an exception, and thousands of 
pounds of the seed have been sown to ad¬ 
vantage along the roadsides, on railroad 
banks, in waste places, and in pastures. 
In no other way can the area of honey 
plants be so easily increased at so small a 


cost, and yet with advantage to all inter¬ 
ests. Sweet clover has already been a great 
benefit to bee culture in this country, and is; 
likely to exert a greater influence on its; 
future than any other honey plant. There 
are millions of acres of land, which will 
grow sweet clover, but are of little value 
for any other crop. Its present distribu¬ 
tion, therefore, deserves the most careful 
attention. In considering the regions in 
which it is of special benefit to beekeeping, 
it must be remembered that while it will 
grow to some extent on widely different 
soils this plant will not thrive except under 
proper conditions. It is not true that it 
will yield a profitable crop everywhere. 

To understand why there are sweet- 
clover regions and belts in various parts of 
the country and why in other sections it is 
of little value, the conditions to which it is 
well adapted must be briefly considered. 
Sweet clover will not grow well unless there 
is lime in the soil, hence it is abundant in 
limestone regions. On clay soils, which ap¬ 
parently contain little lime, it does not 
spread rapidly or produce a luxuriant 
growth; such soils, however, doubtless con¬ 
tain more or less lime due to the decompo¬ 
sition of the silicates. In Alabama and 
Mississippi the sweet clover belt is on a 
limestone soil, and where the clay soil be¬ 
gins the sweet clover ends so abruptly as 
to excite comment. It will not grow in the 
rice lands of the South or in land saturated 
with moisture, or in the desert regions of 
the Southwest. It requires a hard, com¬ 
pact seed bed. In a loose cultivated soil 
the seed does' not sprout readily, and the 
plants die out during a drouth, or north¬ 
ward freeze out in winter. But the area 
over which sweet clover succeeds is very 
large and its cultivation is yearly extend¬ 
ing. The regions in which it is of the 
greatest value to bee culture today are the 
north-central States (Ohio, Indiana, Illi¬ 
nois, Iowa, Wisconsin), Kentucky, the 
sweet clover belt of Alabama and Missis¬ 
sippi, the Great Plains region (Kansas, 
Nebraska, and the Dakotas), and the western 
highlands (Colorado, Utah, and Wyoming). 
It is also valuable in many other sections, 
but it is in these areas that it reaches its 
highest development and has largely in¬ 
creased (he prqductiqn qf honey. 


SWEET CLOVER 


821 


The claim has been made that sweet clo¬ 
ver in the Rocky Mountain regions pro¬ 
duces as much honey as alfalfa. While it 
is not cultivated as much as alfalfa, it 
grows well along the irrigating ditches 
where it is never cut. 

CANADA AND THE EASTERN STATES. 

Sweet clover is abundant in parts of the 
provinces of Ontario and Quebec, and in the 
vicinity of Toronto it covers hundreds of 
acres. It continues to bloom after white 
and alsike clovers have ceased to be of value, 
but tho the bees visit it freely it secretes 
nectar sparingly. In New England it is 
not important as a honey plant except in 
localities. At Middlebury, Vt., it is highly 
prized for fodder, green manuring, and as 
a weed eradicator. At Crawford, Mass., it 
grows well on the thinnest soil, even where 
the white limestone is exposed. An apiary 
of over 40 colonies obtained almost its 
entire surplus from this source. In the 
limestone soils of New York it also gives 
most promising results to both the farmer 
and the beekeeper; but it is still widely 
regarded as a weed in this State. In the 
sand belt in Schenectady and Albany 
counties the soil is so poor that alfalfa 
can not be raised; but sweet clover grows 
luxuriantly and is converting this impover¬ 
ished soil into a rich loam. At Jonesville, 
N. Y., the land along the railroad track 
was formerly covered with sweet clover, 
and the bees in that vicinity stored from 
75 to 150 pounds of honey per colony. A 
law was passed compelling the railroad 
company to cut all bushes and weeds along 
the track, and the honey yield fell to 25 
and 50 pounds per colony. In Pennsyl¬ 
vania sweet clover prolongs the honey flow 
fully two weeks after white and alsike 
clovers are out of bloom. It also gives 
good results in New Jersey, but its im¬ 
portance thruout this entire section is much 
less than in the following regions. 

IN THE NORTH-CENTRAL STATES. 

In Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, Wis¬ 
consin, and Michigan, altho sweet clover 
must compete with alsike and red clover 
and alfalfa, its cultivation is steadily in¬ 
creasing. In Ohio sweet clover grows 
spontaneously along tramped roadsides 


and on abandoned roads and compact land 
everywhere. At one time an Ohio statute 
compelled its cutting as a noxious weed 
like burdock and thistle, but today it is 
grown in fields under proper tillage by 
hundreds of farmers. At Rochelle, Ill., 
there are over 1,200 acres of sweet clover 
practically all in one field. Here it pas¬ 
tures three head of cattle to the acre, is 
raised for seed, cut for silage, and em¬ 
ployed to renovate the soil. A few years 
ago the average farmer in this section ridi¬ 
culed the claims of both alfalfa and sweet 
clover. On the banks of the Chicago 
Drainage Canal there are hundreds of acres 
of sweet clover. At Milledgeville it begins 
blooming early in July, and is in full flower 
when white clover and alfalfa have ceased 
to blossom. Where very abundant it has 
been known to yield nectar for two months. 
When pastured or mowed, it will bloom a 
second time and continue in bloom until 
after hard frosts. Bees have been seen on 
it in October, when few other flowers were 
to be found. While it stands a drought 
well, it yields better when there are fre¬ 
quent rains. It is not unusual for the bees 
to store from 50 to 100 pounds per colony. 
With sufficient rain the secretion of nectar 
is reliable in Illinois, but in very dry 
weather it has been known to fail entirely; 
for instance, one year at Kenney, Ill., dur¬ 
ing a severe drought, when vegetation gen¬ 
erally withered, the bees were starving with 
160 acres of blooming sweet clover within 
easy reach. 

In the western part of Iowa, where the 
land is rolling and hilly, some of the hills 
are so steep that it is impossible to plow 
or harrow them. When the seed of sweet 
clover is scattered over the tops of these 
hills it grows readily without further at¬ 
tention. In the eastern part of the State, 
in 1916, 320 colonies of bees produced 40,- 
000 pounds of honey and increased to 500. 
Near Delmar, Frank Coverdale, one of the 
earliest advocates of the planting of sweet 
clover, has 170 acres under cultivation. His 
apiary of 300 colonies store most of their 
honey from this plant. After very careful 
study he estimates that an acre is worth 
from $3 to $5 for bees alone. Altho the 
yield varies at different times, he obtains a 
surplus every year. At Onawa 60 hives 
stored 2,500 pounds of honey chiefly from 


822 


SWEET CLOVER 


sweet clover. Doubtless, in the near future 
the acreage in this State will be greatly in¬ 
creased. 

THE LIMESTONE HILLS OF KENTUCKY. 

Sweet clover has had a wonderful 
development on the limestone hills of 
northern Kentucky, and almost the entire 
territory of the three counties, Pendleton, 
Bracken, and Robertson, are devoted to its 
culture. Fifty years ago tobacco was grown 
on much of the land; in Pendleton County 
this was the chief agricultural industry. In 
this hilly country the fertile, tho shallow, 
surface soil was gradually washed away by 
heavy rains, and the eroded and often 
gullied fields became bare and unproductive. 
Farm after farm was abandoned, and in 
many instances sold for taxes. More than 
one-third of the population of Pendleton 
County moved away. Then sweet clover 
was introduced, apparently at first by 
beekeepers, and on the many limestone 
knobs and hills it found a most congenial 
home and multiplied apace, spreading in 
every direction. At first it was destroyed 
as a noxious weed likely to render the land 
even less valuable, but it outran the farmers 
and overran the fields. Gradually the soil 
was renovated and again became produc¬ 
tive. The farmers began to return, Avliile a 
part of the abandoned farms were bought 
by new settlers. Dairy farming and the 
sale of sweet clover seed brought great 
prosperity and comfort. 

THE SWEET CLOVER BELT IN ALABAMA AND 
MISSISSIPPI. 

In this section sweet clover is found 
chiefly on the limestone hills and knolls of 
central and western Alabama and north¬ 
eastern Mississippi, where the soil is thin 
and poor in humus. No other crop suc¬ 
ceeds so well on this limestone soil, which 
in three years it deepens and improves so 
much that the land may be profitably used 
for general farming purposes. In addition 
to renovating the fields, it prevents the 
washing of hilly land and is excellent for 
fodder. In the black soil of the prairie 
section of these States alfalfa is also 
grown. While sweet clover grows spon¬ 
taneously in the limestone section, it has 
not extended to any great extent to the 
clay soil immediately adjoining; and so 


sharp is the line of demarkation that the 
abundance of sweet clover on the limestone 
soil and its absence from the clay soil a 
few feet away have often been remarked. 
Thousands of acres are in bloom in June, 
July, and the larger part of August. The 
larger part of this area has been occupied 
by beekeepers, but along the line between 
the two States for 100 miles north of 
Meriden there are many good locations. 
The apiaries range from 140 to 170 colo¬ 
nies, and frequently 200 and rarely 500 
colonies are found in a single yard. At 
Fitzpatrick there are 900 colonies in 11 
apiaries, which are devoted chiefly to the 
production of bees and queens. Eighty 
pounds per colony seems to be a fair av¬ 
erage, and there is a well-authenticated 
record of 100 pounds per colony being 
stored for 10 years in succession. No re¬ 
ports of sweet clover failing entirely have 
been published. The farms are highly im¬ 
proved and there are many evidences of 
general prosperity. While sweet clover is 
the main reliance of the beekeeper, other 
honey plants are tulip tree, black gum, 
locust, and white clover. 

IN THE WEST. 

Sweet clover has not received as much 
attention in the West as in the East, and 
in the arid sections will not grow without 
irrigation. In many States it is still re¬ 
garded largely as a weed, especially where 
irrigation is practiced, and the water car¬ 
ries the seed upon the alfalfa fields. In 
the Great Plains region it is extensively 
cultivated in the States of Oklahoma, Kan¬ 
sas, Nebraska, and the Dakotas. In Nebras¬ 
ka there are many scattered fields, but it is 
not planted as continuously as in Ken¬ 
tucky or Alabama. In the eastern part of 
the sandhill district it has greatly improved 
the quality of the soil and increased the 
yield of hay. Since its introduction there 
has been an increase both in the quantity 
and quality of the honey. In Kansas at 
Garden City there are about 3,000 acres of 
white sweet clover, the owner preferring it 
to alfalfa. At Augusta one farmer prefers 
the yellow variety since it blooms earlier 
by about two weeks, and the bloom lasts 
until the second crop of alfalfa is in full 
flower. 

In South and North Dakota the future 


SWEET CLOVER 


823 


of sweet clover is most promising. It 
is already cultivated over a section extend¬ 
ing more than 200 miles north of Sioux 
City, Iowa, and is rapidly spreading north¬ 
ward and westward. It is expected that 
soon it will cover a million farms in the 
Dakotas, Wyoming, and Montana, and that 
this region will support thousands of colo¬ 
nies of bees and produce millions of pounds 
of honey. The opportunities for beekeep¬ 
ing in South and North Dakota deserve 
careful consideration. 

Already some townships of North Da¬ 
kota are reported to have 40,000 acres of 
sweet clover, and some farms or ranches 
have as many as 10,000 acres of the same 
plant. 

Of course, such immense acreages make 
some wonderful bee-pasturage and some 
enormous yields are reported. 

In Colorado and Utah sweet clover is 
grown to a considerable extent. In the irri¬ 
gated section surrounding Ferron, Utah, 
there are many farmers who are enthusias¬ 
tic in its praise. There are extensive areas 
of sweet clover in Colorado, but usually 
on land which can not be used for other 
agricultural purposes; from 70 to 100 
pounds of honey per colony may be ob¬ 
tained. There seems little probability that 
in the Rocky Mountain region sweet clover 
will displace alfalfa. It is rapidly spread¬ 
ing in central California and is common in 
moist valleys northward. 

AS A SOIL IMPROVER. 

Its power of renewing the fertility of 
eroded ground has been mentioned. By its 
vigorous growth and the decay of the large 
roots it will replace humus where it has 
been weathered away, and by its power of 
taking nitrogen from the air will bring up 
in fertility poor, run-down soils. 

The plant takes nitrogen from the a>ir by 
means of the nitrogen-gathering bacteria 
which inhabit nodules on the roots. This 
adds more nitrogen to the soil and makes 
possible the growth of other plants. The 
bacteria which inhabit the root tubercles of 
sweet clover and alfalfa are identical, or at 
least capable of living on either plant, and 
for this reason sweet clover is valuable as 
a pioneer crop for alfalfa, insuring proper 
inoculation of the soil. 

Besides, the large fleshy roots of the 


biennial sweet clovers store up a great deal 
of plant food the first year of growth, in 
order to get an early and running start in 
the spring of the second year. This supply 
of food, not altogether used up, goes back 
to the soil on the death of the plant, adding 
to and enriching the humus. 

The roots being fleshy instead of fibrous 
decay more rapidly and so hasten the in¬ 
crease of fertility. Their rapid decay 
moreover releases the stored-up nitrogen 
about the ends of the rootlets sooner than 
in the case of roots of the true clovers. 

The exceeding rapidity of the decay 
makes plowing an easy operation—much 
easier than plowing an old alfalfa field. 

In contrast to the other legumes which 
gather nitrogen in the same way but which 
need considerable humus, sweet clover 
thrives where humus is quite absent. This 
emphasizes its value as a pioneer crop. 

The long taproots, piercing the lower 
layers, make way for roots of other crops 
which are not able to penetrate where the 
ground has not been broken up. The con¬ 
tinual growth and decay of the heavy roots 
slowly convert sand into fertile soil. 

Where it is planted as a fertilizer, the 
application of manure or straw will help it 
to get a start and will hasten the work of 
soil restoration. 

“It is best to delay the sowing of other 
grass two or more years after the sweet 
clover has been seeded. Areas should not 
be pastured, but the sweet clover allowed to 
fall down and form a surface mulch. On 
badly eroded areas, sweet clover and the 
yellow locust form an excellent combina¬ 
tion.”* 

Sweet clover’s valuable power of soil 
renewal the Ohio Experiment Station sums 
up as follows: “It belongs with the clovers, 
and it may be used to improve the land on 
which it grows. This appears to be its 
mission. It occupies lands which have 
become unfit for good growth of other 
forage plants. Its rank then is as a useful 
forage plant, capable of increasing the 
fertility of land.” 

RUN-DOWN LAND RESTORED. 

One of the most characteristic examples 
of this service to the land is its work in 

* Ohio Experiment Station, Circular 129. 



824 


SWEET CLOVER 


alkali regions of Colorado. In some places 
irrigation and the growth of alfalfa for a 
number of years had forced the alkali out 
of the earth and on to the surface. The 
alfalfa roots, piercing the layers of the 
subsoil, brought up saline and other depos¬ 
its which in turn destroyed the life of the 
plants. 

Nothing but a kind of salt grass could 
be made to grow. Whole farms and towns 
were deserted. Finally farmers accidentally 
discovered that sweet clover would grow 
where nothing else would, that cattle could 
be pastured on it successfully, and that it 
could be used for hay or harvested for the 
seed. 

Finally—and this is most important— 
the alkali deposits on the surface and in 
the subsoil somewhat began to disappear. 
Now alfalfa again is grown. The crops are 
rotated with sweet clover and the soil 
maintained in its fertility. 

Lands of this nature, formerly unfit for 
alfalfa, corn, or wheat, now yield immense 
crops of all three. In some cases the value 
of farms in Kansas, Oklahoma, Missouri, 
Nebraska, Colorado, Wyoming, and Mon¬ 
tana, where sweet clover has been grown, 
has risen nearly 50 per cent. 

Sweet clover has transformed King 
Island, off the coast of New South Wales, 
from an island of useless sand dunes into 
one of the best grazing regions in the 
commonwealth. Sown on white beach sand, 
sweet clover changed the character of the 
soil until at the end of five years much of 
it had become dark brown in color, and in 
some places almost black. Each year it is 
improving the value of the land. At 
present the export trade of King Island 
consists of fat cattle, dairy produce, and 
horses, and by far the most extensively 
used fodder is sweet clover. 

AN EXCELLENT PASTURE. 

As a pasture, sweet clover is very satis¬ 
factory. According to an analysis by the 
Wyoming Experiment Station, it does not 
differ greatly from alfalfa in food content. 

Altho cattle will sometimes refuse grass 
in order to feed on sweet clover, it is 
sometimes a little difficult to get them to 
acquire an appetite for its rather bitter 
leaves. For this reason it is sometimes a 


little difficult to get them started. To cre¬ 
ate this appetite, they should be turned into 
the field early. 

“A man prominently identified with live¬ 
stock interests in the Middle West once 
told me that no self-respecting animal 
would eat sweet clover. I wish he could 
see my steers today,” wrote C. E. Gapen in 
the Country Gentleman , interviewing W. P. 
Graham, an Illinois sweet clover growel¬ 
and authority. 

Mr. Graham pastures three head of 
cattle to the acre with success, instead of 
the traditional “one head to the acre.” He 
maintains, by the way, that sweet clover is 
a better soil renovator than alfalfa. 

For pasture for cattle, seeding it with 
timothy or any of the native grasses gives 
best results. The sweet clover acts as a 
nurse crop for the timothy. The former is 
richer in protein and the latter in carbo¬ 
hydrates, two. constituents as necessary in a 
stock ration as in human. Then, too, if one 
fails, the other is likely to take its place. 

In pasturing hogs, an acre of sweet 
clover will do for about twenty slioats. A 
superior pasture is secured by seeding with 
oats on good ground. These fields will 
provide an immense feed for two seasons, 
and, if enough is left to reseed itself, the 
pasture will be perpetual. 

In regard to this, Mr. Coverdale, the 
authority already mentioned, says: 

SWEET CLOVER FOR HOG PASTURE. 

Nine years ago I sowed a sixty-acre field 
to white sweet clover, and also a forty-acre 
field. Altho the plants started, not a single 
one lived until winter, and the whole under¬ 
taking was a failure because of the poor and 
impoverished condition of the soil. Many 
others around here lost their seed in the 
same way. The tables have turned, however, 
for we are now securing perfect stands of 
this iegume. The hogs keep it down to 
about six inches high by continual brows¬ 
ing.. My neighbor has a field of alfalfa ad¬ 
joining this; and he has been changing the 
hogs from one to the other, but he is much 
better pleased with the results from the 
sweet clover, as it is so much more hardy. 
He has now bought seed to change his alfal¬ 
fa field into sweet clover, as the alfalfa 
won’t stand being pastured. A few more 
farmers in this neighborhood have secured 
seed, and will have hog pastures just like 
this one. 

The field sown is identical with our own, 
especially our hog pasture. I have come to 


SWEET CLOVER 


825 


the conclusion that every farmer can and 
should have a hog pasture like it. Every 
one around here who has come to my knowl¬ 
edge is very enthusiastic over the success, 
and is securing new supplies of seed to be 
sown next spring. This fact speaks louder 
than any other. My seed is all sold. 

One authority advises mowing the second 
season, if the white clover threatens to get 
too tall and grow woody. The guards on 
the mower should be turned very high in 
order to prevent killing any of the plants. 

No injurious effects on the stock can be 
noticed. On the contrary, it prevents bloat 
in cattle. After feeding it a number have 
reported that their cattle were troubled 
with very little digestive disorders. 

“At one time when we fed our three 
Jerseys for several weeks on sweet clover 
and bran, we decided that it made a little 
nicer butter than anything else.” This is 
from J. A. Green, Boulder, Col. 

Care should be taken in pasturing stock 
on sweet clover that they do not crop it so 
closely that it has no chance to bloom. 
They should be given a field so large that 
the plants will be able to reseed themselves. 
Fortunately the plant, particularly the yel¬ 
low biennial, is not easily discouraged. 

valuable for hay. 

Hay made from the sweet clover when 
the plant is in the right stage of growth, 
and properly cured, some farmers think 
equal to the best quality of hay from the 
cowpea vine or any of the clover family. 
It does not bring as much on the market 
per ton as clover or clean timothy, but it 
is often used instead of these. 

The quantity of hay to the acre is re¬ 
markable. The Utah Experiment Station 
found in 1892 that sweet clover produced 
more than double the yield of the clover 
and grasses compared with it. Other sta¬ 
tions have reported phenomenal yields. 

Very complete directions for handling 
sweet clover for hay have been given by 
Frank Coverdale of Delmar, Iowa, who is 
perhaps the best authority on sweet clover 
in this country. 

SWEET CLOVER AS A HAY CROP. 

When I first began to grow sweet clover I 
had little thought of ever using it for a hay 
crop; but as time passed I began to see that 
it would answer very well as a dry feed. We 
experimented with one patch, and, contrary 


to what I had expected, a fine hay crop of 
superior quality was secured. The first field 
that we tried had been sown about the first 
week in May, and had been pastured to hogs 
until August, when all hogs were taken off. 
By October 10 the sweet clover stood 22 
inches high, and then the mower was started. 
Just as soon as the hay was well wilted (but 
not dry enough to put in barns) it was raked 
into windrows and shaped into well-formed 
small cocks. These cocks, by the way, were 
just large enough so that they could be 
thrown on the rack in one good fork-load all 
at one time. This avoided scattering the 
leaves, which are as valuable as so much 
wheat bran. From this the reader will see 
the importance of putting up the hay so that 
it is not too dry when handled. All the 
handling, in fact, should be done while it is 
green and tough, when it can be gotten into 
cocks before any leaves will be scattered 
around. It should stand in cocks until it is 
sufficiently cured to keep in the mow. We 
have always found that this clover has kept 
well when managed in this way. 

White sweet clover is the worst of any of 
the clovers that I know of to scatter its 
leaves when overdry; and the leaves being 
thick and meaty are surpassed by those of 
no other legume. A dairyman is lucky who 
has a good winter supply of first-year sweet 
clover hay for his cows. 

The cocks referred to will stand many 
rains and still be very good feed. The 
Boots have had sweet clover exposed to 
rainy weather for several weeks after it had 
been cut. After it stopped raining it was 
gathered up and put into the barn. Strange 
to relate, the cows and horse, after all this 
wetting down, preferred it to good timothy 
hay. Sweet clover sheds water better than 
common clover, and it has a smooth stem. 
The common red clover, because of its hairy 
stem, holds moisture, and quickly turns black 
and becomes unfit for feed. I have been 
happily surprised to find that this first-year 
hay cures the nicest of any that I have made. 

I know of no other clover that can be 
depended upon to make a good hay crop the 
same year as sown.* It has often been tall 
enough to mow in July; but at this time it 
would be very dangerous to mow it unless 
care were taken; for as yet there are no 
crown sprouts started; and if one mows the 
clover close to the ground in July, much of 
it will be killed outright. On this account, 
if one wishes to mow the first clover in 
July, or before the crown sprouts start, the 
machine must be set so as to cut high enough 
to leave stubbles that have a few leaves to 
make a start for the next crop. When the 
crown sprouts are started, the mower may 
be run close to the ground with perfect 
safety. These crown sprouts on the first- 
year crop will be seen close to the roots after 

* This was written before the new annual white 
sweet clover was discovered. 



826 


SWEET CLOVER 


removing about an inch of dirt. This is the 
reason, by the way, why this clover will not 
winterkill. The crown sprouts are about an 
inch below the surface of the ground, so that 
a covering during the winter is a certainty 
—a point of vast importance to one who is 
depending upon it the coming season. 

MAKING HAY PROM SECOND-YEAR GROWTH. 

Handling the second-year growth is, per¬ 
haps, a more difficult problem, as the clover 
gets very rank early in the season before 
good curing weather arrives. In this respect 
it is just like alfalfa. We have never dared 
to try to cure the hay until along in June; 
but at the same time every effort that we 
have made has been successful; we have 
never yet made a forkful of poor sweet 
clover hay. With the improved variety of 
white sweet clover that we now grow, I am 
not sure but that we might cure the hay 
even as early as the first of June. If we 
could do this, the problem of making hay 
from second-year white clover would be 
solved, and two good cuttings could be eas¬ 
ily made during the second year, and a seed 
crop secured late in the fall. 

There are many ways in which this clover 
can be handled for hay. One plan, which is 
Amry successful and easily carried out, is to 
wait until the clover is in bloom, and just 
beginning to form seed. This is just before 
the leaves begin to show yellow. While the 
foliage is still on, go over the field with a 
self-binder and set in shock rows, two and 
two. These bundles will cure nice and green, 
and will dry very quickly. They should be 
hauled and stacked like oats until winter, 
when the bands may be cut and the bundles 
thrown into the mangers for any kind of 
stock. It will keep perfectly dry if' well 
stacked, and will make very satisfactory 
feed. The binder should be run high enough 
to leave behind a stubble which contains a 
few lea\ms, otherwise it will die out. If the 
leaves are left on, a nice crop of seed of 
excellent quality can be cut later in the fall. 

Another plan is to pasture the second-year 
clover with some kind of live stock until 
late in May or the first of June. The hay 
will then be just about right in good hay 
weather, and can be made just as tho it 
were a first-year crop. 

The reader may be interested to know that 
clover of any kind in this part of Iowa was 
Amry rare last year, as severe drouth had 
killed all other clovers except a little alsike 
here and there. Sweet clover grew as tho 
there had been no drouth. 

An Alabama farmer Avho owns 640 acres 
grows 160 acres a year of oats and sweet 
clover, and cuts the combination crop ex¬ 
pressly for bay. He says the hay when 
baled and marketed in Birmingham, Ala., 
sells readily at $15 a ton. 


Sweet clover should be cut as soon as the 
first blossoms appear. If left longer, the 
stems become woody and a great many 
leaves fall off when it is cured. The moAver 
should be started in the morning as soon as 
the dew is off. Great care should be taken 
to prevent sun-burning as this destroys its 
palatableness and nutritive properties. 

Sometimes the plants are high enough 
in May for mowing; but since hay cannot 
be cured at that time, the field may well be 
used as pasture until haying weather comes. 

Care should be taken against feeding too 
much of the hay. Stock may become 
cloyed and go “off feed.” 

Sometimes, just as in pasturing on sweet 
clover, it is a little difficult to get stock 
started to eating it. The taste for sweet 
clover is an acquired one. By moistening 
the hay with brine- they can usually be 
made to eat it. This should no more be 
urged as an objection to the use of sweet- 
clover hay than the fact that western cattle 
will sometimes refuse corn is an argument 
against the use of corn as a feed. 

Cut Avhile young and tender the fall of 
the first year, sweet clover may be put into 
silos just as corn. During the winter it 
may be fed to stock just as other silage. 
In 1914 W. P. Graham of Ogle County, 
Ill., fed steers with 70 tons of sweet clover 
which he hqd put up in a tile silo. 

SEEDING SWEET CLOVER. 

At almost any time of the year the plant 
may be sown and will mature, on account 
of the hard seed coat which makes germina¬ 
tion slow. 

In December, January,. February, and 
March the seed may be sown broadcast on 
the snow or on ground honeycombed by 
frost. Spring rains soften the seed coat 
and bring about germination in the spring. 
Spring sowing is the plan most popular in 
northern Kentucky where sweet clover 
makes its greatest success. 

Solving in March allows the seeds to be 
covered by the rains and alternate freezing 
and thawing. 

Spring sowings take place in April or 
May. At that time it is covered lightly 
and the soil firmed with a roller or drag. 
Some authorities belieA r e this spring sowing 
the best, all things considered. 

In a country where the winters are mild, 


SWEET CLOVER 


827 


seed may be planted in the fall. Part of 
the clover comes up before winter, but the 
growth is not so heavy the second season 
since the roots do not have time for devel¬ 
opment. What seed fails to germinate 
during the fall usually does so in the 
spring. 

Alfalfa must be sown between Aug. 15 
and Sept. 1 for proper development before 
winter, while sweet clover may be delayed 
as late as Oct. 1 with fair results. This 
makes it possible for sweet clover to be 
planted in fields in which crops are too 
late in maturing to admit of alfalfa. 

One of the peculiar characteristics of 
sweet clover, and one which, more than any 
other, has caused difficulty in its cultivation 
is its demand for a hard seed bed. Farm¬ 
ers have often been amazed to see the 
apparent ease with which the plant will 
appropriate railroad banks and flourish 
without any care whatever; yet in their 
own fields where it is planted as a forage 
crop it would do only indifferently. 

SOWING SWEET CLOVER WITH OATS. 

With regard to this, Mr. Coverdale, al¬ 
ready referred to, says: 

Secure from a druggist a few sheets of lit¬ 
mus paper. Stick a spade three inches into 
moist surface soil; withdraw the blade and 
put in a sheet of blue litmus paper and press 
the soil tightly against the paper for ten 
minutes. After removal, if the litmus paper 
has turned pink, lime is needed for best re¬ 
sults. However, if there is only a slight pink 
color on the paper, it is possible to get along 
without the lime. 

In either case, Early Champion oats is the 
best variety to seed with. Sow a third les3 
than the usual seeding of oats. It is a pretty 
good plan to inoculate the seed. I prefer 
the glue and dust method when it is done 
right. Select some soil three inches under 
the surface, where sweet clover has grown 
for years. Dry it in a cellar—not quite dry, 
but so it will pulverize nicely. Moisten the 
seed well with glue water that is just a little 
sticky when put between your fingers and 
thumb. Mix thoroly, allowing all the dirt 
possible to hang to the seed. I have had 
the best results by sowing this inoculated 
seed by hand, because in this way the dirt 
sticks to the seed, whereas a seeder rubs and 
grinds it loose. None of the extras need be 
put on where sweet clover has been growing 
in late years. Do not allow the sunlight to 
strike the seed before covering. 

It will pay to make a seed bed on the 
surface, cultivating it quite well, as the 
white sweet clover always makes a stronger 


growth on such prepared land. It is always 
the poorly cultivated as well as the corners 
that are missed that do the poorest. 

If the soil cuts in well, one good harrow¬ 
ing will be sufficient. If not, double and 
harrow. It probably would not pay to plow 
unless the land is a tough sod. I always 
plow such fields with good results, and se¬ 
cure a good deal of seed or hay the first sea¬ 
son. 

If one does not want to disk or plow the 
ground, I would advise sowing the seed in 
March just as the snow is going off. 

NEEDS A GGOD SEED BED. 

A good seed bed is necessary. Otherwise 
plants will be heaved out by the frost in 
the winter intervening between the first and 
second seasons of growth. Just enough 
loose earth should be placed on top to 
cover it. 

Prank Coverdale gives some valuable 
notes on seeding: 

“Sow sweet clover on ground well pre¬ 
pared, on a good mellow seed bed. A sod 
field that has been plowed the previous fall 
is best of all. Spring-plowed sod is all 
right, and will answer nearly as well, and 
will work into a good seed bed. Where the 
rainfall is sufficient, harrow the seed in 
shallow. But in arid sections a drill is best, 
putting the seed sufficiently deep to insure 
moisture enough to make sure of a good 
crop. 

“Sweet clover sown on such ground will 
grow a heavy crop of nodules on its roots; 
and by the end of the second season this 
ground will be thoroly inoculated, and can 
be depended upon for all time to come for 
routine methods, as these bacteria will live 
in the soil for several years. 

“A stand of sweet clover is usually sure 
when sown on land that would grow 60 
bushels of corn per acre, and a nurse crop 
sown with it of barley, wheat, or early oats, 
seeded somewhat thinner than usual. After 
the ground is inoculated from growing pre¬ 
vious fields, a fair cutting of excellent hay 
can be mown in October after the grain has 
been harvested, making a crop of small 
• grain and a cutting of hay the same 
season.” 

SWEET CLOVER—SOWING THE SEED AMONG 
GROWING CORN. 

Considerable has been written in various 
farm papers in regard to sowing sweet 
clover seed in cornfields just after the last 


828 


SWEET CLOVER 


cultivation. Ordinary broadcast seed- 
sowers cannot be used, because the corn¬ 
stalks and leaves are so much in the way. 
It has been several times suggested that 
sowing the seed while going thru the corn 
on horseback would answer better; and 
no doubt this plan is giving fair results. 

About three years ago a machine was 
advertised for the express purpose of 
sowing clover and other seeds between the 
rows of corn. One was purchased and 
given a trial with excellent results. This 
machine has some cultivator teeth to work 
the seed into the soil. The publishers had 
a splendid stand of sweet clover, sown 
in 1916. They also had a splendid catch in a 
field of corn where the corn was about 
ready to cut. 

The only trouble with the machine for 
sowing is that it sows more seed than is 
needed; and there is no way of controlling 
the amount of seed very accurately. The 
cultivator teeth work well; and with the 
rains that came after the seed was sown, it 
seemed that almost every seed had germ¬ 
inated. As a result, there were about four 
times as many plants as were needed be¬ 
tween the rows of corn. 

The machine for sowing is a revolving 
cylinder made of galvanized iron, and the 
whole thing is pulled by a horse. 

SWEET CLOVER STRAW AFTER THRASHING OUT 
THE SEED. 

Horses.and cattle after they get a taste 
of sweet clover hay will eat the dry stalks 
from which the seed has been thrashed; 
and even after these dry stalks have been 
out in repeated rains, so that any other 
kind of clover or hay would be ruined, the 
sweet clover seems to be hurt but very 
little. 

INOCULATION. 

Sweet clover is unable to make a satisfac¬ 
tory growth without the help of nitrogen¬ 
gathering bacteria in nodules on the roots. 
These bacteria, if they do not already ex¬ 
ist in the soil, must be placed there with 
the seed. The process of starting the 
growth of the proper bacteria is what is 
known as inoculation. The bacteria are 
usually present on lands where sweet clo¬ 
ver has been grown before. 

Inoculation may be accomplished easily 
by gathering soil from about the roots of 


roadside sweet clover, moistening the seed 
with a thin solution of commercial glue, 
and mixing a few handfuls of the soil with 
a peck of seed. Unless the seed is thoroly 
dried it may spoil. 

Another form of the soil-transfer method 
is to scatter between two and three hundred 
pounds of soil to the acre, the soil being 
taken from a field in which the plants show 
an abundance of tubercles on the roots. The 
government bulletin suggests that the seed 
be mixed with a small proportion of the 
soil and the remainder of the soil scattered 
broadcast and immediately harrowed in. 

The work should be done on a cloudy 
day or during the evening, or else the soil 
in which the bacteria are growing should 
be turned under before the sun’s rays have 
time to penetrate the particles. Sunlight 
destroys bacteria of all kinds. 

The soil may also be inoculated by the 
pure-cultured method. A bottle of the pure 
culture of the proper kind of bacteria is 
opened and mixed with water. This solu¬ 
tion is then mixed with the soil and the 
soil distributed over the field immediately 
after it has dried. The drying should be 
done in a shaded room away from the 
sunlight. This gives the sun no chance to 
kill the bacteria in the seed. 

MAKING MORE SEED GERMINATE. 

One of the great obstacles which have 
been found hitherto to the successful 
growing of sweet clover has been the un¬ 
even germination of the seed. At the price 
of sweet clover seed this has been indeed a 
fault. Some farmers have reported decided 
success in getting a stand while others have 
hardly been able to get a fair amount. 

Sweet clover often grows apparently of 
its own free will in the most unexpected 
places, but efforts at starting it have been 
hindered by the lack of germinable seed. 
This has been due not to the infertility of 
the seed itself, but to the hardness of the 
cellulose case which surrounds the germ. 

Sweet clover shares this fault with 
alfalfa and the true clovers. A large 
proportion usually fails to come up the 
first year and much of it never sprouts at 
all. In the wild state it has its advantages 
where seed falls in September and October 
and does not sprout until spring. By that 
time the rains and freezes have softened 


SWEET CLOVER 


829 


the seed coat so that moisture can get thru. 

Several schemes for reducing the loss 
due to difficult germination have been tried 
with varying success. 

In the national bulletin on sweet clover 
directions are given for soaking the seed in 
commercial concentrated sulphuric acid for 
half an hour, a plan which has been suc¬ 
cessful, altho somewhat dangerous. The 
acid eats away the impermeable seed coat 
sufficiently to enable the seed to absorb 
enough moisture to germinate. Tests made 
in the Department of Agriculture gave an 
increase in germination of 40 to 45 per 
cent. 

After the acid is poured off, the seed 
should be quickly washed, using running 
water if possible, as sulphuric acid becomes 
very hot when mixed with a small propor¬ 
tion of water. The seed should then be 
dried out quickly by spreading it on a 
board or canvas and stirring at intervals 
of two or three minutes. 

Since sulphuric acid burns flesh and 
wooden objects, great care should be taken 
in working with it. Vessels used for treat¬ 
ing the seed should be of earthen or 
enameled ware. 

After testing, seed should preferably be 
planted at once, as it has a tendency to 
dry out. Where the air is not too dry, 
however, it may be held two weeks or a 
month if necessary. 

SCARIFYING MACHINE. 

A new but highly promising method 
consists of scratching sweet clover seeds 
in what is called the Ames hulling and 
scarifying machine, brought out in April, 
1915, by the Iowa Experiment Station. By 
its use the germination of legume seeds is 
reported, after extensive tests, to be in- 
increased to over 90 per cent. 

The first machine of this efficiency was 
constructed in December, 1913. No an¬ 
nouncement was made at that time, how¬ 
ever, in order to allow time for field tests, 
comparing treated and untreated seed, in 
addition to extensive germination tests. 
A large number of plots were seeded on 
the station field in 1914, comparing treated 
and untreated sweet clover seed from vari¬ 
ous sources. In a large number of cases, 
stands which were, if anything, too thick, 
were secured from the treated seed, when 


the same seed planted at the same time, 
but not treated, failed to produce any stand 
at all. 

The machine as constructed has a capac¬ 
ity of approximately 25 bushels per hour, 
and requires about four-horse power to op¬ 
erate it. It is estimated that it can be put 
on the market at a price not to exceed $90 
to $100. 

The construction of the machine repre¬ 
sents eight years’ work on the part of 
H. D. Hughes, Chief of Farm Crops at the 
Iowa Experiment Station. 

During the spring of 1914 and 1915 
several thousand pounds of sweet clover 
seed were treated for individual farmers. 
A farmer for whom the station treated some 
3,000 pounds of seed in the spring of 1914 
states that the seed germinated approxi¬ 
mately 50 per cent when sent to Ames, but 
germinated 98 per cent when returned. 

Another reports using 5 pounds per acre 
of treated seed, from which he secured a 
perfect stand, while the usual rate of seed¬ 
ing ranges from 15 to 20 pounds per acre 
with many failures and uncertain stands 
resulting from poor germination. 

HOW MUCH TO SOW. 

The amount of seed to sow to the acre 
depends upon what purpose the sweet clo¬ 
ver is grown for. Moreover, the promising 
invention described above is likely to make 
necessary a revision of the estimates usually 
given. 

Not less than 20 pounds of unhulled seed 
and not less than 12 to 15 pounds of the 
hulled should be sown to the acre. Ordi¬ 
narily 20 to 30 pounds of the hulled and 
5 pounds more of the unhulled are advised. 

For sowing on waste lands, about one 
bushel to six acres is enough. Altho the 
plant spreads rapidly, it is well to sow 
enough to insure a good stand. To secure 
continuous growth, sow the second year 
also. 

Can sweet clover be gotten rid of after 
a crop has been grown, and small grains 
sown the next year? This is a question 
which has worried farmers wherever the 
plant is being introduced. One reported 
that he had planted wheat the spring fol¬ 
lowing a crop of sweet clover in the same 
field, and that the clover has choked out the 


830 


SWEET CLOVER 


wheat. The experience is unusual, to say 
the least. 

The best crop to put in immediately 
following sweet clover is corn. The effect 
of the sweet clover will be noticed only in 
increased growth of the corn, sometimes 
as much as 20 bushels heavier than on land 
not previously planted in sweet clover. 
Sometimes corn is grown two years in 
succession, and then followed by wheat. 
No trouble with smothering is reported. 

The farmer need fear no difficulty in 
getting rid of sweet clover after he has 
once sown it. The fact that the plant 
grows abundantly along the roadsides and 
seldom appears in cultivated fields, is evi¬ 
dence that it can be easily destroyed if 
necessary. 

Another point on which there is question 
is the amount of sweet clover seed to be 
mixed with oats in seeding them together. 
Some sow 10 pounds to the acre, others as 
much as 20. A good average is 15. 

Care must be taken in mixing the seed in 
the drill, and in not having so much in at 
once that the clover will work down under 
the oats in the drill-box. This would mean 
uneven proportions in the field. With care 
the seeding can be made even. Hulled 
sweet clover is more satisfactory in such a 
mixture, since some of the unhulled is not 
likely to come up the first year. 

Rye and spring barley are other crops 
often sown with sweet clover. The grain 
is harvested while the clover is coming on, 
and the field used for pasture or for hay 
after the grain has been taken off. 

Here is where sweet clover again is 
superior to alfalfa. Grow oats, wheat, or 
barley as a nurse crop and you get the 
-grain besides, but best results with alfalfa 
are obtained by planting alone. 

There is no better way to fit a piece of 
ground for alfalfa than to seed in sweet 
clover, cut off a crop of hay the first season, 
and plow under the second season when 
the clover is about a foot tall. Cultivate 
with a drag and harrow until the first of 
September. Then seed in alfalfa. This inoc¬ 
ulates the soil for alfalfa besides fertilizing 
the ground by the addition of humus. 

GROWING FOR SEED. 

Before harvesting sweet clover for seed, 
it'is always best to take a cutting of hay 


first. Much better seed and shorter, finer 
straw will result. The crop should be har¬ 
vested like oats with a self-binder about the 
time most of the seed is showing black. 

In moving, care must be taken to prevent 
shattering of the hulls. A canvas covering 
for the hayrack will save what drops off. 

For thrashing small amounts of the seed, 
an old-fashioned flail or similar primitive 
instrument will do. But for larger amounts 
the thrashing machine is necessary. The 
process results in a lot of broken stalks 
and leaves being mixed with the seed. 
These can be removed with a fanning mill. 

MORE VIRTUES OF SWEET CLOVER. 

Among minor merits of this all-around 
plant is the tendency of wild sweet clover 
to drive out weeds. Growing luxuriantly 
in waste places and reseeding itself, it will 
even choke out the dreaded Canada thistle. 

On the other hand the plant is not hard 
to get rid of, as suggested above. When 
the land is broken up, the plant is gone. 
Pasturing the land so no seed matures has 
the same effect if kept up one or two 
summers. 

Add to these advantages its freedom 
from pests, both insect and fungous. A 
species of aphis has been reported but no 
appreciable damage noticed. The absence 
of enemies is one of its most peculiar 
characteristics, partly explained by the 
presence of cumarin, the bitter element in 
the leaves. 

SWEET CLOVER AS A COVER CROP. 

In many parts of the West, in some of 
the large orchards sweet clover is used as 
a cover crop—that is to say, the ground 
under the trees is harrowed when sweet 
clover is sown in the regular way. As soon 
as it reaches two-thirds of its growth it is 
plowed under. In a similar way red clover, 
alsike, and other clovers are sown and 
plowed under. When alsike and red are 
used, the clover is often allowed to come 
into bloom. If the trees are sprayed at 
this time, the nectar in the clover will be 
poisoned and bees that gather it will be 
killed by the thousands. (See Fruit 
Bloom, subhead “How the Spraying of 
Cover Crops Kills the Bees.”) On the other 
hand, sweet clover will come into bloom, 
especially Melilotus indica, when the trees 


SWEET CLOVER 


831 



White sweet clover. 


are not sprayed. It grows rapidly, and, 
when plowed under, makes excellent fer¬ 
tilizer. 

IN SUMMARY. 

While much information has had to be 
omitted from this article enough evidence 
is in to show that sweet clover is one of 
our most valuable forage plants. Long 
despised as a weed, sweet clover is rapidly 
breaking down prejudice and ignorance 
and tdking the place it has long deserved. 
“The new sensational grass” it has been 
called. Sweet clover is new in the sense 
that only lately has' its full value been get¬ 
ting recognition. 


As a soil renewer, it is unexcelled. As 
pasture and for hay, it is nearly equal to 
alfalfa in feeding value. As a honey plant, 
furnishing nectar over a long season, it is 
unsurpassed. These are not the sole merits, 
only a few of them. Within this sketch it 
has been possible to suggest only some of 
its characteristics and its value. 

In the preparation of this subject the 
following authorities have been consulted: 

Lloyd, W. A., Sweet Clover. Circular 
No. 129, Ohio Agricultural Exp. Station. 

Root, A. I. The Truth About Sweet 
Clover. A. I. Root Co., Medina, 1913. 

Westgate, J. M., and Vinall, H. N. 



832 


SWEET CLOVER, WHITE ANNUAL 



inches tall. They now grew rapidly; and, 
like the 22 plants in the greenhouse, the 
seedlings differed greatly in height and 
time of blooming, tho the plants from 
each parent were remarkably uniform. A 
part bloomed 2% months after seeding, 
while others required 3 ^2 months. At 3^ 
months the best strains had reached a 
height of 4^/2 feet. During the same time 
the biennial, or common sweet clover, had 
grown only 12 to 14 inches, and the yellow 
sweet clover only 8 to 10 inches. Medium 
red clover, planted at the same time as the 
Hubam clover, made a growth of only 3 to 
5 inches, while the Hubam clover grew 3 to 
414 feet. 

As soon as the plants had matured they 
were pulled and carefully examined. The 
root growth was found to be large and vig¬ 
orous, but entirely different from that of 
the biennial sweet clover. The bien¬ 
nial at the close of the first season 
has a strong, large, succulent tap¬ 
root, much like that of the parsnip. 
At the top of this root about an 
inch below the surface of the 
ground there is a crown with 5 to 
50 buds, which are ready to burst 


These Medina fields of biennial clover 
above, and of Hubam clover at the 
right, were both planted June 17, and 
photographed October 18. Note the dif¬ 
ference in growth. 


were 3 to 4^4 feet tall and most of 
of them were in full bloom; while 
the common biennial sweet clo¬ 
ver was less than one foot high. 

There were 22 plants in this original lot, 
and they yielded enough seed in the 
greenhouse to grow a short row from 
each plant. They were not exactly alike, 
but varied in height and time of maturity. 
This seed was planted in the fields, the 
same year (1916), about the middle of 
June; and a thin seeding of oats was made 
with it. Other clovers were also planted at 
the same time for comparison. The oats 
were cut when the “heads were in the milk” 
without injuring the clover. The annual 
sweet clover plants were then about six 


forth in early spring. But the root of the 
new clover was entirely different — there 
was no succulent taproot or crown of buds 
formed for the renewal of growth the sec¬ 
ond season. The plant had made its full 
growth, bloomed, ripened its seed, and died 
—both stems and roots—clearly establish¬ 
ing the fact that this clover is an annual. 

The new annual Hubam clover is believed 
to have originated on wild land in Ala¬ 
bama, and to be a sport or mutant of the 
biennial species. Hughes considered it 
quite certain that it did not first occur in 


Sweet Clover. Farmers’ Bulletin 485, 
U. S. Dept. Agric., March 12, 1912. 

SWEET CLOVER, WHITE ANNUAL 

(Melilotus alba, variety ).—Hubam clover. 
A few years ago the Iowa Agricultural Col¬ 
lege secured some 500 different lots of the 
seed of the common white sweet clover for 
trial, which were planted in greenhouses in 
January, 1916. All of the seed were sup¬ 
posed to belong to the common biennial or 
two-year white species. But about the first 
of March a number of very large plants 
were observed by Prof. H. D. Hughes, in 
charge of the Farms Crops Section, which 
came from one special lot of seed. They 
were far superior in appearance to the 
other plants, and were nearly ready to bloom 
in less than three months from the time of 
seeding. By the middle of April they 











SWEET CLOVER, WHITE ANNUAL 


833 


a cultivated field as in such a situation it 
would have been lost. It evidently grew 
on wild land for several years without any¬ 
one noticing that it was an annual. Re¬ 
cently it has been definitely established 
that it is still found on waste land in Ala¬ 
bama. Considerable sweet clover seed is 
harvested in certain sections of the State 
by negroes, who either strip the seed from 
the plants or cut them down and thresh the 
seed out by hand. Thus the seed of the 
two clovers might easily become mixed. Its 
subsequent discovery in an 
Iowa greenhouse was a for¬ 
tunate event, which bids fair 
to be of untold benefit to both 
farmers and beekeepers. 

In the spring of 1918, 100 
seeds were sent by Prof. 

Hughes to each of the State 
experiment stations, and 50 
to each seed company in the 
United States. Small samples 
were also sent to fanners and 
seed-growers in different 
parts of the world for trial. 

Probably no other new plant 
ever was so widely distributed 
in so short a time. Altho large 
sums were offered for sam¬ 
ples of the seed none was sold. 

The newly discovered plant 
was fully and freely given to 
the world. In the spring of 
1920, 47,000 samples of seed 
were distributed by the Iowa 
station. 

Reports from nearly all 
parts of the United States 
show that annual sweet clo¬ 
ver can be successfully grown 
over a very wide area, and un¬ 
der varied climatic conditions. 

In Iowa, at Ames, the plants 
have often averaged a growth 
of over 1% inches per day with a maximum, 
under greenhouse conditions, of 2% inches 
in 15 hours. Spikes of seed, which measured 
20 inches in length, have been produced. 
Planted in rows 3 feet apart the yield of 
seed was from 5 to 8 bushels per acre. 
When seeded broadcast on a weedy and 
poorly prepared seed bed the last of May, 
it overcame the weeds, made a growth of 
5 V2 to 7 feet, and matured a seed crop. In- 
27” 


dividual plants in this State have attained 
a height of 9 to 10 feet. In Mississippi 
seed was sown in the fall and the young 
plants survived the winter, and by May 15 
were large enough to plough under as a 
soil-fertilizer. Seed grown in the spring 
matured a crop by July 10. Seed planted in 
April in another locality in this State was 
7 feet tall in 4^2 months. Equally favor¬ 
able reports have been received from Ohio, 
Maryland, Kentucky, California, Oregon, 
and many other States. In the island of 


Hawaii two crops have been grown in a 
single season—the second crop coming 
from seed produced by the first crop. The 
first averaged 5 feet in height, and the sec¬ 
ond 4^/2 feet and remained in bloom for 
nearly 7 weeks. 

The new Hubam variety of clover fills a 
place which no other legume occupies. No 
other leguminous plant will so quickly fur¬ 
nish the farmer with hay and pasturage 



Nos. 1 and 2—Hubam and the annual yellow sweet clover 
planted the same day, cultivated and raised in the same row 
and under identical conditions. Nos. 3 and 4—Hubam and the 
old biennial sweet clover planted the same day, cultivated and 
raised in the same row and under identical conditions. 

(Courtesy Alabama Hubam Clover Association.) 










834 


SWEET CLOVER, WHITE ANNUAL 



The new annual sweet clover plant that made a 
growth of 36 inches in 24 days, or iy 2 inches a 
day. 

and the beekeeper with honey. A crop of 
hay, which the biennial sweet clover would 
require 15 months to produce, the annual 
variety will supply in 4 or 5 months. In 
much less time it will offer a rapid, rank- 
growing' pasture to cattle and other stock. 
In localities where the natural grasses do 
not thrive well, and the farmer or stock- 
man has been dependent on the biennial 
form, a crop of forage can be harvested 
now in a single season. 

Undoubtedly the greatest use of this clo¬ 
ver will be as a green manure crop for 
seeding with small grain in the spring, to 
be plowed under in the late fall of the same 
year. When used in this way in Iowa, it 
has made an average height of 3% feet 
and come to full bloom after oats, with a 
production of over two tons of water-free 


material high in nitrogen. An early strain 
made an average height of 3 feet and fully 
matured a seed crop following the harvest 
of a crop of oats. There is no other clover, 
so far as known, from which such results 
can be secured. In the latitude of New Jer¬ 
sey an early farm crop can be followed by 
one of this clover, which by October would 
produce a growth of plants which would 
equal in value 8 or 10 loads of manure per 
acre. Such a crop could be followed by 
rye^ which could be ploughed under the 
following spring, or left on the ground as 


Six feet high in only 100 days from the seed. 







SWEET CLOVER, WHITE ANNUAL 


835 


a cover crop. The possibilities of such a 
quick growth in the South are almost be¬ 
yond calculation. In southern soils humus 
is most difficult to obtain and is one of the 
most necessary constituents. There are 
many summer-growing legumes which sup¬ 
ply nitrogen, and crimson clover makes an 
excellent leguminous cover crop. Annual 
sweet clover will make a heavy winter 
growth and can be turned under by the 
middle of April for humus; it should give 
an immense impetus to southern agricul¬ 
ture. The rapid growth made in short 
seasons may also greatly change the north¬ 
ern system of farming. As a cover crop in 
the citrus groves of California and in many 
other orchards it will be likely to replace 
the biennial form. 

Finally Hubam clover secretes nec¬ 
tar as fully and freely as does the biennial 
white and yellow sweet clovers. It blooms 
three months after seeding, and the bloom¬ 
ing period lasts for five or more weeks. 
Honeybees visit the flowers eagerly and in 
great numbers. The honey is apparently 
much the same as that of the biennial spe¬ 
cies. If this variety justifies present prom¬ 
ises and is planted as extensively as is ex¬ 
pected, it will greatly increase honey pro¬ 
duction in this country, 'and doubtless in 
many other parts of the world. 

Before planting, the seed should be scari¬ 
fied. In an experimental test before scari- . 
fying, only about 34 per cent of the seed 
germinated, but after scarifying 91 per 
cent. Nearly every seed company in the 
United States and many individual seed- 


growers and farmers are now using the 
Ames hulling and scarifying machine per¬ 
fected and given to the world by the Iowa 
Agricultural Experiment Station. The 
soil should also contain an abundance of 
lime and the proper sweet clover bacteria. 
If the soil is acid and the bacteria are 
absent, the plants will probably not grow 
more than a foot tall. It is of the greatest 
importance, therefore, in fields where such 
conditions prevail that lime should be 
worked into the surface, and the soil inocu¬ 
lated with soil gathered from an alfalfa or 
sweet clover field. 

The biennial white sweet clover grows in 
many localities, which differ from each 
other widely in soil and climate. As a re¬ 
sult there are many varieties of this spe¬ 
cies, but most of them are of little value 
and do not differ greatly from the typical 
form. The discovery by a happy chance of 
the annual variety, however, has led to a 
more careful search for other varieties 
which may be worth testing. In Grundy 
County, Illinois, a variety is under cultiva- 
ttion, which blooms nearly three weeks ear¬ 
lier than the large coarse, late-bloom bien¬ 
nial form. It is a heavy seed-producer and 
ripens its seed more uniformly. With an 
annual variety, which blooms the same sea¬ 
son the seed is planted, and with early and 
late blooming varieties of the biennial spe¬ 
cies, the beekeeper may hope for a much 
greater honey flow in the sweet clover sec¬ 
tions. Other leguminous plants, as alfalfa, 
should receive careful observation as they 
also may produce valuable mutants. 


T 


TEMPERATURE. —In bee culture, tem¬ 
perature is one of the most important fac¬ 
tors with which the beekeeper has to deal. 
The more nearly he can hold it to the exact 
point, the better he will be able to bring 
about certain desired results in the busi¬ 
ness. 

Under the heads of Ventilation and 


Swarming it is shown how the bees keep 
down the internal temperature of the hive 
during hot weather by an elaborate scheme 
of forced ventilation. One set of bees, by 
means of a vigorous fanning of the wings, 
force air into the hive; and another set, 
working in collaboration, drive foul and 
heated air out. Under Moving Bees, the 


836 


TEMPERATURE 


importance of giving plenty of ventilation, 
by means of wire screens to keep down the 
internal temperature of the hive, is shown. 

Under the head of Bottling Honey it 
will be seen that temperature plays an 
important part in preventing the granula¬ 
tion of liquid honey. If it is too high, the 
delicate flavor of the honey will be injured. 
If it is too low, granulation will take place 
soon. 

Under Wintering in Cellars, Referring 
to the temperature of the cellar it 
is explained that, in order to get the best 
results, the temperature should show not 
below 40 nor above 60 degrees F. In 
some cellars 45 degrees gives the best re¬ 
sults ; in others, 50; and still others, 55. 

the temperature op the cluster in 
winter. 

Up to the year 1911 various erroneous 
notions were current. Some authorities 
stated that the internal temperature of a 
colony in winter was blood heat; that 
when the cluster was broken into, no mat¬ 
ter how cold the day, the individual mem¬ 
bers would rush out, apparently just as 
active as at any time during the summer. 
Others held that bees went into a winter 
sleep, somewhat analogous to a condition of 
semi-hibernation or even perfect hiberna¬ 
tion. 

Still others maintained that bees during 
winter could and do go into a state approx¬ 
imating death; that they had broken into 
their clusters and found them lifeless; had 
carried them into the house and put them 
near a stove, and found that tiiey soon 
revived and flew about the room as lively 
as ever. From this they argued that bees 
were like ants in that they went into a 
state of perfect hibernation. This, of 
course, is a mistake. 

Others, again, held that the winter tem¬ 
perature of the cluster dropped down to 
about 60 degrees F. and remained at that 
point until the weather warmed up, when 
the bees would arouse. 

The fact is, there is truth in all of these 
assertions. The different observers had 
taken the temperature of the clusters at 
different times during the winter and under 
different conditions. The temperature of 
the honeybee cluster varies all the way, 
according to conditions, from 32 F., which 


would shortly result in death, to 97, which 
would be summer temperature. Whenever 
the cluster is chilled thru, so that each 
individual member of it is stiff and cold, 
and apparently lifeless, it will die soon, 
unless the weather becomes warmer. If one 
were to dig into such a brood-nest and find 
such a condition, he would naturally argue 
that bees hibernate like ants and flies. 

There was quite a school of beekeepers 
who, in the early days, argued in favor of 
reducing the surrounding temperature un¬ 
til the bees were chilled thru, because they 
said that in such a state they would con¬ 
sume almost no stores. Unfortunately for 
this argument experience shows that in a 
chilled condition bees cannot live more than 
a week or ten days. Any time within that 
period they may or may not be revived by 
placing them in a warm room. If a cluster 
is chilled clear thru in an outdoor colony, 
and it warms up outside enough so that the 
internal temperature of the hive reaches 
between 60 and 70, the bees may revive, 
move to the portion of the brood-nest where 
their stores are, and may, if the winter is 
not too severe from that time on, live thru. 

When the conditions are such that a 
cluster will chill thru during the middle or 
early part of the winter, the owner may 
rest assured that the bees will die. When 
he comes to open up the hive in the spring 
he will find a perfectly formed cluster with 
every bee dead. 

On the other hand, when a colony is 
properly housed, and strong enough, there 
will be no danger of the cluster’s chilling 
thru. It behooves the apiarist, therefore, 
to have strong colonies and then place them 
in a good cellar or in warm double-walled 
hives or packing-cases. See Wintering 
Outdoors and Wintering in Cellars. 

When one desirous of getting the tem¬ 
perature of a colony of bees during mid¬ 
winter thrusts a common thermometer down 
into the cluster, he is misled. In an hour 
or two after inserting the instrument he 
will probably find the mercury standing at 
about 97, for breaking into the hive and 
thrusting something down into the cluster 
of bees arouses them so that the tempera¬ 
ture rises rapidly till it reaches 97. He 
concludes that the temperature of the win¬ 
ter cluster is 97, for has he not seen it with 
his own eyes? 


TEMPERATURE 


837 


If, again, he were to put a dairy ther¬ 
mometer into the center of the cluster, 
allowing the upper part of the instrument 
to project thru the packing material, and 
allow it to stand, he would get a more 
correct reading, but not until the bees have 
gone back into their quiescent state pre¬ 
vious to their disturbance. They might 
never go back; but in most cases a tempo¬ 
rary disturbance does no harm, and a clus¬ 
ter of bees will resume its normal course. 
If in a day or two after the insertion of the 
thermometer the cover is lifted gently so as 
not to disturb the bees, and if the ther¬ 
mometer sticks up thru the packing, so that 
it is not necessary to uncover the cluster, a 
fairly correct reading may be secured, pro¬ 
vided the cluster in the meantime has not 
moved. The temperature may then show 
as low as 57. If it is lower, the bees will 
proceed to raise the temperature of the 
cluster in a manner that will be explained 
further on. 

In this connection it should he stated 
that the common mercurial thermometers 
are not always correct; and, what is more, 
it is not always possible to place them so 
that they will be in the exact center of the 
cluster; and even when they are so placed, 
the bees may move from one portion of the 
brood-nest to another. As fast as stores 
are consumed in one portion the cluster 
will move to a fresh supply, provided it is 
not too cold. 

It is not difficult, with these general 
facts before us, to understand how various 
observers have been deceived in forming 
conclusions in regard to the temperature 
of the honeybee cluster during winter. It 
is also very evident how one might jump to 
the conclusion that bees hibernate like ants. 

It was not until the Bureau of Entomol¬ 
ogy, Washington, D. C., attacked this prob¬ 
lem in 1912, 1913, and 1914 that the mat¬ 
ter was definitely cleared up. Dr. Burton 
N. Gates, then Apicultural Assistant in the 
Bureau of Entomology, Washington, D. C., 
made a series of experiments in determin¬ 
ing the temperature of a colony in winter. 
His investigations are described in Bulletin 
96, U. S. Department of Agriculture. 
These experiments were carried on further 
bv Dr. E. F. Phillips, Apicultural Investi¬ 
gator in the Bureau, and by Geo. S. 
Demuth, and recorded in Bulletin No. 93, 


Department of Agriculture. Dr. Gates 
worked with mercurial thermometers, but 
because of the limitations of these instru¬ 
ments he was unable to carry his work to a 
finish. 

Phillips and Demuth conducted a series 
of experiments in wintering bees in a con¬ 
stant-temperature room at the University 
of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, during the 
winters of 1912 and 1913, and 1913 and 
1914. Several colonies variously prepared 
were placed in a constant-temperature 
room, where.the temperature was held by 
means of coils of pipes containing a brine 
solution—much the same apparatus that is 
used in cold-storage plants. On the roof 
of the building containing this room there 
were placed several colonies of bees where 
the conditions of outdoor-wintered colonies 
could be observed. A series of electric 
thermometers, or “thermo couples,” were 
placed in one of these colonies on the roof 
and likewise in the colonies in the constant- 
temperature room before mentioned. By 
an elaborate system of wiring, these elec¬ 
tric thermometers were connected to an 
observation room in the building, entirely 
separate and distinct from the constant- 
temperature room. Here Dr. Phillips, with 
his assistant, could follow with the greatest 
precision the temperatures of every part 
of the hive and clusters of the several colo¬ 
nies inside and outdoors. 

By these temperature readings it was 
possible to determine the exact state and 
size of the cluster, when it moved, and the 
various reactions that took place as the 
result of feeding, disturbance, and the 
rising and lowering of the temperature 
outside the hives. The purpose of using 
electric thermometers was to avoid the 
disturbance incident to the use of mer¬ 
curial thermometers that require the en¬ 
tering of the bee-room and the opening of 
the hive to get the readings. Moreover, it 
would be practically impossible for an ob¬ 
server to stay in a bee-room with a temper¬ 
ature of 42 F. day and night, taking read¬ 
ings every fifteen minutes; and even if he 
could do so, the constant disturbance would 
naturally cause a rise of temperature that 
would be above the actual normal of a col¬ 
ony not so molested. 

The outside-wintered colony had 19 elec¬ 
tric thermometers, with connections to the 


838 


TEMPERATURE 


observation room below. Bees were placed 
on the roof early in November. Prom then 
until along in March the inside and outside 
temperatures were taken. It was learned 
that the temperature within the cluster is 
far from being uniform, as is generally 
supposed by beekeepers. “At the temper¬ 
ature at which other insects become less 
active (begin hibernation) the honeybee 
becomes more active, and generates heat— 
in some cases until the temperature within 
the cluster is as high as that of the brood- 
nest in summer.” During the fore part of 
the readings in November and December 
the internal temperature of the cluster of 
this outside colony had a tendency to drop, 
as the outside temperature went down, un¬ 
til it reached 57 P. At that point a re¬ 
action took place; that is, the generation 
of heat began, and from this point it began 
to rise in spite of the fact that the outside 
temperature continued to drop. The clus¬ 
ter heat continued to rise until the center of 
it registered nearly 90 degrees. After the 
coldest outside temperature was reached, 
the outer air began to get warmer, and si¬ 
multaneously the temperature of the clus¬ 
ter began to sag. 

Dr. Gates tried these experiments at an 
earlier period, as reported in Bulletin No. 
96, and discovered a similar inverse ratio; 
but he did not find the exact point at which 
the colony temperature ceased to drop with 
that of the outside. Dr. Phillips and Mr. 
Demuth learned that this point is 57 F. 
When the colony is without brood, and the 
bees are not flying, the bees generate 
practically no heat until the coolest point 
among the bees reaches a temperature of 
57 F. “At this point the bees begin to 
form a compact cluster; and if the 
temperature of the air surrounding them 
continues to drop, they begin to generate 
heat.” Between 57 and 69 F. the bees do 
not do much in the way of heat generation. 

Apparently, it is desirable to have the 
surrounding temperature at such a point 
that the internal temperature of the cluster 
shall not go below 57 nor above 69; but, 
as will be shown, the questions of food and 
syrup are additional factors to be consid¬ 
ered. 

Attention will now be directed to the 
colonies, or one of them at least, in the 
constant-temperature room, where the 


mercury was kept at about 42 or 43 degrees 
F. “This temperature was chosen as being 
nearly the one generally considered best by 
beekeepers.” There were two colonies—one 
fed on honey stores and another on an 
inferior grade of honeydew honey, that 
are particularly mentioned in the bulletin. 
Colony No. 1, fed on honey stores, was in a 
constant-temperature room for 163 days, 
during which readings were taken hourly. 
At first the internal temperature of the 
cluster according to the chart hovered 
around 64 and 68. The colony fed on honey- 
dew stores showed a higher temperature at 
the beginning; when up to about 76 F. it 
began to take a sharp rise, going up to 91 
above, and on Nov. 23 the temperature 
began to show a sharp drop, the line 
running down as low as 48 on Dec. 10, 
when the colony died. Clearly the poor 
food caused uneasiness by reason of the 
accumulation of fecal matter that the bees 
could not digest, and the uneasiness caused 
activity; and activity called for a greater 
consumption of stores. The one condition 
operated against the other, finally ending 
in the destruction of the colony. The other 
colony fed on good honej'' pursued its nor¬ 
mal course thru the season. 

It is interesting to observe that the nor¬ 
mal temperature of the cluster of the col¬ 
ony fed on good stores only gradually 
increased, and this increase was doubtless 
due to the slight accumulation of feces. 
This accumulation was markedly less than 
that in the case of the colony with honeydew 
stores, not because the bees became uneasy, 
but because in proportion as the feces in¬ 
creased, the activity and temperature of 
the colony increased. This increase was not 
enough to cause the death of the colony, 
but did cause a slight reduction in the force 
in the spring. These observations explain 
the importance of good food—a food that 
will not clog the intestines. It also ex¬ 
plains a common cause of dysentery. 

Phillips and Demuth also discovered that 
the length of the life of bees either during 
summer or winter depends on the activity 
of the bees. The greater the activity, the 
shorter the term of life. 

They also found that when brood-rearing 
commences or is in progress, the tempera¬ 
ture of the cluster will rise to about that 


TITI 


839 


of summer or spring. This was to be ex¬ 
pected, of course. 

During these experiments a remarkable 
thing was learned—namely, that there can 
be, and actually is, activity inside of a 
cluster of bees during winter. When the 
temperature of a cluster goes down to 57, 
and the outside temperature surrounding 
the hive is dropping, the bees by actual 
muscular exercise can raise the tempera¬ 
ture of the cluster. This activity may con¬ 
sist of a few bees tugging at each other, 
moving their bodies back and forth, or 
actually fanning with their wings. One bee 
may set up an active fanning inside the 
cluster during the dead of winter. Bees 
actually fan to cool themselves in summer 
and to warm themselves in winter, para¬ 
doxical as this may seem. 

It is difficult to comprehend that bees 
can warm themselves up by exercise, like 
their owners; and the idea that their little 
electric fans, so to speak, can raise the 
cluster temperature as well as cool it seems 
at first absurd; but that it is true the au¬ 
thor proved to his entire satisfaction by the 
experiments he conducted during the win¬ 
ter of 1914 and 1915. He used a hive that 
had double glass sides. The bees were com¬ 
pelled to form their winter clusters against 
these sides. It was thus possible to watch 
the internal movements that actually took 
place inside, and what was seen was indeed 
a revelation. 

Various observers have opened up clus¬ 
ters of bees in midwinter, and found the 
bees inside in many cases as active as they 
ever are. Likewise thermometric readings 
have sometimes shown the temperature 
the same as during the summer. In the 
light of the observations taken by the Gov¬ 
ernment, it is very easy to explain this, 
notwithstanding that there are times when 
the temperature of the cluster is below 60 
to 70. One has only to remember that, 
when the inside temperature of the cluster 
goes as low as 57, the bees raise the tem¬ 
perature of the cluster even tho the outside 
temperature is becoming colder and colder. 
The presumption is that, when the cluster 
is large enough, they keep up these “daily 
exercises” in order to keep the cluster 
warm. A prolonged cold spell, especially 
that down to zero, is nearly always disas¬ 
trous to good wintering. This cold weather 


puts the bees in the cluster in a state of 
activity; and activity causes an abnormal 
consumption of stores, with no means of 
voiding their feces, and then dysentery 
follows; hence after a prolonged spell of 
cold weather that has lasted for weeks, we 
commonly find evidence of dysentery. 

At the close of this bulletin the authors 
make the statement that “bees in winter, 
either in cellars or outdoors, should be 
disturbed as little as possible.” 

THISTLE. — See Canada Thistle. 

TITI.— The titi family, or Cyrillaceae, 
contains but 6 species, which are found 
only in America. They are shrubs or small 
trees growing in wet land, or swamps, and 
along rivers. There are 3 species in the 
southern States, which are valuable as hon¬ 
ey plants. The honey is apparently seldom 
obtained pure, or in large quantities. It 
has been frequently described as dark col¬ 
ored, and poor flavored compared with' the 
northern white honey. 

Black titi ( Cliftonia monophylla) is also 
called buckwheat tree and ironwood. A 
smooth evergreen shrub or small tree com¬ 
mon in swamps in Georgia and Florida and 
westward to Louisiana. The white fragrant 
flowers are in long racemes, which are 
drooping when young but finally become 
erect. They expand in March and April. 
In southern Georgia black titi is very 
abundant along streams, where it yields an 
amber-colored honey of fair quantity. 

Small-leaved or red titi ( Cyrilla parvi- 
folia ) is an evergreen shrub, 6 to 10 feet 
tall, growing in swamps and along streams 
from Florida to Louisiana. The leaves are 
oblong, leathery, shining green above but 
paler below. The numerous small white 
flowers are in racemes and appear in Feb¬ 
ruary and March. It yields an amber-col¬ 
ored honey, which is strong-flavored, but 
suitable for baking purposes. 

White titi or ivory bush ( Cyrilla racemi- . 
folia ) is also a swamp shrub, or small tree, 
but it is more widely distributed than the 
preceding species, extending from Virginia 
to Florida and westward to Texas. The 
large much-branched bushes, from 5 to 10 
feet tall, are during the last half of May 
covered with innumerable small white blos¬ 
soms. The flowers are in narrow, dense 
racemes, which are clustered at the ends of 


840 


TRANSFERRING 




A characteristic log-gum apiary. There are several 
rows of these gums that were transferred by 0. L. 
Sams. This is not at all a rare sight in the South¬ 
land. 


WHEN TO TRANSFER. 


A clay should be selected, preferably dur¬ 
ing fruit bloom in the northern States, 
when some honey is coming in, or when 
a honey flow is on in early spring in 
the South. The early part of the season is 
recommended, because at that time of the 


Log-gum apiary of J. S. Kelly near Wilmington, 
N. C. Mr. Sams holding an empty gum, and altho 
the bees were stinging him unmercifully, he stood 
his ground while the author was “snapping” him. 


the twigs. It is the last of the spring honey 
plants to bloom and the bees work on the 
bloom very diligently, but it yields nectar 
only sparingly. Altho the bloom lasts for 
thirty days, it is seldom that more than two 
supers, or 50 pounds of honey, is secured. 
A sample of the honey from Mt. Pleasant, 
Alabama, is a dark-reddish-amber color, 
with a pleasant characteristic fragrance. It 
has a good body and a mild flavor, which 
is more pronounced, when it was first gath¬ 
ered. It is considered fair table honey. 


after which they are placed in an up-to- 
date hive. When one by purchase or other¬ 
wise acquires a lot of old gums, he must 
transfer them into modem hives before he 


TRANSFERRING. — This term might 

mean moving bees from one yard to an¬ 
other, or bees from one hive to another. 
In the strict technical sense, however, it 
means moving bees from box hives, log 
gums, or straw skeps into modern movable- 
frame hives. The usual process involves 
the act of cutting the combs out of an old 
hive and fitting them into movable frames, 


The same bees after being transferred into modern 
hives. This apiary of 100 colonies belonging to 
W. _ J. Martin, with the help of Mr. Sams, was 
easily transferred from the log gums in one week’s 
time. 


year there will be relatively fewer bees and 
a comparatively small amount of honey. 
If, on the other hand, the work of trans¬ 
ferring is performed during the hottest 
part of the year, the gum will be full of 
bees and honey, and, of course, the opera¬ 
tor will be working at a great disadvantage 
-—particularly so if the time of work be 


Log gums used for producing comb honey, with 
the “supers” in position. 

can do anything. To do this he must pro¬ 
vide himself with as many hives, with a 
full equipment of frames, as he has gums 
or old box hives to transfer. 













TRANSFERRING 


841 


selected during a dearth of honey, when 
the bees are inclined to rob. 

A day should be selected when the weath¬ 
er is warm—preferably between the hours 
of 9 in the morning and 4 in the afternoon. 
Sometimes it is desirable to transfer during 
a dearth of honey in midsummer. A day 
should then be selected when there is a 
slight mist or rain, as there will be no 
flying bees. While the bees will be in¬ 
clined to sting more at such times, and the 
operator will have to use more smoke and 
proceed as cautiously as possible, there 
will be no trouble from robbing. 

At the end of the transferring,, all drip¬ 
pings of honey should be disposed ofj and 
if honey gets on the grass or on the ground, 
a pail of water should be dashed over it to 
wash it away. Should foul brood be pres¬ 
ent in the locality, the precaution of clean¬ 
ing up everything in the way of sweets is 
doubly important. 

Sometimes the bos hives or log gums 
have to be carried quite a distance. In 
that case the gums should be put inside of 
burlap sacks and tied. They can be moved 
at any time, but preferably in the morning 
or in the evening. On arrival at their per¬ 
manent home the sacks should be removed 
and the hives placed on the spots where 
the bees will be after transferring. 

The methods that are now to be described 
are used by C. L. Sams, Bee Extension 
Agent for North Carolina. He has had 
more experience in transferring, probably, 
than any other man in the United States. 

The tools necessary for transferring are 
a wide board, butcher-knife, and a hand¬ 
saw -— preferably one having a narrow 
blade. In the case of a round gum a sort 
of keyhole saw with a long blade is better 
than a common handsaw. There should be, 
of course, modern hives with empty frames, 
frames containing full sheets of founda¬ 
tion, a 'pail of water, tin pans and last, but 
by no means least important, a bee-smoker, 
with plenty of fuel well ignited. 

HOW TO TRANSFER. 

The first operation is to blow- smoke into 
the entrance of the box hive. This is then 
removed a few feet from its stand and 
turned upside down, and more smoke is 
blown over the combs to drive down any 
bees that may be left which would resent 


intrusion. A modern hive with its movable 
frames is now placed where the box hive 
stood, with the entrance pointing in the 
same direction. This hive should contain, 



Smoking the bees in the bos hive preparatory to 
transferring. The box hive is first turned upside 
down, and then the smoking is begun. 


preferably, four or five frames having 
full sheets of foundation. Part of the 
frames should be on one side of the hive 
and the rest on the other, leaving a space 
in the center. Wherever possible a frame 
of brood and a little honey should be 
added from some other hive. 

The next operation is to blow more smoke 
over the combs in the box hive, now itp- 
side down. As soon as the bees are driven 
down, some five or six inches of the combs 
is broken off or cut off. A super cover or 
any flat board or even the top of the hive 



Mr. Sams drumming on the hive to drive the bees 
up against the top board so he can remove them 
and then cut out the combs. Courthouse officials of 
Wilmington, with an inborn sense of safety and a 
snap, look out from within. 

is set over the box hive. A vigorous drum¬ 
ming, with blows not too hard, with a ham¬ 
mer, is now applied to the sides of the box 
hive. This drumming is kept up continu¬ 
ously for eight or ten minutes, at the end 





842 


TRANSFERRING 


of which time the majority of the bees will 
have crawled from the combs beneath, and 
clustered on the super cover (now on top). 
During the process of drumming it is ad¬ 
visable to lift the cover slightly to see how 
the bees are coming up. When a large 



After drumming, the bees crawl upward and cluster 
on the super cover. This is gently placed on the 
new hive, after which the operation of transferring 
the combs begins. 

cluster has formed, the super cover or flat 
board with its cluster of bees is lifted oft 
the hive and set down on the prepared new 
hive in such a way that the cluster will ex¬ 
tend down in the space between the frames 
as shown in cut above. If not all the bees 
are out of the original box hive, a second 
drumming may be applied with another 
super cover, but usually this is not neces¬ 
sary. If the first drumming be continued 
long enough there will be, of course, a few 
straggling bees left down among the combs. 
No attention need be paid to these, as 
they will not sting, having become complete¬ 
ly demoralized by the drumming. 

The plan that Mr. Sams somewhat pre¬ 
fers is to nail a couple of cleats even with 
the bottom edge of the gum, then turn it 
upside down. On top of this, place the new 
hive minus the bottom-board with a full 
sets of frames containing foundation, the 
hive resting crosswise on the cleats. The 
old gum .is then drummed on the side as be¬ 
fore explained until all the bees, or most of 
them, go up into the new hive. This they 
will do very readily, but lift it up once or 
twice to see when the bees have gone up. 
The hive is then lifted off with with its 
bees, and set down upon the bottom-board. 

It is not necessary that the two ends of 
the new hive sticking over on each side of 


the gum be closed up, for the bees will go 
up just the same. 

This plan has the merit that the bees are 
driven directly from the old gum into the 
new hive without the use of a super-cover 
or box. 



After the bees are drummed out, a common hand¬ 
saw is altogether the best tool for cutting the 
combs away from the sides of the box. 


The handsaw is now passed down be¬ 
tween the combs and the sides of the 
box if it is a square gum. A good hand¬ 
saw is better than a long knife for sep- 



In place of a super-cover or board Mr. Sams rec¬ 
ommends drumming the bees directly into the new 
hive, which is held in place by means of a couple 
of cross-cleats as shown. 







TRANSFERRING 


843 


arating the combs; and, moreover, when 
it encounters the cross-sticks these can be 
sawn off where a knife would be worth¬ 
less. If the cover, now at the bottom of 
the box hive, has not been previously loos¬ 
ened it can be knocked off with a hammer, 
when the box can be lifted off, leaving a 
mass of combs standing upright. The 
cross-sticks may be now easily removed by 
pulling them out and the combs separated. 
Only those portions of the comb that con¬ 
tain worker brood should be saved, because 
experience shows that it does not pay to 
transfer empty combs or combs containing 
honey into brood-frames. Those contain¬ 
ing honey should be put into a tin pan and 
used on the fable, while all other pieces 
not containing worker brood should be 
melted up into wax. 

Proceed to insert the combs in the frames 
as follows: Lay a good comb of brood 
from the gum flat on the board or super 
cover. Over this lay one of the empty 
brood-frames. With a knife mark out the 
exact size of the comb. Lift the frame, then 
cut the comb to the desired shape and size. 
It is always desirable to cut comb a little 
large so it will make a snug fit, after which 
the brood-frame is crowded over. If the fit 
is good this frame of brood can be set 
down in the hive without any fastenings. 



In the case of the round gums or logs, it is neces¬ 
sary to use a keyhole or narrow saw, which is 
run clear around the inside of the log, cutting the 
cross-sticks. 

After several of the larger pieces con¬ 
taining brood have been fitted into frames 
as described, there will be a number of 
smaller ones, the brood in which it is de¬ 
sirable to save. Several of these pieces 
can be laid down on the board and their 
edges matched. In order to make a close 


fit it may be necessary to trim the edges a 
little. After the crazy-quilt combs are fit¬ 
ted together a brood-frame is then laid over 
the whole. With a butcher-knife mark out 
the exact shape as before described, then 
slip the frame snugly over the combs after 



Only the combs containing the brood are fitted 
into brood-frames. A butcher-knife marks the 
size of the piece or pieces to be cut, and then 
the whole slice is cut large so as to fit snugly into 
the frame. 

they have been trimmed. The whole board' 
containing the frame and pieces of comb 
should then be lifted to a vertical position, 
as otherwise the pieces will fall out when 
the frame is lifted. A string is now wound 
around the whole several times, as shown 
herewith, when the frame is ready to be in¬ 
serted with the other frames of brood. It 



Where there are several pieces of comb it is nec¬ 
essary to use strings to hold them in place. These 
are wound around the frames several times and 
tied. The bees will remove the string. 

will not pay to save very small pieces of 
brood. These should be dumped into the 
wax-extractor with other pieces of comb 
not containing honey. 

In the average box hive there will be 
enough worker brood to fill four or five 
empty frames, Langstroth size. Drone 








844 


TRANSFERRING 


brood should be excluded. The remaining 
space on either side is then filled with foun¬ 
dation—preferably full sheets. 


Elton Warner of North and South Caro¬ 
lina, instead of placing the log gum up- 




Mr. Warner smoking and drumming bees from a 
box' hive into a modern hive. 


side down, lays it on its side with the bot¬ 
tom facing the entrance of the modem hive. 
He now blows smoke into and drums on 
the old gum until the bees run out of it into 
the new hive, as shown. C. L. Sams, who 
has probably had a larger experience than 
any other person, says that, while this plan 
will work, it is much slower, and that the 
bees, instead of going into the hive, will 
cluster all around the space between the old 
gum and the new hive. Moreover, he says 
that bees during the drumming process will 
crawl upward more readily than on a hori¬ 
zontal plane. 

TRANSFERRING WITHOUT USING THE OLD 
COMBS. 

Another plan that is somewhat slower, 
but which avoids the cutting of combs of 
brood or honey, is as follows: 

A modern hive is prepared containing 
nine frames of foundation and a frame of 
brood from some other colony. This is 
placed on the stand now occupied by the 
old hive or gum. On top of the new hive 
is then placed a bee-escape board with the 
escape feeding downward. The gum, after 
the smoke is blown in at the entrance, is 
turned upside down, after which five or six 
inches of the comb is removed. A separate 
cover or flat board is then placed on top. 
Drumming is then applied to the sides of 
the gum until about half the bees and the 
queen cluster on the super cover in the man¬ 
ner before explained. The bees and queen 
are then dumped in front of the entrance 


of the new hive. If the queen is not seen 
running in, it will be necessary to drum 
until she is found. The old gum with 
its remaining bees is then placed on the 
new hive with all openings between the 
new hive and the gum closed except thru 
the escape, as shown. The young bees, 
as they emerge with the other bees, will 
gradually work down thru the bee-escape 
into the new hive. At the end of three 
weeks there will be no bees upstairs, and 
nothing but old comb. The old gum is then 
removed, and its contents cut out and melt¬ 
ed up into wax. 

The merit of this plan is that it avoids 
cutting out the combs and fitting them into 
frames, avoids daubing honey on tools and 
appliances and avoids robbing. The 
average brood-combs in the box hive are 
usually very poor, containing too many 
drone-cells. They are likewise more or less 
irregular. For these reasons it is better not 
to use them. 



This picture shows a longer way of transferring, 
hut it avoids the necessity of cutting and fitting 
combs of brood into frames. The objections to 
the plan are the difficulty of getting the queen into 
the new hive and the length of time required to 
complete the transfer. 

The objection to the plan is that the av¬ 
erage beginner will not be able to drum 
out the bees and get the queen; but an ex¬ 
pert beekeeper can do so very readily. 

THE HEDDON SHORT WAY OF TRANSFERRING. 

The old box hive is moved back four or 
five feet, when a modern hive, with a full 
set of combs or foundation, is put in its 
place. The old hive is turned upside down, 
after which about two-thirds of the bees 
are drummed on to a board or a super¬ 
cover above, in the manner already ex¬ 
plained. In doing this drumming it is im- 






TULIP TREE 


845 



Mike Wall, Tempe, Ariz., and pile of odd-sized frames from which he had cut the comb and fitted them 

into Langstroth frames. 


portant that the queen enter the cluster. 
This can be determined by dumping the bees 
from the board in front of the entrance of 
the new hive. By watching carefully, it 
can be seen whether the queen goes in. If 
she is not discovered, more bees are drum¬ 
med out of the box hive, and the second 
lot is dumped in front of the entrance. If 
the queen is found this time the old box 
hive should be given enough bees to take 
care of the brood. It is then turned right 
side up, and put two feet back of the new 
hive with its entrance turned in the oppo¬ 
site direction. It is allowed to stand for 
21 days, at the end of which time all work¬ 
er brood will have emerged, and noth¬ 
ing will be left but a little drone brood. 
All bees in -the old box hive are drummed 
out in front of the new hive having an en¬ 
trance-guard. The combs in the old hive 
are melted up, and the hive itself burned. 

At the time of making the second drive 
after all the brood has emerged it would be 
advisable to smoke both lots of bees before 
uniting them, otherwise there may be con¬ 
siderable fighting. See Uniting. 

If there is no choice between the young 
queen which will be in the old box hive, and 
the old queen in the new hive, the entrance- 
guards will not be needed. One queen will 


kill the other. Generally the younger and 
better one will survive. 

TRAVEL-STAIN.— See Comb Honey. 

TULIP TREE (Liriodendron Tulipi- 
fera ).—Other vernacular names are white- 
wood and yellow poplar from the varying 
colors of the wood, canoe wood from the 
use made of it by the Indians, and saddle 
tree from the arrangement of the leaves in 
the bud. This magnificent tree belongs to 
the same family as the Magnolia, and 
among American deciduous-leaved trees is 
surpassed in size only by the plane or but¬ 
tonwood, to which it is superior in sym¬ 
metry and in the attractiveness of its fol¬ 
iage and flowers. Its height is usually from 
60 to 90 feet, but in favorable localities it 
may grow 140 to 180 feet tall, with a dia¬ 
meter of 4 to 12 feet. Michaux measured 
a tree near Louisville, Ky., which at five 
feet from the ground was 22% feet in cir¬ 
cumference and exceeded 120 feet in 
height. The tulip tree is one of the hand¬ 
somest of American ornamental trees, 
growing in a conical form, offering an ex¬ 
tensive shade, and putting forth in May or 
June an immense number of large green¬ 
ish-yellow flowers. The peculiar-shaped 
leaves easily distinguish it from all other 











846 


TULIP TREE 



Flower o t tulip tree. 


forest trees. They are four to six inches 
long, 4-lobed, with the end abruptly trun¬ 
cated or broadly notched and have a smooth 
bright-green surface. The bark, which is 
broken into large flat ridges, has a very 
bitter taste and was used by the Indians as 
a remedy for intermittent fevers. 

The slightly fragrant bell-shaped flowers 
are two inches long, solitary and terminal. 
The calyx is composed of three oval con¬ 
cave sepals of a pale-greenish color, which 
finally become reflexed. There are six large 
yellowish-green petals, each of which is 
marked at the base with an irregular cres¬ 
cent-shaped bright orange-yellow spot. The 
stamens are numerous with short filaments. 
In the center there is a cone-like mass of 
pistils (carpels). The seeds are winged 
and form a dry cone 3 inches long, which 
falls apart in autumn. The flowers are 
very frequently visited by bees and also by 
humming birds. 


The tulip tree is found in rich woods 
from Massachusetts and Michigan south¬ 
ward to Florida and Mississippi and west¬ 
ward to Arkansas and Louisiana. It suc¬ 
ceeds best in a fertile loamy soil, such as 
occurs in river bottoms and on the borders 
of swamps. As a source of honey it is im¬ 
portant in southern Virginia, West Vir¬ 
ginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, Maryland, 
North Carolina, South Carolina and north¬ 
ern Georgia. In southern Virginia on the 
Piedmont Plateau the tulip tree and sour- 
wood are the only plants which yield a 
large surplus. In the rugged wooded re¬ 
gion of southwest Virginia the tulip tree, 
sourwood, black locust, and basswood fur¬ 
nish a large amount of honey. Along the 
Ohio River in West Virginia the tulip tree 
is likewise abundant. On a tract of land, 
625 acres in extent, near the Ohio River be¬ 
tween the Great Kanawha and Big Sandy 
rivers there were counted 16,987 trees, of 



TULIP TREE 


847 


which 858 were tulip trees. This charac¬ 
teristic tree was at one time very common 
in Kentucky; and, altho many merchant¬ 
able trees have been largely cut for lumber, 
it still furnishes a part of the surplus in 
the less thickly settled sections of the 
State. Young trees are rapidly springing 
up and beginning to bloom. On the ridges 
and tablelands of the eastern and central 
regions of Tennessee the tulip tree and 
sourwood are the most important sources of 
honey. The former begins blooming about 
the first of May, and yields heavily for 
about two weeks. 

In Maryland above the fall line on the 
Piedmont Plateau the tulip tree is suffici¬ 
ently abundant to yield a honey crop regu¬ 
larly. On the Coastal Plain it never fur¬ 
nishes a surplus. Formerly in central 
Maryland it was one of the main surplus 
honey plants, and it is still important in 
Montgomery County, where it is associated 
with chestnut, walnut, and maple. But it 
has been so largely cut for pulp wood that 
there has been a great decrease in the quan¬ 
tity of honey obtained. No other honey 
plant in North Carolina has so wide a dis¬ 
tribution as the tulip tree. It is found, in 
all parts of the State except in the eastern 
lowlands. The tulip tree is likewise widely 
distributed in South Carolina, but is most 
common in the Piedmont region. It ex¬ 
tends over northern Georgia where it is 
usually a reliable source of honey, and it 
is also found in the mountainous sections 
of northeastern Alabama. 

The nectar may be seen in both large 
and small drops on the orange-yellow por¬ 
tions of the petals, on the inner side, which 
thus serve as both nectaries and nectar- 
guides. The time of blooming varies with 
the conditions of the weather from the last 
of April to the beginning of June. When 
the blossoms are late in opening and the 
weather is warm and dry, the honey flow 
is very much heavier than when the bloom 
is early. Under such conditions there are 
few if any better honey plants than the 
tulip tree, and each flower will yield not 
far from a spoonful of nectar. When the 
flowers appear early in the season the flow 
is often interrupted by cold rains. A large 
quantity of honey is stored even when the 
trees are scarce, and one or two supers are 
often filled from this soimce alone. Where 


the trees are abundant there is little dan¬ 
ger of overstocking, and it has been esti¬ 
mated that 200 colonies could not take care 
of the nectar within their range. Unfor¬ 
tunately, there are today few such loca¬ 
tions, and they are in regions difficult of 
access. 

‘‘The tulip tree blooms so early,” writes 
Phillips, “that the poor beekeeper, or even 
the average beekeeper, does not have colo¬ 
nies strong enough to get the crop. At 
Washington the average date at which this 
tree begins to bloom is not far from May 5. 
It obviously requires skillful beekeeping 
to build up the colonies to full gathering 
strength at this early date. In order that 
the colonies may contain 75,000 to 100,000 
population at the time of the average date 
of the last killing frost, brood-rearing must 
be heavily under way by March 1. If this 
can be done, and we know that it is possi¬ 
ble by proper winter and spring care, then 
the tulip tree may be expected to give a 
crop almost every year. At this season the 
the weather is uncertain and the short 
blooming period (rarely over 10 days) may 
be broken by rains, but it is indeed rare 
not to have a few days of good gathering. 
The tulip tree is perhaps exceeded by no 
other plant in reliability of yield, and few 
other trees furnish as much nectar as a 
tree of this species.” 

The honey obtained from the tulip tree 
is bright amber when new, but it becomes 
darker with age and very thick, so that it 
closely resembles molasses. In quality it 
is fair, somewhat strong, but with a rather 
pleasant flavor. It is in good demand lo¬ 
cally thruout the South, but it does not sell 
well in the general market. As it is gath¬ 
ered early and does not command the high¬ 
est prices, it can be used to advantage in 
brood-rearing and increasing the strength 
of the colonies for gathering the lighter- 
colored honeys which come later. The 
tulip tree is a host for an abundance of 
plant lice in late summer, which furnish 
considerable honeydew. 

The seed should be sown as soon as ripe 
in moderately dry fertile soil, and should 
be protected during the first winter. The 
wood is soft and fine-grained and is easily 
worked; it is usually nearly white but in 
some localities is yellowish. It shrinks bad¬ 
ly in drying and consequently is not adapt- 


845 


TUPELO 


ed to exposure to the weather. When dry it 
resists decay and is rarely attacked by in¬ 
sects. It may be used for sections and 
brood-frames, but is very unsatisfactory 
for hives. It is suitable for door panels 
and wainscoting and in the manufacture 
of carriages, furniture, and various small 
articles. As the wood is light and strong, 
the Indians used it in building great ca¬ 
noes, capable of carrying 20 persons or 
more. 

TUPELO ( Nyssa ).—Nyssa is a small 
genus containing only 7 species, of which 
5 occur in North America and 2 in south¬ 
ern Asia. Pour of the American species 
are trees, and one is a shrub. The leaves 
are alternate, thidk and leathery, almost 
entire, oblong or obovate, and are brilliant¬ 
ly colored in autumn. The flowers are 
small, greenish and appear with the leaves. 
The stamens and pistils are usually in dif¬ 
ferent flowers on different trees, the stam- 
inate are clustered, and the pistillate soli¬ 
tary or two to three together. The name of 
the water-nymph Nyssa was given to this 
genus on account of the aquatic habit of 
the species. 

White Tupelo (Nyssa aquatica.) White 
gum. Cotton gum. Water tupelo. Tupelo 
gum. Swamp tupelo. In river swamps in 
the coast region from southern Virginia to 
northern Florida, westward to the Nueces 
River, Texas; northward thru Arkan¬ 
sas, west Tennessee and west Kentucky and 
southern Missouri to the lower Wabash 
River, Illinois. A large water-loving tree, 
attaining a height of 100 feet and a dia¬ 
meter of 4 feet. The bark is dark brown 
in color, ridged and broken into small 
scales. The leaves are thick, oval, pointed 
at the apex, dark green and shining above, 
paler and pubescent below. The small 
greenish flowers open in April and May; 
the staminate are in dense round heads; the 
pistillate or fertile are solitary on slender 
stalks. The blue-purple fruit ripens in 
September. The wood is soft but can be 
used for crates and packing boxes. In the 
older floras the Latin name of this species 
is given as Nyssa uniflora. 

The honey of white tupelo has a very 
mild exquisite flavor, a thick body, and is 
very light in color with a pale lemon hue 
which renders it very attractive in glass 



Sprig of scrub tupelo, showing the shape of the 
leaves and blossoms. 


containers. The bulk of this honey is pro¬ 
duced in the extracted form and shipped 
northward in 30-gallon barrels. It is in 
great demand among northern dealers in 
honey, who prefer it because it does not 
granulate. The nectar is secreted very 
copiously and a great amount is collected 
by the bees in a few weeks, but they are 
not numerous enough to harvest more than 
a small part of it. In pine-barren ponds 
the white tupelo is often a small tree, which 
may be readily mistaken for a distinct spe¬ 
cies. 

Black Tupelo (Nyssa biflora). Black 


TUPELO 


849 


gum. Water gum. Water tupelo. This 
species has a much more restricted range 
than white tupelo, extending only from 
Montgomery County, Maryland to Florida 
and central Alabama. A large tree, attain¬ 
ing a maximum height of over 100 feet, 
with a rough, ridged, dark-brown bark. The 
oval leaves are smaller than those of the 
white tupelo, smooth on both sides, blunt- 
pointed, with entire margins. The blos¬ 
soms appear in April and May and the 
dark blue plum-shaped fruit in early fall; 
the staminate flowers are clustered, the pis¬ 
tillate are two together, instead of solitary 
as in the white tupelo. Black tupelo thru- 
out its range is usually associated with 
white tupelo, but it often extends to higher 
land. It is abundant along lake margins 
and on the bottomland of small streams. 
The fruit, which falls into the water, some¬ 
times accumulates in large heaps in shel¬ 
tered coves. 

The beginning of the honey flow is de¬ 
termined by the length of time the low¬ 
lands are covered by water. If there has 
been no overflow in early spring the trees 
in northern Florida will bloom in March, 
and the honey flow will last for three 
weeks. But if there has been much rain 
and the rivers have flooded the bottom¬ 
lands, the blooming time will be much de¬ 
layed. The honey when first gathered is 
thick, light in color, and very mild in fla¬ 
vor; but with age it grows darker colored 
and stronger flavored. 

Sour Gum (Nyssa sylvatica ). Pepper- 
idge. Black gum. This large forest tree, 
100 to 150 feet tall, is the giant of the 
tupelos, and has a much wider distribution 
than any other species. It extends from 
the Kennebec River, Maine; Ontario and 
southern Michigan; to the Kissimmee Riv¬ 
er, Florida; southeastern Missouri and the 
Brazos River, Texas. The seventh edition 
of Gray’s Manual ranks the black tupelo 
( N. hi flora ) as a variety of this species, 
and undoubtedly beekeepers very often 
confuse the two trees. While pepperidge 
grows on high land it requires moist soil. 
In North Carolina the black tupelo (IV. bi¬ 
flora) is common in the southeastern 
swamps, while pepperidge (N. sylvatica) 
extends westward to the center of the State. 
Both species are called black gum in this 


State, and the beekeepers do not distin¬ 
guish carefully between them. 

The bark and leaves of the sour gum or 
pepperidge are very similar to those of the 
black tupelo. The flowers open from April 
to June according to the locality; the stam¬ 
inate are in dense clusters, the pistillate 3 
together. While the bloom yields nectar, 
it is apparently of much less value to the 
beekeeper than either the white or black 
tupelo. 

Ogeche Plum (A. Ogeche ). Ogeche lime. 
Wild lime tree. Gopher plum. A small tree, 
reaching a maximum height of 60 feet, but 
seldom more than 30 to 40 feet tall. Corn- 



Scrub tupelo of Georgia. 


mon in the river swamps of South Carolina, 
Georgia and Florida. The greenish-yellow 
flowers appear from January to May, the 
staminate in round heads, the pistillate 
solitary. The fruit is red and very acid. 
In Florida it has been reported to bloom 
just before the white tupelo and to yield 
a white, thin honey. 

Bush Tupelo ( N. acuminata). This spe¬ 
cies is a mere shrub, growing 6 to 10 feet 
tall, and peculiar to the pineland swamps 
near the coast of Georgia. The bark is 
smooth and the branches and twigs red. 







A part of one season’s crop of 100 barrels of tupelo honey on the wharf ready to load on the steamer, in the tupelo regions of the Apalachicola River, Florida 













TUPELO 


851 


The honey is thick and white, closely re¬ 
sembling that of white tnpelo, but has a 
greenish tinge. 

The white and black tupelos (N. aquatiGa 
and N. biflora ) are commonly found in 
the same swamplands from Virginia to 
Florida. In the swamps near Norfolk, Vir¬ 
ginia, they are important sources of nec¬ 
tar, and only rarely does the beekeeper fail 
to obtain a surplus. In the southeastern 
swamps of the Coastal Plain of North Car¬ 
olina the tupelos are very abundant, while 
gallberry covers much of the higher land. 
A large number of colonies of bees are 
successfully operated in this section, but 
much of the region is still unoccupied by 
beekeepers. In the river swamps of South 
Carolina both white and black tupelos are 
again common and yield a large portion of 
the crop of honey. In southeastern Georgia 
all five species of tupelo, native to the 
United States, occur; but none yield so 
large an amount of honey as the black and 
white tupelos. It is in this section of the 
State that the largest and most advanced 
beekeepers are located who operate thou¬ 
sands of colonies of bees. 

The most famous section of Florida for 
beekeeping is the northwestern part of the 
State along the Apalachicola and Oeklock- 
nee rivers, where white tupelo, black tu¬ 
pelo, and spring titi are abundant. From 
this section comes about one-third of the 
honey crop of the entire State. About 50 
miles from the point where the Apalachi¬ 
cola and Ocklocknee rivers enter the Gulf 
of Mexico the rivers have low banks, the 
main channels breaking up into small 
streams which wind thru the marshland. 
This strip of bottomland is about 10 miles 
wide and is covered by a luxuriant growth 
of tupelo trees. As it is overflowed in the 
rainy season, it is necessary to place the 
hives on platforms, 6 to 10 feet high. The 
season opens with the blooming in March 
of black titi, and a little later in April and 
May the flowers of the tupelos open. So 
copious is the flow that an average of 70 
pounds per colony is extracted each year, 
and in some seasons 100 or 150 pounds; 
250 barrels of extracted honey have been 
secured in 26 days. Vast quantities of nec¬ 
tar go to waste, and it is doubtful if this 
region will ever be fully stocked with bees. 
A full crop is obtained three years in five, 


and there is never less than a quarter of a 
crop. But many do not care to live in a 
desolate, unwholesome swamp, where ma¬ 
laria and mosquitoes are prevalent, roads 
are absent, and the only signs of civiliza¬ 
tion are sawmills. Other objections are 
the shortage of pollen and the absence of 
late-blooming plants to maintain the 
strength of the colonies in the fall. 

In the southeastern corner of Alabama 
the surplus honey plants in spring are titi, 
the tupelos, and gallberry. The yards, 
which are usually small in size, in a favor¬ 
able season average 60 pounds of surplus 



Black tupelo or gum with berries. 


per colony. Altho there are a large num¬ 
ber of colonies in this region, it is consid¬ 
ered better adapted to queen-rearing than 
honey production. At Mount Pleasant on 
the Alabama River the main crop comes 
from the tupelos, holly, blackberry, and 
velvet bean. This is one of the best loca¬ 
tions in the pine barrens. Beyond Ala¬ 
bama the black tupelo ( N. biflora) ceases 
to be an important source of honey, altho 
it has been reported as far west as Louisi- 




852 


UNITING BEES 


ana; but the white tupelo (N. aquatica ) 
and the sour gum or pepperidge (N. syl- 
vatica ) have a much wider distribution. In 
the Yazoo Delta, Mississippi, the white tu¬ 
pelo does not appear to be one of the sur¬ 
plus-making plants, since none of the bee¬ 
keepers secure a surplus before June, and 
the white tupelo blooms much earlier. In 
the flood plains of Louisiana white tupelo 
yields a veritable flood of nectar, and the 
bees are busy on the bloom from early dawn 


until sunset; but the flow is of short dura¬ 
tion. The river swamps of eastern Texas, 
mark the western limit of the white tupelo. 
The banks of the Nueces River are lined 
with white tupelo and sour gum ( N. sylvat- 
ica ), the belt of timber being from one to 
two miles wide. In southern Arkansas 
white tupelo is valuable, and sour gum has 
also a wide distribution. White tupelo is 
also listed as a honey plant in western 
Tennessee and western Kentucky. 


u 


UNITING BEES. —This term is used to 
refer to the putting together of two or 
three nuclei or weak colonies, either from 
the same yard or from other yards. The 
operation is just the reverse of dividing, 
in which process a colony is split up into 
several smaller units. See Dividing, In¬ 
crease, and Nucleus. 

When several families of bees are put 
together they may or may not quarrel, de¬ 
pending on circumstances. If the weather 
is warm, and the bees are hybrids or 
blacks, they may, at the moment of uniting, 
enter into a free-for-all fight. The result, 
unless stopped by the timely use of smoke, 
may be almost the annihilation of one or 
both lots of bees. As a rule, even without 
smoke there will be no quarreling where 
gentle strains of bees like Italians are 
used; and even when they have these 
“family disturbances” they can be “ad¬ 
justed” very nicely by the use of plenty of 
smoke. Sometimes more smoke will be 
needed than at others, especially if the two 
lots of bees are of fairly good strength, and 
persist in stinging each other to death. 

In any case after uniting without smoke 
it is advisable to watch the bees for a few 
minutes to see if there is any trouble later. 
Many a lot of fine bees have been ruined 
because, after uniting, the apiarist did not 
go back a few minutes later to see if all 
was well. 


There is another difficulty in uniting; 
and that is, that the old bees, if taken from 
the same yard, are quite, apt to go back to 
the old stand. This is especially true if 
the uniting is performed during or imme¬ 
diately following a honey flow. Young 
bees that have never been out of the hive 
will stay where they are placed, and per¬ 
haps a majority of the old ones. 

If the several families to be united all 
have queens, no attention need be paid to 
them if there is no choice between them. 
If one is better than the rest, cage her 
after uniting and kill the others. This is a 
precaution. 

The old-fashioned black bees can be 
moved about from one part of the apiary 
to another with less trouble than the Ital¬ 
ians because the blacks will find their loca¬ 
tion better. But when uniting by the news¬ 
paper plan (to be described further on) 
this point need not be considered. 

In these days, when out-apiary beekeep¬ 
ing is practiced on so large a scale, the 
weak colonies or nuclei of two separate 
yards can be united very easily without 
any returning. Where one finds a num¬ 
ber of undersized or weak colonies in two 
or more of his yards, he can put the weak¬ 
lings of one yard with the undersized or 
medium-strength colonies of another, thus 
bringing them all up to normal strength 
either for honey-gathering in early summer 


UNITING BEES 


853 


or for wintering at the close of the season. 

When there is only one yard of bees, as 
in most cases, one can unite even then if he 
will follow the directions here given. 

HOW TO PREVENT THE BEES FROM THE SAME 
YARD GOING BACK AFTER UNITING. 

After inclement or cool weather, during 
which the bees have been confined for sev¬ 
eral days, they may be united with little 
or no returning, when, if they have been 
going to the fields for nectar for several 
days, the old bees will be almost sure to go 
back. It is, therefore, advisable to wait 
for a spell of rainy or cool weather when 
the bees cannot fly much, during which 
time they will have been confined for at 
least four or five days. Then in the cool 
of the morning the nuclei can be moved 
to their permanent winter stands. At the 
moment of uniting it is advisable to use 
plenty of smoke, not only to avoid any 
possible fighting that may occur, but to 
disorganize them so that, when they seek 
flight from their new home, they will mark 
their entrance anew. It is also important 
to remove the old hives after taking the 
bees from them to unite with other bees. 

It very often occurs late in the fall that 
one will have a lot of nuclei without any 
brood. If these should be queenless, the 
bees of several of them can be shaken into 
a swarming-box and confined over night in 
a cellar or in a cool place. The intermin¬ 
gling of several families of bees, and con¬ 
finement in a box without combs, breaks up 
the old family spirit that formerly existed, 
and almost entirely eliminates all tendency 
towards the old home. This lot of bees 
can now be apportioned out to colonies 
that are not quite up to standard of 
strength as follows: 

In the cool of the morning, before any 
bees are flying, the hives of bees should be 
marked in such a, way that the apiarist can 
at a glance determine how many bees he 
shall give to each individual stand. He next 
approaches a hive. The marking on the 
cover shows that it can take two dip¬ 
perfuls of bees. He gives the box a jounce 
on the ground so as to pile the bees up en 
masse on the bottom. If they are disposed 
to fly up, he wets them down with a little 
spray—-just enough to dampen their wings, 
and thus impede their flight., Before they 


can crawl up on the sides of the box he 
now scoops up a bunch of the bees with a 
little tin dipper and dumps them in at the 
front of the entrance. If the hive in ques¬ 
tion requires two dipperfuls, then two dip¬ 
perfuls of bees it gets; and so on he dis¬ 
tributes bees to every hive that needs them. 

As a matter of precaution, every hive 
receiving bees like this should have its 
queen caged for 24 hours at least, in such 
a way that the bees can release her by eat¬ 
ing out the candy or gnawing away the 
comb. (See Introducing.) As a further 
precaution, after the bees have been distrib¬ 
uted in front of the various hives, an ex¬ 
amination should be made in about 25 min¬ 
utes to see that there is no fighting between 
the new family and the old. 

By uniting in this way there have been 
accomplished two things — strengthening 
the colonies that are not quite up to the 
standard, and disposing of all the weak¬ 
lings in the apiary. If the first box will not 
hold all weaklings at the first time, it can 
be filled the second or third time until all 
nuclei that are too weak to winter are 
cleaned up. 

NEWSPAPER PLAN OF UNITING. 

There is still one more way of uniting 
to prevent bees returning, and this may be 
practiced even when bees are flying to the 
fields if the weather is not too hot. The 
moved hive with its bees is put on top of 
another with a single thickness of news¬ 
paper between. By the time the bees above 
gnaw a hole thru, some time elapses. The 
confinement and the gradual uniting of the 
bees thru the hole in the paper avert all 
fighting and all returning of bees to the 
old stands, says Dr. Miller. During hot 
weather there is danger that the bees in 
the upper story may suffocate, in which case 
it is advised to punch a hole thru the paper 
with a lead pencil. 

UNITING NEW SWARMS. 

This is so easily done that directions are 
hardly needed; in fact, if two swarms 
come out at the same time, they are almost 
sure to unite, and two such swarms are not 
likely to quarrel. One of the queens will 
very soon be killed, but the extra one may 
be easily found by looking for the ball of 
bees that will be seen clinging about her, 


854 


UNITING BEES 


very soon after the bees have been joined 
together. A swarm can, as a rule, be 
given, without any trouble, to any swarm 
that has come out the day previous; and if 
one will take the trouble to watch them a 
little, he may unite any swarm with any 
other swarm, even if it came out a week 
or more before. If inclined to fight, they 
should be smoked as before explained. 

While swarms can be united it is not ad¬ 
visable to unite a swarm with an old colony 
without smoking them at first or at least 
waiting after uniting. 

Perhaps a safer and a better way is to 
use a newspaper between the two stories as 
before explained; but when the newspaper 
is used on a hot or sultry day, it is advisable 
to poke a hole in it with a lead pencil to 
prevent suffocation. 

UNITING BEES IN THE SPRING. 

As has been pointed out elsewhere, unit¬ 
ing two weak colonies in the spring is 
usually unprofitable. Uniting a weak to a 
medium colony is quite a different thing, 
as will be presently explained. When there 
are two little weak colonies, or nuclei, one 
having a queen, it would seem the most 
natural thing to put the two together for 
additional warmth and to provide a queen 
for all the bees; but, unfortunately, theory 
is not here borne out by facts. One can 
unite nuclei in the spring; and while at 
the very time of uniting they will seem to 
make up a fairly good colony, yet in two 
or three days there will seem to be just 
about as few bees as there were before the 
uniting took place. This is because the 
moved bees go back to the old stand, and 
because the old bees die off. They would 
die anyway, whether in the old hive before 
uniting, and they would die after they were 
moved just the same. 

All of the foregoing has reference to 
periods early in the spring in the northern 
States. Later in the spring, along about 
the last of May or first of June, uniting 
can often be practiced to advantage, espe¬ 
cially if the newspaper plan is used. 

THE ALEXANDER PLAN OF UNITING. 

During the year 1905, and again in 1906 
and ’07, considerable interest was mani¬ 
fested thru Gleanings in Bee Culture in the 
Alexander plan of uniting a weak colony to 


a strong one in the spring. Many of those 
who followed the method were very success¬ 
ful. A few, however, failed. To these 
latter reference will be made later. The 
Alexander plan of uniting as carefully re¬ 
vised by Mr. Alexander himself is given: 

ALEXANDER METHOD OF BUILDING UP WEAK 
COLONIES IN EARLY SPRING. 

About six or seven days after taking the 
bees from their winter quarters, pick out 
and mark all weak colonies, also the strong¬ 
est ones, selecting an equal number of each; 
then all weak colonies that have a patch 
of brood in one comb about as large as the 
hand. Set all such on top of a strong colony 
with a queen-excluder between, closing up 
all entrance to the weak colony except thru 
the excluder. 

Where there are any that are weak, only 
a queen, and perhaps not more than a hand¬ 
ful of bees with no brood, fix these in this 
way: Go to the strong colony you wish to 
set them over, and get a frame of brood 
with its adhering bees, being sure not to 
take their queen; then put the queen of 
the weak colony on this comb with the 
strange bees, and put it into the weak 
hive; leave them in this way about half a 
day; then set them on top of the strong 
colony where you got the brood with a 
queen-excluder between. Do all this with 
very little smoke, and avoid exciting the 
strong colony in any way. If a cool day, 
and the bees are not flying, I usually leave 
the strong colony uncovered, except with 
the excluder, for a few hours before set¬ 
ting on the weak colony. The whole thing 
should be done as quietly as possible, so 
that neither colony hardly realizes that it 
has been touched. When the weak colony 
has been given some brood, and put on top 
in this careful and still manner, hardly one 
queen in a hundred will be lost, and in about 
30 days each hive will be crowded with 
bees and maturing brood. Then when you 
wish to separate them, set the strongest col¬ 
ony on a new stand and give it also some of 
the bees from the hive that is left on the 
old stand, as a few of the working force 
will return to the old location, especially if 
they are black bees or degenerate Italians. 

In every case that has come to my notice 
where this method has been reported a fail¬ 
ure it has been from one of two causes— 
either lack of brood in a weak colony to 
hold the queen and her bees in the upper 
hive, or smoking the strong colony so that, 
as soon as the weak one was set on top, the 
bees from below would rush up and sting 
every one above. Therefore avoid using 
smoke or doing anything to excite the 
strong colony. 

If done in a careful manner the bees in 
the lower hive never seem to realize that 


VEILS 


656 


any strangers have been put above them, 
and they all work in harmony together. 

At the outset mention was made of those 
who met with failure in following the 
method. As Mr. Alexander says, the diffi¬ 
culty doubtless arose from the fact that 
they failed to put brood along with the 
weak nucleus to hold the queen and her 
few bees, or else they did the work so 
clumsily that it stirred up both lots of 
bees, with the result that they came to¬ 
gether before they had the same scent. Mr. 
Alexander’s injunction is to put the bees 
together so carefully that the clusters do 
not really unite for some two days, at 
which time there is a peaceful union. The 
two queens go on laying, making one rous¬ 
ing colony, which can be divided. This 
makes two strong colonies where before 
there would have been only one, since the 
nucleus left to itself would have died. 

Where one desires to proceed with 
extreme caution he is advised to put a 
wire-cloth screen between the two lots of 
bees at the time of uniting, keeping it 
there for two or three days, after which its 
place is taken by a perforated zinc honey- 
board. In this cpnneetion it should be said 
that the wire-cloth screen should be 
mounted in a wooden frame about % inch 
thick. 

While this plan of uniting contemplates 


performing the act in early spring, some¬ 
thing can be done at it in the fall. Mr. 
Josiah Johnson, in a communication sent 
to Gleanings in Bee Culture, tells how he 
unites on the Alexander plan in the fall. 

Some have had trouble in following the 
Alexander plan of building up weak colo¬ 
nies. I think the trouble in many cases is 
due to rousing up the bees and getting them 
uneasy before the weak colony is put over 
the strong one. Then the two colonies have 
war for a while. I always use wire cloth 
between the two hives and never have any 
trouble from the lower colony going up and 
killing the bees in the upper hive. For 
some time I have wintered my weak colo¬ 
nies this way, on the summer stands. Last 
winter I had several weak colonies, and I 
put them all over strong colonies, making 
an entrance in the back with my knife thru 
the handhole of the upper hive. This should 
be just large enough to allow two or three 
bees to pass out -at a time. This is done 
on some cloudy day after very cold weather 
comes. 

Last year I had a weak colony of bees. 
There was just one frame of bees and a 
young queen. I put this frame of bees in 
with nine frames of honey, and put the 
frames in a hive and set it on top of one of 
the strongest colonies I had, and in Febru¬ 
ary they got pretty strong, and I left them 
on till April; and when I set them off I had 
two strong colonies. Josiah Johnson. 

Milan, Ill. 

See Building up Colonies, Spring 
Dwindling, and Spring Management. 


V 


VEILS. —When dealing with hybrids, 
Cyprians, or Holy Lands, a veil is a neces¬ 
sity. With Italians, Carniolans, or Cauca¬ 
sians it is not so important; still it is ad¬ 
visable to have one on the hat ready to pull 
down. Its use in any case gives the apiar¬ 
ist a sense of security that will enable him 
to work to much better advantage than he 
could if continually in fear of every cross 
bee that chanced to buzz near his eyes. 

The two objections that have been made 
against the use of veils are that they ob¬ 


struct the vision more or less, and interfere 
with the free circulation of air in hot 
weather; but these objections with a good 
veil are not very serious. Our best beemen, 
as a rule, wear a veil constantly when 
among the bees, and it is best to do so. 

The lightest veil is one made entirely 
of silk tulle, altho somewhat expensive. 
The material is so fine that a whole veil of 
it can be folded to go in a small vest- 
pocket. The author carries one of these 
constantly during the working season of 


856 


VEILS 



Manner of adjusting a bee-veil under the suspenders when there is no elastic cord in the bottom. 


the bees, and it is always ready for an 
emergency. It neither obstructs the vision 
nor prevents the free circulation of air on 
hot days. A cheaper one, tho not so light 
nor cool, is made of grenadine with a fac¬ 
ing of silk tulle net sewed in. The grena¬ 
dine is strong, and the brussels-net facing 
obstructs the vision but little if any. The 
top of the veil is gathered with a rubber 
cord, that it may be made to fit closely 
around the crown of the hat. 



Collapsible bee-hat, folded and open. 


There is a special broad-brimmed cloth 
hat, costing about one dollar each, that is 
sold by dealers. These hats are very light, 
will fit any head, and can be folded and 
put in a coat-pocket. This broad brim is 
supported and held out by means of a steel 
hoop, and when the veil is placed over the 
hat and properly drawn down it cannot 
touch the face or neck, and hence leaves no 
possible chance for stings. During hot 
days when bees require the most attention 


in the apiary, a coat or vest is simply in¬ 
tolerable. In the absence of either one of 
these garments the corners of the veil may 
be drawn under the suspenders. The four 
views (top of page) show successively this 
manner of drawing the veil under the sus¬ 
penders, and its position when in use. The 
last view of the series shows how easily it 
can be drawn out from under the sus¬ 
penders and raised above the hat while not 
in use. A few apiarists work a large part 
of the time with the veil raised. When the 
suspender method of holding is used one 
can raise or lower and fasten the veil in a 
moment’s time. 

There are others who prefer a veil with 
a rubber cord inserted in the bottom, fas¬ 
tening the same by means of a large safe¬ 
ty-pin to the clothing. Unlike the other 
veils shown with no elastic in the bottom 
of the fringe, this veil can be used by a 
man or woman, because the safety-pin can 
be secured to the clothing of either. In 
putting this on, care should be taken to 
draw the elastic clear down near the bottom 
of the waist, securing it with a pin as 
shown in the first illustration. No. 2 looks 
very nice, but the movement of the arms 
will soon push the cord above the shoulders, 
leaving it so loose that bees can readily 
crawl up. No. 3 is better; and if the elas- 













VEILS 


857 


tic is stiff enough very good results will be 
secured. But if not, the veil must be drawn 
down as shown in the view at the extreme 
left, or No. 1. 

No. 4 and next cut show method of fas¬ 
tening the veil. A piece of cotton tape is in¬ 
serted in the bottom edge of the veil ex¬ 
tending clear around the veil except in 
front. Across the front, a four-inch length 
of %-inch tape elastic is inserted, and the 
ends sewed securely to the veil, leaving the 
veil fulled on the elastic so that the latter 
may be stretched without tearing the veil. 
On each end of this elastic is sewed a short 
loop of cotton tape thru which are passed 
the ends of the long tape. This tape is 



Root bee-veil. 


then drawn up and crossed at the back, the 
ends being passed thru a two or three inch 
loop of tape attached to the cotton tape at 
the middle lower edge of the hack of the 
veil, then brought to the front and tied. 
This holds the veil securely. 

There are many practical beemen who 
prefer wire-cloth head-protectors to any¬ 
thing else. When first used they seem a 
little awkward; but the extreme comfort 
that one enjoys, more than compensates for 
their apparent outlandishness. 

The next veil is what its name implies. 
Being made of black wire cloth it will not 
catch or tear on any obstruction. The skirt 
is made of muslin and should be drawn up 
snugly around the collar by means of a 
draw-string. The screen is shaped so that 
the shoulders will not push the veil off the 
head, and has a deep face which allows 
one to look down at the hive and still look 


through netting instead of the view being 
obstructed by the cloth. 

The Alexander (shown at the bottom) is 
used by some of the most extensive beekeep- 



Root indestructible bee-veil. 


ers in the country. It is a plain wire-cloth 
cylinder having a circular gathering of 
muslin at the top, and a sort of skirt of the 
same material sewn to the bottom edge. 
With this outfit one will be required to go 
bareheaded or wear a small cap. Much of 
the work of the apiary is done during the 
hottest weather, and this veil is very cool. 
Like the one just described it does not get 
“hooked” in passing among trees or shrub¬ 
bery, nor does it get torn like some of the 
veils of fabric. It has the further advan¬ 
tage that it can be removed in an instant 
without breaking any fastening, and is 
quickly put on again. The muslin skirt 
fits loosely yet snugly around the shoulders 
and neck. 



The Alexander bee-veil. 

The one shown in the cut uses a strip of 
wire cloth approximately ten inches wide 
and a yard long. A yard of muslin com¬ 
pletes the material required. Where one uses 
a coat, the skirt of this head protection can 
I’eadily be tucked inside; but even without 
coat or vest, the loose folds of the cloth fit 
with a fair degree of snugness around the 
shoulders and neck. 

Some Rse with much satisfaction a sort 
of chopping-bowl or basket inverted for a 
hat. It is worn in India and other hot 




858 


VEILS 


countries, and is slowly working its way 
into this country, particularly in the South. 
It is made of palm-leaf, and it is supported 
above the head in the manner shown below. 



Hopatkong veil and hat. 


As light breezes can circulate above and 
around the head, it is perhaps the coolest 
sunshade of any herein illustrated and de¬ 
scribed. If one cannot secure one of these, 
and would like to get the ventilating fea¬ 
ture, he can take an ordinary palm-leaf hat 
several sizes too large. On the inside of 
the hat-band sew four or five %-inch corks 
that have been cut in halves lengthwise. 
These, if spaced at regular distances, will 
keep the hat from the head, and permit 
ventilation. 

As has already been said, one objection 
to bee-veils is the obstruction to the eye¬ 
sight. To overcome this, John C. Capehart 
of St. Albans, West Virginia, glued a piece 
of glass in front of the veil. The difficulty 
with this was, that the glass would hardly 
ever be in range with the eyes, on account 
of its weight, and then it would be covered 
with moisture from the breath; and, worse 
than all, it would get broken. The brussels 
net or wire cloth is open to none of these 
objections, and is almost as transparent as 
glass. 

Walter S. Pouder made an improve¬ 
ment on the glass by substituting celhdo’d 
film such as is used for photographic film 
negatives. While this overcomes the objec¬ 
tion of weight it does not prevent the 
moisture of the breath from accumulating 
on it. Moreover, it is very inflammable— 
so much so that if a hot spark from a 
smoker should alight upon it, the face 
might be seriously burned. So far nothing 
has been found better than nor as good as 
silk tulle, or fine black wire cloth. 

The Holmes veil is simply a straw hat 


with a broad rim, the veil being made of 
mosquito-bar, and the facing of brussels 
net. A strip of cloth lines the lower edge 
of the veil, and is made just large enough 



Mrs. R. H. Holmes’ bee-hat. 


to fit snugly around the shoulders. A 
couple of cloth straps 
hitched to buttons pass 
under the arm-pits, and 
button on in front. 

HOW TO GET ALONG 
WITHOUT A VEIL. 

0 c c a s i o nally one 
meets a person who 
says he does not need 
any bee-veil aild never 
uses any in his bee 
work. Such a person is 
to be pitied for his 
sortsightedness rather 
than admired for his 
temerity. He will at 
times spend enough time smashing bees 
that sting him in the face to make up 
many times over for the slight incon¬ 
venience of the veil. It is foolhardy and 
totally unnecessary to run the risk of a bad 
sting around the eyes, nose, mouth, or ears, 
and a good beekeeper is wise enough to 
wear a veil of some sort or have one on his 
hat ready to pull down. 

Occasionally there will be times when one 
will have to do some work with the bees 
without a veil. Perhaps it has been for¬ 
gotten, or perhaps a visitor more suscepti¬ 
ble to stings has to have it. In such cases 
as these, one should make sure that his 
smoker is in excellent working order, with 
plenty of fuel. The smoker should be held 






















VEILS 


859 



Farmerette beekeepers who, in 1918, reared queens and extracted for M. H. Mendleson of Ventura, Calif. 

He says they were the best help he ever had. 



Bee-veil, warmus and gloves combined. 


between the knees when not in use so as to 
be ready for instant service over the 
frames. If the day is at all chilly smoke 
should be blown down over the frames 
quite frequently. By proceeding very cau¬ 
tiously, using smoke every now and then, 
one can get along without*a veil, but he 
wastes more time and uses an unnecessary 
amount of smoke. 

With gentle Italians on warm days one 
can have his veil thrown back over his hat; 
but he should always have it ready so he 
can draw it down instantly in case of emer¬ 
gency. This is especially necessary where 
one has to wear glasses. An angry bee will 
sometimes get between the lenses' and the 
eyes, and the owner in order to save him¬ 
self from a sting will sometimes break his 
glasses. 

BEE DRESS OR CLOTHING} FOR BEEKEEPERS. 

Under the head of Gloves, are described 
some long-sleeved gloves or gauntlets that 
reach away up above the elbows. Many 
beekeepers use these to keep bees from get¬ 
ting up the sleeves, and at the same time to 
protect the wrists, especially the inside 
fleshy portions of them where they are 
very sensitive. Others carry this same 
principle further, combining the gloves 






860 


VEILS 


and headgear all in one, as shown. While 
this affords ample protection, it is a little 
warm on hot days; and, moreover, it is not 
easy to put on. After one has become more 
accustomed to bees he can cut off the ends 
or the finger tips of the gloves so that he 
can work to better advantage. 

As for trousers, one can get a pair of 
overalls at any clothing-store, and it is 
suggested that he get outfits such as are 
used by machinists and engineers. These 
have numerous handy pockets, large and 
small, in which various tools may be placed. 

One-piece overalls covering arms, waist 
and legs are excellent. They can be slipped 
over the regular clothing or in hot weather 
can be worn without other garments than 
suitable underwear. 

Bicycle pants-guards can be used to very 
good advantage during extracting and all 
other times, when one is shaking or brush¬ 
ing bees off combs. The bottoms of the 
trousers should be neatly folded around the 
ankles, and the guards slipped on to hold 
the folds in place. 



Miss Mary Culver of Calexico, Calif., in her far¬ 
merette bee-suit. Her father is an 
extensive beekeeper. 


FARMERETTE BEE-SUITS. 

In many parts of the West, as well as in 
some parts of the East, bee-women are 
wearing regular farmerette suits, either 
“Peggy Janes,” or one-piece overalls gath¬ 
ered at the shoe-tops, such as were intro¬ 
duced during the period of the Great War. 
Several of these styles are worn, and most 
of them are neat, safe, and sane. They 
are now getting to be quite common. 

Many women wear overalls or bloomers 
when working in the apiary. If desired, 
a full but short apron may be worn oyer 
the overalls, or a short skirt over the 
bloomers. High-top shoes will also add to 
one’s feeling of security. 

VENTILATION. —Bees that are out¬ 
doors in their regular hives generally re¬ 
ceive at the entrance all the ventilation 
they require. There should be, except in 
very hot weather, no other openings. Oc¬ 
casionally hives are so poorly made that 
they will have gaping cracks; but these, 
unless too large, will be closed up with bee 
glue—-usually along toward fall; and some 
strains of bees, notably the Caucasians, 
will close them up early in the season. In¬ 
deed, they will sometimes obstruct the en¬ 
trance by means of little chunks of propo¬ 
lis. 

In olden times it was customary for the 
patent-right men to furnish their patrons 
with hives having all kinds of ventilating 
holes and little trapdoors; but the modern 
hive, as a rule, has no openings of any 
sort except at the entrance, which is con¬ 
tracted or enlarged according to the season. 
In hot weather it will be opened to its 
maximum, and in cool weather it will be 
reduced to one-fourth, or even less, of its 
largest capacity. See Entrances to Hives 
and Wintering. 

During extremely hot weather, especially 
during swarming time, it is sometimes nec¬ 
essary to provide upward ventilation in 
addition to that provided at the entrance. 
The cover may be lifted up in such a way 
as to leave a crack at the back end. This 
will allow a current of air to circulate from 
the top clear down thru the hive. But 
sometimes loosening the cover is insuffi¬ 
cient. It is then necessary to provide ven¬ 
tilation for one or more supers that may 
be on the hive at the time. In that case, 




VENTILATION 


861 


the second super is shoved forward on the 
lower one—just enough to leave a crack, 
front and rear. If that is not enough, the 
third super is staggered back so as to be in 
a vertical line over the bottom super; and 
in rare cases it may be necessary to go even 
further by tipping the cover up in addi¬ 
tion. It is much better to provide ventila¬ 
tion in this way for extremely hot weather 
than to bore holes in the sides or ends of 
the hives or supers. The amount of venti¬ 
lation that may be required thru the top of 
the hive by staggering the supers back and 
forth will depend on how hot the weather 
may be at the time, and whether the hive 
in question is shielded from the sun. So 
long as the bees cluster out in front, it is 
an indication that there is lack of ventila¬ 
tion. Sometimes a great cluster of bees 
will be clear over a large entrance, practic¬ 
ally closing it up except what little air can 
filter thru the mass of bees. In cases like 
this, it is advisable to lift the hive up on 
four blocks as shown under the subject of 
Swarming, subhead, “Providing Abundant 
Ventilation.” If this does not draw the 
bees into the hive, additional ventilation 
should be given at the top of the super 
or supers, in the manner already explained. 
But one should be careful not to overdo 
this, because comb-building cannot progress 
very satisfactorily in supers when chilling 
blasts go back down over the bees, and this 
is liable to occur at night, even after a hot 
day. 

Under Swarming it has been shown 
that ventilation and swarming often stand 
in the ratio to each other of cause and 
effect; that is to say, not enough ventila¬ 
tion overheats the brood, causes the bees to 
cluster in front, induces loafing, cell-build¬ 
ing, and finally swarming. Time and time 
again this loafing on the part' of a big 
bunch of bees in front has been stopped 
by providing ventilation. When a colony 
in the height of the season can earn at 
least from five to ten dollars, it is folly to 
compel the poor bees to loaf and cut down 
their earning capacity simply because of a 
lack of means to keep their hive cool 
enough so that they can go inside and go to 
work. 

VENTILATION DURING THE WINTER. 

Under Wintering, also under En¬ 


trances, it is explained that bees out¬ 
doors on their summer stands do not re¬ 
quire nearly the amount of ventilation that 
is needed during the summer. Yet even in 
cold weather a strong colony should have a 
larger entrance than a weak one. See En¬ 
trances to Hives. 

When bees are wintered in a cellar it is 
highly important that the atmosphere be 
dry, and that there be means provided for 
supplying fresh air in the room where the 
bees are kept. Insufficient ventilation 
causes uneasiness; uneasiness induces over¬ 
eating, and overeating brings on dysentery. 
(See Dysentery.) It is important that the 
cellar has plenty of ventilation during the 
entire period of confinement, and more air 
toward spring than late in the fall. 

Authorities disagree somewhat as to the 
size of entrance that bees require while in 
the cellar; but the author’s experience in¬ 
dicates that the same size that is used dur¬ 
ing moderate summer weather is better 
than a large one. It will depend somewhat 
on the size of the colony. See Wintering 
in Cellars. 

In severely cold weather it is highly im¬ 
portant to see that the entrances of the 
hives outdoors are not closed up with wet 
snow nor ice. A dry snow does no harm. 
A closed entrance closed tightly is almost 
sure to be fatal to the colony sooner or 
later if there is no upward ventilation. It 
sometimes happens that dead bees clog 
up the entrance, and the colony dies sim¬ 
ply because a few of its dead shut off its 
means of ventilation. 

smothering bees by closing the 

ENTRANCE. 

Altho bees manage to get along with 
even a very small entrance, one should be 
on the guard against closing it entirely, 
in warm weather, even for only a few 
minutes. Many are the reports the author 
has received almost every season, of bees 
destroyed by simply closing their entrance 
while undertaking to stop swarming for a 
few minutes, until some other colony can 
receive attention. See Swarming and En¬ 
trances. 

When bees have the swarming fever they 
are gorged with honey and in a feverish 
state. They are like a man who has been 
taking violent exercise after a hearty meal, 


862 


VENTILATION 



A hive of bees nearly burned up by the heat from an immense lumber yard fire close by author’s plant. 
Somebody threw a pail of water over the hive and put the fire out. During all this heat, the bees, by 
vigorously fanning with their wings, kept the hive ventilated so that the combs did not melt. Combs made 
from paraffin or any substitute for beeswax would melt even with the heat of the sun. 


and require more than an ordinary amount 
of air. Their breathing-tubes are in different 
parts of the body, under the wings and on 
each side of the abdomen (see Anatomy 
op the Bee) ; hence, as soon as the entrance 
is closed, and they crowd about it, the heat 
of so many becomes suffocating in a very 
few minutes; the honey is involuntarily dis¬ 
charged, wetting themselves and their com¬ 
panions, thus most effectually closing their 
breathing-tubes in a way that causes death 
to ensue very quickly. Heavy swarms have 
been known to be killed in the short space 
of fifteen minutes, when the hive was thus 
closed. The heat generated by the smoth¬ 
ering mass often becomes great enough to 
melt down the combs, enveloping bees, 
brood, honey, and all, in a mass almost 
scalding hot. Bees are sometimes smoth¬ 
ered in this way, in extremely hot weather, 
even when the hives have very large open¬ 
ings covered with wire cloth. In fact, bees 
shipped by railroad, in July and August, 
have been known to be smothered, when the 
whole top of the hive was covered with wire 
cloth. 


HOW BEES DO THEIR OWN VENTILATING. 

If one will watch a colony of bees during 
a warm day, he will see rows of bees stand¬ 
ing around the entrance, and far inside of 
the hive, with their heads pointing one 
way, all making their wings go in a pecul¬ 
iar manner, much as they do in flying; but 
instead of propelling their bodies along, 
they propel the air behind them, and a 
pretty strong “blow” they get up too, as 
may be felt by holding the hand near them. 
If the air is very hot and close inside the 
hive, so that there is danger of the combs 
melting down, they manage to send cool¬ 
ing currents clear to the furthest parts of 
the hive. 

At the end of a hot day when the bees 
have been working heavily in the fields, it 
is very interesting to try the following ex¬ 
periment: Hold the smoker, with a little 
smoke issuing from the nozzle, near one 
side of the entrance and then at the other 
side. It will be noticed that there is a 
strong draft of air on one side of'the en¬ 
trance into the hive, and an equally strong 




VINEGAR 


863 


blast of air on the other side of the en¬ 
trance ont of the hive. The direction of 
the air can be easily determined by observ¬ 
ing whether the smoke is sucked in or 
blown out. 

Sometimes the air will be sucked in on 
both sides of the entrance, and blown out 
from the center. At other times the re¬ 
verse will be the case. 

If one does not happen to have a smoker 
he can light a common match, when he will 
notice that the flame will be sucked in on 
one side and blown away on the other. 
The draft, whether out or in, is so strong 
that it will blow the match out. 

The most prosperous colony the author 
ever owned was one that was so completely 
enveloped in chaff that during frosty 
nights in March they sent ar stream of 
warm air out of their hive strong enough 
to melt the frost about one side of the 
entrance. Of course a stream of fresh air 
went in at the opposite side as fast as the 
warm air went out. 

In the fall of 1916 there were a few 
hives located near some big lumber piles 
that were burned down. So intense was 
the heat that one of the hives took fire, 
with the result that it burned thru on one 
side, and charred the boards under the 
metal cover; and yet, remarkable to re¬ 
late, the bees were all right after the fire. 
It is presumed that some fireman, seeing 
the plight of the bees, threw on a pail of 
water; but how did the bees keep the combs 
from melting down in the mean time? 
There was no other way that they could 
do it than by their scheme of ventilation. 
Fortunately the entrance was large and 
wide open, so that they were able to venti¬ 
late the hive fully. The weather outside 
was cold. Now, combs sometimes melt 
down when the weather is very sultry and 
hot during the summer when the bees are 
out in the hot. sun; but there is no cold air, 
as there was that night in front of the 
hive and away from the direct radiation 
of heat from the burning lumber. The 
photograph reproduced on the previous 
page shows that one side of the hive was 
burned clear thru; yet, except for the out¬ 
side comb, no damage was done either to 
the bees or to the other combs. 

For further particulars on the subject 


of ventilation, see Entrances, CoMb 
Honey, Swarming, and Wintering. 

VINEGAR. — This is one of the legiti¬ 
mate products of honey; and when prop¬ 
erly made it is of excellent quality, fully 
as good as any other vinegar that can be 
made, if not better, from .whatever source. 
The color and flavor of honey vinegar are 
largely dependent on the color and the fla¬ 
vor of the honey used. Obviously, a mix¬ 
ture of honey, or a number of odds and 
ends, as well as the washings, may be used 
to advantage. Thus honey vinegar makes 
a very profitable by-product for a bee¬ 
keeper. 

HOW TO MAKE HONEY VINEGAR. 

In the first place it should not be forgot¬ 
ten that vinegar may be made from any 
liquid containing sugar, provided there is 
enough sugar to be of any consequence. 
This includes a number of the fruit juices, 
of which the apple and grape are the best 
known examples, and syrups like honey or 
molasses. 

Vinegar is the product of two absolute¬ 
ly distinct fermentations: first, the vinous, 
or alcoholic, and second, the acetic, or acid 
fermentation. The first should be com¬ 
pleted before the second is begun; other¬ 
wise the first never will be completed and 
weak vinegar will result. This means, for 
instance, that the “mother of vinegar,” the 
thing which starts the acetic fermentation, 
must not be introduced until practically all 
the sugar in the liquid has been converted 
to alcohol by the common wine or alcoholic 
fermentation. 

The alcoholic fermentation will usually 
start spontaneously, but it is far better to 
insure its starting by the addition of a small 
quantity of yeast. A closed vessel, such as 
a tight barrel or keg, or a glass jug, should 
be used. Of course, a small vent should be 
left for the escape of the “gas.” The mix¬ 
ture should be left in a warm room, and al¬ 
lowed to staijd some weeks before the first 
fermentation is completed. 

The acetic or acid fermentation will usu¬ 
ally start spontaneously; but, here too, it is 
far better to insure its starting, this time 
by the addition of the “mother of vinegar,” 
referred to above. During this latter 
stage of the process, air is required where 


864 


VITAMINES IN HONEY 


in the first stage it was to be avoided. This 
means that the liquid should be poured in¬ 
to a barrel or keg’ from which the head has 
been removed. The more adequate the air 
supply, the shorter will be the time neces¬ 
sary to finish, the process. 

A word as to the manner of mixing 
the honey and water at the beginning of 
the process. Five parts of water to one 
part of honey, by weight, will make a liq¬ 
uid of about the right strength. Or, if one 
wishes to use washings, which are of course 
of uncertain strength, he should in some 
way determine the specific gravity or den¬ 
sity of his material. One way is to add 
either honey or water, as may be neces¬ 
sary, with constant stirring, until an egg 
will float in the liquid with only a small 
spot above the surface. A more accurate 
way is to use a hydrometer, which can be 
purchased for a small sum, thru a drug¬ 
gist. If a Baume hydrometer is used, it 
should read between 7 and 8 degrees; if 
one is to be had with the specific gravity 
scale, then the reading should be about 
1.050. 

As a final word, it may be said that dark, 
strong-flavored honeys ferment much faster 
than light, mild ones. Also it might be re¬ 
marked that the addition of almost any 
fruit juice will aid in the primary or alco¬ 
holic fermentation. 

VIRGIN QUEENS. —See Queens. 

VITAMINES IN HONEY.— In recent 
years students of nutrition have discovered 
the fact that food of sufficient energy value, 
containing ample amounts of each of 
the chemical elements known to be essential 
to the human body, is not necessarily ade¬ 
quate to meet all nutritional needs. It ap¬ 
pears that certain substances, occurring in 
natural foods but not yet chemically identi¬ 
fied, are thus vital factors in nutrition. 
These unidentified substances are known 
by the general term “vitamines.” More ex¬ 
actly, they are classifiable under three 
heads: fat-soluble A, water soluble B, and 
water soluble C. 

There is now proof that there is a mod¬ 
erate amount of fat-soluble vitamine A 
in comb honey; and it is probable that 
there are small amounts of the vitarhine, 
water-soluble B, in all honeys, but no anti¬ 
scorbutic vitamine. • 


The fat-soluble vitamine is the one which 
is often alluded to as “the growth princi¬ 
ple,” and which is contained in abundance 
in the fat of milk, the yolk of eggs, and in 
green, leafy vegetables. Incidentally, Mc¬ 
Collum of Johns Hopkins University, who 
has conducted so much research along this 
line, considers fat-soluble A of the utmost 
importance in the diet. Being much less 
widely distributed in foods than water- 
soluble B, there is much more danger of a 
deficiency of it in the diet. 

The presence of these tiny dietary essen¬ 
tials, generally termed vitamines, is not de¬ 
termined by chemical analysis. For that 
reason they are frequently alluded to as 
unidentified dietary essentials, and their 
presence or absence in foods is determined 
by a long and expensive series of feeding 
experiments upon animals, the animals 
often being white rats or guinea pigs. The 
diet of these little animals is somewhat 
similar to that of human beings, and their 
natural span of life is short enough to per¬ 
mit of conclusive experiments being con¬ 
ducted in a comparatively short time. 

The one who conducted the feeding ex¬ 
periments to determine the presence of vit¬ 
amines in honey is no less an authority 
that Philip B. Hawk, Ph.D., of Jefferson 
Medical College, Philadelphia. For years 
he has been experimenting upon the diges¬ 
tibility of various foods by a new process 
of watching the digestion at different 
stages in human beings, and he has also 
been doing research work on vitamines. He 
is a contributor to scientific journals and is 
very well known to the general public for 
his contributions to the “Ladies’ Home 
Journal.” 

He wrote a series of articles several years 
ago on the digestibility of certain foods, 
and more recently an article on vitamines. 

White rats were the animals chosen by 
Prof. Hawk for the experiments to deter¬ 
mine whether there were present in honey 
the vitamines water-soluble B and' fat-sol¬ 
uble A. .The first work was done in testing 
honey for the former. Rats were selected 
and divided into three groups, the rats from 
each litter being distributed to make the 
groups as uniform as possible. These were 
kept in sanitary cages with an abundance 
of water. One group was fed a diet known 
from previous experience to contain all the 


YITAMINES IN HONEY 


865 


essential nutrients except the water-solu¬ 
ble B vitamine, in which it was deficient. 
Another group was fed the same diet except 
that a blended extracted honey was added 
to it. Still another group was fed the same 
diet with the exception of extracted clover 
honey added. 

These two latter diets were known to con¬ 
tain no water-soluble vitamines except such 
as might be contained in the honey. The 
individual rats in these groups were care¬ 
fully weighed each week and records kept of 
their weights. 

At the end of four weeks the diets were 
changed so that the rats of group 1, which 
had received no honey, were subdivided into 
two groups, half of which received blended 
honey and the other half white clover hon¬ 
ey. The rats of the other two groups, which 
had been receiving honey, now had this re¬ 
placed by a starch. 

After another two weeks another change 
in diet was made, which consisted in re¬ 
placing all these previous food mixtures by 
milk, which was known to be adequate for 
growth and to contain water-soluble B. 
This was to show that failure to grow had 
been due to a dietary deficiency and not to 
disease or other accidental causes. 

Now as to results: None of the rats on 
these three diets first mentioned was able 
to thrive and grow in a normal manner, and 
therefore all three diets were deficient in 
the water-soluble vitamine. Apparently, 
therefore, neither the blended honey nor 
the white clover honey contained sufficient 
water-soluble B to permit normal growth 
when they were present in the diet, nor to 
permit the resumption of normal growth 
when they were added to a diet containing 
none of this vitamine. 

However, while the addition of extracted 
honey to the diet did not permit normal 
growth it did slightly increase the growth, 
so that at the end of five weeks, in the case 
of one group there was a difference of 9 
grams between the “starch rats” and the 
“honey rats”; in the other group the dif¬ 
ference between the “starch rats” and the 
“honey rats” was 17 grams in favor of the 
honey. 

To quote Professor Hawk’s own words, 
“The differences were not great enough to 
be entirely conclusive, but may most reason¬ 
ably be considered to indicate the slightly 
28 


greater efficiency of honey for growth, due 
to the presence of small amounts of the 
water-soluble vitamine.” 

The experiments to determine the pres¬ 
ence of the fat-soluble A vitamine were 
conducted in much the same manner, ex¬ 
cept that in this case comb honey was also 
used in the feeding experiments. Profes¬ 
sor Hawk further says: “Of the eight rats 
fed comb honey, all but one showed a ces¬ 
sation of decline and distinct gains in 
weight. The one rat was apparently beyond 
recovery by dietary change. In fact, all 
the rats given comb honey were already 
showing indications of the dietary deficien¬ 
cy. Comb honey showed a resumption of 
growth in these animals, indicating the 
presence of distinct amounts of fat-solu¬ 
ble A. 

“For comparison the comb honey diet 
was followed by one containing butter in 
amounts of 5 to 10 per cent. Butter is 
known to be rich in the fat-soluble vita¬ 
mine. Hence, the fact that the rats grew 
about as well on comb honey as where 5 per 
cent of butter was added indicates that 
comb honey contains a moderate amount of 
fat-soluble vitamine, and that the comb is 
relatively rich.” 

These rats, like the first groups, were 
later fed milk to show that any failure to 
grow had been solely due to a dietary de¬ 
ficiency. 

Extracted honey, added to a diet known 
to be deficient in fat-soluble A, showed a 
slight gain in weight in some of the rats, 
but hardly enough to be conclusive. How¬ 
ever, Professor Hawk says, “That a mini¬ 
mal amount of fat-soluble A may be pres¬ 
ent in extracted honey would be indicated 
further by the fact that our data show it to 
be present in comb honey.” 

The reader should turn to the accompany¬ 
ing diagram, study it carefully and see if 
it isn’t enough to make a colony of bees 
buzz with pride. . 

Reference has been made to his finding 
the vitamine water-soluble B in extracted 
honey and the vitamine fat-soluble A in 
comb honey, and it will now be in order to 
tell of his experiments as to the digesti¬ 
bility of honey and then say something 
more about vitamines. 

The experiments were carried out upon 
a normal man to determine the influence of 


866 


VITAMIN'ES IN HONEY 


honey upon gastric digestion. He was first 
given 40 grams of whole wheat bread alone. 
The contents of the stomach were analyzed 
for acid and pepsin at 15-minute intervals 
and an accurate and detailed record was 
kept. The experiment was then repeated, 
adding to the bread half its weight in hon¬ 
ey (20 grams). 

The following quotation tells the results 
in Prof. Hawk’s own words: “An examina¬ 
tion of the chart will show that the bread 
with honey was digested and left the stom¬ 
ach as quickly as the bread alone. Sim¬ 
ilar pepsin values were obtained, and while 
there was a slight depression of acidity 


such as always follows the ingestion of 
foods containing much sugar, digestion 
was completed as soon as with the bread 
alone, altho the addition of the honey had 
practically doubled the food value of the 
product from the energy standpoint. 

“The use of honey with bread and in 
similar ways would, therefore, appear to 
be generally preferable in the case of chil¬ 
dren to the eating of candies. Honey serves 
to make the highly nutritious bread far more 
palatable, leading to a greater consumption 
of body-building foods instead of depress¬ 
ing the appetite, as is likely to be the case 


with candies which are eaten between meals. 
At the same time honey furnishes the body 
very considerable amounts of energy in the 
most available form. The high place given 
to it in the diet is therefore well deserved.” 

In quoting the above from Prof. Hawk 
the reader should always couple it with his 
statement that comb honey contains distinct 
amounts of the fat-soluble vitamine, and 
where he said that honey added to the diet 
of white rats, which were being starved of 
the fat-soluble vitamine, produced the same 
effects as 5 per cent of butter fat, the lat¬ 
ter being the richest known source of fat- 
soluble A. Remember also that his experi¬ 


ments indicated that there are small 
amounts of the water-soluble B vitamine in 
extracted honey. Therefore when we give 
a child bread spread with comb honey we 
are not only increasing the energy value by 
a large percentage, but are providing ap¬ 
preciable amounts of the fat-soluble vita¬ 
mine so essential to growth, especially in 
the diet of the young. And, in addition, 
honey contains in minute quantities practic¬ 
ally all the soluble minerals found in the 
human body. 

At the beginning of this article allusion 
was made to the fact that Prof. Hawk’s 














VITAMINES IN HONEY 


867 


feeding' experiments indicated that there 
are no anti-scorbutic vitamines, called wa¬ 
ter-soluble C, in honey. His experiments 
to determine this were conducted with guin¬ 
ea pigs as the victims; for they were vic¬ 
tims, developing symptoms of scurvy as 
soon on the diet containing honey as they 
did on a diet known to be deficient in water- 
soluble C, altho otherwise balanced. 

An interesting corroboration of this re¬ 
port occurs in an account of three men 
who were separated from Stefansson’s par¬ 
ty during his polar exploration. These men 
depended largely upon some cached foods 
which they had found—flour, salt pork, 
butter, honey, sugar, pilot bread, preserved 
fruit, pemmican, meat extract, dried fruit, 
rice, beans, and peas. They all three de¬ 
veloped scurvy, but were promptly cured 
when fed large amounts of meat, mostly 
raw. 

Note that the honey was in this case in 
very good company, for the other foods 
mentioned were valuable even if they did 
lack the anti-scorbutic vitamine. The best 
authorities agree that even milk is of only 
moderate value as an anti-scorbutic, and 
loses most of the value when pasteurized 
or boiled. That is the reason that orange 
juice is added to the infant’s diet when 
it is fed pasteurized, sterilized, or con¬ 
densed milk. It has also been proved that 
milk is by no means rich in water-soluble 
B altho it contains it in small amounts. 

In spite of Stefansson’s experience, feed¬ 
ing experiments with animals have never 
indicated that meat is very rich in water- 
soluble C. But the men of the Stefansson 
expedition ate it in extremely large quanti¬ 
ties, including the fat and certain internal 
organs not generally eaten, and a large 
part of it was consumed raw. Water-solu¬ 
ble C is found in living vegetable and 
animal tissues, in largest amounts in fresh 
fruits and green vegetables. 

Now that it is proven that there are 
vitamines in honey the beekeeper ought 
to be well enough informed to be able to 
talk intelligently about the three kinds, 
always remembering that history is in the 
making as regards vitamines, and that 
something new is constantly being discov¬ 
ered. As “repetition is the mother of edu¬ 
cation,” it may not be amiss to say a little 


more about the vitamines, Avater-soluble B 
and fat-soluble A. 

Water-soluble B occurs more widely in 
plant than in animal foods. It is found 
in practically all fresh vegetables, in cere¬ 
als from which the germ has not been re¬ 
moved by so-called refining processes, in 
rice polishings, in the heart, kidney, brain 
and liver of animals, and in yeast, the last 
named being the richest known source of 
this vitamine. Water-soluble B is essential 
for normal growth and reproduction, and 
its absence produces the diseases polyneu¬ 
ritis and beriberi. While ttiere is little 
danger of well-defined cases of these two 
diseases in the mixed diet of civilization, 
the best authorities agree that there is a 
danger of a deficiency of this vitamine in 
the modern diet with its over-refined foods 
and its enormous amount of canned goods; 
for the long heating necessary to sterilize 
canned foods is known to weaken and de¬ 
stroy the vitamine content. This deficiency 
is believed to be responsible for much ill 
health along the lines of polyneuritis and 
beriberi, but less well defined. 

Fat-soluble A is found in abundance in 
the fat of milk, the yolk of egg, and in the 
green, leafy vegetables, such as spinach. 
It is also fairly abundant in fish oils, such 
as cod liver oil and even whale oil. 

Oleo oil contains a fair amount of fat- 
soluble A and therefore the oleomargarines 
contain it also, but not the nut margarines 
made wholly from vegetable oils. How¬ 
ever, we are warned by the nutrition ex¬ 
perts that oleomargarines are not to be 
considered in the same class as good but¬ 
ter in providing the organism with the fat- 
soluble vitamine. 

The fat-soluble vitamine is necessary to 
growth and development, especially in the 
young, and it is necessary to the mainten¬ 
ance of health in the adult. Its absence 
causes an eye disease, xerophthalmia, some¬ 
times so severe as to cause blindness. Of 
late it appears that rickets in infants may 
be connected with the absence of the fat- 
soluble vitamine. 

In the past few years much has been 
added to the knowledge of vitamines, not 
only from laboratory experiments but by 
observation of human experience in inade¬ 
quate war diets in Europe. Also a form 
of partial blindness has been observed to 


868 


WATER FOR BEES 


be prevalent in certain lumber camps where 
the only fat available was that from cured 
bacon, which would be entirely lacking in 
the fat-soluble vitamine. 

To be consistent, here is a point which 
needs emphasis. Beekeepers have always 
plumed themselves that honey is nature’s 
own and only concentrated sweet, unin¬ 
jured by any so-called refining processes. 
But now Prof. Hawk’s report of the fat- 
soluble vitamines in comb honey reveals the 
fact that even honey may be refined to the 
extent of removing some of its most valu¬ 
able constituents. There is no doubt that 
extracted honey will always be used. Its 
convenience and long-keeping qualities in 
that form make it almost a necessity; and 
even extracted honey, it should be remem¬ 
bered, contains small quantities of water- 
soluble B vitamine. But comb honey, be¬ 
cause of its fat-soluble vitamine content, is 
worthy of being placed in the class with 
milk, cream, and other dairy products, eggs 
and the green leafy vegetables. It is to be 
hoped that it may be profitable for bee¬ 
keepers to turn more largely to the produc¬ 
tion of comb honey. 


The question might be asked, “Why get 
up so much excitement over the presence 
of the fat-soluble vitamine in comb honey? 
The amount of honey eaten is so small in 
comparison with other foods that the pres¬ 
ence or absence of vitamines makes little 
difference. Warning has been given re¬ 
peatedly of late that the modern civilized 
diet with its devitalized, demineralized, and 
over-refined foods has a very small margin 
of safety as regards valuable soluble min¬ 
eral salts and the various unidentified diet¬ 
ary essentials. Therefore the world’s old¬ 
est and most beautiful sweet, comb honey, 
is a perfect sweet and a food as well. 

While beekeepers and honey lovers have 
no doubts as to the value of honey as a 
food, yet it is a fine thing for the industry 
to have a nutrition expert of the highest 
authority, Professor Hawk, corroborate 
their belief. 

There are any number of nutrition ex¬ 
perts who are just as able as Prof. Hawk, 
but it is doubtful if any of them are so well 
known to the lay public of this country, a 
fact that makes his statements especially 
valuable for reference. 


w 


WATER FOR BEES.— Like all other 
•live stock, bees need water. The amount 
required depends largely on how much 
brood-rearing is going on, and whether 
nectar is coming in to a considerable extent 
from the fields. Brood requires a large 
amount of water as well as pollen and hon¬ 
ey. On the other hand, when new honey is 
coming in but little water is needed. 

About the time the bees are breeding 
heavily they will be found around watering 
places, ponds, creeks, and rivers, especially 
during a dearth of nectar. They seem to 
prefer to get water where they can take a 
big drink without any danger of being sub¬ 
merged. Sometimes when creeks, ponds, 


and rivers are at some distance from the 
apiary bees may be somewhat of a nuisance 
around near-by watering troughs and out¬ 
side pumps. Hence it is sometimes desir¬ 
able for the beekeeper to have a watering 
font in the beeyard itself. A tub of water 
with chips or corncobs floating on the sur¬ 
face, a Mason jar filled with water inverted 
over a small plate, or, better, a crock placed 
over a dinner plate, will furnish bees wa¬ 
ter on the atmospheric principle all day or 
several days, in fact. A better arrange¬ 
ment is a wooden block or board with trans¬ 
verse saw-cuts as shown in the illustration 
on next page. 

A large glass jar filled with water and in- 


WATER FOR BEES 


869 


verted over one of these boards will keep 
the saw-cuts filled with water, where the 
bees can get all they require without even 
wetting their feet. If one of these is fur¬ 
nished in the apiary the bees will not be 
likely to bother the neighbors. A closed 
vessel containing water is much better than 
a tub or pan of water, as the water cannot 
become stale and bad. Sometimes when 
one of these special fonts is first set out 
the bees will pay no attention to it, espe¬ 
cially after they have been in the habit of 
visiting the neighbors’ pumps and water¬ 
ing-troughs. They can, as a rule, be start¬ 
ed by sweetening the water or by adding a 
little salt, for bees are fond of salt also. 
When bees are compelled to go a distance 
for water they wear themselves out unnec¬ 
essarily, and, during chilly weather in the 
spring, many never get back. 

The statement was made above that when 
bees are in the fields, bringing in new 
honey, they require less water than at 
times when no honey is coming in. It is 
probable that the excess of water removed 
during the ripening process, as explained 
under Ventilation, supplies the bees with 
the proper amount of moisture. 

Bees also need some 
water during midwin¬ 
ter; but usually the 
moisture produced by 
condensation from the 
breathing of the bees 
will be sufficient. It was 
once argued that they 
should be supplied with 
water while in the cel¬ 
lar. If a wet sponge is 
placed on a cluster 
they will take up the 
water quite rapidly. 
This would seem to 
prove that they should 
have an artificial 
supply; but general practice has shown 
that no special provision need be made. 
It would be impracticable to give bees 
water when wintered outdoors; and it 
would hardly be necessary, because if one 
will examine down into a brood-nest 
during winter he will see considerable 
moisture around the inside of the hive 

and on the under side of the cover. 


In taking carloads of bees from south 
to north and from north to south, it will 
be found impracticable to make these long 
trips in open cars without a barrel of water. 
If the weather is hot and sultry, bees, on 
account of their excitement, often require 
a large amount of water. This water must 
be supplied at intervals of every few hours 
or many bees will die. In some shipments 
of bees from south to north during hot or 
warm weather, a carload of bees has been 
known to take up seven or eight barrels 
of water. The water allays thirst and 
cools the cluster by evaporation. 

When bees are shipped in refrigerator 
cars as explained under Shipping Bees, 
no water would be needed. 

While bees seem to gather water at 
times, they also appear to have a delicate 
apparatus of some sort for extracting 
water from nectar, and for discharging it 
or a part of it in flight. When they are 
fed outdoors with sweetened water, as de¬ 
scribed under Outdoor Feeding, they will 
immediately, on taking flight, discharge a 
fine spray of water. If one will station 
himself between the feeders and the sun¬ 
light he will be able to perceive these bees, 
on rising from the feeder, discharging this 
thin fine spray. 

That it is pure water and not sugar can 
be proven by tasting it. That bees also 
discharge water when gathering thin nec¬ 
tar from the fields was proved by A. I. 
Root many years ago. When bees are 
gathering a large quantity of nectar from 
a single blossom they will, on rising from 
the plant, discharge the excess in the form 
of a thin spray. Enough of this spray fell 
on some dinner plates to be distinctly per¬ 
ceptible, but the taste showed nothing but 
water. 

WAX. —This is a term that is applied to 
a large class of substances very much re¬ 
sembling one another in external charac¬ 
teristics, but quite unlike chemically. The 
wax of commerce may be divided into four 
general groups: Beeswax, familiar to all; 
mineral wax, or by-products from petro¬ 
leum ; wax from plants, and wax from in¬ 
sects other than bees. The first two are 
by far the most important commercially in 
this country. Of the mineral waxes the 
most common are paraffin and ceresin, 


























870 


WAX 


Beeswax, the most valuable, lias a specific 
gravity of between .960 and .972, and 
melting-point of between 143 and 145 
degrees F. The mineral waxes vary so 
much in hardness, melting-point, and spe¬ 
cific gravity, that it would be useless to 
name exact figures. As a rule, however, 
the fusing-point of paraffin is much below 
that of beeswax, while that of ceresin may 
be either above or below, or practically the 
same. In general the specific gravity of 
both commercial paraffin and ’eresin is be¬ 
low that of beeswax; which fact renders 
it an easy matter to detect adulteration of 
beeswax with either paraffin or ceresin, by 
a method that will be explained further on, 
under the subhead, “How to Detect Adul¬ 
terated Wax.” 

There are also known to commerce Jap¬ 
anese wax and China wax, both of which 
may or may not be the product of insects 
or plants. 

COMB FOUNDATION. 

Combs made from foundation contain¬ 
ing 25 to 50 per cent of adulteration 
of paraffin or ceresin are very liable to 
melt down in the hive in hot weather. 
Paraffin is ductile enough to make beauti¬ 
ful foundation, but does not stand the heat 
of the hive. Ceresin, on the other hand, 
while more closely resembling genuine 
beeswax in point of specific gravity and 
fusibility, is too tough and brittle, under 
some conditions, for bees to work. Work 
it? Yes, they will, and construct combs; 
and in Germany considerable ceresin 
foundation has been and perhaps is being 
sold; but experience shows that it is poor 
economy, and that it will lead the bee¬ 
keeper or the poor bees to grief sooner or 
later. 

Some recent work seems to show that 
there are certain wax compounds, that can 
be used to strengthen ordinary beeswax 
from the hive. • In 1922 there was intro¬ 
duced a three-ply comb foundation, the 
center ply of which is of a much harder 
wax. The tests of this foundation at this 
writing seem to show that it is much 
stronger and better than ordinary founda¬ 
tion for the brood-nest. 

BEESWAX IN THE ARTS. 

Since the United States pure-food law 
went in effect June 30, 1906, beeswax has 


had a much larger use. The law will have 
no effect one way or the other on the use 
of paraffin, ceresin, and the like in any 
compound or mixture that does not belong 
either to the food or drug classes. Electro¬ 
typers can use a substitute for taking im¬ 
pressions, altho the great majority prefer 
pure beeswax, even at a higher price. Nat¬ 
ural-wood finishers can still use paraffin 
and ceresin; but most of them assert that 
there is nothing to compare for that pur¬ 
pose with pure beeswax. The first men¬ 
tioned gives a greasy, smeary finish, while 
the product from the hive yields a mghly 
polished surface—one that stands wear as 
nothing else will; a finish cheaper than hard 
oil—not in the price by the gallon, but 
cheaper per square foot of surface covered. 

A very satisfactory floor finish can be 
made by melting a pound of beeswax, and 
while it is cooling, stirring into it some 
turpentine. An exact proportion of the 
two ingredients is not necessary—in fact 
some workmen prefer the paste thick, oth¬ 
ers want it thin. When cool, if the mix¬ 
ture is too thick it is a simple matter to 
thin it by working in more turpentine. 

The Roman Catholic Church uses large 
quantities of beeswax in the form of can¬ 
dles. The Church does not tolerate par¬ 
affin, ceresin, nor any of the mineral waxes, 
all of which give off an offensive greasy 
odor while burning, whereas candles made 
of beeswax leave a delightful perfume. 
Moreover, the burning of mineral wax 
causes a deposit that injures pictures, while 
beeswax mellows and preserves them. 

Certain grades of blacking, harness oils, 
and lubricants require pure beeswax in 
their manufacture. A blacking containing 
beeswax will withstand more dampness 
than that made of any other substance. 

The electrical-supply business is a con¬ 
sumer of beeswax. The windings of the 
wire are soaked in paraffin or beeswax— 
preferably the latter, because it seems less 
affected by extremes of heat and by mois¬ 
ture. Pattern-makers also use beeswax. 
The profession of dentistry consumes large 
quantities of pure wax every year to take 
impressions in the mouth. Last, but not 
least, the beekeeper is a large consumer as 
well as a producer of wax. 

In all the arts, paraffin, ceresin, and cer¬ 
tain other mineral waxes can be used; 


WAX 


871 


but none of them have all the desirable 
qualities furnished by the product from 
the hive. 

•HOW THE BEES “MA KE ” WAX. 

If the bees are watched closely during’ 
the height of the honey harvest, or if at 
other times a colony of bees is fed heavily 
on sugar syrup for three days during warm 
weather, there will be found toward the 
end of the second or the third day little 
pearly discs of wax, somewhat resembling 
fish scales, protruding from between the 
rings of the under side of the body of the 
bee. These when examined with a magni¬ 
fier reveal little wax scales of rare beauty. 
Sometimes these scales come so fast that 
they fall on the bottom-board and may be 
scraped up in considerable quantities, 
seeming for some reason not to have been 
wanted. During the season for the natural 
secretion of wax where a colony has plenty 
of room, wax scales are seldom wasted in 
this way. At swarming time there seem 
to be an unusual number of bees provided 
with wax scales, for when the bees remain 
clustered on a limb for only a few minutes 
bits of wax are attached as if they were 
going to start combs. 

The way the bees remove these wax 
scales from their bodies and construct them 
into comb is not so easily seen. There 
were many wild guesses as to how this was 
done. The so-called “wax-pinchers”* on 
the hind legs were supposed to play an 
important part. The matter was definitely 
cleared up by Sladen and Casteel. In 
circular No. 161 Dr. D. B. Casteel of the 
Bureau of Entomology, Washington, D. C., 
made the whole process plain. 

Briefly stated, it is this: The wax scales 
are scraped off by one of the large joints, 
or plant® of one hind leg, the spines of 
the planta piercing or catching into the 
scale; then the leg, by a peculiar 
maneuvering, is moved up to where the 
fore legs may grasp the scale. At this 
point of proceedings the scale is manipu¬ 
lated or masticated in the mandibles, when 
it is applied to the comb. During the 
process, the bee stands on three legs (the 
two middle legs on either side, and one 


* The real purpose of these is explained under 
Pollen, subhead “Behavior of Bees in Collecting 
Pollen.’ ’ 


hind leg not in action), while the other 
hind leg and the two fore legs, in connec¬ 
tion with the mandibles, perform the 
manipulation. Casteel says that the so- 
called ‘wax-pinchers” in the hind legs 
have nothing to do with the manipulation 
of wax, but are designed for another pur¬ 
pose, and that each individual bee removes 
its own wax scales. 

It has been supposed that the bees re¬ 
move the scales from each other; but Cas¬ 
teel shows that this is not the case. The 
scales are sometimes found scattered thru- 
out the hive and on the bottom-board as 
already stated. In some instances they 
show the marks of the spines of the planta 
of the hind legs. In others they were 
probably dropped accidentally by the bees 
in that wonderful sleight-of-hand perform¬ 
ance by which they transfer the scale from 
one portion of the body to the other. In 
still other cases the scales show no mark¬ 
ings whatever, and the presumption is that 
they simply fell off the bees when they 
reached a certain stage of development. 

Dr. Casteel also confirms the observa¬ 
tion of Dreyling, that there are certain 
ages and certain seasons when the bees 
will develop these wax scales more than at 
others. From this it would appear that 
there are times when the bees cannot con¬ 
struct combs to any great extent, even tho 
they are liberally fed. In a practical way 
it has been found that sometimes even 
when the bees are fed they will not build 
combs; and the probabilities are that they 
simply can not, because the colony is made 
up of bees too young, too old, or both. 
Usually the condition of a honey flow can 
be supplied artificially by feeding. 

WAX-RENDERING. 

There are two methods of rendering wax, 
one by the use of artificial heat and the 
other by the use of the sun’s rays thru a 
glass sash on the principle of a hotbed. 
When these rays pass into a glass-covered 
box a considerable amount of heat is gener¬ 
ated—enough to melt wax. As the appli¬ 
cation of the solar method is quite simple, 
it will be described first. 

SOLAR WAX-EXTRACTOR. 

1 The general design of this machine is 
after a pattern made and used by the 



872 


WAX 


well-known beekeeper, G. M. Doolittle. The 
only objection to it is that it is rather 
small, but just the right size to take pieces' 
of burr-comb and other bits of wax that 
accumulate in the everyday working of 



Doolittle solar wax-extractor. 


the apiary. These accumulations can be 
thrown into the machine whenever one 
happens to pass by it; and instead of 
having a lot of little scraps scattered here 
and there thru the apiary, to be melted 
up at some future time, they may be con¬ 
verted at once into a marketable product. 



Pig. 1.—Boardman solar wax-extractor. 


These small machines are not suitable 
for melting up combs. For that, something 
as large as the Boardman should be used. 


THE BOARDMAN SOLAR WAX-EXTRACTOR. 

This is built very much on the same gen¬ 
eral plan as the one just described, but is 
larger. The rockers, or runners, afford 
facility for transportation, and also for 
tilting the machine at the proper angle to 
the sun. A common greenhouse sash may 
be used; but a large glass, say 30 x 60, is 
better for the reason that the sash cuts off 
much of the sun’s rays, making shade-lines 
along which the wax fails to melt. The size 
of glass that one is able. to buy will, of 
course, regulate the size of the extractor;* 
the depth of the box or tray may be from 
6 to 8 inches, the bottom being made of 
cheap lumber. It should be lined with 
common black sheet iron. Tin should not 
be used, because it reflects back too much 
of the sun’s light. The whole machine 
should be painted black; and the glass, 
while the machine is in use, kept scrupu¬ 
lously clean. 

SOLAR WAX-EXTRACTORS NOT SUITABLE FOR 
OLD COMBS. 

Solar wax-extractors have their use to 
handle new combs, particles of fresh wax, 
pieces of burr-combs, and the like, and can 
be used to clarify and bleach to a certain 
extent wax already caked, but they are not 
adapted to the handling of old black combs 
that have several generations of cocoons in 
them. Large sun extractors like the Board- 
man will get the bulk of the wax out of 
such combs, but they do not get all of it. 
If sun heat is used at all for melting, the 
refuse should be further treated. 

RENDERING WAX FROM OLD COMBS. 

For new combs the problem of rendering 
wax is a comparatively simple one, since 
the operation consists simply in melting 
them in hot water and dipping the wax off 
the top. This is true also of cappings 
where the total amount of refuse or im¬ 
purities is so small that there is practically 
no difficulty in getting all the wax. For the 
purpose a solar wax-extractor is satisfac¬ 
tory, altho not to be depended upon for 
speed nor great capacity unless very large, 
which would be expensive. 

When old comb is to be rendered, the 
problem becomes much more difficult, as the 

*Three pieces 20 x 30 will answer in an emer¬ 
gency. 












wax 


873 


many layers of cocoons found in the cells 
used for brood-rearing confine the wax and 
make it hard to remove. It can be readily 
seen that, if old comb is simply melted in 
hot.water or steam, these cocoons will be¬ 
come saturated with wax, making the loss 
very great. The following discussion, 
therefore, will have to do especially with 
the difficulties encountered in rendering 
wax from old combs. 



Fig. 2.—A very crude and wasteful method of 
rendering. 


There are many different methods prac¬ 
ticed by beekeepers to obtain the wax from 
old brood-combs; and it is needless to say 
that, in many of them, the loss is consider¬ 
able. One of the crudest methods is to 
throw the combs into a large iron kettle of 
water and then build a fire and boil the con¬ 
tents for several hours, skimming the wax 
off the top of the water meanwhile. More 
comb is added from time to time, and the 
process is continued perhaps all day. Final¬ 
ly a piece of wire screen is weighted down 
on the refuse to keep it out of the way and 



Fig. 3.—A popular but wasteful and slow method 
of obtaining wax. 


facilitate dipping the wax. Careful ex¬ 
periments have shown that this method 
wastes from 25 to 40 per cent of the total 
amount of wax, while much time is re¬ 
quired to clean and refine what little wax 
is secured. 

Another plan which has been advocated 
to some extent is that shown in Fig. 2. A 


sack of comb is held under the surface of 
the water, and agitated or punched with a 
stick for a long time until much of the 
wax is released and floats to the surface, 
where it may be dipped off. This method 
results in somewhat cleaner wax; but there 
is apt to be waste nearly equal to that in 
the plan before mentioned. 

There is another method that is used 
more, perhaps, than the two which have 
just been described. It is a somewhat bet¬ 
ter plan, for the amount of waste is not so 
great. It is shown in Fig. 3. In order to 
get the best results the weights should be 
so arranged that they can be lifted up a 
few inches in order to give the refuse in 
the sack a chance to become saturated again 
with hot water. The weights should then 
be lowered, and this process kept up for 
several hours, the water meanwhile boiling 
vigorously. The wax should be dipped off 
almost as fast as it rises to the surface. 



Fig. 4.—An unhandy and unsatisfactory plan. 


In 1904 T. J. Pennick of Williston, 
Tenn., suggested the use of centrifugal 
force applied to hot slumgum just taken 
out of boiling water. It was his opinion 
that the free wax, when hot, would by this 
means readily separate from the solid mat¬ 
ter in a very short time. Extensive experi¬ 
ments have developed the fact that there 
would be a great deal of wax which would 
not escape from the refuse, no matter how 
fast it might be whirled in an extractor, 
showing that even great centrifugal force 
could not separate the wax from the refuse. 
Wax nearest the outside might be thrown 
out; but that nearest the center would be 
held back and not escape. 

A. C. Miller of Providence, ft. I., some 
time ago devised an agitator and applied 


































874 


WAX 


it to the rendering of wax. He claimed 
it released all the wax and lots of dirt and 
coloring matter. The old combs in such 
an agitator are thoroly stirred and rubbed 
under hot water so that the wax is lib¬ 
erated, and rises to the surface, where it is 
drawn off thru a spout. As will be seen, 
this is somewhat similar to the plan shown 
in Fig. 2, before mentioned, altho it would- 
be of course a great improvement on that 
very crude method. 

From experiments and from reports re¬ 
ceived from hundreds of beekeepers, it 
would seem as tho the wax-press is by 
all means the most satisfactory wax-ex- 
tractor yet devised. It is doubtful whether 
anything' but pressure combined with hot 
water can remove all of the wax. There will 


Thoroly heat in boiling water the refuse 
to be tested, then allow it to cool slightly ; 
seize a large handful, and squeeze it as 
hard as possible in the fingers. If fine 
lines of wax appear in the creases between 
the fingers considerable wax is left—per¬ 
haps from five to ten per cent or more, 
depending upon the amount of wax shown. 
The hand will not be burped in the very 
short time necessary to make this test. 
But, as before stated, the most conclusive 
method of determining the waste is to run 
the refuse thru a well-constructed press. 

HOT-WATER WAX PRESSES. 

In hot-water presses the pressure mav be 
continued without the least danger of chill¬ 
ing the combs. The hot water has the- de- 



Fig. 5.—Hersliiser hot-water 



wax-press. 


Fig. 6.—Use of the lever in pressing wax. 


probably never be a wax-extractor of any 
kind that will economically remove the last 
particle of wax; but if the amount of waste 
can be reduced to less than one per cent, 
the loss is negligible. 

Before entering the discussion of wax- 
presses it may be well to add a word of 
caution to beekeepers who are sure that 
the particular method they are using 
enables them to obtain all the wax or prac¬ 
tically all. If the refuse, when the wax is 
finished, has not been put thru a well- 
constructed press there will be no way of 
determining the amount of waste, for it 
might contain as much as 20 per cent of 
wax and still look perfectly clean and 
show no traces of it when examined. On 
a small scale it is possible to get some idea 
of the amount of wax left in refuse by the 
following very simple plan: 


cided advantage in that the screw can be ■ 
raised after having been turned down, when 
the “cheese” can become saturated again 
with boiling water. The screw may then 
be lowered, and the hot water forced out 
of the refuse, carrying with it more of the 
wax. This operation must be repeated as 
often as found necessary by experience. 
It is thus seen that there is no disagree¬ 
able handling of the refuse until all the 
wax is out. Furthermore, the work, if 
necessary, may be- confined to the one tank. 

Orel L. Hershiser of Buffalo, N. Y., de¬ 
vised the hot-water press shown in Fig. 5. 
The capacity of this is large, so that it is 
possible to obtain as much as 75 pounds of 
wax in one day over a common stove. One 
great objection to hot-water presses here¬ 
tofore has been their relatively small capac¬ 
ity of wax per day. Mr. Hershiser, by 











WAX 


875 


making the press very large, overcomes this 
difficulty. 

The quality of wax from hot-water 
presses is usually not very good, because 
of the long-continued high temperature. 
In the Hershiser press more hot water is 
introduced at short intervals into the lower 
part, causing the melted wax to overflow 
thru the outlet at the top. In this way the 
wax is not left for any great length of time 
on the boiling water, so that the color is 
not darkened. 

Perhaps one objection to hot-water 
presses is the cost of the outfit; but for 
extensive beekeepers they are the most 
practical, as much cleaner work can be 
done, owing to the continued intermittent 
pressure on the refuse surrounded by hot 
water. In other words, old combs rendered 
in a hot-water press may be pressed as 
many as fifteen or twenty times, so that it 
is possible to reduce the final loss to only a 
fraction of one per cent. 

If onfe wishes to try the hot-water 
method by using an outfit constructed at 
home he can follow the plan shown in 
Fig. 6. An ordinary kettle may be used, 
altho it would be advisable to have one 
with a flat bottom. As it would be rather 
difficult to construct a crossbeam over the 
kettle rigid enough to stand the pressure 
exerted by a screw, a lever may be used as 
shown, tho some means will have to be 
employed to keep it from falling over 
sidewise, such as a loop around a tree or 
post. In using a lever it is important to 
have it so adjusted that the pressure will 
be uniform and directly downward. Any 
pressure exerted from a point not directly 
over the kettle will result in pressing the 
refuse to one side, so that the “cheese” 
will be very thin on one edge and very 
thick on the other. If this were the case 
there would, of course, be too much wax 
left in the thick portion. To get the best 
results the “cheese” should not be over an 
inch or an inch and a half thick after 
pressing. 

Cleaner work can be done by an inter¬ 
mittent than by continuous steady pres¬ 
sure; and so, whether using a lever or 
screw, it is well to relieve the pressure 
about every ten minutes, allowing the 
“cheese” two or three minutes in which 
to become thoroly saturated again with 


boiling water. Pressure should be applied 
slowly at first in order to avoid bursting 
the burlap. 

With the outdoor kettle plan, the wax 
will be discolored on account of the long- 
continued heat unless it is dipped off the 
surface of the water almost as fast as it 
rises. About three hours of intermittent 
pressure for one batch of combs in a kettle 
will render out the wax. 

STEAM-PRESSES. 

Methods of rendering wax, embodying 
the principle of applying great pressure 
to combs surrounded by steam, are quite 
old, both in this country and in Germany, 
where they originated. In some ways 
steam-presses have advantages over other 
methods; but the quality of wax is usually 



Pig. 7.—German steam wax-press. 


not so good, because of the high tempera¬ 
ture to which the comparatively thin sur¬ 
faces of melted wax are subjected; altho 
the wax, as it leaves the refuse, falls down 
out of the way so that the work can be 
much more conveniently carried on, since 
there is no great depth of water in the 
way. 

A steam-press of popular design is 
shown in Fig. 7. Steam is generated un¬ 
der a false bottom in the lower part, and, 



876 


WAX 


passing upward around the false bottom, 
surrounds the combs beneath the plunger 
in the perforated metal basket. As the 
wax falling from the refuse cannot get 
into the water on account of the false bot¬ 
tom, it passes out of the tube shown. 

Steam-presses are very convenient as 
uncapping-cans; for when the perforated 
metal basket is full of cappings the cross- 
arm can be placed in position, the screw 
run down, and practically all honey forced 
out. Steam then may be generated, and 
the wax melted into marketable shape 
without any second handling and with lit¬ 
tle extra trouble; or the “cheese” of 
cappings, pressed nearly dry of honey, 
may be stored away to be rendered into 
wax at a more convenient time later. 

These presses are also very useful in 
pressing honey from broken combs, unfin¬ 
ished sections, etc., and rendering the 
pressed comb into wax. For the real busi¬ 
ness of rendering old combs, the presses 
using hot water as the heating agent are 
much superior. 

plain presses. 

C. A. Hatch of Wisconsin was proba¬ 
bly the first one to make extensive use of 
a plain press for wax-rendering. He had 
used for a short time a press designed 
by W. W. Cary of Massachusetts in which 
the combs were pressed while submerged 



in hot water; but he believed that he could 
improve on this plan • by applying pres¬ 
sure in a different receptacle without the 
use of so much hot water. Later, F. A. 
Gemmell of Ontario, Canada, also used 
such a press, which finally came to be 
known at the Hatch-Gemmell wax-press. 

The particular form of press that is 
sold largely is shown in Fig. 9. It will 
be noticed that a round can, constructed 
of tin, is used instead of the square wooden 
box and tray. The principal reason for 
this change is that it is easier to keep the 
“cheese” from bursting out sidewise when 
a round box or can is used, for the square 
box tends to bulge out in the middle, thus 
allowing the burlap to burst. If a round 
can is used, the pressure sidewise is al¬ 
ways in a direction away from the center, 
and the horizontal pressure is thus equal¬ 
ized. 

THE BEST METHOD. 

In using this press a tube was thought 
necessary at the bottom of the can, left 
open during the pressing so 'that the hot 
water and wax could run away immediate¬ 
ly. It is better, however, to have no open¬ 
ing at the bottom of the can, but to confine 
the hot water and wax, thus preventing 
chilling as much as possible. 

If no heat is applied to the combs dur¬ 
ing the pressing it is necessary to do the 
work in warm weather or in some room 
that can be kept hot by the heat of the 
stove used for melting, for when the air is 
cold the wax chills and the work is hin¬ 
dered. The efficiency of the press is great¬ 
ly increased if a very small jet of steam is 
introduced from a steam-knife boiler or 
teakettle, carried by means of a rubber tube 
to a one-quarter-inch copper pipe about 
fourteen inches long, with a right-angle 
bend five or six inches from the bottom and 
with a long curve at the upper end. This 
is applied to the wax-press can as shown 
in Fig. 9. As will be noted the pipe goes 
down between two of the vertical cleats on 
the side of the can and is then extended 
over toward the center between two of the 
horizontal cleats at the bottom, under the 
screen. While the presssure is being applied 
the water and wax keep up a gentle boiling 
—an ideal condition. No matter how long 
the pressure is kept on the slumgum, nor 











WAX 


877 


how many times the screw is raised to al¬ 
low the hot water to saturate the refuse 
again, the water keeps up this gentle boil¬ 
ing, so to speak, and the wax on top shows 
no tendency to cool. It was formerly rec¬ 
ommended to run the refuse thru the press 
a second time; but if steam is introduced 
as explained, the second melting and ren¬ 
dering is unnecessary unless the work has 
been very carelessly done. If there is any 
doubt as to the thoroness of the work, it is 
a good plan to run the refuse thru a second 
time to make sure that it is clean. The sec¬ 
ond rendering takes about half the time 
that the first did. 


melting the combs but are not' quite so 
convenient owing to the difficulty in turn¬ 
ing down the oil burners in case the combs 
get to boiling too hard. Wash-boilers 
cannot be cleaned very easily after being 
used for melting combs, hence should be 
kept for this purpose only. Many prefer 
to use a large square tank of galvanized 
iron, possibly over a brick furnace out of 
doors. Or a stock-feed cooker may be 
used, costing from $15 to $35.00. 

The press should stand on a solid box 
that is firmly secured to the floor, and it 
should be hinged in front so that it may 
be tipped over to run the hot water and 



Fig. 9.—Steam from a small boiler introduced between the slats in a wax-press can. The water and wax 
keep up a continual slow boiling, insuring constant circulation. 


AN IDEAL EQUIPMENT. 

Fig. 10 shows the small outfit which the 
author recommends, including stoves, press, 
cans for melting the combs, boiler for 
steam, etc. A cook stove with a top large 
enough to hold two good-sized wash-boilers 
is ideal, but frequently it is inconvenient 
to provide such a stove in a basement or 
outbuilding where the wax-rendering is 
done. Two double-burner gasoline stoves, 
one for each wash-boiler, will do as well. 
Oil stoves would answer the purpose for 


wax into the can beneath. A large box 
or basket must be provided to hold the 
refuse after it is pressed. An open¬ 
headed barrel with a plug at the bottom is 
the handiest receptacle for holding the hot 
water and wax. 

DIRECTIONS FOR RENDERING. 

When ready to begin work light one of 
the stoves and put on a boiler a little over 
half full of water. If the water is very 
hard add a little borax. When the water 
boils throw in the old combs. Thirty-five 






■ 




Fig. 10.—Complete outfit for rendering wax. The two boilers on the stoves are for melting the combs in water. The water and wax in the press are kept hot and con 

stantly circulating by a jet of steam generated over the small *»tove. 














WAX 


879 


to forty combs (about half a barrel) may 
be put in gradually, provided they are 
carefully pushed down with a paddle and 
stirred as they melt. When all the comb 
that the boiler will hold conveniently has 
been put in, place the cover on and allow 


Fig. 11.—The press can he pulled forward ready 
for filling. 



the mass to cook thoroly. About this time 
light the other stove and put on another 
boiler of water; also set going the burner 
under the steam-boiler on a third stove to 
supply steam to the press-can. 

It facilitates the work if a quantity of 
straw, preferably rye straw, is cut up in 
two-incli lengths and stirred into the 
melted combs. It makes the “cheeses” 
more porous so that less wax is left in the 
slumgum. 

It is a mistake to begin pressing as 
soon as the comb is melted. Continue the 
cooking process with frequent stirrings 
until the combs are reduced to a steaming 
mushy mass. There must be no hard 
chunks. 

When the contents of the first boiler are 
ready for pressing and the steam begins 
to issue from the pipe in the bottom of 
the press-can, pull the can forward on the 
platform, holding it in position by means 
of the spider on the lower end of the screw 
resting on the top of the cauj as ip Fig'¬ 


ll. There should be in readiness a few 
pieces of good strong burlap, at least 40 
inches square. Place one of these in the 
press-can; put the follower on top of it 
and throw a few dipperfuls of hot water 
from the other boiler into the can to heat 
thoroly all the parts. Pour this off and 
spread the burlap down into the can as in 
Pig. 12. Dip about two gallons of the 
melted comb and water into the press and 
fold the burlap neatly over it, as carefully 
as tho tying up a package. This is very 
important; for if there are thick rolls of 
the cloth in any one part of the “cheese,” 
other parts of the refuse will not receive 
as much pressure as needed. To fold the 
burlap over, fold the back edge over toward 
the front, being careful to get the sides 
straight, then push the front edge over on 
top of it; lastly, fold in the sides neatly. 
Place the cleatecl circular follower in posi¬ 
tion (cleats down, of course) ; push the can 
back exactly in the center of the platform 
and run the screw down very slowly— 
Fig. 13. 



Fig. 12.—A large piece of stout burlap is the best 
material to use for holding the melted comb. 


At this time it may be necessary to turn 
down the gasoline burners under the first 
boiler in order that the contents may not 
get too hot; or, if it is on a stove, pull it 
over to the edge, Use the utmost care to 











880 


WAX 




pressure slowly once more. This process 
should be repeated two or three times. 

Instead of using a jet of steam as de¬ 
scribed, an extra can may be used, one 
to be on the stove being reheated while the 
other is under the press. 

When the screw is finally down as far as 
it will go, place a washtub or a large can 
on the floor in front of the press and tip 
the latter over, pouring all the water and 
wax out. Leave the press tipped over a 
few moments until the wax drains out— 
Fig. 14. 

When no more wax will drain out, tip 
the press back into its regular position and 
pour the hot water and wax into an empty 
can or barrel having a faucet at the bot¬ 
tom. If a barrel is used which is smaller 
at the top, the hot water must first be 
drawn off after the work is over, and the 
wax run into previously soaped molds to 
harden. It is more convenient to use an 
oval-shaped can or round can that is larger 
at the top, so that the wax may be left 


Fig. 13.—Apply the pressure. The wax rises to 
the top of the water. As much time may he given 
to the pressing as desired—no danger of chilling, 
because of the jet of steam. 

Always turn the screw down slowly. If 
it is run down rapidly before the liquid in 
the mass inside the burlap has time to 
squeeze out, the burlap and the contents 
inside are likely to push up around the 
follower, interfering seriously with the es¬ 
cape of the water and wax. Turn the screw 
only when it turns easily. Of course, when 
it is clear down it may be turned tight; but 
there is really more danger in applying too 
much pressure than in not applying 
enough. 

Sufficient water should have been dipped 
in with the comb so that the water and 
wax, when the screw is clear down, will 
just about submerge the iron spider on the 
end of the screw. It ought to take two or 
three minutes to get the screw clear down. 
When it is down about as far as it will go, 
release the pressure until the cast-iron fol¬ 
lower is nearly out of the liquid; pull up 
on the rope handle of the wooden follower 
until it is free from the burlap, thus al¬ 
lowing the hot water to saturate the refuse 
again. After a minute or so apply the 


prevent the wax from slopping over. If it 
does, there is danger of having a serious 
fire. As soon as the water in the second 
boiler boils, begin filling that with combs. 


Fig. 14.—When the pressing process is completed 
the whole outfit is tipped up on its hinges to pour 
off the hot water aud wax. 

right in it to harden in one large cake. 
There is no difficulty in lifting the cake 
out even tho it be 8 or 10 inches thick. 

The idea of the faucet at the bottom is 
to permit drawing off the hot water, so that 
it may be used over and over again. There 
is no object in using fresh watef each 
time; therefore when the first boiler is 
empty, enough hot water may be drawn 









WAX 


881 


off from the supply-can to fill it half full 
again for a fresh lot of combs. When first 
starting out, it is a good plan to fill the 
boilers a little more than half full so that 
there will always be enough water for sub¬ 
sequent meltings. 

If the work has been carefully done, 
when the screw is raised after the water 
and was have been drained off, and the 
follower taken out, the “cheese” will be 
dry, comparatively speaking", and when it 
is dumped out into the box or basket, if a 
handful is taken up and pressed momen¬ 
tarily between the fingers, no great amount 
of wax will show. If only a very fine line 
of wax appears in the ridges between the 
fingers the work has been done thoroly. It 
is convenient, if not absolutely necessary, 
to wear a pair of canvas gloves during the 
whole process; for when the burlap is shak¬ 
en out the refuse is exceedingly hot. When 
shaking out the burlap, if the refuse 
does not shake out clean, lay the cloth over 
the box, inside down, and quickly rub it be¬ 
tween the hands. This will dislodge the re¬ 
fuse still clinging. Now place the burlap 
over the press again and repeat the process. 
The same burlap should last for a dozen 
pressings. Each time, however, look it over 
quickly to see if there is any sign of a 
weak spot or the beginning of a tear. If 
there is, discard it and use a new cloth. 

A heavy cloth or old sack should be 
thrown over the unheated can containing 
the supply of hot water and wax poured 
in from the can under-the press; for the 
more this heat can be conserved, the shorter 
time it will take to start a new boilerful 
of combs. 

The final waste of wax by this process 
need not be over 3 per cent. There is no 
practical process known to the author that 
secures all the wax. 

RENDERING WAX FROM OLD COMBS 
IN LARGE QUANTITIES. 

The foregoing plan is entirely adequate 
and satisfactory for a moderate amount of 
rendering; but when, for example, Ameri¬ 
can foul brood has obtained a strong foot¬ 
hold thruout the apiary or several apiaries, 
a larger outfit is required. There are like¬ 
wise those who make a business of melting 
up old combs for a given locality, and for 
such a more elaborate outfit is required. 


It is not practicable to build a wax- 
press of a large size on the precise model 
just described, for the reason that the 
larger “cheeses” are not as easily handled, 
nor will they receive the same amount of 
pressure. Practice shows that it is much 
more satisfactory to use two screws over 
an oblong “cheese” in an oblong tank or 
boiler. The subjoined illustrations will 
show a type of double-screw press with 
which the author turned out 142 pounds 
of wax from old combs on the first day’s 
trial, getting practically all the wax. With 
more practice he could turn out a larger 
output. 

It is not practicable to heat the larger 
press with a small jet of steam from, a 
small boiler, such as one could rig up for 
himself. However, where one can have 



Fig. 15.—When the press is drawn out over the 
stove, the screws are entirely out of the way and 
it is therefore an easy matter to refill. A burlap 
40 x 70 inches is used in order that the edges may 
be long enough to fold over and pin. 

access to a larger boiler, steam heating is 
all right; but as the great majority of the 
readers of this work will not be so situated 
they will have to employ other means. It 
has been found entirely practicable to put 
the press upon four short legs so its plat¬ 
form will be on the same height as a small 
two-burner gasoline or kerosene stove. 
When this stove is placed in line with the 
press, to heat or reheat its contents it is 
an easy matter to slide the boiler from 
under the press to the top of the stove and 
back again. There is no need of having 
heat when pressure is being applied. After 
several successive squeezings the boiler or 
tank can be slid over, emptied, and a fresh 
batch reheated while on the stove. This 
obviates entirely the nuisance of applying 





882 


WAX 


the pressure with the press on the stove, 
and at the same time provides a stable 
foundation for the press while the screws 
are being turned down. 

THE EQUIPMENT NEEDED. 

There should be three tin wash-boilers, 
a water-tight barrel with a one-inch auger- 
hole close to the bottom containing a well¬ 
fitting plug, and two two-burner gasoline- 
stoves or their equivalent. A cook stove 
would answer the purpose just as well, 
altho, being higher, it would not be quite 
so convenient. A large dipper is also 
needed, and this can easily be made by 
nailing a wooden handle to the side of a 
10-lb. pail. The burlap used for holding 
the melted combs should be strong, and 
without holes or weak places. The size 
best suited for the purpose is 40 x 70 
inches. Half a dozen pieces should be 
sufficient for 500 or 600 pounds of wax. 
Half a barrel of water is needed. This can 
be used over and over again for several 
days if desired. If the barrel is kept cov¬ 
ered up at night the water will still be 
quite warm in the morning, so it does not 
take so long to heat up as at first. If the 
water is hard, it pays to soften it with 
powdered borax, altho rainwater is best. 

HOW TO PROCEED. 

Fill two wash-boilers two-thirds full of 
water and put them over the stove to heat. 
When the water in both boilers is boiling, 
start putting combs into one, which will be 
called No. 1, two or three at a time, poking 
them down in with a stick. Pour the boil¬ 
ing water in No. 2 into the barrel and 
cover with an old piece of carpet to pre¬ 
vent loss of heat;'then fill No. 2 again two- 
thirds full of cold water and put on the 
stove as before. Continue putting the 
combs into No. 1, poking each two or three 
down carefully. If the combs happen to 
be fairly n§w, as many as 50 or even 60 can 
be put in at a time on account of the fact 
that there are fewer cocoons. When all the 
combs are in, cover the boiler by putting 
over it a few thin boards cleated together. 
Do not attempt to start pressing before 
the contents have come to a boil. The mere 
fact that the comb seems to be melted and 
mushy is no indication that it is hot 
enough, Stir occasionally; and when the 


boiling commences, take the cover off to 
prevent the wax and water from boiling 
over. If it starts to boil over, stir it a 
little with a stick; or,, in an emergency, 
lift it off the fire altogether. Usually, 
however, this is not necessary. 

Put the cleated follower into the press- 
can ; push the can under the press and 
turn the screws down. Draw off a couple 
of pails of hot water from the barrel and 
pour into the can so as to heat thoroly 
every part. Take boiler No. 2 (containing 
water only) off the stove and put the 
stove in a position in line with the press 
and eight or nine inches from it. Draw off 
the water in the press-can; pour it back 
into the barrel, close the gate on the end of 
the can, and, after raising the screws, draw 
the can out over the stove. There will be 




Fig. 16.—After folding over and pinning the sides 
with five large nails, fold over the ends of the 
burlap and pin with two nails. As soon as the 
follower is laid on, the press-can and its contents 
are slid under the screws. Being hot, the can 
slides as easily as tho it were on rolls. 

enough water in the bottom to prevent 
burning. Take out the upper follower; 
spread a piece of burlap evenly over the 
can, tucking it down into the corners, and 
dip about half the melted combs in boiler 
No. 1 into the burlap. Then pick up the 
whole boiler and pour in the rest. If there 
is a great wad of wires, as there will be if 
the frames were wired originally, pull these 
apart Avith a stick enough so that they will 
not all be in one place. Fold over the 
sides of the burlap, pulling over enough so 
that the mass is perhaps two inches away 
from the edge of the can, and pin with 
five large nails; then fold over the ends 
and pin with a couple of nails. It is bet¬ 
ter to double the edges so the tiqils will not 




WAX 


883 


tear the threads. Be sure that there is no 
wad of burlap in any one place, and that 
the edges lie smooth. Put the follower 
over the burlap, screen side down, and 
quickly slide the can under the press. The 
can being hot, it slides almost as if it were 
on rollers, especially after a few drops of 
wax have dripped on to the platform, thor- 
oly lubricating every surface. The longer 
the can is used, the easier it slides back and 
forth. 

With the can in position, turn the screws 
down slowly. Especially at the start, do 
not make the fatal mistake of turning the 
screws down to the limit without stopping, 
for it is almost sure to burst the burlap. 
(Tf you burst the burlap just once you will 
always afterward be careful.) Turn the 
screws down only as fast as they turn easi¬ 
ly, therefore. As soon as they turn a lit¬ 
tle hard, wait until some of the wax and 
hot water has had a chance to ooze out. 
It is all right to apply considerable pres¬ 
sure when the screws have been turned 
down nearly to the limit, for then the 
“cheese” contains so little liquid that there 


is practically no danger of bursting the 
burlap. 

As soon as the can has been slid under 
the press, fill the empty boiler (No. 1) two- 
thirds full of hot water again from the 
bottom of the barrel and put it on the 
stove by the press. Put boiler No. 2 (which 
should now be full of partly melted comb) 
on the other stove to finish heating for the 
next pressing. 

In order to make the process continuous, 
start putting comb in boiler No. 1 again, 
now on the stove by the press. Two lots of 
comb are thus in the process of heating at 
the same time, the one to be pressed next 
being the nearest finished, while the other 
is just starting. 

As soon as the screws are down practi¬ 
cally as far as they will go, release the 
pressure, turning the screws up out of the 
way; lift boiler No. 1 temporarily off the 
stove and pull the press-can out on to it. 
Cover it with short boards cleated together 
and leave it in this position until it comes 
to a boil, then quickly slide back under the 
press and press again. Repeat this process 



Fig. 17.-—-While it sounds like a tedious process yet as a matter of fact it is pqssible to press a batch of 
40 combs every 45 minutes. Thirteen batches were pressed in a single day yielding in all 142 pounds of 
clean yellow wax. The small cake on top about % inch thick represents the amount of wax in a boiler 
after one batch is pressed—about 10 pounds. 





884 


WAX 


until the batch has been pressed three 
times. Between pressings always draw the 
can out over the fire to come to a boil. The 
object of this is to permit the refuse to 
become saturated again with boiling water. 
Heating to the boiling-point between each 
pressing makes possible a saving of about 
two per cent of wax. Whenever the press- 
can is not occupying the stove the boiler 
should be put back over it, so that the heat 
will no‘t be wasted. The contents of this 
boiler, therefore, has intermittent heat¬ 
ing while one batch is pressing, then dur¬ 
ing the pressing of the next batch it is 
transferred to the other stove where it has 
constant heating so that it will be ready by 
the time the press is empty again. 

As soon as the screws have been turned 
down for the third time, practically as far 
as they will go, place a third boiler under 
the gate while the screws are still down and 
open the gate. Catch a dipperful of the 
water as it first comes out of the press and 
set it on the floor. When all the wax and 
water have run out, splash the hot water 
in the dipper over the follower while the 
screws are still turned down, thus rinsing 
off the coating of the hot wax. Then tip up 
one end of the press so as to drain out the 
last of the water and wax into the boiler. 
Pour this hot water and wax immediately 
into the barrel and cover with the old car¬ 
pet. The wax will rise to the top; and, 
when more hot water is wanted a little 
later, another boilerful may be drawn from 
the hole at the bottom. 

As soon as empty, draw the press-can 
out over the stove. Take out the follower 
and the “cheese” and put the latter to 
one side for the present. If there is not 
enough water in the can to prevent burn¬ 
ing, throw in a couple of quarts with the 
dipper. Spread a fresh burlap over the 
press-can and proceed as before. Later 
on, when there is time, the first “cheese” 
set aside may be unpinned and the refuse 
shaken out. The burlap should be rubbed 
between the hands so as to remove the 
cocoons that have been imbedded in the 
cloth. Much depends on having the burlap 
clean when it is used over again. 

A little experience will determine how 
much water to put in the boilers. There 
should be enough so that the surface of the 
liquid will be about an inch from the top 


of the press-can, when the follower is sub¬ 
merged by the screw. If the press-can is 
too full it makes it difficult to slide back 
and forth without slopping, and if there is 
not enough, it detracts from the efficiency 
of the method. During the pressing, it is 
a good plan to cover the can with four 
boards, notched at one edge, to surround 
the screw. This confines the heat and 
make it possible to do faster work. 

The process as described in detail sounds 
complicated, but is really very simple. It 
is easy to finish a batch every 45 minutes. 
The average amount of wax secured each 
time is 10 pounds. As mentioned in the 
early part of this article, the author pressed 
13 batches in a day and secured 142 pounds 
of wax in all. The refuse, moreover, when 
the work was done, contained less than two 
per cent of the original amount of wax. 

Before starting work the secopd morn¬ 
ing the cake of wax on top of the water in 
the barrel should be broken up and taken 
out. The pieces require only a little scrap¬ 
ing on the bottom to be ready for market. 
The water, still warm, is quickly heated so 
that the work can be resumed very shortly. 

When diseased combs are rendered, es¬ 
pecially , those containing some honey, 
every precaution should be taken to pre¬ 
vent the bees from robbing. If the build¬ 
ings cannot be made bee-tight, the work 
must be done at night, and every tool and 
utensil used thoroly scalded. The refuse 
from the diseased combs should be burned, 
and the water which was used poured 
where the bees cannot possibly get access 
to it. 

■THE AMOUNT OF WAX IN COMBS. 

The question is often asked how much 
wax can be rendered from comb holding 
a given amount of honey; but it is quite 
difficult to answer such questions, as it 
makes considerable difference whether full 
sheets of foundation were used, and also 
whether such foundation was thick or thin. 
In general, however, it requires about 4 
lbs. of wax in comb to hold 100 lbs. of 
honey, or, in other words, a pound of new 
comb will hold about 25 lbs. of honey. 

A sixteen-ounce section of honey con¬ 
sists approximately of. 14y 2 ounces of 
honey—a little over one-half ounce of wax 
and about one ounce of wood. Next is 


WAX 


885 


shown the result after separating the 
honey, wax, and wood, in a sixteen-ounce 
section. Of course, these results, as be¬ 
fore mentioned, are not always the same, 



Honey pressed from a section; result—over 14 
ounces honey, % ounce of wax, and 1 ounce of 
• wood. 


and the different amounts vary consider¬ 
ably. 

On one occasion the author melted over 
600 lbs. of candied comb honey. Keeping 
careful account of the weights, it was 
found that the percentages of honey, wax, 
and wood were approximately 88, 5, and 7, 
respectively. 

REFINING BEESWAX. 

Wax cakes, as they are brought up, are 
usually of all grades and colors. The dif¬ 
ference in color is due largely to the 
amount of impurities the wax contains. 
With all of the plans for bleaching or clar¬ 
ifying there seems to be no practical or 
satisfactory way of bringing a small 
amount of wax to a yellow color. 

Acid for refining wax on a small scale is 
not to be recommended, for, without 
proper receptacles and facilities for heat¬ 
ing, the wax is more often injured than 
benefited. 

BLEACHING BEESWAX. 

There are methods by which beeswax 
can be bleached by the use of chemicals: 
but for practical purposes it is unwise to 
attempt them. Moreover, it has finally 
been discovered that, for the economic uses 
of the beekeeper, foundation made of 
bleache'd wax is no better than, if as good 
as, that having the natural yellow color. 
Yellow wax is more ductile, and therefore 
more easily worked by the bees; and even 
when used for section honey-boxes, the 
combs from yellow wax are about as white 
as those from the bleached; so that when 


capped over no one can tell the difference. 
But very often dealers have a call for 
bleached beeswax; and the only practical 
way of getting it is to convert the product 
into thin sheets or small particles and then 
subject them to the sun’s rays for a suit¬ 
able length of time. When sufficiently 
bleached they may be melted up and caked. 

HOW TO DETECT ADULTERATED WAX. 

Mention has already been made that 
beeswax is liable to adulteration with par¬ 
affin or ceresin, and sometimes with ordi¬ 
nary grease or fat. Some unscrupulous 
box-liive beekeepers, after brimstoning 
their old “skeps,” and melting up the 
wax,* add just enough tallow to increase 
the weight, because grease is cheap com¬ 
pared with the ordinary product of the 
hive. But such adulterations are very 
easily detected, both by smell and sight. 
The cakes have a greasy smell and feeling; 
and when subjected to the float test, pres¬ 
ently described, will immediately rise to 
the top of the liquid. Paraffin and ceresin 
adulterations are not so easily recognized; 
but nearly all pure beeswax, when chewed 
for a few minutes, will crumble in fine 
particles, while wax containing a small 
percentage of paraffin or ceresin will chew 
like sealing wax and chewing-gum. 

The simplest test is the float or specific- 
gravity test. The specific gravity of ordi¬ 
nary commercial paraffins and ceresins is 
below that of beeswax. As an ordinary ar¬ 
ticle of pure beeswax is lighter than water 
(wax standing 965 and water at 1000), of 
course it will float in water. 

Into a jar partly filled with water pour 
alcohol until a small piece of beeswax of 
knoAvn purity settles to the bottom, taking 
care not to pour in too much alcohol, for 
the wax should barely sink to the bottom; 
that is, the alcoholic liquid and the wax 
should be of almost the same specific grav¬ 
ity. If a piece of adulterated beeswax con¬ 
taining 50 per cent of paraffin or ceresin is 
now put into the liquid it will float on the 
surface of the liquid. If another piece of 
wax that contains only 10 per cent of adul¬ 
teration is now tested it will still float, 
but has a tendency to sink almost under 
the surface. If another piece containing 


* See ‘‘Box Hives.” 








886 


WEIGHT OF BEES 


only 5 per cent is tested it may float or 
gradually settle to the bottom of the jar, 
perhaps standing upon a single point. The 
degree of adulteration in a suspected sam¬ 
ple is determined by its ability to float, 
whether it “floats high” or barely floats. 

For all practical purposes this float test 
is reliable; that is, it has so far shown 
every adulterated sample. A large ship¬ 
ment of beeswax was sent in. It was very 
beautiful, and the cakes were all of a uni¬ 
form size; but the price was very low. It 
was suspicious, and accordingly it was sub¬ 
jected to the float test. Sure enough, a 
small piece of wax stayed on top of the 
test liquid. It was then put into a liquid 
that would let a 25 per cent ceresin adul¬ 
teration sink. After hovering near the sur¬ 
face it gradually sank, and acted like the 
piece of wax that was known to contain 25 
per cent of ceresin. 

The shipper was advised that he would 
have to take the stuff back. He did it very 
promptly, without even trying to defend 
himself, any more than to say that he 
thought we were not very particular. He 
knew better, but thought he could unload 
the stuff. 

CLEANING WAX FROM UTENSILS. 

Perhaps the readiest means is to im¬ 
merse the utensils in boiling water until all 
the wax is thoroly melted off, then drain, 
while hot. They can then be wiped off 
with soft newspaper. Where the article 
cannot be easily immersed, high-test gaso¬ 
line or a solution of salsoda will readily 
dissolve the wax so it can be cleaned off 
with a cloth. Gasoline dissolves wax almost 
as readily as water dissolves sugar. 

WAX WORMS. —See Moth Miller. 

WEIGHT OF BEES.— Some very in¬ 
teresting experiments were conducted by 
Prof. B. F. Koons, of the Agricultural 
College, Storrs, Ct., to determine the 
weight of bees and the amount of honey 
they can carry. The results of these ex¬ 
periments were printed in Gleanings in Bee 
Culture; and the article is given here: 

Some two years ago, in a leisure hour I 
went to my apiary and captured one outgo¬ 
ing bee from every hive and subjected them 
to fumes of cyanide of potassium for a few 
moments to render them inactive, and then 
weighed each bee upon our chemical bal¬ 


ances—a pair of scales so delicately ad¬ 
justed that it is an easy matter to weigh 
the one-millionth part of a pound or the 
one-thousandth part of a bee. From the 
weight of each separate bee it was a very 
simple problem in arithmetic to compute the 
number of bees in a pound. The results 
showed that mine, which perhaps are a fair 
average in size and weight, ran from 4,141 
to 5,669 in a pound. These results you pub¬ 
lished in Gleanings, and there expressed a 
yvish that I would also determine the 
amount of honey carried by a homing bee. 
In my research for the weight of bees I took 
those just leaving the hive, which naturally 
would represent the normal weight, without 
extra honey or pollen. 

During the present summer (when the 
bees were very active) I have undertaken 
to carry out your request as to the amount 
of honey carried by a bee. My method was 
this: From the chemical laboratory I se¬ 
cured a couple of delicate glass flasks with 
corks, marking them A and B. Each was 
very carefully weighed, and the weight re¬ 
corded. I then went to a hive, and, with 
the aid of a pair of delicate pliers, or pin¬ 
cers, I captured a number of incoming bees 
and dropped them in flask A. I then se¬ 
cured about an equal number of outgoing 
bees in flask B. These were then taken to 
the laboratory immediately, and each flask 
again weighed, after which the bees were 
carefully counted and released. This op¬ 
eration was repeated quite a number of 
times, not on the same day, but as oppor¬ 
tunity offered, and when the bees were 
bringing in an abundance of honey. I cap¬ 
tured from 20 to 45 bees for each flask at 
each trip, aiming to have, as nearly as 
might be, the same number in each flask on 
any particular trip. I always weighed the 
flasks before starting out, lest some little 
bit of soil or stain, or even moisture on the 
glass, would render the results less accur¬ 
ate; I also always allowed any moisture con¬ 
densed upon the inside of the flasks, while 
the bees were confined, to evaporate before 
weighing for another trip. I then treated 
my results as follows: From the weight of 
flask and bees I deducted the weight of the 
flask; the remainder I divided by the num¬ 
ber of bees confined on that trip. This gave 
me the average weight of the bees captured 
at that time. The average weight of the 
bees in flask A, or loaded bees, was always 
greater, as it should be, than the average 
weight of the bees in flask B, or unloaded 
bees. The difference between these two 
weights gave me the average amount of 
honey carried by that lot of bees. 

Mine are Italian and hybrid bees, but I 
made no attempt to determine the difference 
in the amount carried by the different 
swarms or breeds. I kept no record of the 
swarms except that I guarded against go¬ 
ing to the same hive for a second lot of 


WEIGHT OF BEES 


887 


bees. A considerable difference does ap¬ 
pear, but probably that arises in part from 
the abundance or scarcity of honey on any 
particular day when the colony was visited. 
My aim was to secure reliable results, as 
nearly as possible representing the average 
amount of honey carried by bees. 

The following is the result of weighing 
several hundred each, of returning and out¬ 
going bees. The smallest number of bees 
necessary to carry one pound of honey, as 
shown by my results, is 10,154; or, in other 
words, one bee can carry the 1-10,154 (one 
ten thousand one hundred and fifty-fourth) 
part of a pound of honey; and the largest 
number, as shown by the results, required 
to carry a pound is 45,642; and the average 
of all the sets weighed is 20,167. Perhaps, 
then, it is approximately correct to say that 
the. average load of a bee is 1-20,000 (one- 
twenty-thousandth) of a pound; or, in other 
words, if a colony has 20,000 bees in it, and 
each one makes one trip a day, they will add 
the pound to their stores. Of course, not 
all the bees in a colony leave the hive, the 
nurses remaining at home, hence necessitat¬ 
ing more trips of those which do “go 
a-field. ’ ’ 

I also repeated my observations of two 
years ago on the weight of bees, and found 
that my numbers ran from 3,680 to 5,495 in 
a pound, and the average about 4,800, the 
same as in my former test. I likewise se¬ 
cured the following on the weight of drones: 
Of a dozen or more weighed, the largest 
would require 1,808 to make a pound and 
the smallest 2,122 or an average of about 
2,000 drones in a pound, over against near¬ 
ly 5,000 workers. B. P. Koons. 

Agricultural College, Storrs, Ct., Sept. 3, 
1895. 

Both Professors Gillette and Lazenby, 
the former of the Colorado Experiment Sta¬ 
tion and the latter of the Ohio State Uni¬ 
versity, conducted a series of experiments 
which closely approximated the figures of 
Professor Koons, and it may be assumed 
they are correct. 

In round numbers there are 5000 bees to 
a pound. Single swarms have issued that 
have contained as high as 10 pounds of 
bees. The swarm itself would, therefore, 
contain approximately 50,000 bees, most of 
them old or fielders. The number of bees 
left in the hive probably would not exceed 
4 to 5 pounds of young bees, making a total- 
population of about 75,000. Some of our 
best beekeepers, however, are now taking 
the view that colonies can be built up to 
100,000 individuals and that such colon:'es 
will be very profitable; but generally speak¬ 
ing a good colony would not go much above 


75,000 to 80,000 bees. Of this number there 
would be between 4 and 5 pounds of bees 
that would be too young to go to the field. 
If so, about a third of the entire force 
would be young bees, and the other two- 
thirds would be fielders. This proportion 
would prevail only just before the main 
honey flow. In the middle of spring, when 
breeding is at its height, half or possibly 
two-thirds of the bees would be young or 
nurse bees. During winter in the northern 
States, there would be no young, and all of 
them would be able to fly to the fields if 
the weather conditions would permit. 

Again, in a colony population of 75,000 
individuals there might be, in the height of 
the honey flow, 40,000 to 50,000 bees in the 
air or in the field at one time. Sometimes, 
during the middle hours of the day, when 
there is a great rush of incoming nectar, a 
colony will seem to be almost deserted; and 
then toward night it will soon be over¬ 
crowded. 

Professor Koons says that while 10.000 
bees may carry a pound of nectar, 20,000 
would be more nearly the average. Much 
will depend on the strength of the honey 
flow, and on how much time the bees take on 
each trip. 

While the average colony in the height of 
the honey flow will not bring in more than 
4 to 5 pounds of nectar in a day, it may 
bring in as much as 20 pounds. Some cases 
are recorded where as high as 66 pounds 
have been gathered; but these cases are 
comparatively rare. Assuming that a bee 
can carry half its own weight in nectar, 
and did that all day, a colony of 40,000 field 
bees might make a gain of 20 pounds to the 
hive, each bee making five trips. If, how¬ 
ever, they brought in only one-half that 
amount per trip, then they would have to 
make at least ten trips per day. If nectar 
was very abundant those same bees might 
make twice that number of trips, or a total 
of 40 pounds of nectar. It can hardly be 
assumed that all bees would be equally in¬ 
dustrious. When bees are robbing, filling 
up on fully ripened honey, they might make 
thirty or forty trips a day. A bee can fill 
up on honey in the space of a minute or 
two. It could then hike back to its hive, un¬ 
load and return. It might thus pile up 
possibly one hundred trips. No one knows 
because no count has been made. 


888 


WILD CHERRY 


If it takes 10,000 bees to carry a pound 
of nectar , one bee could carry only half its 
own weight. Some work has been done to 
show that a single bee can carry an amount 
of honey equal to its own weight. Honey, it 
will be understood, of course, would make 
a great deal less bulk. If the honeybee had 
a larger sac it might carry a much larger 
amount of nectar. When Professor Koons 
speaks of 10,000 bees carrying a pound of 
honey, he of course means nectar. 

These figures will not mean much to 
the practical beekeeper unless he realizes 
that the force of fielders should be, in the 
height of the flow, three or four times as 
large as the number of young bees acting 
in the capacity of nurses, comb-builders, 
and keeping up the ventilation in the hive 
by which the incoming nectar can be evapo¬ 
rated. It is right here that the very popu¬ 
lous colony — from 75,000 to 100,000 indi¬ 
viduals—shows its great superiority over 
a colony of 30,000 to 40,000 individuals. If 
it takes 20,000 or 25,000 bees to keep house 
on a total population of 40,000 it is clear 
that that colony will not gather a large 
amount of honey. But if the beekeeper has 
made his calculations so as to have a large 
force of fully matured tees at the begin¬ 
ning of the honey flow, not less than 75,000, 
the chances are he will get a crop if the 
honey is to be had. 

In the way of a summary, it may be said 
that there are approximately 5000 bees to 
a pound. While this number could carry a 
whole pound of honey they carry from one- 
fourth to one-half pound of raw nectar. 
The number of trips a bee will make in a 
day will vary from perhaps two or three to 
a dozen or more, averaging, perhaps, from 
five to ten trips during the honey flow. 

WEAK COLONIES TO STRENGTHEN. 

—See TTntting, sub-head “Alexander 
Plan,” also Nucleus and Building up Col¬ 
onies. 

WHITE CLOVER.— See Clover. 

WHITE HOLLY.— See Gallberry. 

WILD CHERRY (Prunv s serotina ). — 
Known locally as black cherry. Few trees 
of Florida are more stately and more sym¬ 
metrical in their growth than the wild 
cherry. It is native all over Florida, on 
high pine lands and in low hummocks. 
The wood is a beautiful red, with a fine 


grain, and is very valuable for cabinet 
purposes. The wood is, however, somewhat 
softer than that of the wild cherry of the 
North ( Prunus pennsylvanica) . In ap¬ 
pearance it closely resembles the wild 
cherry of more northern latitudes. It sel¬ 
dom fails to yield honey, and bountifully, 
too. Coming as it does just before the 
orange trees bloom, it gives a final spurt 
to brood-rearing that is valuable indeed. 
As a surplus honey it is more of a pest 
than a benefit, as the honey is dark red, 
and as bitter as wormwood. The flavor 
of a cherry pit is about that of this honey. 
It does not take a great deal of it to spoil 
the flavor and color of the first orange 
honey of the season, and many beemen in 
orange sections must extract their supers 
of all traces of wild-cherry honey or have 
their fancy orange honey touched and 
tinged. In the vicinity of DeLand, Fla., 
it is a real nuisance after the. orange honey 
commences to come in. Up to that time it 
is a bonanza and a blessing to the apiarist. 
The writer has in many cases placed 
a half-depth super on the strong colonies 
when they were storing from wild cherry, 
which was removed when the wild cherry 
flow was over and the orange flow began. 
Then he would extract the supers and put 
them back on the hives for the flow of or¬ 
ange honey. 

WILD SUNFLOWER.— See Sunflower. 

WILLOW. (Salix). —This is a very nat¬ 
ural or clearly defined genus of shrubs 
and trees found chiefly in the north tem¬ 
perate and arctic zones. Of the 161 de¬ 
scribed species, about 78 occur in North 
America, more than 30 of which are in 
eastern America. So variable are the spe¬ 
cies, and so freely do they hybridize, that 
any entirely satisfactory treatment from a 
systematic standpoint is impossible. The 
Swedish botanist Ande^on, whose mono¬ 
graph, published in the Prodromus of De 
Candolle, was the work of nearly 25 yeai’s, 
declared that of Salix nigricans, which has 
120 synonyms, he never saw two specimens 
that were exactly alike. In Great Britain 
the number of species of willow has been 
placed all the way from 12 to 80. 

The very small flowers are naked, or de¬ 
void of both sepals and petals, and are 
crowded together on an elongated stem or 


WILLOW 


889 


axis forming a cluster called an ament or 
catkin. The stamens and pistils in all spe¬ 
cies are in separate flowers, and are 
borne on different individual plants, some 
producing only staminate flowers, others 
only pistillate ones. In a staminate ament 
of the pussy willow (S. discolor ) the writer 
has actually counted 270 flowers, and in a 
pistillate ament 142 flowers. The multi¬ 
tude of bright-yellow anthers renders the 



Pussy willow in seed. 


staminate blossoms very conspicuous. As 
an evidence of their attractiveness, it may 
be mentioned that they are used in Eng¬ 
land for decorating the churches on Palm 
Sunday, and are offered for sale in New 
England cities by street flower-venders. 
The flowers are formed the preceding sea¬ 
son, and appear in early spring before or 
with the leaves. 

All of our species furnish both pollen 
and nectar, but it would, of course, be 
useless to look for pollen on pistillate 
shrubs or trees. The nectar is freely se¬ 
creted in both kinds of flowers on the tips 
of minute flat glands, which in the pistil¬ 
late flowers may be found at the base of 
the ovarv. As our early willows attract 
great numbers of insects, the supply of 
nectar may be temporarily exhausted; but 
it should not be concluded, therefore, that 
it is wholly absent. If a branch of flow¬ 
ers be broken off and carried into the house 
and placed in water, and the nectaries ex¬ 
amined after 24 hours under a miscroscope, 
nectar will probably be found in abun¬ 
dance. 

The earliest willow to blossom in New 


England is the glaucous or pussy willow 
(Salix discolor). On a calm warm day the 
sweet odor may be detected several rods 
away, and a swarm of insects may be seen 
hovering about the bright-yellow sprays of 
bloom. Besides the honeybees there are 
female bumblebees, the only form of bum¬ 
blebee then on the wing, and great 
numbers of wild bees belonging to the 
genus Andrena gathering pollen for brood¬ 
rearing. Several species of these bees are 
never found on any other flowers than the 
willows. Then there are many flies and a 
few butterflies and beetles. Ants often 
climb the stems and rob the flowers of the 
nectar, which is quite plentiful. In Eng¬ 
land some willows are said to be visited by 
moths in the evening. 

The early-blooming willows are visited 
by large numbers of honeybees, both for 
pollen and nectar, and are of great value 
to the beekeeper. One of the commonest 
willows in the eastern States is the pussy 
willow, which is a large shrub growing on 
river banks. In Massachusetts it blooms 
along the last of March and early in April. 
In Georgia the black willow ( S. nigra)' 
grows along the streams thruout the State. 
It blooms in March, and in a few localities 
yields a surplus of honey of medium qual¬ 
ity. The black willow is also common in 



Golden willow. 


Texas, where it is valued both for pollen 
and honey. Other willows which are com¬ 
mon in the eastern States are S. sericea 
(silky willow) ; S. rostrata, and S. cor data. 
In California, Richter says, the willows 


890 


WILLOW-HERB 


yield a surplus in several counties. It is 
a dark-amber, bitter honey. 

Among the willows introduced from 
Europe, and cultivated, are the osier wil¬ 
low (S. viminalis) ; the Kilmarnock willow 
(/S', caprea ) ; the white willow (S. alba), of 
which there is a variety with yellow twigs 
called viellina, and the weeping willow (S. 
babylonica). 

A honey flow from the willows at Boro¬ 
dino, N. Y., was described by G. M. Doo¬ 
little as follows: 

We have three kinds of willows—the gold¬ 
en, the white, and the weeping willow, 
which are of much value as honey-produc¬ 
ers in the order named. When these willows 
are in bloom, and the weather warm, the 
bees rush out of their hives at early dawn, 
and work on the flowers all day long as 
eagerly as they do on clover or basswood. 
The blossoms often se,crete nectar so pro¬ 
fusely that it can be seen glistening in the 
morning by holding the blossoms between 
you and the sun, while the trees resound 
with that dull busy hum from morning till 
night, so often heard when bees are getting 
honey. As this is the very first honey of 
the season, I consider it of the greatest 
value to the bees, for brood is now crowded 
forward with great “vim,” giving us the 
bees which work on white clover, while the 
honey often very greatly helps the depleted 
stores of the hive. 

From the few trees along a small creek 
near here, my bees frequently make a gain 
of from six to ten pounds of honey while 
the willows are in bloom, and one season 
they made a gain of fifteen pounds. This 
spring some of my best colonies gained 
eight pounds from willow, while on apple 
bloom they did not get more than a living 
from apple orchards white with bloom all 
about. The honey from the willow is quite 
similar to that from the apple bloom, 
and has a nice aromatic flavor. As the 
willows give the first pollen, and also the 
first honey each season, it will be seen what 
a great help they are to all who have them 
in profusion near their bees. The only draw¬ 
back is the weather often being unfavorable, 
for I do not think that more than one year 
in three gives good weather all thru the 
time willows are in blossom. As it is often 
too cold, rainy, cloudy, or windy for the 
bees to get to the trees at this season of the 
year, honey and pollen from this source are 
not at all certain. 

WILLOW-HERB (Epilobium angustifo- 
lium) .—Fireweed. Indian pink. Rose bay. 
A perennial herb, 2 to 8 feet tall, with long 
lance-shaped leaves, and handsome red- 
purple flowers in long spike-like racemes. 


After forest and brush fires it springs up 
in great abundance, and flourishes for 
about three years, when other plants crowd 
it out. Wild raspberry, another good hon¬ 
ey plant is one of the first plants to replace 
it, and goldenrod, asters, Canada thistle, 
and various shrubs also soon spring up and 
occupy the land. But the length of time 
fireweed offers a good location for beekeep¬ 
ing varies greatly in different parts of the 
continent. Near Maniwaki in the Gatineau 
Valley, about 100 miles north of Ottawa, 
the location had become practically worth¬ 
less for honey production six years after 
a fire had swept over the land; but 200 
miles north of Ottawa, halfway between 
the city of Quebec and Lake St. John, 
there was still a large amount of fireweed 
in bloom 15 years after a forest fire. While 
in the upper part of the Lower Peninsula 
and also in the Upper Peninsula, Michi¬ 
gan, fireweed is a reliable honey plant, yet 
in Tuscola County, according to Hutchin¬ 
son, farther southward, altho very common 
it never yielded a pound of honey. On 
the Canadian Pacific Railway in British 
Columbia there are localities in the Rocky 
Mountains where fireweed blooms year 
after year and shows no signs of diminish¬ 
ing. 

Eireweed is adapted to a greater variety 
of soils than either alsike clover or white 
clover. Moist ground and a cool tempera¬ 
ture are favorable to its growth; but drain¬ 
age is necessary; and, if the soil is swampy, 
both growth and secretion are poor. While 
fireweed thrives best in clay soils and par¬ 
ticularly in soils rich in humus, as in the 
decaying remains of fallen trees, it will 
grow well northward for a time in rather 
sandy soils or on rocky ground after a 
fire. 

DISTRIBUTION OF WILLOW-HERB. 

Willow-herb is widely distributed in the 
northern part of Europe, Asia, and North 
America. In eastern North America it ex¬ 
tends from Labrador southward along the 
Appalachian Chain to North Carolina. It 
is abundant in New England, and in north¬ 
ern Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minnesota. 

A few years ago there were thousands of 
acres of this plant in northern Michigan 
without bees to gather its sweetness. A 
large part of northern Michigan (the 


WILLOW-HERB 


891 



The willow-herb of northern Michigan. No. 1, the blossom; No. 2, the plant; Nos. 3 and 4, its habitat 












892 


WILLOW-HERB 


Lower Peninsula) was formerly covered 
with white and red pine, which has now 
been largely cut for timber. During the 
first dry season after the cutting, fire bums 
over this stump-land, and two or three 
years later the growth of willow-herb comes 
to maturity. A few years ago it produced 
large quantities of honey, but as the pine 
has been largely lumbered the prospect is 
that willow-herb in the Southern Peninsula 
of Michigan has had its day. In the Up¬ 
per Peninsula it is at present a most valu¬ 
able source of surplus. Blooming at mid¬ 
summer it prolongs the honey flow until 
the middle of August. If is easily eradi¬ 
cated by cultivation, but it will be many 
years before the beekeeper will not be able 
to profit from the bloom dotting the cut¬ 
over lands. 

It is common in the maritime provinces 
of Canada; in Quebec; in northern On¬ 
tario, particularly in the Rainy River dis¬ 
trict and on the clay lands; also around 
Lake Temiskaming; in Manitoba, especial¬ 
ly around Lake Winnipeg and in the low 
moist lands of eastern Manitoba; in north¬ 
ern Saskatchewan; and in central and 
northern Alberta. But it is most abundant 
in British Columbia both in the mountains 
and on the coast. It reaches its highest de¬ 
velopment both in height of the plant and 
in the size of the flower cluster in the lower 
Fraser Valley. At Hector, B. C., at an alti¬ 
tude of 5,200 feet and at Glacier at an ele¬ 
vation of 4,000 feet in the Rocky Mountains 
and Selkirk Range on the Canadian Pacific 
Railway there are large patches of fireweed 
in bloom year after year. Between Laeombe 
and Edmonton in Central Alberta fireweed 
springs up and blooms in wheat fields in 
places, where the grain has failed to grow. 
It is also fairly common on scrubland. 

In the warmer valleys of the southern 
part of British Columbia the plants begin 
to grow so early that the blooming period 
may close before the end of the summer; 
but in the north they continue to flower 
until killed by about five degrees of frost. 
In northern Ontario a killing frost may 
come as early as the last of August. Trav¬ 
ellers to the Yukon and other parts of the 
far north of Canada have observed that 
fireweed is prevalent as far as the forest 
extends, even to the delta of the Mackensie 
River. 


In the rain belt of eastern Washington 
and Oregon in the lumbered regions there 
are immense areas of fireweed, which offer 
as promising a bee pasturage as is perhaps 
to be found in the United States. In Wash¬ 
ington its acreage is probably equal to that 
of any other two honey plants. At pres¬ 
ent it does not support as many colonies 
of bees as alfalfa, partly because of the 
absence of good roads, and partly because 
beekeepers do not realize its possibilities 
as a honey plant. As in other States it is 
confined largely to the burned-over areas in 
the sections of coniferous forests, but there 
is probably not a county in Washington in 
which it does not occur. It ranges in alti¬ 
tude from sea level to the upper timber 
line. In the northeastern timbered section 
it is very common, and in some localities it 
is the leading honey plant; but it is also 
becoming more abundant along the irrigat¬ 
ing ditches in the Yakima Valley and in 
other irrigated valleys, altho here it is only 
a minor honey plant. It is also very im¬ 
portant in northern Idaho. In eastern Ore¬ 
gon it is equally abundant, and areas of 
100 acres, or more, thickly covered with 
fireweed occur. It remains at its best for 
four or five years, depending upon rainfall 
and soil conditions. Gradually other vege¬ 
tation crowds it out. A second fire will 
temporarily increase its abundance, but the 
second period of growth is usually short, 
since the roots of many other perennial 
plants survive in the ground. After forest 
fires it appears in abundance in the Sierra 
Nevada of California.' Willow-herb has a 
more northern range than any other honey 
plant of the first rank. 

HONEY FLOW. 

Willow-herb blooms in July and August, 
but the period of blooming is influenced by 
altitude, latitude, and rainfall. The flow¬ 
ers are usually red-purple in color, but at 
Monteith, Ontario, Sladen observed solitary 
stalks of a white-flowered variety. The nec¬ 
tar is secreted by the green fleshy top of 
the ovary, where it is protected from rain, 
and is yet easily accessible to insects. On 
the outer side the nectar is enclosed by the 
dilated bases of the stamens and above by 
a ring of hairs around the style. The flow¬ 
ers are visited not only by honeybees and 
bumblebees, but likewise by many solitary 


WILLOW-HERB 


893 


bees, flies, and butterflies. Bumblebees are 
common and one was observed to make 37 
visits in a minute. The pollen is pale 
greenish purple and is bound together by 
fine viscin threads. The anthers mature be¬ 
fore the stigma, and cross-pollination reg¬ 
ularly takes place. The flowers are odor¬ 
less. 

Cool nights and warm days, as in the 
case of many other honey plants, cause the 
secretion of the largest amount of nectar. 
The honey flow lasts longer than that of 
clover. In the Gatineau Valley north of 
Ottawa it begins one or two weeks later 
than clover, or about July 10, and lasts un¬ 
til about Sept. 5. It thus covers the larger 
part of the summer, or the months when 
the colonies are strongest. A colony on 
scales in a large apiary at Montcerf, Que¬ 
bec, 100 miles north of Ottawa, gained 20 
pounds per day for several days during 
August; and the average yield for six years 
was 144 pounds per colony of which prob¬ 
ably 100 pounds was from fireweed. 

In northern Michigan over 250 pounds 
of honey per colony have been stored from 
fireweed; and 100 and 125 pounds of sur¬ 
plus year after year have been reported 
from this source. In this region no plant 
furnishes more honey than willow-herb, 
and if the pasturage were permanent a bee¬ 
keeper would find in such a location a 
bonanza. It yields nectar, says Hutchin¬ 
son, during weather that would stop all 
storing from basswood or clover, and bees 
have been seen bringing in honey at a fair 
rate with a cold wind blowing from the 
north. “To my knowledge it has failed 
only once in a dozen years.” Sometimes a 
drop of nectar can be seen at the base of 
each petal. At times several pounds of 
honey may be brought into the hives in a 
few hours. 

For four consecutive years a good crop 
of honey has been obtained at Melford in 
northern Saskatchewan. A beekeeper near 
New Westminster, British Columbia, 
writes: “Last year my two best colonies 
gave 550 pounds each. I am satisfied that 
most of it, if not all, came from fireweed, 
which grows here in great profusion.” 
Eighteen miles southeast of Tacoma, Wash., 
an average of 120 pounds per colony has 
been secured entirely from fireweed. It 
has been reported that willow-herb is oc¬ 


casionally unreliable in western Washing¬ 
ton and that hundreds of acres in full bloom 
may not yield a pound of honey. But the 
fault is probably not with the bloom, but 
with the methods of beekeeping. Because 
of excessive rains in spring and severe 
droughts in late summer special manage¬ 
ment is necessary in order to secure a sur¬ 
plus. In the vicinity of St. Maries, Kene- 
wak County, Idaho, a large area of land, 
which has recently been cleared of forest, 
is covered with a luxuriant growth of fire¬ 
weed, which yields nectar until killed by se¬ 
vere frosts. The total number of colonies 
of bees in this locality probably does not 
exceed 100, but it is estimated that there 
is ample room for at least 2,000 colonies. 
Unfortunately the best areas for fireweed 
honey-production are difficult to reach and 
are, consequently, seldom utilized by bee¬ 
keepers. The loss of the apiary from for¬ 
est fires must also be guarded against in 
many locations. 

WILLOW-HERB HONEY. 

Hutchinson, whose knowledge of willow- 
herb honey was based on an experience cov¬ 
ering many years, described it as follows: 
“Willow-herb furnishes the whitest and 
sweetest honey I have ever tasted. The 
flavor is not very pronounced, but there is 
a suggestion of spiciness.” According to 
Sladen: “Fireweed honey is almost water 
white, has a good density, and a very mild 
flavor.. It granulates soon after extrac¬ 
tion.” In some instances the honey has 
been described as being as clear as water. 
The comb is also very white and tender. 

THE PROPAGATION OF WIILLOW-HERB. 

The seed-pods of fireweed are two or 
three inches long and contain a great num¬ 
ber of seeds, which bear tufts of long hairs. 
When the pods open the hairs, or plumes, 
act as parachutes, and the seeds are wafted 
by the wind for long distances. At times 
they are so abundant as to injure the eyes 
of moose-hunters. Fireweed also multi¬ 
plies by underground rootstocks which may 
grow twenty feet in length. When fire¬ 
weed springs up in dense shade the flowers 
develop imperfectly, or wither and fall 
from their stems, and the plants put out 
long rootstocks which seek to run out of 
the circle of shade. The more intense the 


894 


WINTERING 


sunlight, the brighter the colors of the 
flowers. After a forest fire a rank growth 
of fireweed may develop, not from seed but 
from the rootstocks of scattered plants, 
which languished in the dense bush without 
blooming. Immediately after the fire the 
rootstocks send up strong plants, which 
send forth new rootstocks forming buds at 
short intervals. Thus in a few years an 
extensive network of rootstocks may be 
formed. Seedlings under the same condi- 


pleasure I experience in working in an ap¬ 
iary located in a fireweed location.” 

WINTERING.— Under the head of Ab¬ 
sconding Swarms, in the opening of the 
book, and under the subject of Uniting, 
the reader has been cautioned against di¬ 
viding, and trying to winter weak colonies. 
See “Absconding in the Spring,” under the 
head mentioned. In regard to keeping bees 
warm thru the winter with Artificial 


Outdoor wintering at the apiary of F. J. Miller of London, 


Ontario, Canada. 





tions would perish for want of moisture. 
If the land is very dry and sandy little or 
no fireweed may appear, and the annual 
fleebane (Erigeron canadensis ) may spring 
up instead, a plant which is fireweed’s prin¬ 
cipal rival in the occupation of land newly 
burned-over. Unfortunately the latter spe-. 
cies yields practically no nectar. 

The quality of the honey, the unfailing 
supply year after year following the flow 
from clover, and a period of bloom con¬ 
tinuing until frost make willow-herb one 
of the most valuable of known honey 
plants. “No one but a beekeeper,” says 
Hutchinson, “can realize how much real 


Heat, see that head; also Temperature. 
Concerning the effects of different kinds of 
food or stores on the welfare of bees during 
winter, see Aster, Dysentery, Honey- 
dew, Spring Management, Feeding and 
Feeders, Candy for Bees, and Spring 
Dwindling. On the subject of fixing the 
size of the entrances, see Entrances to 
Hives, Ventilation, and Swarming. Some 
very important information is given under 
Entrances; and it would be advisable to 
re-read that article before one takes up the 
matter further here. For management in 
the spring see Spring Management, Dys¬ 
entery, and Spring Dwindling. For a 







WINTERING 


895 


consideration of the different sizes and 
shapes of frames for wintering, see Hives, 
also Frames. For the discussion of dou¬ 
ble-walled or chaff hives, see Hives. For 
stimulation in the spring, see Feeding, 
subhead, “Feeding to Stimulate.” For the 
consideration of windbreaks, see “Wind¬ 
breaks,” under Apiary. For the effect of 
honeydew on wintering, see Honeydew. 

TWO METHODS FOR WINTERING BEES. 

One is called the indoor plan and the 
other the outdoor. Which one the reader 
shall use depends entirely on the locality, 
the climate, and kind of winter stores. 


time in May. Mention of these will be 
made further on. 

In the milder climates, such as may be 
found south of the Great Lakes and north 
of the Ohio River, outdoor wintering is 
almost universal. In these the ordinary 
double-walled hives give excellent results, 
altho there is a tendency toward the large 
winter cases already mentioned. In a gen¬ 
eral way it may be said the indoor- plan 
should never be used where the stores are 
of inferior quality or where the winters 
turn from mild to severely cold, the varia¬ 
tions taking place every week or two weeks, 
unless the cellars or repositories are wholly 



Map of the United States showing zone 1 where cellar wintering is profitable, and zone 2 where 
cellar wintering is preferable. This map is based on temperature as well as the quality of winter stores. 
Map used from Bureau of Entomology, Farmers’ Bulletin 1014. 


Where the winters are extremely cold, with 
continuous freezing weather, without a 
break thru the months of December, Janu¬ 
ary, February, and March, the indoor plan 
prevails. The ordinary double-walled hives 
are hardly warm enough in these very cold 
localities unless such hives are covered with 
deep snow that does not thaw, and freeze 
during winter. Thruout Canada there is a 
tendency to use large winter cases capable 
of holding four or more hives with at least 
six inches of packing all around; and 
the bees are kept in these eases till some 


underground, with three or four feet of 
earth on top. 

The Bureau of Entomology, in Bulletin 
1014 on Wintering Bees in Cellars, gives 
the accompanying map showing regions 
where cellar wintering may be practiced 
with profit. Where the average tempera¬ 
ture is 25° F., the bees may be wintered in¬ 
doors or outdoors, but preferably the latter, 
provided the stores are good; where the 
average winter temperature is as low as 
15° F., cellar wintering is preferable. 

Thruout the southern States it has been 










896 


WINTERING OUTDOORS 



Fig. 2.—A deep telescoping cover to 
set over the packing tray for outdoor- 
wintered colonies is preferable. 


Fig. 3.—The top packing consists of a tray filled with planer 
shavings. Buckeye hive. 


prevailing winds, it does not re-, 
quire that degree of skill made 
necessary when the bees are con¬ 
fined in the cellar. For these 
reasons the majority of begin¬ 
ners, especially where the cli¬ 
mate is not severe, are advised 
to winter outdoors. It is impor¬ 
tant to observe, however, that the spot 
where the bees are kept must be sheltered 
from prevailing winds. 

When the.outdoor plan is used it is fair 
to state that, after a very severe winter in 
which the mercury stays below the zero- 
point for weeks at a time, and when spring 
is very late, with a warm spell followed by 
a very severe cold one, losses may be heavy, 
even among the most experienced beekeep¬ 
ers. But these losses can, to a very great 


WINTERING OUTDOORS. — As al¬ 
ready explained, this is simpler for most 
beginners, and the principles involved help 
to lay the foundation for the more difficult 
problem of indoor or cellar wintering. The 
prime requisite for both methods of win¬ 
tering is a large force of young bees reared 
during the latter part of summer or early 
fall. A colony, no matter how strong, if 
made up of old worn-out bees with very 
few young, may die before spring, or reach 


the practice to winter bees in single-walled 
hives on their summer stands. It has gen¬ 
erally been considered that extra packing 
or double-walled hives are a useless ex¬ 
pense; but experiments conducted by the 
Bureau of Entomology, Washington, D. C., 
in 1913 and 1914 go to show that some 
packing, even in the southern States, may, 
in some cases, be used to advantage. Ref¬ 
erence to this will be made further on. 

While the outdoor method demands dou¬ 
ble-walled hives, winter cases, or something 
to protect the hives on their summer stands, 
and a shielded location protected from the 


extent, be minimized, even during very cold 
winters, provided one makes a study of his 
locality, regarding the average weather con¬ 
ditions that prevail. It will be the object 
of the articles that follow to set forth as 
nearly as possible some of the difficulties 
to be encountered, so that the reader may 
intelligently undertake the problem. For¬ 
tunately the very severe winters referred 
to do not occur more than once in 10 or 20 
years, when for some reason the whole year 
seems to be thrown entirely out of balance. 
At all other times, if one follows carefully 
the directions here given, his losses will not 
exceed ten per cent, and he may 
keep them down as low as two 
per cent. Some have wintered 
their bees winter after winter 
with a loss not exceeding five per 
cent, if the one year in ten which 
proves abnormally severe is left 
out of the calculation. 






WINTERING OUTDOORS 


897 



such a weakened condition as to become 
practically worthless for the following sea¬ 
son. As a rule, in the northern States 
brood-rearing, unless there is a young lay¬ 
ing queen, slows down after the honey 
flow. This is perfectly normal where there 
is no late summer or fall pasturage as in 
the case of buckwheat, asters, or golden- 
rods; but during the latter part of August 
and the early part of September, brood¬ 
rearing should begin again; and unless 
there are natural sources of nectar the bees 
will require feeding with thin syrup given 
in small quantities daily to stimulate. This 


the shock of the exposure will be so great 
that they probably will not be good for 
much to gather honey. It is also highly 
important that the hives be protected from 
high winds, and that the walls surrounding 
the hive be double and warm. Colonies in 
double-walled hives out in the open, and 
where there is a strong windsweep, may 
not survive, while those in single-walled 
hives screened by buildings, woods, or 
dense shrubbery, may winter well. It would 
appear that protection from the prevailing 
winds is just as important as having the 
walls of the hives double. Special double- 
walled hives are manufactured, 
having the space between filled 
with chaff, planer-shavings, 
leaves, or other suitable material. 
The hive is so arranged that a 
tray of packing under the cover 
helps to retain the heat of the 
cluster, thus causing a smaller 
consumption of stores in order to 


Fig. 4.—The super-cover is made of 
% lumber. This is put on the hive, 
and covered with the tray shown in 
Fig. 3. 


Pig. 5.—Manner of pouring feed from a common watering 
pot into a Doolittle division-board feeder. After sufficient 
syrup has been fed, the feeder is removed, the combs are 
shoved over, a division-board inserted,and hive closed for 
winter. , 


stimulative feeding should be 
continued long enough to get 
brood in the hive so there will be 
a strong force of young bees to 
go into winter quarters. In many 
localities colonies will be able to 
gather enough nectar daily to 
supply themselves with young 
bees without any special feed¬ 
ing. So far the scheme of raising a large 
force of young bees is an important requi¬ 
site for either method of wintering, and 
especially important where bees are win¬ 
tered outdoors subjected to extremes of 
temperature. 

It is unwise to attempt to winter bees 
outdoors in single-walled hives north of 40 
degrees north latitude. While the colonies 
may come thru in a weakened condition, 


keep up the necessary animal heat. It should 
be remembered that, the warmer and better 
protected the cluster, the less honey bees 
require to eat. It is desirable to have 
them, so far as possible, enter a state of 
quiet. An extremely cold spell will make 
it necessary for this cluster to raise the 
temperature as explained under Tempera¬ 
ture of the Cluster in Winter. When a 
colony is so poorly protected that it has to 


29 






898 


WINTERING OUTDOORS 



Pig. 6.—W. T. Davison’s method of packing bees in straw for outdoor wintering. 


go into a state of activity and overeat, the 
bees will become distended, and dysentery 
or purging is almost sure to follow. This 
condition occurring in midwinter or early 
spring means the death of the colony, as 
there is no cure for it but warm weather. 

WINTERING WITH LITTLE PACKING. 

The question of how to pack, and how 
much packing to give bees, will depend 
very largely upon the climate. South of 
the Ohio River, in the eastern States, thru- 
out California, southern Nevada, Arizona, 
New Mexico, and Texas it is not customary 
to give the bees any more protection than 
is afforded by a single-walled hive; but the 
apicultural experts in the Bureau of En¬ 
tomology at Washington, D. C., believe 
that some protection could be given to ad¬ 
vantage. After having traveled over a 
large portion of these States the author 
feels inclined to agree with them. Just 
how much packing to give and in what 
form, it is rather difficult to say. In locali¬ 
ties where bees can fly out almost every day 
in the year, breeding goes o» more or less, 
and very often the accession of young bees 
does not quite make up for the loss of old 
bees that go to the fields, become chilled, 
and never return. The author believes, fur¬ 


ther, that the use of protecting cases or a 
moderate amount of packing would save 
chilled brood, save stores, and prevent the 
bees from flying out during the middle 
hours of the day, only to be chilled and 
never return. Colonies without protection 
in the semi-tropical States suffer because 
the temperature goes up high during the 
middle hours of the day, and drops down to 
freezing or below during the night. Such 
a rapid change in 24 hours is very hard on 
bees. If the temperature inside the hive' 
could be equalized by packing so that the 
sunshine during the middle of the day and 
the cold of the night would not penetrate 
the walls of the hive, a more even tempera¬ 
ture within the hive would be maintained. 

It is important, in addition, that the en¬ 
trance be contracted to a space for the pas¬ 
sage of only two or three bees at a time. 
The purpose of this is primarily to keep 
the cold from entering the hive, and sec¬ 
ondarily, to prevent robbing. 

WINTERING IN DOUBLE-WALLED HIVES. 

For the northern climates that are sub¬ 
ject to zero weather at times, that have 
more or less snow and a large amount of 
frost extending perhaps two feet into the 
ground, nothing short of double-walled 





















































WINTERING OUTDOORS 


899 



Fig. 7.—The original four-colony winter case as used by Ira Bartlett of Michigan 30 years ago. He was 
probably the original user of the principle. 


hives, such as are described under the head 
of Hive-making, or packing-cases, should 
be used. There are two forms of these 
double-walled hives, one having bottom 
packing and the other a removable bottom- 
board which is made of single-thickness 
%-irmh lumber. 


There has been some discussion as to 
whether these winter hives should have 
bottom packing or not. From some ex¬ 
periments with electric bulbs apicultural 
experts in the Bureau of Entomology came 
to the conclusion that there is a great 
advantage in having the bottom packed, as 












































































































































































WINTERING OUTDOORS 


900 



Fig. 8.-—The Holtermann four-hive packing-case. Notice the three %-inch entrance holes. Notice 
also that there is no projecting ledge or doorstep to catch snow and ice, thus closing the holes, causing 
the death of the bees. 


well as the ends, sides, and tops. In a cli¬ 
mate not generally subject to continued 
zero weather these double-walled hives with 
two inches of packing on the sides, ends, 
and bottom, and four inches on top, with a 
restricted entrance, give very good results; 
but in such hives a ten-frame colony should 
be squeezed down to eight frames, and an 
eight down to seven. The space should be 
filled on either side with division-boards 
or packing. A very good way is to wrap 
a comb, preferably one containing honey, 
in a newspaper in such a way that when it 
is inserted in the hive it will close up the 
space between the end-bars and the ends of 
the hive, the bottom-bar, and the bottom, 
and the top-bar and the cover. One of 
these frames should be put on each side. 
The purpose of these wrapped frames is 
to reduce the size of the brood-nest. To¬ 
ward spring the bees will gnaw away the 
paper, and that releases the stores. More¬ 
over, the wrapped frames will increase the 
thickness of the side protection. The top of 
the hive should have a tray containing four 
or five inches of planer shavings or leaves 
as shown on page 896, Fig. 3. During the 
coldest part of the winter the entrance 
should be contracted (provided there is bot¬ 
tom packing) to a space one inch wide by 
three-eighths inch high. If bottom packing 


is used, the experts of the Bureau of Ento¬ 
mology recommend a single % or % inch 
hole. 

WINTERING BEES UNDER A SHED. 

Some beekeepers practice putting their 
colonies under a shed or a series of sheds, 
packing straw between the hives, on top of 
them and behind them. It is customary to 
have the front of the shed face south or 
east, leaving the back toward the north or 
west, or toward any direction from which 
the prevailing winds come. 

The objection to the plan is the expense 
and the trouble of moving the bees out of 
the shed for summer handling. There is a 
further objection, that it is not practicable 
to pack the front of the hives that are left 
exposed. Taking it all in all, the arrange¬ 
ment is not recommended. 

WINTERING BEES IN TENEMENT OR 
QUADRUPLE CASES. 

In climates where the winters are very 
severe, where the temperature goes down to 
zero and stays around that point for weeks 
at a time, much more protection is required 
than for those methods already described. 
There should be at least six inches of pack¬ 
ing around the sides and ends of the hives 
— at least four inches under the hives and 












WINTERING OUTDOORS 


901 



Fig. 9.—This is the plan recommended by Dr. E. F. Phillips and by a good many other beekeepers 
for wintering bees outdoors in single-walled hives. It contemplates a winter case made up of panels 
which are held together by means of screws or nails at the corners. This case should provide six inches 
of packing around the sides and ends, at least four inches under the bottoms of the hives, and at least 
ten inches on top. Phillips particularly recommends wintering in two-story hives. First, a double brood- 
nest makes a relatively deep wintering space. Second, it provides ample room for breeding in the 
spring. Third, it provide ample stores. Fourth, no attention is needed during spring. Spring man¬ 
agement is practically eliminated. Attention is drawn to the five-hole entranced All the holes except 
one in the center, according to Phillips, should be closed during cold weather. As spring approaches, 
one or more holes are opened up. The only objection to the plan here shown is the expense. 


ten inches on top. While one hive can be 
packed in a winter case, it is more econom¬ 
ical to make the case hold four or more 
hives. Some use the plan of packing ten 
hives in a case—cases long and large 
enough to take ten colonies in a row, placed 
side by side and in close contact. This ten- 
hive tenement does not conserve the heat 
quite so well as where the hives are packed 
four in a group, side by side and back to 
back. The four-colony tenement, or what 
is generally called the quadruple case, has 
come into quite general use among the 
beekeepers of Canada and where the cli¬ 
mate is very severe, and where, too, cellar 
wintering is practiced. 

So far as can be ascertained, Ira Bart¬ 
lett of Michigan was the first to suggest 
and use in a large way this method of win¬ 
tering, for he began using the plan 30 
years ago. The illustrations, page 899, show 


the original Bartlett winter case made up 
of panels. The only change that has been 
made during the later years is to leave off 
all porticos and doorsteps. These extra at¬ 
tachments, it has been found, are worse 
than useless. Instead of having a sort of 
storm door, it has been found better to 
have the entrances restricted without any 
roof or doorstep. There should be noth¬ 
ing to catch snow and ice, which, when there 
is a ledge or projection, lodge and thus 
close the entrance. 

R. P. Holtermann, who has been one of 
the strongest advocates of this system of 
outdoor wintering, and who by writing a 
series of articles practically introduced the 
plan into the United States and Canada, 
recommends three %-inch holes for en¬ 
trances instead of a slot. George S. De- 
muth, formerly of {he Bureau of Entomol¬ 
ogy, likewise recommends a series of five 



























































902 


WINTERING OUTDOORS 


or six %-inch holes, all of which, except 
one, are closed during the coldest part of 
the winter. Doth the Government experts 
in apiculture and Mr. Holtermann say that 
a hole is far Better than a slot for a winter 
entrance. Thru the latter the cold air can 
go in on one side and the hot air out of the 
other. A slot is the thing during late 
spring and summer, but all wrong, say 
these men, during winter. 

The author has met quite a number of 
others, notably B. F. Kindig, State bee in¬ 
spector of Michigan, who have been using 
these one-hole entrances during winter, and 
always, they say, with the most gratifying 
results. 

These restricted entrances should be used 
only where there is an ample amount of 
packing—not less than six inches—and 
where the bottom is packed with not less 
than four inches. The line drawing on the 
previous page shows the plan recommended 
by the Government experts. Two changes, 
however, are recommended. The first is, 
that provision should be made for more 
packing under the hives. To that end the 
cross-cleats secured to the bottom-board of 
the packing-case should be four inches wide 
instead of two inches. The hives are then 
placed upon the bottom-cleats as shown in 
Fig. 9, after which the side and end panels 
are put in place and held together with 
common wood screws. Some feel that one 
hole is not enough during the coldest part of 
the winter. This is a question that will have 
to be decided by each individual beekeeper, 
altho the author has seen some most excel¬ 
lent results where the one hole was used. 
Holtermann states that he does not think 
he would dare to close down to less than 
three, and he leaves his bees for six months 
at a time. As something will depend upon 
the locality and the man, the individual 
beekeeper will have to settle this for his 
own locality. 

The plan shown on previous page contem¬ 
plates double-story hives, four inches of 
packing under the hives, hives packed in 
close contact, back to back and side by side. 
A bridge connects the inner entrances to 
the outer entrances, after which planer 
shavings or dry forest leaves are poured in 
around the sides and on top. 

It is important that the covers to the 
cases be securely fastened doum. Winter 


winds will sometimes lift them off and blow 
the packing out, with the result that the 
colonies will be killed by the exposure. Cov¬ 
ers should be either wired down or held 
down by hooks and eyes. There should not 
be less than four stout hooks—one at each 
comer. 

WINTERING TWO-STORY LANGSTROTH HIVES 
IN QUADRUPLE CASES. 

The Government experts recommend 
wintering in two-story hives instead of 
single stories. There are some reasons for 
this. One reason, and the principal one, is 
to provide for stores and breeding room in 
the spring when the queen needs more room 
than the one story will supply. When two 
stories are used it is recommended to put 
the hive containing the brood-nest or bees 
beneath and the hive containing the stores 
on top. There should be not less than 
45 pounds of honey or syrup distributed in 
both stories. When the bees move upstairs, 
the main cluster or breeding room is at 
least ten inches distant from the entrance, 
and away from the cold. 

In the way of packing material, some 
will find planer shavings available, and 
others will use forest leaves. These lat¬ 
ter should be raked up as they fall, and 
should be thoroly dried. Usually one can 
get all he needs by going to his neighbors, 
and asking them to save their leaves instead 
of burning them on the pavement. The 
one trouble with planer shavings is the 
sawdust that litters everything up. In the 
spring, when one desires to look into his 
packed colonies, it is almost impossible to 
get at the brood-nests for examination to 
see what the bees are doing, without let¬ 
ting a quantity of sawdust or shavings get 
down between the frames. For that rea¬ 
son the author favors the use of forest 
leaves; but when leaves are used they must 
be well packed down, as they are not quite 
so dense as planer shavings. 

When the bees are unpacked in the 
spring, the hives are lifted out and the 
cases are carried to the outside of the 
apiary. The hives are then placed where 
the case was, and in the same relative posi¬ 
tion, but ten or twelve inches apart for con¬ 
venience in summer working. This posi¬ 
tion should not be changed; and when it is 
time to pack, the hives are moved to one 


WINTERING OUTDOORS 


903 


side, case set in place, and the hives set in 
and packed as before. 

OBJECTIONS TO QUADRUPLE PACKING-CASES. 

The chief objection, tho not a serious 
one, is the expense of these big cases. 
Their life ought to be 10 years, and with 
reasonable care 25 years. On the basis of 
10 years they would cost only $1.00 apiece 
or 25 cents per colony. 

Objection has been raised that it takes 
40 or 50 pounds of stores; but Phillips 
argues that this amount insures a strong 
colony that may get twice that next year. 
But suppose the season is a failure, and 
the bees have eaten 45 pounds of good 
honey. This is one of the hazards of bee¬ 
keeping; and the only remedy is to winter 
in the cellar, provided one is willing to as¬ 
sume the first cost. Bees indoors will con¬ 
sume only a little more than half as many 
stores as those outside require. See Win¬ 
tering in Cellars, further on. 

Another objection has been the tendency 
of bees to drift when the two entrances 


are side by side. On the first warm day 
when the bees can fly, one entrance may 
have two or three times as many bees fly¬ 
ing as the one right next to it. Unfortu¬ 
nately the bees of the latter are inclined to 
join the bees of the former. The result 
is that the weak become weaker and the 
strong stronger. This has happened more 
than once in the author’s apiaries. 

The difficulty can be overcome to a great 
extent by packing the bees very early so 
that they will become accustomed to their 
respective entrances in the fall previous, 
and by fastening a board 8 inches wide and 
18 inches long vertically between the two 
entrances, or by painting the two sides dif¬ 
ferent colors. 

AN INEXPENSIVE WINTER CASE MADE OF 
PAPER. 

The first cost of winter cases need not 
stand in the way of good wintering, how¬ 
ever, for bees can be well protected for only 
a few cents per colony for material, by 
using a cheap grade of tarred paper to hold 
the packing in place and keep it dry. 



Fig. 1. — Two-inch rim 
in place about bottom of 
hive. 


Fig. 2.—Paper is fastened to 
rim by means of lath. 


Fig. 3.—Cutting opening for 
entrance thru paper. 





Fig. 4.—Upper edges of 
paper folded down. 


Fig. 5.—Creasing edges of cover 
before putting in place. 


Fig. 6.—Cords are used 
to hold cover in place. 




















904 


WINTERING OUTDOORS 





Fig. 7.—Arrangement for using 
regular hive cover. 


Fig. 8. — Regular hive 
cover in place. 


Fig. 9.—Rim in place for pack¬ 
ing hives in pairs. 


To pack a single colony in a regular 10- 
frame hive, cut two pieces, 7 /s x 2 x 20 1 / 4 
inches, two pieces % x 2 x 24 inches, two 
pieces lath 20 inches long and two pieces 
24 inches long. From a roll of 36-inch sin¬ 
gle ply slaters’ felt, cut one piece 8 feet 
long and another 4 feet long. 

Make a rim of the 2-inch pieces which 
fits around the lower part of the hive (Fig. 
1), by lapping over the corners and fasten¬ 
ing with a single nail. The piece in front 
should rest on the side rails of the bottom- 
board, leaving the entrance open. The two 
side pieces should come below the end piece 
in front and above the end piece at the 



Fig. 10.—Pair of hives packed 
complete. 

back, thus dropping the rim % inch lower 
on the sides than in front, and % inch 
lower at the back than on the sides. A 
small nail driven part way into the back 
end of the bottom-board supports the rim 
at the back. 

Stand the 8-foot strip of paper on edge 
around the hive and tack on the lath to 
fasten the paper to the rim, using two nails 
in each lath driven only part way home 
(Fig. 2), The paper should touch the 
ground all around the hive, the entrance 
now being covered with the paper. Cut a 
hole % x 2 inches thru the paper for an en¬ 
trance (Fig. 3). This hole can easily he en¬ 


larged next spring when a larger entrance 
will be needed. Where the ends overlap, 
pin the paper together with two or three 
wire nails. 

The packing material should be packed 
down in the comers to make them stand out 
square, after which the packing is simply 
poured in at the sides and ends without 
pressing down. This is to prevent the sides 
from bulging. From three to six inches of 
packing can be put in at the sides _and ends 
by permitting a slight bulging of the paper 
beyond the rim at the bottom, or a greater 
amount can be put in if some slack is left 
in the paper at the lower corners when the 
lath are nailed on. Fill in with 8 to 10 
inches on top, then fold down the upper 
edges of the paper as in wrapping a pack¬ 
age (Fig. 4). 

Crease the 4-foot piece of paper, which 
is to be used for the cover, by folding over 
the edges (Fig. 5) before putting it in 
place. After it is in place fold the corners 
neatly, as in wrapping a package; then tie 
a cord around the folded-down edges to 
bold them snug against the sides (Fig. 6). 
Tie a cord to one of the projecting nails in 
one of the side lath, pass it across the top 
of the hive under both nails on the oppo¬ 
site side, then hack to the other nail on the 
first side, where it is fastened. 

USING REGULAR HIVE COVER INSTEAD OF 
PAPER COVER. 

The ordinary hive cover may he used in¬ 
stead of the paper cover, by putting an 
empty hive-body on top of the hive, then 
folding the paper against its upper edge 
above the packing (Fig. 7). Tie a cord 
around the upper edge of the paper to hold 
it in place, pack the upper story, and put 
on the cover (Fig. 8). 
















WINTERING OUTDOORS 


905 


PACKING HIVES IN PAIRS. 

Hives can be packed in pairs with but lit¬ 
tle more material and labor for the two 
than for a single hive. For two colonies 
the 2-inch pieces for the front and back 
of the rim should be 36Y2 inches long (Fig. 
9), and the lath for the front and back 
should be 36 inches long. The paper to 
form the sides should be cut about IOV 2 
feet long (Fig. 10), and for the cover about 
41/2 feet long. 

This plan has been used quite extensively 
by a number of prominent beekeepers with 
excellent results. The labor of packing is 
no more than with the big cases, and the 
expense is much less. 

THE DEMUTPI PLAN OP WINTERING WITH 
HIVE-BODIES OR SUPERS. 

The paper cases can be used only one 
year, and because of this some may prefer 
Mr. Demutli’s other alternate plan of a 
small inner case to hold seven frames. If 
one is equipped with extra hive-bodies or 
supers, a very small additional outlay will 



cover the inner case to hold the bees and 
combs stood on end. The whole is slipped 
inside of the three hive-bodies and packed. 

The inner case is made up of %-inch 
stuff large enough to receive eight Lang- 
stroth frames on end and leave a space of 
about two inches at each end. There 
should be a clearance of at least one-half 
or three-eighths of an inch so that the 
eight frames on which the bees are to win¬ 
ter can be slid into the case endwise, as 
shown in Fig. 16, and wedged fast. A cleat 
at the bottom thru the center supports the 
frames up about two inches from the end. 
The case is then set down on a regular 
hive bottom, as shown in Fig. 11. The en¬ 
trance from the inner case is formed by 
means of a bridge that communicates with 
the outer entrance. Regular hive-bodies, 
ten-frame size, are then slipped over the 
outside, as shown in Figs. 12 and 13. Two 
hive-bodies and one shallow extracting-case 
or three hive-bodies, full depth, can be 
made to form the outer wall to receive the 
packing. When in place, packing material is 



Figs. 11 and 12.—The Demuth plan of wintering bees outdoors in common hives or supers. An 
inner case is made so as to hold eight Langstroth frames stood on end. This makes a winter brood-nest 
relatively deep. During the coldest of the winter the bees will cluster in the top where it is warm. 






906 


WINTERING OUTDOORS 



poured in around the inner case, as shown 
in Fig. 13. The sectional drawings,- Figs. 15 
and 16, will perhaps show more clearly the 
relation of the outer walls made up of three 
hive-bodies and the inner walls. The dia¬ 
gram, Fig. 16, shows the relative amount 


Fig. 13.—Method of pouring packing material 
around the inner case. 

of packing between the inner and outer 
walls. 

As in the other outdoor-wintered colonies 
the author recommends the use of five 
%-inch holes, all of which, except one or 
two, may be closed during the coldest part 
of the winter. But when single holes are 
used it is necessary to have bottom pack¬ 
ing. 

Mr. Demuth, who devised this system of 
wintering, recommends arranging that the 
regular entrance can be entirely closed 
during the coldest part of the winter; 
then for an entrance he runs one %-inch 
tube thru the side of the hive and thru the 
side of the inner case, this tube being 
located about two inches from the bottom 
of the inner case. He used this scheme 


of a single entrance at the Government 
apiary with the most gratifying results. 

The author has used the Demuth form 
of packing bees, and so far it has given 
as good results as the quadruple case. 
In some respects it is better, particularly 
in the matter of drifting, as the colony is 
by itself. 

It is generally conceded that, for win¬ 
tering only, a tall or deep chamber is bet¬ 
ter than one that is oblong and shallow, 
like the Langstroth hive. Heat naturally 
rises, and during the very coldest of the 
weather the bees will be found in the top. 
If a cake of hard candy (see Candy) is 
put on top, as shown in Fig. 16, there will 
be no danger of starvation. 

Mr. Demuth, while admitting that his 
plan has less of packing space, says less is 
needed, because the bees will nearly fill 


Fig. 14.—Demuth method of wintering, using 
two hive-bodies and one super. 

the whole top of the inner case instead 
of being off at one end of a shallow cham¬ 
ber near the entrance, as in the case of the 
Langstroth hive. From the tests that we 
have made we are inclined to think that he 
is right. 

The objection to this Demuth plan is 







WINTERING OUTDOORS 


907 


that it involves a considerable amount of 
work, but no more than the quadruple case. 
Another and more valid objection is that, 
after the bees begin to build up in the 
spring, there is no room for further ex¬ 
pansion. The eight frames will soon be 
filled with brood and bees; and when that 
time arrives it has been argued that it is 
a little too early to unpack. If the colony 
crowds the space of the eight combs, no 
harm will be done to unpack and restore 
the frames to normal position with two 
more combs. 

recapitulation op outdoor wintering. 

The system of outdoor wintering one 
should use will depend largely upon the 
climate. In the southern States wrappings 
of paper without packing may be sufficient, 


or perhaps one can practice the manner of 
packing described and illustrated in Spring 
Management. 

In the colder climates, where the tem¬ 
perature seldom goes down to zero, double- 
walled hives with two inches of packing 
space between the walls give excellent re¬ 
sults; but the colonies should be con¬ 
tracted down to six or seven frames, and 
the space on either side filled with packing 
or dummies. 

Where the climate is so cold that the 
mercury goes down to zero and stays there 
for weeks at a time the quadruple winter 
case or paper case with packing or Demuth 
case here shown should be used for outdoor 
wintering. However, if there is a large 
amount of snow every winter, a double- 
walled hive can be used. 



Pigs. 15 and 16.—These two figures represent the Demuth method of wintering a single-story colony 
of bees on Langstroth frames. It consists of an inner case large enough to take seven and eight frames— 
preferably eight—placed on end instead of the way they hang in summer. The outer case consists of 
two Langstroth hive-bodies and a super, or three hive-bodies. The hive-stand may be packed full of dry 
leaves and set on a platform a few inches from the ground. The inner case, containing preferably eight 
frames, is then set down in the center of the two hive-bodies. Dry leaves packed solid, or planer shav¬ 
ings, are then filled in between the inner case and the regular summer hive-bodies surrounding it. A bridge 
connects the inner case to the outer for the entrance. The entrance consists of five %-inch holes, all but 
one of which may or may not be closed during the coldest part of the winter. It is important that there be 
no ledge to catch snow and ice under the entrance; so the bottom-boards and hive-stand are turned 
around to leave an entrance at the rear as shown. A cake of candy, if there is a shortage of stores, is 
put on top. The cost of this arrangement is only about one-fourth of that shown on page 901, and the 
amount of stores will be only a little over half as much. The amount of packing to the case in this way 
between the walls will be 2% inches on the sides, and 3 inches on the ends. While this is less than 
recommended in the Government case, the form of the winter chamber is such than less packing is re¬ 
quired. The objection to this general plan is that it must be unpacked earlier than the hives shown 
on page 901. 
































































908 


WINTERING OUTDOORS 


NON-POROUS COVERS OR 
ABSORBING CUSHIONS. 

There has been considerable discussion 
in the bee journals over the question of 
whether there should be loose porous ab¬ 
sorbing cushions or other material placed 
above the cluster of bees so that the mois¬ 
ture from a cluster can pass up into the 
packing; or whether, on the other hand, 
the top of the hive should have a thin 
board or super cover on top. If there is 
danger of the entrance becoming closed by 
deep snows or ice for weeks at a time, up¬ 
ward ventilation thru porous packing would 
probably be safer, for bees must have air. 

It is a recognized principle in science 
that warm air can hold a large amount of 
moisture. This moisture is immediately 
condensed when it comes in contact with a 
cold surface, such as the side of a pitcher 
of ice water on a hot day. The same prin¬ 
ciple applies in a beehive. If the inner 
walls for any reason become cold, and the 
air in the hive, heavily laden with moisture, 
is warm, this moisture is condensed, form¬ 
ing drops of water oh the insides and un¬ 
derside of the cover of the hive. On a 
cold day there is nothing to prevent mois¬ 
ture from forming on the inside walls of 
the hive if they are not properly packed 
or protected. In very cold weather, if the 
packing material is not thick enough the 
cold will penetrate into the inner walls, re¬ 
sulting in condensation just the same. It 
is, therefore, plain that, in oi’der to stop 
condensation, there must be enough pack¬ 
ing material to keep the inside of the hive 
warm. In the colder climates, as in Cana¬ 
da, it has been the practice to use absolv¬ 
ing cushions right over the cluster of bees 
in order to let the moisture from beneath 
escape upward. It would be better to use 
enough packing material so that the cold 
can not penetrate, when no condensation 
would form either with or without a sealed 
cover. If the packing material is not 
enough to prevent condensation inside of 
the hive, the moisture will pass up thru 
the material and freeze, thus making a mass 
of semi-ice. It would seem, therefore, tak¬ 
ing everything into consideration, that the 
question whether one should use the sealed 
cover or not is unimportant. But it is im¬ 
portant to have enough packing material so 
that the cold may not penetrate into the 


inner part of the hive, forming condensa¬ 
tion or frost. It is equally important to 
have the entrance contracted enough to 
prevent the cold air from blowing in, thus 
defeating all the good that might accrue 
from plenty of packing. 

To determine when the packing is thick 
enough, select a good colony and over the 
top of it imbedded in putty put a sheet of 
glass. If on the coldest days in the win¬ 
ter no moisture nor frost is shown on the 
underside, when the packing is lifted, it 
may be assumed that there is enough. 

IMPORTANCE OF WINDBREAKS. 

In various places leading up to this has 
been mentioned the importance of wind¬ 
breaks to screen the hives from a strong 
windsweep. A bad location for wintering 
bees outdoors is on top of a hill with a 
clear stretch of country for a mile or two 
in the direction of the prevailing winds. 
Altho the bees may be nicely housed in 
double-walled hives, the high winds during 
cold or chilly weather may and probably 
will have a disastrous effect on the bees. 
Many of them, lured out by a bright sun¬ 
shine on certain days, will be caught by a 
chilling blast. They will drop to the 
ground; and, unless there is a change in 
the temperature or the wind they will 
never come back. On the other hand colo¬ 
nies screened in by farm buildings, by a 
growth of woods or dense shrubbery, will 
be able to withstand the cold much better. 

Likewise there may be certain spots in an 
apiary where some hives are exposed to a 
long windsweep, while others are in a more 
protected position. Observation covering 
a period of years has shown that the lat¬ 
ter winter much better than the former. 

Nature will very often furnish natural 
windbreaks that are much superior to any¬ 
thing man can put up where there is noth¬ 
ing. A sideliill gradually slanting down 
from the north to the south, with shrubbery, 
fence, or trees on top, makes an ideal wind¬ 
break. Sometimes a location can be found 
where the hill on the windward exposure is 
in form of a semicircle. Cases in point are 
the apiaries shown in Figs. 3 and 4, these 
being well protected by a hill. The small 
trees in the background and down among 


WINTERING OUTDOORS 


909 



Fig. 1. — Peter Sowinski’s windbreak made of fence boards spaced about two inches apart and nailed 
horizontally on to fence posts eight feet above the ground. Open spacing breaks the force of the wind 
better than a solid fence. 


the hives help to break the violence of the 
wind. Such a location is ideal. 

A good winter location is a cleared spot 
near the south edge of a young timber over 
which the bees can fly in going to the fields. 
When the woods are made up of old forest 


trees it is too much of a good thing because 
the bees have to fly too high to get out. 

Sometimes a spot can be found on level 
ground where there is a dense growth of 
young trees on the northwest, and an ex¬ 
posure on the south and east. (See Fig. 5.) 



Pig. 2. _ Twelve-foot fence windbreak used by R. F. Holtermann. The boards are nailed vertically 

oil to horizontal cross pieces nailed or bolted on to the posts. This construction can be made up m 
panels' so that the fence can be moved in sections if necessary. 















910. 


WINTERING OUTDOORS 



Fig. 3.—This is a natural windbreak on the lee side of a hill. Additional protection is afforded by a 

picket fence, some farm buildings, and a small orchard on top of the hill. It should be clearly under¬ 

stood that a hillside facing the south is not necessarily a good place for wintering unless some kind of 
obstruction is on the top of the hill to prevent a north wind from sweeping over the hill and down on 
the bees. The hillside where the bees are in this case has a southeast exposure. Over on the east side, 
about 300 feet away, is another hill on the top of which there are some buildings and a row of ever¬ 
greens. Bees have wintered well in this spot for years in what is known as the Leister yard, owned 

by Adam Leister, who furnishes bees every year to the authors. 


This is all right provided there is no wind- 
sweep from the south. 

It often happens that no location can be 
found that provides any natural wind¬ 
breaks. The only thing - that can be made 
available at once is a high board fence. Ex¬ 
perience in the author’s case shows that it 
may be desirable to move the apiary on ac¬ 
count of a failure of honey sources. For 
example, several farmers in the locality 
may suddenly take a notion to stop grow¬ 
ing alsike and put in some other crop to 
give the soil a rest. On account of such 
contingencies fences are made up of panels, 
each panel being held in place by means 
of braces reaching to the ground on both 
sides, the bottom end of the braces being 
nailed to a stake. (See Fig. 8.) This con¬ 
struction not only enables one to “pull up 
stakes” literally but to move the whole 


apiary, windbreaks and all, at comparative¬ 
ly little expense. The panels of fence after 
being taken down can be laid on a big 
truck and carried to the other location. But 
even if there were no intention of moving, 
this construction is cheaper than fence 
posts that must be long enough to reach to 
the top of the fence and into the ground at 
least 2i/ 2 feet. They must be strong enough 
to withstand the heavy pressure of wind. 
Fence posts meeting these requirements are 
rather expensive; and a simple brace made 
up of two %-inch boards nailed together 
is very much cheaper, with, of course, the 
great advantage that the whole outfit can 
be moved to another yard if necessary. Fig. 
6 shows one of the authors’ apiaries as it 
looks from the outside, and Fig. 7 an in¬ 
side view of the same apiary. 

It will be noted in the artificial wind- 













WINTERING OUTDOORS 


911 


break that the boards are placed a slight 
distance apart. As a little of the blast of 
air filters between the hoards it stops it 
from rushing upward so fast, and then 
diving downward as it will do with a solid 
construction. 

IMPORTANCE OF LETTING BEES 
FORM A WINTER NEST. 

What is meant by “winter nests”? A 
space of empty brood-cells in one or more 
combs, such space approximating the form 
of a flattened" sphere in an ordinary Lang- 
stroth brood-nest. These empty cells sur¬ 
rounded by sealed stores constitute the 
winter nest where bees cluster when condi¬ 


tions are ideal. As the stores are consumed, 
the number of empty cells increases either 
backward or forward, but always upward. 
As a general thing, the ball of bees will 
be located near the front of the hive and 
regularly over the entrance. As the stores 
are consumed they move upward and back¬ 
ward ; but the cluster in no case extends 
over the sealed honey when the bees can 
have their own will. 

Very often a well-meaning ABC scholar 
finds three or four combs in the center of 
the hive, having a space of empty cells as 
large as the hand spread out. He thinks 
this is all wrong and will remove the 
combs containing such spaces, and put in 
their place solid combs of honey. What 


has he done? He has compelled the bees 
to cluster upon sealed honey. The cluster 
is broken up into slabs approximately % 
inch thick, each slab of bees separated by 
approximately an inch of solid honey. In¬ 
stead of having one solid cluster separated 
by only the midrib of the combs, he has 
made a series of clusters, each within itself 
trying to maintain its own body heat but 
at very great disadvantage. 

To illustrate: Two people on a cold 
winter’s night require less bed clothing 
than one person would in the same bed. 
Suppose that, instead of having those two 
bed-fellows separated from each other by 
only their night clothing, a slab of metal or 


even wood is between them. If they are com¬ 
pelled to place their warm bodies in con¬ 
tact with that cold surface, they lose a 
great deal of their body heat because the 
cold surfaces carry away (that is, dissipate) 
the warmth. 

There is precisely that condition when 
combs of sealed honey are set down into a 
bunch of bees. They are compelled to 
divide up into four or five clusters. The 
result is, that colonies tampered with in 
this manner perish or come out in the 
spring very weak because of their inabil¬ 
ity to maintain the requisite temperature. 
Where outside bees become stiff with cold 
they can not long endure that condition. 

If a colony is fed gradually during 



Fig. 4.—This apiary, belonging to Mr, Pritchard, is located at the bottom of a hill which forms a semi¬ 
circle protecting the bees against the west, north, and east, leaving only a southeastern exposure. The 
thick growth of young trees on the top of the hill, together with the larger trees in the apiary inclosure, 
would make it impossible for any eddying currents to sweep down the hill and on the hives. The ar¬ 
rangement as a natural windbreak is ideal. 














912 


WINTERING OUTDOORS 



Pig. 5.—This is located like Pig. 4 in that it is screened by trees from the north winds. The low 

shrubbery helps also. 


October and November, they will form this 
winter nest. If, however, they are on the 
verge of starvation and they are fed 30 
lbs. in a single night toward the last end 
of the fall, or when it is quite cold, they 
do not have the opportunity of forming 
this nest. They will carry the syrup down 
while it is hot; then for a few days after 


that, if it is so they can fly, or, rather, so 
the cluster can move freely about the 
brood-nest, they may or may not rearrange 
the stores. The cluster, when it actually 
forms up for winter, will be practically one 
homogeneous mass of bees separated only 
by thin cell walls and the midribs of the 
combs. 



Pig. 6.—This is an artificial windbreak surrounding a Root apiary in a small orchard. But as there is 
a clear windsweep on level ground for over a mile in all directions this fence was put up. The loca¬ 
tion is desirable because it is in the center of an alsike-clover district. 

















WINTERING OUTDOORS 


913 



Fig. 7.—The interior of apiary shown in Fig. 6. It is always desirable to have trees inside of an in¬ 
closure like this. In the first place, they furnish shade in the summer; and in the second place they les¬ 
sen the force of the air currents that strike the side of the fence. The hoards are separated slightly to 
allow the wind to filter thru very slowly, thus preventing a blast from glancing upward and then downward. 


If one doubts that bees try to have a 
winter nest, let him break into several clus- 



Fjg. 8 — Showing details of construction of an ar¬ 
tificial windbreak. It will be seen that the wind¬ 
break is made up of panels, the boards of which 
are placed about an inch apart, each panel being 
held in place by means of braces on the outside 
and inside. The arrangement makes it possible to 
move the windbreak as well as the apiary itself. 
The panel is separated, the braces loosened, when 
the whole is laid on a truck. 


ters of bees (if he wishes to take a chance) 
when the temperature is 5 degrees above 
zero. The author has done this repeatedly. 
If the arrangement of combs has not been 
disturbed in the fall, one will probably find 
the bees tightly jammed into the cells. And, 
again, he will often discover, as he goes over 
his colonies in the late winter or early 
spring, that some of them have actually 
starved to death. In all such cases he will 
see dead bees tightly packed in the cells of 
the winter nest, and a solid mass of bees 
filling the several spaces betweeen the 
combs. Starvation is often due to the fact 
that cold weather has continued so long 
without a let-up that the bees are left high 
and dry, so to speak, in the center of the 
winter nest. They actually starve, not¬ 
withstanding sealed honey is within two 
inches of the cluster. The long-continued 
cold has given them no opportunity to 
warm up and shift the cluster over in con¬ 
tact with the sealed honey. The author has 
seen this condition almost every winter in 
his yard. 

Still again, the author has often found 
dead colonies where some of the newer men 
in the beeyard had disturbed the combs, 
putting a solid comb of honey down thru 
the center of the winter nest. This made 







914 


WINTERING OUTDOORS 


two bunches of bees; anrl both, being too 
small, died. 

In the case of indoor wintering, where 
the cellar temperature does not go below 
40 F., a winter nest is not so vitally neces¬ 
sary. But if the temperature goes down 
below 40, then the absence of a winter nest 
may mean the death of a colony. 

Nature has worked out this problem of 
wintering bees; and when the beeman tam¬ 
pers with her plans he tampers with his 
pocketbook. While he can do certain 
things contrary to Nature, he can not in¬ 
terfere with her plan in the arrangement 
of the stores. 

WINTER STORES—QUALITY' AND 
QUANTITY. 

Having considered the inclosure, and the 
hives themselves, something should be said 
about the quality and quantity of the 
stores. It is fair to say that bees out¬ 
doors consume more than twice as much 
as those indoors; but it is argued, on the 
other hand, that while the former consume 
this larger proportion of food they keep 
stronger numerically and will be in better 
condition at harvest time than those win¬ 
tered indoors on half the amount. The 
opinion of the beekeeping world is some¬ 
what divided on this whole question; but 
certain it is that he who winters out¬ 
doors should provide twice the amount of 
stores, or at least see that his colonies, 
after the main brood-rearing has ceased, 
have from 30 to 40 pounds of sealed stores 
and in very cold climates from 40 to 50 
pounds may be needed. The beginner will 
need to weigh his combs for the first colony 
or two, to be able to estimate approxi¬ 
mately the stores of other colonies. 

As a general thing an eight-frame colony 
should be crowded on six combs, and a ten 
on an eight. The division-board must be 
shoved up close to the frames, and the 
empty space, if any, filled with leaves, or 
other packing material. It is desirable 
that bees have stores given to them at least 
ft month before they go into their winter 
rest, so they may have a winter nesi 
around which will be sealed stores within 
easy reach. As to quality, there is nothing 
better than good honey. If there is a 
shortage, thick granulated sugar syrup 
should be given. It is believed by' most 


good beekeepers that honey will go fur¬ 
ther pound for pound than syrup. Honey 
is a natural food, and, besides, contains 
other food elements such as protein for the 
bees. 

Altho a colony may have sufficient stores 
by the middle or latter part of August it 
may run considerably short by the first of 
November, especially if a fall flow induces 
brood-rearing. In any case it is well to go 
over the colonies just prior to the final 
preparation for winter, and make sure they 
do not run short. This is very important, 
as many a colony has been lost thru star¬ 
vation when their owner supposed they 
had enough to last till spring. Colonies 
short should be fed a thick syrup. See 
Feeding and Feeders; also page 926. 
BEES FLYING OUT ON CHILLY OR 
COLD DAYS AND APPARENTLY 
DYING ON THE GROUND. 

In a late fall or early spring, in climates 
subject to snows and alternate freezing and 
thawing, bees will very often fly out on a 
bright day, whether it is very warm or not. 
They alight on the ground or some object, 
become chilled, and apparently die. Cases 
are on record where bees have flown out, 
alighted on the ground, become stiff and 
‘cold, and were apparently dead. There 
was one instance in particular of this kind 
in the author’s apiary late one fall, where 
thousands of bees had flown out and lay 
on the ground apparently never to return. 
A cold rain set in and then it began to 
freeze, followed by some snow. This freez¬ 
ing weather lasted for a couple of days. 
This was followed by warm sunshine, when, 
wonderful to relate, those dead (?) bees 
came to life, took wing and flew back to 
their hives. Other authentic reports, show¬ 
ing something similar to this, have been 
sent in. It, seems almost unbelievable, but 
the facts are, that bees can fly out, alight 
in the snow, chill thru, and seem to be dead. 
If the snow is not too deep it melts away 
so that the bodies of the bees can become 
warmed up, when they will often revive; 
they always revive, if it is warm enough, 
and they have not been chilled too long. 

Beekeepers have written in at many dif¬ 
ferent times, fearing that their bees hav¬ 
ing flown out in late fall, and, becoming 
chilled on the ground, were utterly lost. 


WINTERING IN CELLARS 


915 


Fortunately when a warm day comes on 
a day later, these bees, if it has not been 
too cold, will return to their hives. 

Old Dame Nature seems to have made 
some wonderful provisions to preserve bee- 
life. The author is constrained to believe 
that bees can stand, if the temperature is 
not too low, chilling cold for two or three 
days without being killed. 

WINTERING IN CELLARS. — In dis¬ 
cussing methods for wintering bees out¬ 
doors, some principles have been given that 
apply to cellar wintering. However, bees 
while confined do not require more than 10 
or 15 lbs. of stores per colony, altho it is 
an advantage to have more, because it is 
difficult to feed when set out. With a 


larly directed to one man, said to under¬ 
stand with special thoroness the subject of 
indoor wintering. This man, Mr. David 
Running, Eilion, Mich., has wintered bees 
for the last 12 or 15 years in a cellar of 
his own design, with a loss of less than 
one per cent. He is ex-president of the 
Michigan State Beekeepers’ Association, 
and ex-president of the National Beekeep¬ 
ers’ Association. As to wintering he agrees 
in almost every detail with that veteran 
authority, the late G. M. Doolittle. The 
fact that these two men came to precisely 
the same conclusions 30 years apart, the 
one without the knowledge of the other, 
makes the information now about to be 
given very important. 

Mr. Running specifies that the whole 


40 Ft - 

.. 24Fr 


■ 

-> 



Fig. 1.—This is a diagram of the ground plan of the David Running bee-cellar which has wintered 
bees for the last 12 years with a loss of Dss than one per cent. The cellar proper is built in a sidehill. 
The bottom of the cellar is on a level with the ground in front. The w'alls are 6 inches thick, of con¬ 
crete, with a concrete ceiling on top. Directly above the cellar is a concrete workshop and extracting- 
house. Between the ceiling of the cellar and the floor of this building above there is packing material 
of one foot of dry sawdust and one foot of air space; and then another set of joists covered with matched 
flooring. Between the ceiling and cellar roof is 6 feet, and the cellar is capable of holding between 300 
and 400 colonies. It will be noticed that there are three doors to shut out the outside cold. The hives 
are piled as shown in the diagram. The ventilator, or chimney, has a 9 x 13 flue which extends clear up 
thru the building above. The outer cellar is sometimes used for wintering bees in double-walled hives. 


strong force of young bees and good stores, 
one is well equipped to winter bees in the 
cellar, provided he has reasonable control 
of temperature and means for ventilation. 

The author has been giving the matter 
of cellar wintering special consideration. 
He has traveled thousands of miles visiting 
some of the best beekeepers of the United 
States—especially those who wintered in 
cellars with little or no loss. After con¬ 
sulting some of the best beemen, and espe¬ 
cially Government experts, he was particu- 


bee-cellar must be well protected from both 
cold and dampness. It is not enough, he 
says, that the whole of the cellar be under¬ 
ground and the ceiling on a level with the 
ground, unless between the ceiling and 
roof there is three or four feet of saw¬ 
dust. Many and many a good bee-cellar 
gives poor results because the temperature 
of the inside ceiling varies with the out¬ 
side temperature. A cellar where frost 
during severely cold weather can be 
scraped off the ceiling is badly designed 























































































WINTERING IN CELLARS 


916 



Fig. 2.—This is a bee-cellar belonging to Leonard Griggs. Flint, Mich. It is a type of an above¬ 
ground cellar embodying the ideas of David Running. The cellar proper extends into the ground about 
3 feet. Then there is. a three-foot embankment about 3 feet wide around the upper part of the cellar. 
The ceiling is covered with about 3 feet of sawdust. To keep the side embankments dry and frost-proof 
the roof extends entirely over the cellar, and the embankment, except in front; and Mr. Griggs thought 
it would be a good idea to cover this also. He has been uniformly successful in wintering bees in this 
cellar. 


and can not be expected to give good re¬ 
sults. 

On. account of the difficulty in obtain¬ 
ing proper drainage it is not essential, the 
same authority says, that the whole cellar 
be submerged 2V 2 to 3 feet below the gen¬ 
eral surface of the ground to get below the 
frost-line. In the great majority of cases 
the cellar will have to be partly above 
ground and partly below. But the impor¬ 
tant thing to remember is that the part 
above the general level must be protected 
by three or four feet of embankment, of 
dry earth. The ceiling of the cellar proper 
must be covered with at least three or four 
feet of dry earth or sawdust. Mr. Run¬ 
ning has a workshop directly above his bee- 
cellar, making only a foot of sawdust above 
the cellar ceiling necessary. In order to 
keep the side embankments dry as well as 
the space over the cellar proper, it is im¬ 
portant that the roof itself cover not only 
the width of the actual inclosure, hut the 
embankment at the sides and ends. A wet 
or frozen embankment means a low tem¬ 
perature in the cellar and that is often 
fatal. 

Mr. Running told the author that he be¬ 
lieved he could winter bees in a properly 
constructed winter bee-cellar even in Ten¬ 
nessee or in any of the southern States 
with a great saving of stores. “For,” he 


said, “it is acknowledged that where bees 
can fly one or more times during every 
week of the winter they will consume from 
two to three times the amount that bees in 
the North will eat.” He would put them 
where the inside temperature of the cluster 
would be at the point of the least activity, 
or 57 degrees F. See Temperature. 

Regarding the amount of ventilation, 
our Michigan friend has been successful in 
the use of one ventilator, about 9 by 13 
inches, in the back end of the bee-cellar, 
extending thru the roof, and surmounted 
at the top by a chimney. This shaft should 
extend down to the level of the cellar floor. 
This is for the outlet of foul air. The 
inlet consists of a sewer pipe running un¬ 
der ground, opening into the front end of 
the cellar. Altho he has not used it, he be¬ 
lieves it would be an advantage to have the 
inlet of this sub-earth ventilator continue 
in a vertical pipe to within a few inches 
of the ceiling. This would bring about a 
thoro circulation of air from top to bot¬ 
tom. 

An electric fan can very often be used 
to good advantage, where electric current 
is available, to force fresh air into a cel¬ 
lar; or, better, foul air out of the cellar. 

The entrance to the Running cellar is ef¬ 
fected by double (or better, triple) doors 
thru a narrow passageway leading from the 




WINTERING IN CELLARS 


917 


level of the ground to the bottom of the 
cellar. If the cellar is halfway below 
ground and halfway above, the entrance 
and exit are made easy by means of steps. 
If it is located under a sidehill, so that 
the bottom of the cellar is on a level with 
the ground in front, the conditions are 
ideal. 

To recapitulate: “The important thing 
to remember/’ said Mr. Running, “is to 
make the cellar room so that it will not be 
subject to any outside variations of tem¬ 
perature; and to prevent these variations 
the sides, ends, and ceiling must have 
enough protection of dry earth or sawdust 
to keep the bee-cellar at the right tempera¬ 
ture.” In localities where there are deep 
snows less insulation would be needed; 
but, as there are some winters with little 
snow, it is well to have a large dry dirt 
embankment. 

The temperature of Mother Earth, ac¬ 
cording to Mr. Running, is about right for 


43 or even 40. Taking the two extremes, 
45 seems to be the average. It is evident 
in some cases that a high temperature is 
better, and in others a low temperature. If 
the entrances are large, % inch deep by the 
full width of the hive, a higher tempera¬ 
ture may be maintained than where the en¬ 
trances are contracted to, say, % inch deep, 
by 6 inches wide. In the latter ease the 
internal temperature of the hive itself, the 
colony being of the same strength, would 
be higher than where the entrance is % 
inch deep by the full width of the hive. 
The real consideration after all is the tem¬ 
perature of the cluster of bees. That tem¬ 
perature should be approximately 57 de¬ 
grees. Large, powerful colonies would 
probably require a lower cellar tempera¬ 
ture, other things being equal, than weak 
ones. Again, a cellar that has powerful 
colonies with contracted entrances should 
doubtless have a lower temperature; and 
the same colonies with a large entrance or 



Fig. 3.—This cellar belongs to L. C. Gordon, of Bellaire, Mich. According to David Running’s idea 
the roof should have extended over the side embankment. But these embankments are made up of sand 
that dries out very quickly; and in spite of the fact that it is not covered, it makes a good insulator. Mr. 
Gordon once told the author that in this 12 x 20-foot bee-cellar the preceding winter he wintered 151 
colonies without the loss of a colony. This cellar has the ventilation recommended by Mr. Running. 


cellar wintering. Mother Earth varies all 
the way from 41 to 50 degrees. He said 
the best results in a cellar would be where 
the variation of the temperature is between 
43 and 47 degrees. 

While 45 degrees F. seems to be the 
nearest right point according to most au¬ 
thorities, there are some who hold that it 
may be as high as 50, and others as low as 


bottoms removed entirely might have a 
temperature of 50 or even higher. 

Taking all of these factors into consid¬ 
eration, it is easy to see how some, without 
knowing why, would favor a comparatively 
high temperature, and others a low one, 
and yet both would be right for their re¬ 
spective conditions. Coming back to the 
fundamental principle, that the tempera- 











918 


WINTERING IN CELLARS 


ture of the cluster should be, as nearly as 
possible, 57 degrees thruout the period of 
confinement, it will be easy to regulate the 
size of the entrance or the temperature of 
the cellar, or both, so that the temperature 
of the cluster shall be, as nearly as possible, 
57 degrees. 

Unfortunately, not all the colonies of the 
cellar will be of the same strength. If the 



Fig. 4.—One of Peter Sowinski’s bee-cellars. 


temperature is nearly right, say around 45, 
the internal temperature of individual 
clusters can be regulated by the size of the 
entrances. 

To determine the temperature, it will be 
impracticable and entirely unnecessary to 
stick a thermometer into a cluster. For all 


practical purposes, if a thermometer placed 
on the bottom-board, inside of the entrance, 
shows a temperature of about 52, it may be 
surmised that the temperature of the 
cluster will be about 57. Let it be supposed, 
for example, that there are two small colo¬ 
nies in a certain cellar. The average tem¬ 
perature of the cellar is somewhere around 
45. If there be shoved into the entrances 
of colonies of different strengths an or¬ 
dinary dairy thermometer tested for accur¬ 
acy, or even a common house thermometer 
(if it can be shoved into the entrance), it 
will be possible to determine in these colo¬ 
nies the temperature of the bottom-board. 
If the variation is not very great, and the 
temperature stands around 52 a few 
inches back from the entrance, it may be 
assumed that the cellar temperature is 
about right. But if it is found that one 
colony has a bottom temperature of 47 or 
48, and another one a temperature of about 
55 to 56, it is obvious that the entrance of 
the first named should be contracted to a 
point where the temperature will be about 
52. The other entrances should be en¬ 
larged until the mercury in the thermome¬ 
ter drops down to the required point. In a 
word, the temperature of the cellar should 
be at a point that will give as nearly as 
possible the proper temperature of the 
cluster, and that is 57. See Temperature. 

If Avhen one puts the bees in the cellar 



Fig. 5.—This cellar (7 Vs x 25) belongs to Peter Sowinski of Bellaire, Mich.; so also does the cellar 
(7 x 30) shown in Fig. 4. Mr. Sowinski wintered 285 colonies in these two cellars without loss. The 
embankment in Fig. 4 appears to be covered. The home cellar, Fig. 5, embodies all the ideas of David 
Running. The author went into this cellar at the time of his visit, and, notwithstanding the temperature 
was 80 degrees in the shade outside, it was down to 45 in the cellar. Mr. Sowinski keeps his vegetables, 
butter, eggs, and other foodstuffs in this cellar. The drinking water, kept in jugs here, seems to be as cold 
as ice. The scheme of ventilation was the same as Mr. Running’s. 















WINTERING IN CELLARS 


919 


he marks on each hive its relative strength, 
he will be able to determine the degree of 
contraction for each entrance; but, before 
he determines the right contraction, he 
should use thermometers in a few test colo¬ 
nies. 

So far neither the question of food nor 
that of the age of the bees has been touched 
on. Mr. Running said that, of course, he 
would much prefer good stores; for, when 
they are used, there is no bad spotting 
of the hives when the bees are taken from 
the cellar in the spring, even if they have 
been confined from four to five months. 
But tho the bees will not winter as well on 
poor stores as on good, still if they are 
wintered in a properly constructed cellar, 
the amount of food consumed by the 
bees is so small that no serious conse¬ 
quences occur. 


either on account of the presence of a fur¬ 
nace in the adjoining room to heat the 
house, or because of the exposure of the 
walls above ground to outside temperature, 
which is always very variable. The author’s 
experience has shown that where the tem¬ 
perature inside is variable—from 40 to 60 
—there must be a large amount of ventila¬ 
tion, especially at the higher points. Good 
results were secured with the temperature 
ranging between 55 and 60; but when it is 
as high as this there will be a loud roar 
from restless bees, unless there is a con¬ 
stant interchange of air. It is a little 
difficult to bring this about in an ordinary 
house cellar, unless one can use an electric 
fan so placed as to bring about a change of 
air. Where there are a few colonies—10 to 
15—in a room 10 x 12, the matter of venti¬ 
lation is not hard to overcome, especially 




Fig. 6.— F). G. Brown’s upground cellar constructed by setting four fence posts about four feet 
into ground at the four corners of the proposed cellar. The portion of the posts above ground are 
boarded up on the outside. The dirt on the inside is shoveled out, forming an embankment around the 
board fence. The whole is covered with a roof as shown. 

if the door leading from the bee-cellar into 
the furnace-room is left slightly ajar. It is 
put down as an axiom that 10 colonies in a 
house cellar will winter better than 50 or 
75 colonies, provided the temperature does 
not go below 40. If the cellar is not frost¬ 
proof — that is, will not prevent vegetables 
from freezing — it will be a very poor place 
for bees. A cellar reeking with dampness 
is also bad, altho bees have wintered well 
in house cellars where there was a large 
amount of dampness; but it was because 
there was a temperature not lower than 45. 

The question of whether the hives should 
be carried into the cellar without the 


The same authority says that many times 
the beekeeper can not have young bees, and 
many times he will have to put up with in¬ 
ferior stores. But he is strongly of the 
opinion that if bee-cellars are built right— 
and that, of course, means proper drainage 
and protection—one could winter any kind 
of bees. When the cellars are not properly 
protected, good stores and young bees are 
almost a necessity. 

WINTERING IN AN ORDINARY HOUSE CELLAR. 

Wintering in an ordinary house cellar is 
possible and practicable; but it should be 
understood that a house cellar is much 
more subject to variations of temperature, 









920 


WINTERING IN CELLARS 


bottom-boards will depend on conditions. 
In cellars of the David Running type the 
bees should be put in with hive-bottoms 
and covers sealed down. Mr. Running uses 
an entrance 1*4 inches deep running the 
width of the hive for his good colonies. 

STORES. 

Usually a single brood-nest will have 
enough stores to carry the colony thru win¬ 
ter in the cellar; but some beekeepers— 
notably Leonard Griggs, who is one of the 
most successful producers in Michigan and 
who follows Mr. Running in the construc¬ 
tion of his bee-cellar—give to every colony 
they put into the cellar a half-depth super 
of natural stores. This is in addition to 
what the lower story happens to have. See 
Fig. 2. Also see Feeding and Feeders, 
subhead, “Feeding for Winter.” See also 
page 926. 

HOW TO BUILD A BEE-CELLAR, 

So far no specific directions have been 
given on how to build a David Running 
cellar. (See Fig. 1 and legend beneath.) 
Where the clay is firm and will not cave 
in, sustaining walls are not necessary. But 


in most localities a wall or board siding is 
very essential. Concrete walls are prob¬ 
ably cheapest in the end. Where the cel¬ 
lar is temporary or on rented land very 
good bee-cellars have been built by using 
cheap boarding nailed against ivooden 
posts. Mr. Brown (see Fig. 6), Sioux 
City, Iowa, makes four holes in the ground 
with a post-auger. These holes are deep 
enough so that an ordinary fence-post will 
stick above the ground three or four feet. 
The boarding is then nailed outside of the 
posts above ground. He then gets inside 
of the inclosure and digs an oblong pit deep 
enough so that he will have about feet 
between what is the top of the ceiling of 
the cellar-to-be and the bottom. The inside 
dirt is thrown outside of the wooden bar¬ 
ricade. This leaves an embankment of four 
or five feet of earth. He uses no sustaining 
walls in the lower half of the cellar. A 
ceiling is then put on, and then a gable 
roof is made to cover the embankment as 
well as the cellar proper. On top of the 
ceiling and under the gable roof is put 
from three to four feet of sawdust. 

From the general investigations that the 



Cross-section of Root’s bee-cellar showing two aisles and four long rows of hives. Two-by-fours (H) 
are placed on the cellar bottom as supports for the hives. The floor, walls, and ceiling of the cellar are 
of solid concrete, the ceiling and walls being reinforced with steel bars (B) and (D). The drainage-tile 

(P) is shown covered with cinders (G). 























































































WINTERING IN CELLARS 


921 


author has been able to make and from the 
results of his own experience, he comes to 
the conclusion that the ordinary bee-cellar 
should be relatively long with the entrance 
in one end. The temperature of Mother 
Earth in most localities where cellars are 
used is between 40 and 50 Fahr. — just 
about the right range to have inside a cel¬ 
lar. The walls next to Mother Earth be¬ 
come radiators of heat and cold because 
they draw from an enormous reservoir, so 
to speak. The larger the amount of wall 
surface exposed below ground, the more 
even the temperature in the cellar. A rel¬ 
atively long, nar¬ 
row cellar, sub¬ 
merged five or six 
feet below ground 
thru which cold 
can not pene¬ 
trate, gives the 
1 a r g e st possible 
amount of wall 
and a tempera¬ 
ture of approxi- 
m a t e 1 y 45 de¬ 
grees — just where 
it should be for 
good wintering in 
a cellar. The au¬ 
thor’s cellar is 12 
feet wide by 60 
feet long, by 6% 
feet high inside, 
wholly submerged 
beneath the sur¬ 
face with con¬ 
crete walls, sides, 
ends, and ceiling. 

This cellar is cov¬ 
ered with some 
four feet of clay 
closely packed. 

The cellar opens 
up into the basement of a main warehouse 
building, from which ventilation is se¬ 
cured by means of an electric fan. Up 
thru the ceiling and earth, at the back end, 
is an 8-inch sewer-pipe chimney thru which 
the air is forced by the fan where there is 
not a natural draft. During a very warm 
winter, the first year this cellar was tried 
it gave excellent results in spite of the fact 
that the temperature outside was around 60 
and 65 degrees for many days. 


It was also found that sudden changes of 
temperature have very little effect on the 
cellar. About Jan. 9 the mercury outside 
dropped over 40 degrees in 24 hours; yet 
this did not change the temperature of the 
cellar one degree. Not until spring did the 
temperature go above 50 degrees and then 
only a few times; 44 is the lowest mark 
registered, and this only three times. The 
average daily variation in the bee-cellar 
was less than 2 degrees and the greatest 
change in one day was 3 degrees. 

Where the soil is not impervious to 
water there should be a roof over the three 
or four feet of clay top. In our Ohio soil 
the clay is impervious to water and no roof 
is used. 

SUB-EARTH VENTILATORS. 

Sub-earth ventilators should be from four 
to six inches in diameter, made of glazed 
tile, about 100 feet long, and from four 
to six feet below the surface of the ground. 
The outer end is brought to the surface of 
the ground, and the inner opens near the 
bottom of the cellar. Cold air entering the 
ventilator is warmed in passing under 
ground to the cellar, and not only sup¬ 
plies the latter with pure air, but at the 
same time raises its temperature several 
degrees. 

Sub-earth ventilators are not used to any 
great extent at this writing. The plan of 
using a furnace under the house, placing it 
in a room by itself adjoining the cellar, is 
preferable, provided, however, that outdoor 
air is allowed to go into the furnace room 
from a door or window. 

ARRANGEMENT OF HIVES IN A BEE-OELLAR. 

The hives may be piled up one on top of 
another in such a way that any one can be 
removed without disturbing more than the 
one or two above it. The reason for this 
will be apparent later. Strong colonies 
should be put in first and placed on a 
2x4 scantling. On top of these may then 
be placed the weaker ones. This has the 
special advantage of having the heavy ones 
at the bottom and the light ones on top. 
The former, requiring a lower temperature, 
will be where it is cooler; and the latter, 
being weaker, will require a higher tem¬ 
perature, and will be where it is wanner. 



Ventilating chimney at 
rear of cellar. Air leaves 
the cellar thru the door 
(A), passing over the top 
of board (B), thru the 
wooden shaft and tile (E). 
When desired, door (A) 
is closed, board (C) re¬ 
moved, and air from the 
top of the cellar allowed 
to pass thru the upper 
opening under the lower 
edge of board (D), and up 
thru the chimney. 

































922 


WINTERING IN CELLARS 


Some consider it essential to remove the 
bottom of the hives entirely. Others con¬ 
sider it good practice to have a deep space 
under the frames by raising the hive off 
the bottom in front and supporting it there 
by a couple of blocks. But some disastrous 
results in wintering seem to show that too 
much bottom ventilation is bad unless the 
cellar is kept at a temperature of about 60 
degrees and thoroly ventilated. The author 
uniformly secured the best results with a 
reasonably small entrance, or one about the 
size used during the fall or late spring. The 
larger the colony, of course the larger the 
entrance that will be required. In the case 
of a strong, populous colony the entrance 
should be % inch deep by the full width of 
the hive. The colonies of medium strength 
should have the entrance reduced accord¬ 
ingly. 

INSPECTING THE BEES DURING MIDWINTER; 

AND DEAD BEES ON. THE CELLAR BOTTOM. 

Experience has proved that, when the 
temperature is maintained at 45 degrees, 
very little attention need be paid to the 
bees, especially in the fore part of the win¬ 
ter. But during the last month or two of 
confinement the bees require watching more 
carefully; for if they get to roaring many 
of them will be lost. It then becomes nec¬ 
essary to make frequent examination to de¬ 
termine the temperature and the quality of 
the air. It will also happen, perhaps, 
that a good many dead bees will be found 
on the cellar bottom. While this is not 
necessarily a cause for alarm, it is not as 
it should be. If the cellar and temperature 
are right there will be very few dead bees; 
but if they accumulate, their dead bodies 
should not be allowed to taint the cellar, but 
should be swept up perhaps every two or 
three weeks and removed. 

A disposition to roar should be met by 
more ventilation, and at the same time the 
temperature should be reduced. If all the 
colonies in the cellar should become uneasy 
during midwinter it is evident that some¬ 
thing must be done at once or the whole 
lot of bees will be lost. They ought not to 
become uneasy until late in the spring. If 
they can not be quieted by infusion of 
fresh air, it may be best to give the uneasy 
colonies 'a flight on the first warm day by 
setting them outdoors and letting them 


stay there for 24 hours or until they can 
clean themselves. Dysentery or diarrhea 
in the bee-cellar is generally the result of 
too much cold air or too high a tempera¬ 
ture, either of which will induce too large 
a consumption of stores; and where bees 
are not able to void their feces, the intes¬ 
tines become distended, resulting in 
purging. A colony so affected should be 
removed as soon as a warm day comes and 
given a flight, when it may be put back. 

WHEN TO PUT BEES IN THE CELLAR, AND 
WHEN TO TAKE THEM OUT. 

This is a question that depends entirely 
on locality. Most bees go into the cellar 
in the northern States from the middle of 
November until the middle of December; 
but usually it is advisable to have all bees in 
before Christmas. As to when the bees 
should be taken out of the cellar, authorities 
differ. Some set them out in March, and 
then put on winter cases. Others believe it is 
better policy to keep bees in late or until the 
last cold weather is past, and then set them 
out. The author advises taking the golden 
mean, waiting until the time natural pollen 
comes. But when bees are uneasy in the cel¬ 
lar it is advised to set them out earlier than 
would be done otherwise. 

TIME OF DAY TO TAKE BEES OUT. 

The old plan for taking bees from a cel¬ 
lar in the spring was to wait until fairly 
settled warm weather had come, and then 
on some warm bright day all the colonies 
were removed at once. The difficulty with 
this method is that the bees are likely to 
become badly mixed, owing to their eager 
flight without carefully marking the loca¬ 
tion. This results in a bad state of affairs, 
and should be avoided. Another method, 
followed to some extent, is to put some of 
the colonies out during an evening when all 
appearances indicate that it will be warm 
and bright the next day. A third of them, 
perhaps, are taken out, and these fly quite 
well the next day. The next evening an¬ 
other third is removed, and the last third 
the night following. The objection to this 
plan is that the bees removed first get to 
flying well and then start to rob colonies 
taken out later, thus making a fearful 
uproar. 

E. W. Alexandei", in Gleanings in Bee 


WINTERING IN CELLARS 


923 


Culture, page 286, Yol. XXXIV., gave 
a plan open to none of these objections. 

“First, get everything ready for a big 
job, and watch the weather closely, espe¬ 
cially after a few nice days, for it is quite 
changeable at this time of the year. Then 
when the wind gets around in the east, and 
it commences to become overcast with heavy 
clouds, and has every appearance of bad 
weather for the morrow, we commence 
about sundown and carry out all our bees 
—yes, even if it takes not only all night 
but into the next day; and if it commences 
to rain before we are done, all the better, 
for we don’t want any to try to fly until 
they have been out two or three days if we 
can help it. By this time they will have 
become nice and quiet; and when a fair 
day arrives they will commence to fly, only 
a few at a time, and get their location 
marked, so there will be no mixing up or 
robbing, because they all have their first fly 
together. Then when the day is over we 
find by examining our hives that nearly 
every one has apparently retained all its 
bees.” 

The plan here given avoids “drifting” 
on the part of the bees. (See Drifting.) 
When bees di'ift from one hive to another 
it means that the strong become stronger 
and the weak weaker. Moreover, there is 
danger of robbing. When bees are set out 
at two or three different times, those first set 
out, having marked their locations and hav¬ 
ing quieted down, are quite liable to rob 
those set out afterward, because the last lot 
of bees are more or less demoralized until 
they can mark their locations and recover 
from their excitement. 

SHALL THE COLONIES BE PUT BACK ON THE 
OLD STANDS IN THE SPRING? 

After bees have been shut up in the 
cellar over winter they can be placed back 
on the old stand they formerly occupied 
or they can be put anywhere in the yard, 
or, in fact, anywhere on the premises. 
Bees after long confinement apparently 
lose all knowledge of their former location, 
and will stay anywhere they may be placed. 
If one finds it necessary or desirable to 
move his bees a short distance, it is a good 
plan to wait until they are taken out of 
the cellar the following spring, when they 
may be placed anywhere. 


CARRIERS FOR HIVES. 

A wheeled vehicle is not as good for 
moving bees in and out of a cellar as some 
sort of carrier. 

A wheelbarrow, if the paths are smooth, 
does very well. If the cellar steps are not 
too steep, a plank runway can be provided 
so that the load of bees can be delivered 
into the cellar itself. 



Greiner’s hive-carrier. 


Two men can easily carry as many as 
five hives in this way. Where the cellar is 
located some little distance from the apiary 
this is the most convenient method yet de¬ 
vised. 

Instead of constructing a regular hive- 
carrier as shown, it is possible to get along 
quite well by the use of two poles, but they 
are by no means as good. These should 
be about two inches square and six or eight 
feet long. They are placed on the ground 
in a parallel position, and as many hives 
placed on them as can be carried; perhaps 
three hives would be all that could be man¬ 
aged easily with the poles. It is much 
more satisfactory, however, to have the 
poles nailed together with a framework, 
making a regular hive-carrier. 

SOME THINGS TO REMEMBER IN CELLAR 
WINTERING. 

1. The temperature of the bee-cellar 
should be approximately 45 degrees. 
Whether it should be higher or lower will 
depend on the size of the colonies and the 
entrances of those colonies. 

2. An excess of dampness in the cellar 
does no harm provided the temperature of 
the cellar is such as to make the tempera¬ 
ture of the cluster approximately 57 de¬ 
grees F. 

3. A low temperature in the cellar, say 
35 to 40 degrees, or any temperature at 
which the heat of the cluster is much above 
or below 57, with an excess of dampness, 
is a very bad condition. 








924 


WINTERING IN CELLARS 


4. Bees can be wintered in a cellar with¬ 
out much ventilation, provided the tempera¬ 
ture of the individual clusters is approxi¬ 
mately around 57 degrees. With average¬ 
sized colonies and average-sized entrances, 
a constant temperature of about 45 degrees 
in the cellar will not require much ventila¬ 
tion, provided the size of the entrances is 
in proportion to the size of the colonies. 

5. Ideal conditions for cellar wintering 
are the right cluster temperature, a slight 
amount of moisture, a moderate amount of 
ventilation, and absolute darkness. 

6. A very bad combination is a constant¬ 
ly varying temperature that goes down 
nearly to the freezing point, and then rises 
to 55 or 60 degrees. Such frequent changes 
are very hard on the bees. 

7. A high cellar temperature will require 
very much larger entrances, or possibly the 
removal of the bottom-boards entirely, 
leaving the whole bottom of the hive open. 
There are some cellars where the tempera¬ 
ture can not be held down, and in such 
cases more ventilation is required as well 
as larger entrances. 

8. Occasional disturbances by the bee¬ 
keeper himself in the cellar do no harm; 
but these disturbances should be as few 
as possible, and with no jar and as little 
noise as possible. No brighter light than a 
hand pocket electric lamp should be used. 
With this, one can easily make his way 
thru the cellar, taking a glance at the en¬ 
trances and also a glance at the thermome¬ 
ters in the entrances of some of the hives. 
A more durable and lasting light is an 
electric lamp attached to a full-sized dry 
battery. Small pocket batteries are usually 
short-lived. 

9. When good colonies winter well the 
dead bees do not collect on the hive floors 
nor are they scattered over the cellar floor. 
The live bees remove the dead ones, leaving 
them on the cellar floor just below the en¬ 
trances. If scattered all about, it is plain 
that they have flown from their hives and 
have not wintered well. Moreover, if there 
are several inches of dead bees on the cel¬ 
lar bottom in the spring, the owner of that 
cellar ought to investigate and ascertain 
the trouble. No matter if he does bring 
his colonies thru alive, it could hardly be 
said that he is wintering his bees success¬ 


fully. An ideal cellar is one that will bring 
the colonies thru the winter in practically 
the same strength as when they went into 
winter quarters. No colony should lose 
more than one-sixth of its bees, and well- 
wintered colonies will have much less loss 
than this — in some cases as Ioav as 100 bees. 

10. Honeydew, unsealed aster honey, mo¬ 
lasses, or syrup from brown sugar, makes 
a poor feed for indoor wintering. It is 
much better to have a good honey, well 
ripened, or syrup made of white granulat¬ 
ed sugar. 

11. Pollen in the combs does little or no 
harm. Indeed, it is an advantage to have 
some of it ready for next spring after the 
bees are set out. The old theory that an 
excess of pollen in the combs is the cause 
of dysentery is now an exploded myth. 

12. Shutting bees in the hive with wire 
cloth, or closing the entrance in any way, is 
usually attended with disaster. 

13. Bees can be wintered in a common 
house cellar provided there is not too much 
variation of temperature. The trouble with 
most house or vegetable cellars is that they 
become too warm or too cold. This makes 
it necessary for the beekeeper to enter the 
cellar, often opening and closing the cellar 
windows at night. The disturbance is a 
bad thing, and the variation of temperature 
is still worse. 

14. A cellar wholly under ground and 
frost-proof is much safer than the average 
house cellar. 

15. When one has from 100 to 300 or 
more colonies and the winters are so cold 
that there are many days of zero tempera¬ 
ture, especially if the locality is subject to 
high winds, it would be well to build a 
special bee-repository under ground, large 
enough to accommodate as many colonies 
as one would be likely to own. The mis¬ 
take should not be made of building it too 
small. It should be constructed on the 
lines indicated by David Running, as speci¬ 
fied in previous pages. Its shape should 
be long and narrow and wholly under 
ground. That means that the roof should 
either be below the frost line by three or 
four feet, or that the portion of the re¬ 
pository above ground should be covered by 
an embankment of three or four feet for 
the sides above ground and three or four 


ft#® 



How R. F. Holtermann carries his twelve-frame hives into the cellar. He lifts the hive as shown 
in Fig. 2, and then brings it up against his body as in Fig. 5. Positions in 4 and 6 put an unnecessary 
strain on the back, and interfere with walking. 













926 


WINTERING IN CELLARS 


feet on top. Err on the side of having the 
repository covered too deep rather than 
not deep enough. If the earth covering 
it is not a pure yellow clay that is imper¬ 
vious to water, it is better to make a special 
roof over it. Sand or gravel should always 
be covered to keep it from freezing. 

16. An electric fan can very often be 
used to good advantage in ventilating a 
bee-cellar. Where a cellar under a dwell¬ 
ing house becomes too warm, an electric 
fan can be stationed in such a way as to 
force air from outdoors into the room. 
Bees will stand a comparatively high tem¬ 
perature provided the air is fresh and 
sweet. 

HOW AND WHAT TO FEED BEES 
DURING MIDWINTER. 

It is generally advisable to avoid feeding 
syrup during midwinter, either in the cel¬ 
lar or outdoors. If a colony will run out 
of stores before spring, then thick syrup, 
two and a half parts of sugar to one of 
water, may be given all at one feeding. A 
better winter food next to combs of sealed 
stores is hard candy as mentioned under 
the head of Candy elsewhere, provided it 
is made right. Plates or blocks of this 
candy can be laid on top of the frames. If 
the candy has not been scorched in making, 
the bees will cluster up under it and win¬ 
ter on it, even tho there is not an ounce 
of stores in the combs themselves. But as 
it is a nice art to make hard candy that is 
just right, and as it is advisable, when pos¬ 
sible, to avoid feeding sugar syrup, bee¬ 
keepers should always have in reserve a suf¬ 
ficient number of combs of good honey 
saved out from the summer crop. When it 
is discovered that the colony is short, one 
or more of these combs can be inserted in 
place of the empty. 

A much better plan yet is to reserve out 
from the season’s crop of honey as many 
shallow extracting-supers of good honey 
as there are colonies in the apiary. (See 
page 236.) It may be argued that the 
honey in these supers can be sold for con¬ 
siderably more than it would cost to re¬ 
place the deficiency in the colony with 
sugar syrup. While this may be true from 
the standpoint of dollars and cents, the 
better class of beekeepers are beginning to 
discover that the honey will go much fur¬ 
ther, and, moreover, is much better in the 


spring when brood-rearing commences. 

To take time and make up several batches 
of syrup that is just right to feed to the 
bees and stir them up to unnecessary ac¬ 
tivity, costs not only in time and sugar but 
in bees; and it may be seriously questioned 
whether the sugar syrup is cheaper in the 
long run than the honey that is already in 
the combs and ready for the bees. Shallow 
extracting-supers of combs of good honey 
can be given to a colony in much less time 
than it takes to feed a like amount of syrup. 
While it may give that colony more stores 
than it may actually need before the next 
crop, it is a life insurance to the colony 
that will probably yield more money the 
following summer than one fed just enough 
syrup to carry it thru until spring, and 
the honey, if any is left, can be extracted 
later. 

In the language of Mr. G. S. Demuth, a 
half-depth super of honey is an “auto 
matic feeder,” and the cost of giving it to 
a colony, so far as time is concerned, is 
much less than giving it an equal amount 
of sugar syrup in a feeder. While the 
syrup may be slightly better for the coldest 
part of the winter, yet, taking the winter 
and the spring together, it is not as good. 

For a further discussion of these food 
chambers, see Comb Honey, to Produce, 
page 236. 

DO BEES HIBERNATE? 

The quiescent state or sleep into which 
bees enter when the wintering conditions 
are ideal, has been several times mentioned. 
In this period the bees seem merely to exist. 
With no activity the consumption of stores 
is very light. 

As shown under Temperature, partic¬ 
ularly the temperature of the winter clus¬ 
ter during winter, bees are the quietest 
when the thermometer is about 57° F. 
If it goes below 57°, the bees, instead of 
clustering, become active, and in the man¬ 
ner explained under Temperature they 
raise the heat of the cluster sometimes 
almost to the brood-rearing point. When, 
therefore, the temperature of the cluster is 
either below or above 57° F., the bees are 
in anything but a state of sleep or what 
some have called semi-hibernation. Strict¬ 
ly speaking, bees do not hibernate, and 
perhaps do not even enter into the condi¬ 
tion called semi-hibernation when they are 


DO BEES HIBERNATE? 


927 


the quietest. It all depends on what is 
meant by that term. But there are some 
interesting facts showing that bees can for 
a short time stand low temperatures, and 
revive like ants and flies that are true hi- 
bernators. In the discussion which follows, 
however, one must not be misled. Yet it is 
evident that nature has provided means by 
which bees can stand the temperature of 
freezing, or below, for a short time. In 
order that the reader may understand what 
hibernation really is, a few facts should 
be presented. 

Hibernation of bees was exploited nearly 
50 years ago, when it was generally decided, 
and rightly too, that bees do not hibernate 
in the ordinary sense of the term (see 
American Bee Journal for 1885). But 
they do enter a quiescent state when the 
temperature has been lowered; and this 
state is somewhat analogous to the torpor 
experienced by some animals in a state of 
true hibernation, during which no food is 
taken, and respiration is considerably re¬ 
duced. Dr. Marshall Hall has stated that 
“respiration is inversely as the degree of 
irritability of the muscular fiber.” If the 
respiration is reduced without this irrita¬ 
bility being increased, death results from 
asphyxia. Hibernation is usually induced 
by cold, and the animal under its influence 
attains nearly the temperature of the sur¬ 
rounding atmosphere, yet can not resist 
any amount of cold, altho its capacity for 
doing so varies according to the animal. 
Some animals bury themselves in holes, 
like snakes and frogs; others, like the bear, 
crawl under a pile of leaves and brush 
where they are still further covered with 
snow. Thus buried they will go all winter 
without food or water; but there is a waste 
of tissue. Fish may be incased in ice and 
still live. A lively frog may be dropped 
into a pail of water, four or five inches 
deep, and exposed to a freezing tempera¬ 
ture. Indeed, there may be a thin coating 
of ice formed over the animal. The next 
morning, that frog, tho stiff and cold, 
can be warmed up into activity, but to 
freeze solid will kill the creature. 

Flies, as is well known, will secrete them¬ 
selves in window-frames and other hiding- 
places, subject to cold atmosphere, for 
weeks at a time, and yet revive on ex¬ 
posure to warmth. As is well known, also, 


ants have been repeatedly dug out of logs, 
frozen solid—in fact, fairly enveloped in 
frost; yet on exposure to warmth they will 
revive. Some hibemators can endure a 
freezing temperature, while others, like the 
bear, woodchuck, and the like, can not. 
Other very interesting incidents may be’ 
taken from natural history; but the pur¬ 
pose of this article is to consider whether 
bees go into a quiescent state that ap¬ 
proaches hibernation, in which there is low 
respiration and a small consumption of 
stores. 

Two or three years ago the author put 
a number of cages of bees with some queens 
(laying the cages down on cakes of ice) in 
a refrigerator. The bees were chilled to 
absolute stiffness. Every day a cage was 
taken out and each time the bees would 
revive, including the queen. This plan was 
continued for several days, and yet the 
bees would “come to” each time. 

The strange part of it was, that the 
queens went on laying normally when put 
back in the hives, instead of laying drone 
eggs as expected. Just what was the tem¬ 
perature to which these bees were sub¬ 
jected can not be told, but probably 
below 40° and above 35°, for the doors of 
the refrigerators were frequently opened, 
and the ice was constantly melting. 

During one winter, when a very cold 
snap came on—the temperature going down 
to zero — the author put out some cages of 
bees, exposing them to the cold wind, which 
was then blowing a good gale, when the 
temperature was 5 above zero. It was ex¬ 
pected that the bees possibly might be able 
to survive the shock for a number of hours, 
and yet revive; but 20 minutes of zero 
freezing was sufficient to kill them outright. 
If the bees had been gradually acclimatized 
to the cold, first being subjected to 40°, 
then to 35°, and gradually down to the 
zero point, they would possibly have with¬ 
stood the shock for a longer time. 

When the weather warmed up a little 
several cages of bees were taken and buried 
in the snow, with a thermometer so that 
the absolute temperature might be known. 
A cage of bees was taken about every two 
or three hours, and it was found that they 
could be revived without difficulty; but 
at the end of 24 hours the bees, when they 
“came to,” seemed somewhat the worse for 


928 


WINTERING IN THE SOUTHERN STATES 


the experience. The temperature in the 
snow played around the 32° mark. But 
the experiments conducted during the sum¬ 
mer would seem to show that bees might 
stand a temperature of 38° for a number of 
days. 

Bees on the outside of the ball or cluster, 
in an outdoor-wintered colony, will often 
be chilled stiff while those inside have 
almost a blood temperature. During very 
severe weather, the outside bees may be 
gradually replaced by those within the clus¬ 
ter; for bees are in constant movement. 
Experiments show that a starved bee will 
not stand as much cold as one that is well 
filled. Beekeepers who have had any ex¬ 
perience in wintering outdoors know how 
repeatedly they have taken clusters of bees 
that seemed to be frozen stiff, yet when 
warmed up before a good fire would revive 
and appear as lively as ever. 

In view of the experiments thus far re¬ 
corded it would appear that bees might be 
able to stand a temperature of 40°, or 
slightly below that, for a number of days; 
but if a warm spell does not come within 
a week, or less, those bees in their chilled 
condition may starve to death. But if it 
warms up, the cluster will unfold and the 
bees take food, and so be ready for an¬ 
other “freeze.” The author has repeat¬ 
edly seen clusters of bees, after a zero spell 
lasting a couple of weeks, that were dead; 
but the honey had been eaten from all 
around them within a radius of an inch or 
more. If a zero spell of weather con¬ 
tinues more than a week or ten days, some 
of the weaker colonies will be found in the 
spring frozen to death. 

If the bee were a true hibernator it 
would save the beekeepers of the world 
millions of dollars, because then all that 
would be necessary would be to establish 
a sort of cold-storage plant, where the 
climate was open or mild, and put the bees 
away for winter. In cold climates it would 
not be necessary to have cold-storage 
plants. The bees could be placed outdoors 
without protection, and left all winter; yes, 
they could easily be put on dry combs. 
Like the ants and flies they would remain 
in a dormant state; and when warm 
weather came on they would revive and re¬ 
sume their former activity. But, unfortu¬ 


nately, bees are not that kind of insect. 
That they will go into a quiescent state, or 
a kind of suspended animation, at a tem¬ 
perature of 57 degrees Fahr., has been 
clearly proven. During that period they 
consume the minimum of stores. If the 
time ever comes when we shall know 
enough to provide conditions so that a 
cluster will remain thruout the greater part 
of the winter at a temperature of 
about 57 degrees F., it will certainly save a 
large amount of stores. But whether those 
conditions would indicate a state of semi¬ 
hibernation, or even an approach to it, the 
author is not prepared to say. 

WINTERING IN THE SOUTHERN 
STATES. —- Where bees can fly almost 
every day in the year, and for ten months 
are able to gather a little honey or pollen, 
no special protection other than single 
walls has hitherto been considered neces¬ 
sary. The fact that the wintering problem 
in the South is not serious would seem to 
indicate that no special precaution is 
needed; but some experience that the 
author has had in wintering bees in Cali¬ 
fornia, Virginia, Alabama, and Floxdda in¬ 
dicates that, even where the bees can fly al¬ 
most every day in the year, a moderate 
amount of protection can be given to ad¬ 
vantage. This should be in the form of 
light packing cases and of windbreaks to 
shut off the prevailing winds. While this 
may seem to be an unnecessary expense, 
the saving in brood and stores will pay for 
it in time. As will be seen under Tempera¬ 
ture, bees, in order to keep up the proper 
amount of heat, must exercise, and this 
means a consumption of stores. Such ac¬ 
tivity causes the bees to fly out on a chilly 
day, and many never return. Again, where 
clusters are not large there is considerable 
brood in the Southland which chills and 
dies. This is a heavy drain on the colonies. 
While a colony can survive it, the bee¬ 
keeper could well afford to furnish a little 
protection to save this brood. See Win¬ 
tering Outdoors and Spring Manage¬ 
ment. 

As has been pointed out elsewhere under 
Wintering Outdoors and Spring Man¬ 
agement the rapid changes of temperature 
from morning until night — warm sunshine 
during the middle hours of the day, low 


WINTERING IN THE SOUTHERN STATES 


929 


temperature or freezing at niglit—are very 
hard on bees in many of the southern 
States. The hot sun beating on the walls 
of the hives forces the bees out, and in an 
hour or so there may be a cold, chilly wind 
that will prevent them from getting back. 
They get some pollen or nectar, which 
starts breeding. As the cool nights come 
on the survivors attempt to hover this 
brood and failing to do so on account of 
so many bees being lost in the fields, some 
of the brood is chilled. 



Figs. 1 and 2.—Method of packing bees with 
newspaper for semi-tropical states. The brood-nest 
is reduced down in a ten-frame hive to six or 
seven frames, using those that contain the most 
stores. These are placed centrally in the hive and 
covered with newspaper. The space on either side 
is then filled with folds of newspaper, after which 
the cover is put on. The smaller brood-nest with 
packing on the sides is better protected and will 
consume less stores. 


A little protection in the form of paper 
wrappings or an outside protecting case 
would save heavy losses of bees. In the 
southern States, and particularly in Cali¬ 
fornia, winter losses—not of colonies but 
of bees—are as great as in some of the 
northern States. The author feels very 
certain that a moderate amount of protec¬ 
tion would mean thousands upon thou¬ 
sands of dollars of saving to the beelceep- 
30 


ers in the warm States, where it is thought 
that there is no wintering problem. 

Dr. E. F. Phillips, in charge of api¬ 
culture in the Bureau of Entomology, 
Washington/D. C., also believes that some 
winter protection in the South will prevent 
some loss of bees, if not of colonies. 

Altho the advantages would seem to 
favor some packing in the Southland, it 
will probably be some time before its bee¬ 
keepers below the Ohio River will realize 
its importance enough to provide the neces¬ 
sary winter protection. 

A very serious difficulty in wintering in 
the South is starvation. So serious is this, 
it may be doubted whether the winter prob¬ 
lem in the South is not more serious than 
in the North. Bees require more stores per 
colony than in the North. When they can 
fly almost every day in the winter, breeding 
will be kept up more or less, with the re¬ 
sult that the colony will use two or three 
times as much honey during the winter as 
a similar colony in the North, packed. Al¬ 
most constant breeding for ten months uses 
up the stores at a very rapid rate. It is 
important for one to examine his colonies 
occasionally to see if they are running 
short; and, if so, he should supply them 
with sugar syrup, or combs of honey. 

The fact that so many colonies become 
weak in the Southland makes it possible 
for European foul brood to make rapid 
headway. This disease is being scattered 
rapidly all over California and the south¬ 
ern States. It thrives on weak colonies, 
and the reason colonies are weak is because 
the bees have insufficient stores or because 
they are improperly packed or both. It is 
apparent that in the southern climate there 
is a winter problem as well as in the North. 

WIRING FOUNDATION.— Under the 
head of Comb Foundation in this work, 
pages 210-213, are shown various methods 
of wiring frames. The purpose of the 
wires is twofold: (1) to keep the founda¬ 
tion from stretching while being drawn 
out, or afterward, when filled with honey; 
and (2) to hold the built-out combs solidly 
in the brood-frame. 

Combs are often roughly handled during 
shipment or in hauling’. They are likewise 
put to a severe test in the extractor, espe¬ 
cially if run at high speed. It is for this 






930 


WIRING FOUNDATION 


reason that the wires passing thru the end- 
bars, or top or bottom bars, are used ex¬ 
tensively by beekeepers everywhere, and 
not because they are trying to prevent sag¬ 
ging or stretching of the comb itself while 
being drawn out. 

For several years back several experi¬ 
ments have been conducted to make a foun¬ 
dation before it is put into a frame so it 
will not stretch. Some 35 years ago, J. 
Van Deusen & Sons, in New York, made a 
foundation that had vertical wires incorpor¬ 
ated in it during the process of manufac¬ 
ture. This foundation had a flat base or 
flat bottom, and for that reason it was 
never extensively used, because the base 
was unnatural, and had to be reconstructed 
by the bees. 

In later years, at various times, efforts 
have been made to incorporate vertical 
wires, or semi-vertical wires, in the ordinary 
or natural-base foundation, the purpose of 
the wires being to prevent the sheet from 
stretching; but as there was no method of 
fastening these wires already in the foun¬ 
dation to the frames themselves the scheme 
never became very popular. During 1922, 
however, Dadant & Sons introduced to the 
beekeeping world a vertically wired foun¬ 
dation. This differed from the foundation 


tom-bar it is advised that a top and bottom 
horizontal wire be used to hold these sheets 
in place; and it may be questioned whether 
four horizontal wires would not be better. 

Experience has shown, however, that 
when vertical or diagonal wires cross hori¬ 
zontal wires there is some tendency on the 
part of the bees to gnaw holes in the wax 
at the point of intersection. This is more 
apparent some seasons than others, and es¬ 
pecially during a dearth of honey. These 
holes, however, will be closed up after a 
good flow the following season, but some¬ 
times with drone-cells in place of worker. 

THE THREE-PLY COMB FOUNDATION. 

During 1922 the A. I. Root Company 
perfected a three-ply comb foundation 



Three-ply comh foundation having middle ply 
of harder wax. 

which they had tested out extensively dur¬ 
ing the season under conditions when bees 
would be liable to make holes at the points 



Dadant wired foundation, showmg'how the corrugated wires are imbedded in the 


foundation ; 

put out by the Van Deusens in two re¬ 
spects. First, the base of the cell walls 
was pointed; and, second, the wires were 
larger and corrugated to make them stiffer. 
By the use of a grooved wedge top-bar and 
and a split bottom-bar it is claimed that 
these sheets of wax with vertical wires will 
be held in place. Without the split bot- 


the factory. 

of intersection where diagonal wires cross 
horizontal wires in ordinary wiring. The 
center ply consists of a pure beeswax 
toughened by the addition of a small per¬ 
centage of vegetable wax. The two out¬ 
side plies are made of extra soft pure 
beeswax. It is constructed on what is 
known in the arts as laminated steel, such 





XYLOCOPA 


931 


as is used on burglar-proof safe-doors, and 
laminated three or four ply wood such as 
used in chair-bottoms and other places 
where there is a great 
strain applied. In the 
same way this combina¬ 
tion of a three-ply foun¬ 
dation with a hardened 
center sheet and a soft 
sheet of pure beeswax on 
either side is over twice 
as strong as any other 
foundation on the mar¬ 
ket. The photo of a boy 
hanging on a sheet of it 
illustrates its great 
strength. When it is un¬ 
derstood that the ordi¬ 
nary foundation of the 
same thickness or weight 
will sustain less than half 
this weight, it will be 
seen that this new prod¬ 
uct gives promise of be¬ 
ing a great acquisition. 

Prom the numerous tests 
that were made of it in 
the hive during the sum¬ 
mer of 1922, this lam- 
nated foundation re¬ 
sisted all stretching while being drawn out. 
It may be put into ordinary brood-frames 
without any changes. While it can be used 
without wires it is recommended that it be 
put on to four horizontal wires, said wires 


- 

passing through the end-bars in the regu¬ 
lar way. This makes a non-sagging comb 
that will be securely fastened to the frame 
of the regular pattern. 

Sheets of this three-ply foundation put 
into the hive during a dearth of honey will 
be drawn out into beautiful comb. The 
outer surface, being of softer wax, will be 
drawn out readily, while the tough center 
means that there will be little or no stretch¬ 
ing, and at the same time makes a comb that 
will stand rough usage, even when being 
hauled over the roads or when whirled in 
an extractor at a high speed. 

A feature that will be appreciated is 
that there will be no gnawing on the part 
of the bees around the wires, as no vertical 
or diagonal wires are needed; and since 
there are no intersecting wires there will 
be no holes. 

One swallow does not make a summer. 
One year’s test of any article or device 
may not be sufficient to show up a de¬ 
fect, if any, that may appear two or three 
years hence. While the author believes 
that both of the devices here shown to pre¬ 
vent the stretching of the sheet of founda¬ 
tion as it leaves the factory have merit, it 
will take more time yet before definite con¬ 
clusions can be drawn. 

WORKER COMBS. —See Combs. 

WOMEN AS BEEKEEPERS. — See 

Beekeeping for Women. 



68-p ound boy 
supported by a 
single sheet of 
three-ply comb 
foundation. 


X Y Z 


XENOPHON. — A Greek historian and 
general who refers to poisonous honey. See 
Poisonous Honey. 

XYLOCOPA. —To this genus belong the 
carpenter bees, among which are the larg¬ 
est bees in the world. They are so called 
because they excavate with their power¬ 
ful jaws tunnels a foot in length in solid 
wood. The cells are about an inch long, 
and are separated by partitions made of 
small chips cemented together in a spiral. 


The eggs are laid on masses of pollen, 
moistened with honey, the pollen masses be¬ 
ing about the size of a bean. A common 
species in the eastern United States is X. 
virginica. 

YELLOW POPLAR. — See Tulip Tree. 

YELLOW SWEET CLOVER. — See 

Sweet Clover. 

ZINC, Perforated. — See Drones, Ex¬ 
tracted Honey, and Swarming. 









Beekeepers’ Dictionary 


Abdomen. — The posterior of the three parts into 
which a bee is divided, containing the larger 
part of the digestive organs. In the female it 
consists of six visible segments or rings, and 
seven in the male. See “Anatomy” in the body 
of this work. 

Absconding swarm. — A swarm which leaves for 
new quarters. See “Absconding Swarms” in 
the body of this work. 

Absorbents.—Materials more or less porous placed 
over the brood-chamber in winter, which permit 
moisture to escape without much loss of heat. 

Acarapis woodi. — The Latin name of the para¬ 
sitic mite causing the Isle of Wight disease. It 
was formerly called Tarsonemus woodi, but 
Hirst, an English specialist in mites, has pro¬ 
posed to place this mite in a new genus 
Aearapis (acarus, mite and apis, bee). 

Adair frame.—13% inches long, 11% inches deep. 

After-swarms.—Swarms which leave a given colony 
after a swarm of the same season has already 
left it. 

Albino.—A bee which is lighter colored than nor¬ 
mal or pure white. A sport or freak of nature. 

Alighting-board.—The projection before the en¬ 
trance to a hive. 

American foul brood.—See “Foul Brood.” 

American frame.—12 inches long, 12 inches deep. 

Antenna (plural antennae).—A pair of slender, 
jointed appendages inserted on the head, which 
bear sense organs. See “Anatomy” in the 
body of this work. 

Anther.—The upper 2-lobed portion of the sta¬ 
men consisting usually of two or four cells, in 
which the pollen is produced. A 4-celled anther 
at maturity may become 2-celled by the break¬ 
ing down of the partition between the pair of 
cells in each anther-lobe. 

Aphis.-—A plant louse which secretes honeydew. 

Apiarian.—Pertaining to bees or an apiary. A term 
not much used now. 

Apiarist.—A beekeeper. 

Apiary.—A collection of colonies of bees; also the 
yard or place where bees are kept. See “Apiary” 
in the body of this work. 

Apiculture.—Beekeeping. 

Apidae.—The family to which the honeybee be¬ 
longs. 

Apis.—The genus to which honeybees belong. 

Apis dorsata.—See “Giant Bees.” 

Artificial cell cup. — See “Cell Cup.” 

Artificial fecundation.—The impregnation of vir¬ 
gin queens in confinement. 

Artificial fertilization. — See “Artificial Fecunda¬ 
tion.” 

Artificial pasturage.—Plants purposely cultivated 
for their nectar. 

Artificial pollen.-—-Rye meal, pea flour, or other 
substances fed as substitutes for the pollen of 
flowers. 

Artificial swarm.—A swarm made by dividing a 
colony of bees bj; brushing or shaking. See 
“Brushed Swarms'.” 

Ash.—The residue remaining after incineration. 
The mineral constituents of honey ash are iron, 
calcium, sodium, magnesium, sulphur, potas¬ 
sium, phosphorus, manganese, etc. The total 
weight of honey ash is about 15-100 of 1 per 
cent of the weight of the honey. 

Automatic hiver.—See “Self-hiver.” 

Baby nucleus. — A miniature hive of bees consist¬ 
ing of not more than 200 or 300 individuals; for 


the mating of queens only. It is distinguished 
from a regular nucleus having regular Lang- 
stroth frames in that it has miniature frames. 

Bacillus larvae.—The bacterium or germ which 
causes American foul brood. 

Bacillus pluton. — The bacterium or germ which 
causes European foul brood. 

Balling a Queen.—Honeybees may cluster densely 
around a queen, especially a strange queen, 
forming a ball an inch or more in diameter. 
In some cases the queen is released unharmed, 
in others she is killed. 

Banat bees.—A race of bees, resembling the Car- 
niolan, from the Banat region, Hungary. 

Bar-frame.—A name sometimes applied to a mov¬ 
able frame in Great Britain. 

Beebread.—The pollen of flowers gathered by the 
bees, mixed with a little honey, and deposited in 
the comb. See “Pollen” in the body of this 
work. 

Bee-brush.-—-A brush used in removing bees off 
their combs. 

Bee culture.—The care of bees. 

Bee-dress.—A dress designed for the use of bee¬ 
keepers while working with bees. 

Bee-escape.—A device to get bees out of supers or 
buildings, so constructed as to allow bees to 
pass through in one direction, but prevent their 
return. See “Comb Honey” in the body of 
this work. 

Bee-gloves.—Gloves worn to protect the hands from 
stings and from propolis. 

Bee glue.—See “Propolis.” 

Bee-gum. — A term much used in the South for a 
hive of any kind. It usually means a box hive. 
See “Box Hive.” 

Beehive.—A box or other contrivance for holding 
a colony of bees. See Hive. 

Bee-house.—A house constructed to contain colo¬ 
nies of bees. See “House Apiary” under 
“Apiary,” in the body of this work. 

Bee line.—The shortest distance between two 
points. See “Bee-hunting” in the body of this 
work. 

Bee louse.—A parasite, probably a commensal, 
found chiefly on queens, young bees, and 
drones. It is comparatively harmless. The bee 
louse (Braula caeca) belongs to the order of flies 
(Diptera) and to the family Braulidae. Only a 
single species is known. 

Bee metamorphoses.—The bee passes through 
three stages before becoming a perfect insect— 
first the egg, then the larva, and next the nymph. 
The following will serve to show how this is 
accomplished: Queen, Worker, Drone, 

days. days. days. 


Incubation of the egg. 

3 

3 

3 

Time of feeding the larva.. 

5 

5 

6 

Larva spinning cocoons. 

1 

2 

3 

Resting period . 

2 

3 

4 

Passing from larva to nymph .. 

1 

1 

1 

Time in the nymph state. . . . 

3 

7 

7 

Total period of growth . . . 

15 

21 

24 

Hatching takes place on... . 

4 

4 

4 

Bee leaves its cell. 

16 

21 

24 

Bee flies . 

21 

38 

38 

See “Development of Bees 
work. 

’ ’ in the body 

of this 

Bee moth.—A moth whose larvae destroy 
combs, eating the wax; a wax moth. 

honey- 

Bee paralysis.—A disease of 

adult 

bees in 

which 


the wings have a trembling motion, and the bees 
have a shiny appearance; of little account in the 







934 


BEEKEEPERS’ DICTIONARY 


North, hut sometimes severe in the South. See 
•'Diseases of Bees” in the body of this work. 

Bee pasturage. — Flowering plants from which bees 
gather nectar. 

Bee-pest.—A name sometimes used for foul brood. 

Bee plants.—Honey plants. Common plants which 
yield nectar available to honeybees in quantity 
sufficient to render them valuable in bee cul¬ 
ture 

Bee-space.—An open space in which bees build 
no comb or deposit a minimum of propolis. It 
is a passage between combs or part of a hive of 
from % to % inch. Five-sixteenths is usually 
taken as the average. See ‘‘Frames” in the 
body of this work. 

Beeswax.—The wax secreted by honeybees on the 
ventral abdominal segments, and used in build¬ 
ing their cells. It is composed in variable 
quantities of myrocin, cerolein and cerotic acid. 

Bee-tent. — Tent of wire cloth or netting large 
enough to contain a hive and the operator, in 
which bees may be manipulated without being 
troubled by robbers. See ‘‘Robbing” in the 
body of this work. 

Bee-tree.—A hollow tree occupied by a colony of 
wild bees. See ‘‘Bee-hunting” in the body of 
this work. 

Bee-veil.—A net veil for protecting the head from 
the attack of bees. 

Beeway sections.—Sections having insets at the 
edges so as to make passages for the bees when 
the sections are crowded close together. 

Black bees.—Broun bees. German bees. They are 
less gentle, less prolific, and do not resist brood 
diseases as well as Italian bees. The German 
bee was introduced into New England in 1638. 

Bottom-board.—The floor of a beehive. 

Box hive.—A plain box used for housing a colony 
of bees. Much used in the South. 

Box honey. — Honey stored in small boxes or sec¬ 
tions. 

Black brood.—Old name for European foul brood. 

Brace-comb.—The terms ‘‘brace-comb” and “burr- 
comb” are often used indiscriminately as mean¬ 
ing the same thing. More exactly, a brace-comb 
is a bit of comb built between two combs to fas¬ 
ten them together, or between a comb and ad¬ 
jacent wood, or between two wooden parts, as 
between two top-bars; while a burr-comb is a bit 
of wax built upon a comb or upon a wooden 
part in a hive, seeming to have no object but to 
use up wax. 

Braula coeca.—See “Bee Louse.” 

Breathing pores.-—See “Spiracles.” 

Brimstoning.—The operation of killing a colony of 
bees with sulphur fumes. See “Box Hives” in 
the body of this work. 

British standard frame.—A frame 14 inches long 
by 8 3 4 deep. 

Brood. — Young bees in the larval and pupa state 
not yet emerged from their cells. 

Brood-chamber.—That part of the hive in which 
the brood is reared. May be used as a super in 
extracting. 

Brood-comb.-—One of the combs in the brood-cham¬ 
ber. See “Brood” and “Combs” in the body 
of this work. 

Brood-nest.—That part of the brood-chamber occu¬ 
pied by eggs and brood. The term is also used to 
apply to that part where the bees are clustered 
when they have no eggs or brood. 

Brood-rearing.—Raising bees from the egg. 

Brushed swarm.-—An artificial swarm made by 
brushing or shaking part or all of the bees of a 
colony into an empty hive, thus anticipating and 
preventing a natural swarm. It is also called 
“shaken swarm” and “shook swarm,” although 
some object to “shook swarm” as being un¬ 
grammatical. See “Artificial Swarming” in the 
body of this work. 

Bumblebee.—-A large hairy social bee of the genus 
Bombus; bumblebee. 


Burr-comb.—See “Brace-comb.” 

Button or bouton.—The enlarged part at the tip of 

a bee’s tongue. 

Candied honey.—Honey that has granulated and 
become solid. See “Granulated Honey.” 

Cap.—1. A hive cover. 2. The covering of cells 
containing brood or honey; the capping; the 
sealing. 3. To cover a cell with a capping; to 
seal. 

Capped brood.—Brood sealed over by the bees 8 
or 9 days after the egg is laid; sealed brood. 
See “Sealed Brood.” 

Carniolan bees.—A grayish-black race of very gen¬ 
tle bees from Carniola, Austria. They gather a 
very small quantity of propolis, but swarm ex¬ 
cessively. 

Carton.—A pasteboard box for holding a section 
of honey. 

Cast.—A second swarm; also applied to any swarm 
after the first. 

Caucasian bees.-—A gentle race of black or dark- 
colored bees introduced into America from the 
Caucasus. They are much inclined to swarm 
and to propolize. 

Cell.—One of the hexagonal compartments of a 
honeycomb. 

Cell cup.—A queen-cell when it is only about as 
deep as it is wide. Artificial cell cups are made 
as well as natural. See “Queen-rearing” in 
the body of this work. 

Cell-protector.—A receptacle made of wire cloth, 
or of spirally wound wire, which protects the 
sides of a queen-cell from the attacks of bees, 
but leaves the apex of the cell uncovered. 

Ceresine.—A white wax-like substance, resembling 
paraffin, which is derived from the mineral ozo¬ 
cerite. It is used in adulterating beeswax. 

Chaff hive.—A hive having double walls filled be¬ 
tween with chaff. The term has gone into dis¬ 
use and in its place has come double-walled hive 
that may use any packing. See “Double-walled 
Hive.” 

Chorion.—The membrane or shell enclosing the 
egg. and in the honeybee covered by a network 
with oblong hexagonal interstices or meshes. 

Chrysalis.-—See pupa, the more usual name. 

Chyle.—In human physiology chyme is the food 
which after gastric digestion passes out of the 
stomach, and becomes after intestinal digestion 
a milky fluid known as chyle. Probably neith¬ 
er of these terms should be used in insect phy¬ 
siology. It is almost if not quite certain that 
brood food or royal jelly is not regurgitated 
“chyle,” or the contents of the ventriculus (the 
so-called “chyle stomach”). See “Royal 
jelly.” 

Chyme.—See “Chyle.” 

Clamp.—A winter repository for bees, made in 
sandy soil by digging a trench in which the 
hives are placed, and then covered with straw 
and earth. 

Cleansing flight.—The flight of the bees from the 
hive after long confinement, as in the spring, 
when they void their feces in the air. 

Closed-end frames.-—Frames with end-bars wide 
enough (1% or 1% inches) so that their edges 
come in contact their entire length. 

Colony.—A community of bees having a queen, 
some thousands of workers, and during part of 
the year a number of drones; the bees that live 
together as one family in a hive. 

Comb.—See “Honeycomb.” 

Comb-basket.—That part of a honey-extractor in 
which the combs are held. See “Honey-ex¬ 
tractor.’ ’ 

Comb-carrier.-—A receptacle in which one or more 
combs may be placed and covered, so as to be 
easily carried, and protected from robbers. 

Comb foundation.—Thin sheets of beeswax stamp¬ 
ed to imitate a base on which the bees will con¬ 
struct a complete comb. 


BEEKEEPERS’ DICTIONARY 


935 


Comb-foundation machine. — A machine for stamp¬ 
ing the foregoing. 

Comb-guide.-—Strips of wood in lieu of founda¬ 
tion used as a guide in the construction of 
combs. 

Comb honey.—Honey in comb together with the 
comb. 

Corn syrup. — Mixture of dextrin, maltose, dex¬ 
trose and water in nearly equal parts, formed 
by hydrolysis of cornstarch. 

Cross.- — When races of bees are bred together the 
resulting progeny is called a cross. 

Cyprian bees.—A race of bees native to the Island 
of Cyprus. They resemble Italian bees, but are 
smaller. They sting so viciously that they have 
been generally discarded in the United States. 

Decoy hive.—A hive placed with the object of at¬ 
tracting passing swarms. 

Dequeen.-—To take the queen from a colony of 
bees; to unqueen. 

Dextrin.—British gum, a mucilaginous material 
formed by heating starch. The halfway stage 
in the conversion of starch to the sugar dex¬ 
trose. Harmful to bees; a good food for human 
beings. Honeydew is unsuitable for bee-feed be¬ 
cause it contains dextrin. 

Dextrose.—One of the five important sugars. (See 
sugar.) Known also as grape sugar and as 

glucose. D. is found in fruits, honey, invert 

sugar and commercial glucose or corn syrup. 

Dividing.—Separating a colony in a manner to 
produce two or more colonies. See “Artificial 
Swarming. ’ ’ 

Division-board.—A thin board of the same size as 
the inside length and width of the hive, used to 
contract the size of the brood-chamber or to 
divide it into separate compartments; often 
called “dummy’’; see “Dummy.’’ 

Double-walled hive. — A hive having an inner and 
outer wall, the space between which is filled 
with packing material such as planer shavings, 
leaves or chaff. See “Chaff Hives.’’ 

Dovetailed hive. — A hive with Langstroth frames, 
the hive having interlocked corners after the 
manner of lock cornering. It is in reality a 
lock-cornered hive. 

Drifting of bees. — Bees wintered outdoors, after 
several weeks of confinement, on the first warm 
flight day may sometimes drift into wrong en¬ 
trances. Similarly, bees put out of the cellar 
on the first warm day in the spring may drift in 
a like manner. This results in some colonies 
becoming very strong and populous, while others 
will become weak. See “Drifting” in the body, 
of this work. 

Drone.—Male bee. 

Drone brood.—Brood which matures into drones, 
bred in larger cells than worker bees. 

Drone comb.—Comb having cells which measure 4 
to the inch. Drones are reared in drone comb; 
also honey is stored in it, but not often pollen. 
Drone comb is about one inch thick when used 
for brood; when used for honey.it may be very 
much thicker. Drone comb has about 18 % 
cells to the square inch on each side. 

Drone egg.—The egg from which a drone hatches 
—an unimpregnated egg. 

Drone-trap—See “Queen-trap.” 

Drumming.—Pounding on the sides of an inverted 
hive to make the bees ascend into another hive 
placed over. In England it is called “driving.” 
See “Transferring” in the body of this work. 

Dummy.—A thin board of the same size as a 
frame, or a little smaller, having a top-bar nailed 
on top. See “Division-board.” 

Dysentery.—Diarrhea or an affection in which an 
accumulation in the intestines causes the bees 
to discharge watery feces in the hive or on the 
outside front of the hive. 

Dzierzon theory.—A set of 13 propositions put 
forth by Rev. John Dzierzon (pronounced Tseer 
tsone) in the middle of the 19th century, pro¬ 


pounding the then novel idea of parthenogene¬ 
sis. See “Dzierzon Theory” in the body of this 
work. 

East Indian bees.—The common honeybee of 
southern Asia ( Apis indica ) is smaller than the 
Italian bee and builds smaller worker brood- 
cells. Under the crude methods employed a 
surplus of only 10 or 12 pounds of honey is 
obtained. The smallest species of the genus 
Apis (A. florea) is also a native of the East In¬ 
dies. The combs are attached to a shrub or 
small tree in the open air. See “Giant Bees.” 

Egyptian bees.—A race of bees which has been 
known for many thousand years in Egypt. They 
are smaller than Italian bees, more irritable, 
rear a great number of drones, and are much 
less valuable. 

Embryo.—The germ of the bee in the egg. 

Emerging brood.—Young bees in the act of cut¬ 
ting off the cappings, of their cells and then 
emerging. 

Entrance.—The opening at the front of a hive to 
allow the bees to pass out and in. In America 
the entrance is almost universally at the bottom 
of the hive. In Europe it is often higher up. 

Entrance blocks.—Pieces of wood for regulating 
the size of the entrance. 

Enzymes.—Eerments, as maltase, lactase, dias¬ 
tase and pectase, which by contact act as ac¬ 
celerating agents in chemical changes without 
actually taking part in the reaction. In germin¬ 
ating seeds diastase hastens the transforma¬ 
tion of starch into sugar. Lipase aids in the 
breaking up of fats. The effect of an enzyme 
resembles that of a lubricating oil on the motion 
of an engine. An enzyme is also called a 
catalyst (power to decompose) and its effect on 
the reaction catalysis. Little is known of their 
origin. During a chemical change the quantity 
of the enzyme does not decrease. 

European foul brood.—See “Foul Brood.” 

Excluder.—A device consisting of oblong perfora¬ 
tions or wire bars so spaced that they will ex¬ 
clude queens or drones but admit workers. 

Extracted honey.—Honey obtained from combs by 
means of centrifugal force. 

Extracting.—The act of taking honey from the 
combs by means of an extractor. 

Extractor.—A machine consisting of a round can 
in which is mounted a revolving reel carrying 
a series of comb pockets. The rotation of the 
reel, carrying a set of combs from which the 
cappings have been removed, throws the honey 
out by centrifugal force without destroying the 
combs. 

Extra-thin-super foundation. — Comb foundation 
running about 13% square feet to the pound. 
See “Comb Foundation.” 

Fdn.—An abbrevation for the words “comb foun¬ 
dation.’ ’ 

Feces.—Excreta of bees. 

Fecundate.-—To fertilize; to impregnate. The 
queen is fecundated upon meeting the drone, 
and is then capable of laying eggs that will pro-_ 
dirce workers or queens. 

Feeders.—Appliances for feeding bees artificially. 

Femur.—Thigh of the honeybee. 

Fence.—A slatted separator resembling an ordin¬ 
ary wooden fence. It is used as a guide to 
compel the bees to build combs that are straight. 

Fertile.—A fertile queen is one that has mated 
with a drone. 

Fertilize.—A queen’s eggs that are to produce 
workers or queens are fertilized -on their out¬ 
ward passage by receiving one or more of the 
spermatozoa contained in the spermatheca of the 
queen. Drone eggs are unfertilized. 

Field bees.—When worker bees become about 16 
days old, they begin the work of flying abroad 
to collect nectar, pollen, water and propolis and 
are then called field bees. 

Fielders.—Field bees. 

Fixed frames.—Frames that do not hang loose in 


936 


BEEKEEPERS’ DICTIONARY 


the hive, hut touch at one or more parts of the 
end-bars; self-spacing frames. See “Frames, 
Self-spacing,’’ in the body of this work. 

Fondant.—A soft bee-candy used for feeding bees 
in winter or for queen or shipping cages; some¬ 
times made of glucose and granulated sugar, hut 
more often of honey and powdered sugar. See 
“Good Candy.’’ 

Formic acid.—A colorless corrosive liquid com¬ 
pound (HCO.OH), forming a very small but im¬ 
portant part of honey. 

Foul brood.—A malignant contagious disease of 
bees affecting the brood. There are two distinct 
types—one American foul brood ( Bacillus lar¬ 
vae), and the other European foul brood ( Bacillus 
pinion ). 

Foundation.—See “Comb Foundation.’’ 

Foundation-fastener..—A device for fastening foun¬ 
dation in brood frames or sections. There are 
several different patterns of them. 

Foundation splints.—Wooden splints about 1-16 
inch square, embedded vertically in the founda¬ 
tion of a brood-frame to prevent sagging. See 
“Comb Foundation’’ in the body of this work. 

Frame.—A device consisting of a frame of wood 
of a suitable size to hold a comb and so con¬ 
structed that a series of them may be held a 
bee-space apart in a vertical position in a box 
called a hive. The only practically movable 
frame hive was invented by L. L. Langstroth 
in 1852. 

Fructose.—See “Levulose." 

Fumigate.—To submit to the fumes of sulphur, 
carbon bisulphide or other disinfectant. Combs 
are fumigated to kill the eggs or larvae of the 
bee moth, and bees are sometimes killed by 
fumigation. See “Moth Miller’’ in the body of 
this work. 

Galleria mellonella.—The Latin name of the larger 
wax moth. See “Moth Miller’’ in the body of 
this work. 

Ganglion (plural, ganglia).—A nodular enlarge¬ 
ment consisting of an aggregation of nerve-cells 
that receives and sends forth nervous impulses 
and serves to stimulate organic and psychical 
action; a nerve center. 

Giant bees, Apis dorsata.—Natives of India, and 
the largest honeybees in the world. There are 
probably several varieties of this species. All 
of them build huge combs in the open air, often 
from five to six feet in length and from three 
to four feet in width, which they attach to 
overhanging ledges of rock or to large limbs of 
trees. When attached to the latter they are 
built singly; not capable of domestication. 

Glucose.—1. A synonym for dextrose, q. v. 2. A 
synonym for corn syrup, q. v. 

Go-backs.—Unfinished sections which are returned 
to the hive to be finished. 

Golden bees, or Goldens.—Colonies in which many 
of the workers show four or five yellow bands. 

Good candy.—See “Queen candy.’’ 

Grafting.—Applied by beekeepers to the process 
of removing a worker larva from its cell into a 
queen-cup, with the view of having it reared 
into a queen. See “Queen-rearing” in the body 
of this work. 

Grape sugar.—See “Dextrose.” 

Granulated honey.—See “Candied Honey.” 

Green honey.-—Unripe honey. 

Half-depth supers.—Tne same as any ordinary ex- 
tracting-super, but half the depth of the stand¬ 
ard Langstroth 

Hatching brood.—Young bees just gnawing their 
way out of the cells. Incorrectly used for emerg¬ 
ing brood. 

Heddon frame.—5% inches deep by 18 1-16 in 
length. 

Hermaphrodite bees.—Bees having characters com¬ 
mon to both sexes, as a worker head, and drone 
thorax and abdomen, or the reverse; or one- 
half of the head is that of a worker, and the 


other half that of a drone. As there may be 
a combination of sexual characters Siebold call¬ 
ed them hermaphrodites. The cause is un¬ 
known. 

Hive.-—1. Home for bees furnished by man. The 
modern hive consists of a series of movable 
frames held in a vertical position a bee-space 
apart in a box of suitable size. See “Frame”; 
see also “Hives” in the body of this work. 2. To 
put a swarm in a hive or to induce it to enter 
a hive. 

Hive-tool.—A tool used to pry up supers, pry 
frames apart, etc. See “Manipulation of Colo¬ 
nies” in the body of this work. 

Hoffman frames.—Self-spacing frames having end- 
bars enough wider at the top to provide the 
proper spacing when the frames are placed in 
contact. 

Honey.—The nectar of flowers gathered by the 
bees, and so changed by them that it becomes 
honey. According to the national pure-food law, 
“Honey is laevorotatory, contains not more 
than 25 per cent of water, not more than 25/100 
of 1 per cent of ash, and not more than 8 per 
cent sucrose (cane sugar).” Honey is composed 
largely of a mixture of the two sugars, dextrose 
and levulose, dissolved in about 17 per cent 
water. It also contains small amounts of su¬ 
crose, mineral matter, protein, enzymes, etc. 

Honeybee.—The honeybee belongs to the class In- 
secta, order Hymenoptera, superfamily Apoidea 
or Anthophila and family Apidae. In 1758 Lin¬ 
naeus named the honeybee Apis mellifera (hon¬ 
ey-bearer), and three years later (1761) chang¬ 
ed the name to Apis mellifica (honey-maker). 
Dalla Torre recognizes in the genus Apis over 
180 species. Races or varieties of the domestic 
bee are also distinguished by the names of the 
geographical localities in which they occur and 
from which they have been exported, as Italian, 
Carniolan, Syrian, Cyprian, Banat, Caucasian 
and Tunisian. 

Honey-board.—A slatted board placed between the 
brood-chamber and the honey-chamber to break 
the continuity of the two; formerly a board 
with holes in it to support the receptacles of 
comb honey. A queen-excluder is sometimes 
called a honey-board. 

Honey-box.—A box for comb honey, closed on all 
sides, and provided with holes to allow the bees 
access. Almost obsolete. 

Honeycomb.—Two series of waxen cells with a 
septum between them, which septum serves as 
the bottom for the cells of both series. In the 
Bible honeycomb means comb honey. See 
“Drone Comb” and “Worker Brood” in the 
body of this work. 

Honeydew.—A sweet liquid excreted by insects, 
chiefly plant-lice and bark-lice, on the foliage of 
shrubs and trees. It was formerly believed to 
fall from the atmosphere. A large amount is 
gathered by honeybees. 

Honey-evaporator.—A machine for removing water 
from honey deemed too thin. 

Honey-extractor.—A machine consisting of two or 
more comb pockets or baskets arranged to re¬ 
volve around a central shaft for throwing the 
honey from combs by centrifugal force. See 
‘ ‘Extractor.’ ’ 

Honey-gate.—An iron faucet used for drawing 
honey from barrels, cans or extractors. 

Honey-harvest.—The time when bees are gather¬ 
ing a surplus, o<r more than enough for their 
daily needs. 

Honey-house.—A building for the purpose of hon¬ 
ey extraction, storage, etc. 

Honey-knife.—A knife used to shave the cappings 
from combs of sealed honey preparatory to ex¬ 
tracting. 

Honey-pump.—A device operating on the rotary 
principle for elevating honey from a honey-ex¬ 
tractor or tank into- another tank. 

Honey-stomach.—Honey-sac. An enlargement of 
the posterior end of the oesophagus lying in the 
front part of the abdomen, the function of 


BEEKEEPERS’ DICTIONARY 


937 


which is to hold the nectar gathered by bees 
from flowers. The walls are very distensible. 

House-apiary. — 1. An apiary kept in a specially 
constructed building; 2. The building itself 
which contains the hives, the walls of the build¬ 
ing containing holes through which the bees 
pass out and in. 

Hybrids. — A cross between different species, or 
between varieties of the same species, as be¬ 
tween black and Italian bees. 

Hymettus. —A mountain district of Greece famous 
for its wild-thyme honey, and celebrated in 
classic poetry and history. 

Imago.— The fully developed bee or other insect. 

Imbedding tool. —A device for crowding the wire 
of the frame into the sheet of comb foundation. 

Introduce. — To give a colony a strange queen, 
taking precautions so that she will not be killed 
by the bees. 

Introducing. —Giving a strange queen to a colony 
of bees. Unless certain precautions are taken, 
a colony is apt to kill a queen to which they 
are not accustomed. Introducing is generally per¬ 
formed by hanging the queen in a cage in the 
midst of the strange bees several days until she 
acquires the odor of the hive. 

Introducing-cage. —A small box of wire and wood. 

Inversion. — The process of turning a hive upside 
down to compel the bees to attach their combs 
to the bottom-bar. also to remove honey from 
brood-frames into the supers. 

Invert sugar.—A mixture of equal parts of the 
two sugars, dextrose and levulose. with or with¬ 
out water. Invert sugar is made from sucrose 
(cane or beet sugar) by heating with a trace 
of acid. It superficially resembles honey, q. v 

Italian bees. — The most valuable race of bees for 
honey production. They were first successfully 
introduced into this country about 1860. The 
first three dorsal segments of the abdomen are 
banded with yellow. There are also four and 
five banded strains. 

Italianize. — To change a colony of any other race 
to Italians by introducing an Italian queen. 

Jumbo frame. — 17% inches long, 11% inches in 
depth. See ‘‘Hives” in the body of this work. 

Jumbo hive. — A regular standard Langstroth hive 
having Quinby depth hut otherwise regular 
Langstroth dimensions. It is 2% inches deeper 
than the regular standard Langstroth. It uses 
the same covers, bottoms and supers as the 
standard hive. 

Langstroth frame. —17% inches long by 9%' 
inches deep. See "Hives”; also "Frames” in 
the body of this work. 

Langstroth hive. —A hive having frames 17% by 
9%. In one sense, any movable-frame hive is a 
Langstroth hive, since Langstroth invented the 
movable-frame hive. See "Frame.” 

L. frame.— Langstroth frame. 

L. hive. —Langstroth hive. 

Larva (plural larvae). —A bee in the worm state; 
unsealed brood. 

Laying worker. —A worker which lays eggs, such 
eggs producing only drones. Laying workers 
do not appear except in colonies long queen¬ 
less. 

Legume. — A species of the Leguminosae, or pulse 
family, is often called a legume. The name of 
the fruit of this family, which is a 2-valved pod 
with the seeds borne on the ventral suture only. 

Levulose. —One of the five important sugars. It 
occurs in honey and in nearly all fruits except 
the grape. It is known also as fruit sugar or 
fructose. 

Light brood foundation. —Comb foundation running 
about 9 square feet to the pound. 

Ligurian bee. —Italian bee, named for the district 
in which the best Italian bees are found. 

Lining bees. — Watching the direction of the flight 
of bees so as to trace them to their home (usu¬ 


ally in some hollow tree). See "Bee-hunting” 
in the body of this work. 

Lock-cornered hives.—A scheme of fastening the 
hives together at the corners by means of lock¬ 
cornering straight fingers of wood. Dovetailed 
hives incorrectly named; are really lock-cor¬ 
nered. in that the fingers are straight and not 
dovetailed. See "Dovetailed Hives” in the 
,body of this work. 

Loose frames or loose-hanging frames. — As opposed 
to fixed frames, those which have no provision 
for self-spacing, but must be spaced by the eye. 
See "Self-spacing Frames,” also "Frames.” 

Mai de mai.—May sickness ; a peculiar disease of 
bees occurring mostly in May, and giving much 
trouble in Europe. 

Maltose. — One of the five important sugars. It oc¬ 
curs in malt products, beer and corn syrup or 
commercial glucose. 

Mandibles. — The first or upper pair of jaws of in¬ 
sects. The. second or lower pair of jaws are 
called the maxillae. 

May pest.—Same as mal de mai. 

Medium brood foundation. —Comb foundation run¬ 
ning about 7 square feet to the pound. 

Mel-extractor.-— Honey-extractor. 

Melipona.-—A genus of stingless bees native to 
South and Central America. They bite vicious¬ 
ly but do not sting. 

Metal-spaced frames. — Self-spacing frames having 
metal spacers on the sides of the frames. 

Migratory beekeeping. — In some portions of the 
country, particularly in California and in the 
Rocky Mountain districts, it is the practice to 
move whole apiaries from one locality to an¬ 
other to catch the successive honey flows. The 
bees are sent overland on trucks or by train. 

Mite. — See "Acarapis woodi.” 

Moth miller. — See "Bee Moth.” 

Movable frame.—A loose comb frame which can 
be removed completely from the hive for the 
purpose of examination or use. A Langstroth 
frame. See "Frames.” 

Natural Swarm.—A swarm of bees issuing through 
a natural impulse from the mother colony. 

Nectar. — A sweet liquid secreted by nectaries lo¬ 
cated chiefly in flowers and on leaves. 

Nectaries. — Glands composed of specialized tissue 
which secrete nectar. 

Neuter.—A name sometimes but incorrectly ap¬ 
plied to worker bees. 

Non-swarming hive. — A hive so constructed as to 
control the desire to swarm. 

Nucleus (plural nuclei). — A very small colony of 
bees. The difference between a nucleus and a 
colony is much like the difference between a 
boy and a man. It is not easy to say just when 
a nucleus becomes large enough to be called a 
colony. Perhaps nothing larger than three 
combs with adhering bees should be called a 
nucleus, although in the spring many so-called 
colonies have much less than three frames of 
brood. 

Nurse bees. — Young worker bees that feed the 
larvae and do other work inside the hive. They 
are generally less than 16 days old. 

Observatory hive.—A hive largely of glass to per¬ 
mit observing the bees at work. 

Ocelli.—The three simple eyes of the bee. 

Out-apiary.—An apiary kept at some distance 
(generally more than a mile) from the home of 
the beekeeper. 

Overstocking. — A condition reached when there 
are too many bees for a given locality. 

Packing-cases. — Large cases of wood surrounding 
one or more hives during winter. The space be¬ 
tween the hives and the case is filled in with 
packing of some sort, such as planer shavings 
or leaves; never used during the summer or 
warm months. See "Wintering Outdoors” in 
the body of this work. 


938 


BEEKEEPERS’ DICTIONARY 


Paraffin. —A white translucent substance somewhat 
resembling beeswax, derived from mineral oil, 
and sold very largely in the form of candles. It 
is used by beekeepers to render honey-barrels 
tight. 

Parent stock. —The original colony that has cast a 
swarm. 

Parthenogenesis. —Production of a new individual 
from a virgin female without intervention of* a 
male; reproduction by means of unfertilized 
eggs. In bees the unfertilized eggs produce 
only males. An unfecundated queen, and some¬ 
times a worker, may lay eggs that will hatch, 
producing only drones. See “Parthenogenesis” 
in the body of this work. 

Perforated zinc. —Zinc sheet metal having oblong 
holes 1-6 of an inch in width to allow worker 
bees alone to pass, and excluding queens and 
drones. See “Excluders.” 

Pickled brood.—See “Sacbrood.” 

Piping.- —-A series of sounds made by a queen, 
louder than any sound made by a worker, con¬ 
sisting of a loud, shrill tone, succeeded by sev¬ 
eral others, each sound shorter than the one 
that precedes it. A laying queen is seldom 
heard to pipe; a virgin perhaps always pipes at 
intervals after emerging from her cell, and in 
response to her piping may be heard the quahk- 
ing of one or several virgins in their cells, if 
such are in the hive, the quahking being uttered 
in a lower key and in a more hurried manner 
than the piping. Piping is also called ‘teeting.” 

Pistil. —The pistil is divided into the ovary, style 
and stigma. The ovary contains the ovules 
which, after fertilization, become the seeds. See 
“Pollen” in the body of this work. 

Plain sections. —Comb-honey sections with no in¬ 
sets or scalloped edges. See “Comb Honey, 
Appliances For,” in the body of this work. 

Playfiights, or playspells.—On warm clear days 
young bees, which have never before left the 
hive, perform the flight of orientation. The 
head is turned constantly toward the hive and 
the bee hovers up and down, and later de¬ 
scribes smaller and then larger orientation cir¬ 
cles. It thus forms a memory picture of the 
hive and its surroundings, which later guides 
it when returning from the field. The older bees 
fly forth from the entrance without a moment’s 
delay. 

Polariscopc. —An optical instrument much used in 
sugar and honey laboratories for measuring the 
quantity of or differentiating between the vari¬ 
ous sugars. Its use depends on the fact that 
each sugar has its own “specific rotation.” 

Polarization. —The specific rotation of a substance 
like the sugars as measured by the optical in¬ 
strument called the polariscope, q. v. 

Pollen.- —Dust-like grains formed in the anthers, 
within which are produced the male elements or 
sperms. 

Pollen-basket. —A cavity on the hind legs of the 
bee wherein is deposited the pollen gathered 
from flowers. 

Power extractor. —An extractor driven by some 
kind of power, usually a small gasoline engine 
of about two horsepower. A power extractor is 
a machine of large capacity, containing not less 
than six or eight combs at a time. 

Prime swarm. —The first swarm—the swarm with 
the old queen. 

Propolis. —A kind of glue or resin collected by the 
bees and chiefly used to close up cracks and 
small spaces. 

Pupa. —The third stage of the bee, during which 
it is inactive and sealed up in its cell; some¬ 
times called “chrysalis.” 

Quahking.- —The noise made by a young queen in 
her cell in response to the piping of the queen 
at large. See “Piping.” 

Queen. —A fully developed female bee; the mother 
bee. 

Queen-cage. —A small box of wire and wood in 
which queens are held prisoners. 


Queen candy.—Candy made by kneading powdered 
sugar into extracted honey or invert sugar syrup 
until it forms a stiff dough; used in queen- 
cages ; called Scholtz candy, because Rev. M. 
Scholtz introduced it in Europe. Afterward I. K. 
Good gave it prominence in America, and so it 
is often called Good candy. 

Queen-cell.—A cell in which a queen is reared, 
having an inside diameter of about Ys of an 
inch, hanging downward an inch or more in 
length. 

Queen-excluder.—See ‘ ‘Excluder.” 

Queening.—The act of introducing a queen into a 
queenless colony of bees. 

Queenless.—Having no queen. 

Queen-nursery.-—A cage or set of cages in which 
to confine queen-cells or queens. 

Queen-rearing.—Raising queens. 

Queen-register.-—A card to be attached to a hive 
with pointers that may be moved so as to indi¬ 
cate dates, and conditions relating to the queen, 
such as “cell.” “hatched,” “laying,” etc. 
See “Record-keeping” in the body of this 
work. 

Queenright.—Having a good laying queen. 

Queen’s voice.—A sound made by a queen. See 
1 ‘Piping.’ ’ 

Queen-trap.—A device provided with perforated 
zinc, or wire bars, to be attached to the en¬ 
trance of a hive, allowing workers to pass, 
but trapping any queen or drone that attempts 
to issue. Called also “drone-trap.” 

Quilt.—A cover for brood-frames made in the 
form of a thin cushion. 

Quinby frame.—The hanging Quinby frame is 
18 y 2 by 1114 ; the closed-end or standing Quin¬ 
by is 19% by 11, is without lugs, and sup¬ 
ported at the bottom. See “Hives” in the 
body of this work. 

Quinby hive.—A hive invented by Mr. Quinby 
based on Huber’s leaf hive of the latter part of 
the 18th century. See “Hives” in the body 
of this work. 

Rabbet.—1. An offset in the upper inside edge of 
a hive. 2. A narrow piece of tin folded in a 
peculiar manner to form a rest for the shoulders 
of the hanging frames. See “Hives” in the 
body of this work. 

Race.—Groups smaller than species are variously 
called subspecies, race, variety, strain and form. 
The first three terms are nearly synonymous. A 
race of Apis mellifica is a geographical variety, 
which propagates itself sexually and interbreeds 
freely with other races of the same species. 

Rendering wax.—The process of melting combs 
and refining wax from its impurities, usually 
done by means of hot water or steam accom¬ 
panied by pressure on the mass of material. 

Repository.—A room, usually upon a hillside, part¬ 
ly or wholly below ground, in which bees are 
wintered; a bee-cave; a bee-cellar. In a general 
sense the word may be used for any place in 
which bees are wintered indoors. 

Reversing.—Turning over or inverting a hive with 
bees to accomplish certain results. See “In¬ 
version.’ ’ 

Reversible extractor.—A machine that reverses 
the combs inside of the can either automatically 
or by hand. 

Ripe honey.—Honey left in the care of the bees 
until it contains less than 25 per cent of -water. 

Robbing.—As applied to bees, the taking of honey 
by stealth or force from the hives of other colo¬ 
nies. 

Royal cell.—Queen-cell. 

Royal jelly.—Brood food. A milky white, finely 
granular jelly with a strong acid reaction. The 
larvae of the queen receive no other food, but 
it is fed to the larvae of the workers and drones 
for only three days. It is not known how it is 
formed. The contents of the bee’s stomach are 
brown-colored, strongly alkaline, and can not 
be forced back thru the stomach-mouth. Brood 


BEEKEEPERS’ DICITIONARY 


939 


food is probably formed in part, at least, by 
glands in the anterior part of the head, which 
open by a duct in the pharynx. They are well 
developed in nurse bees, absent in drones, and 
developed in female bumblebees, but are rudi¬ 
mentary in the solitary bees, which do not 
“nurse” their brood. 

Sacbrood.—A disease of brood. Slightly contagi¬ 
ous but not serious. 

Saccharose.— See “Sucrose.” 

Scholtz candy.-—See “Queen Candy.” 

Sealed brood. —Brood that has been capped or 
sealed over by the bees with a somewhat por¬ 
ous capping; mostly in the pupa stage. See 
“Capped Brood.” 

Section. —A small frame or box open on two op¬ 
posite sides, that 'is placed on a hive to receive 
surplus comb honey of slightly less than a 
pound ; a section box. Also, the honey contained 
in a section box. 

Section holder. —A device for holding sections 
while in process of being filled on the hive. 

Self-hiver. —Any device by which the bees of a 
swarm are induced to enter of their own accord 
a hive prepared for them. 

Self-spacing frames. —Frames so made that, push¬ 
ed together, they will be spaced the proper dis¬ 
tance apart from center to center (usually 1% 
inches); see “Fixed Frames.” 

Separator. —A very thin board or sheet of tin 
. placed between sections to make the bees build 
the combs accurately. 

Septum. —The middle of a honeycomb. 

Shaken swarm or shook swarm. —An artificial 
swarm made by shaking bees from a very popu¬ 
lous colony- into a fresh hive. By this means 
natural swarming is closely imitated. See 
“Brushed Swarm.” See “Artificial Swarming.” 

Shipping case. — A light box, often with glass on 
one side, of varying size, in which section hon¬ 
ey may be shipped. The sizes most commonly 
in use are those containing 12 and 24 sections 
each. 

Skep. — A beehive without movable frames, espe¬ 
cially one made of straw. 

Skeppist. —An old-fashioned beekeeper. 

Slumgum. —The refuse from a wax-extractor. 

Shook swarm.- —See “Shaken swarm.” 

Smoker. —An implement having a fire-box with bel¬ 
lows attached, by means of which smokg may 
be blown upon bees; a bee-smoker. 

Solar wax-extractor. —A glass-covered box melt¬ 
ing beeswax by the heat of the sun. 

Solitary bees. —Bees that do not live in colonies or 
families like the common honeybee. Of solitary 
bees there are over 2000 species in North Amer¬ 
ica alone, or about one-fourth of all the species 
in the world. They are of no value in the pro¬ 
duction of honey, but do assist in the work of 
pollination of flowers. 

Specific gravity. —The ratio of the weight of a 
substance compared with an equal volume of wa¬ 
ter. The specific gravity of honey is 1.4 (Baume 
scale 42 degrees). In plain English, honey 
weighs 12 pounds per gallon. Beeswax has a 
specific gravity of .97. Water, 1.00. 

Spermatheca. —A small sac attached to the oviduct 
of the queen, in which are stored the sperma¬ 
tozoa received from the drone in the act of copu¬ 
lation. 

Spermatozoon. —One of the germs contained in 
the semen of drones. (Plural, spermatozoa.) 

Spiracles. —Bees breathe by a system of internal 
tubes, known as tracheae, which branch min¬ 
utely to all parts of the organism. The exter¬ 
nal openings of the tracheae, located on the 
sides of the thorax and abdomen, are called 
spiracles. 

Spreading brood.—Putting a comb without brood 
between two combs of brood to induce the queen 
to lay in the former. 


Stamens. — The organs of flowers producing pol¬ 
len. 

Starter. — A small piece of comb or foundation 
fastened in a frame or section to start the bees 
to building at the right place. See “Comb 
Foundation.’ ’ 


Steam honey-knife.—An uncapping-knife kept 
continuously hot with steam from a light hose 
to facilitate the slicing off of the cappings for 
the purpose of extracting. See “Uncapping- 
knife.’ ’ 

Stigma.—That part of the pistil of a flower which 
receives the pollen for the fecundation o-f the 
ovules; the end of the pistil. 

Strain.—Although scientists may not all agree as 
to using this word. John Phin, in his excellent 
Dictionary of Practical Apiculture, says it “is 
one of the most useful, expressive and legitimate 
words that we have, and this is shown by the 
extraordinary difficulty of finding a synonym for 
it.” Suppose one has a certain race of bees. 
Among them he finds some that are specially 
noted for some particular quality, good or bad, 
as gentleness or viciousness, and this quality 
descends with more or less certainty to their 
posterity. This quality does not differentiate 
them from others of the same race sufficiently 
to constitute them a different race or breed, but 
it is of sufficient importance to warrant their 
being called a strain. Moreover, the character¬ 
istics of a strain are not so fixed as the charac¬ 
teristics of a race, and without great care the 
particular characteristics will disappear, or as 
we say “the strain runs out.” See “Races of 
Bees” in the body of this work. 

Sucrose.—One of the five important sugars. Re¬ 
fined white sugar, either cane or beet, is pure 
sucrose. 


Sugar.—The term sugar generally refers to sucrose, 
which is the sole constituent of refined white 
sugar, cane or beet. However, there are four 
other important food sugars, classified as fol¬ 
lows : 


Name. Synonyms. 

1. Sucrose. . . . Saccharose 

‘ 1 Sugar’ ’ 

2. Lactose.Milk sugar 

3. Maltose. . . . Malt sugar 


4. Dextrose... Glucose 

Grape sugar 


5. Levulose... .Fructose 

Fruit sugar 


Where found. 

Cane or beet sug¬ 
ar or maple sugar. 
All milk. 

Malt products and 
■corn syrup or 
com’l “glucose.” 
Honey, invert sug¬ 
ar, com’l “glu¬ 
cose’ ’ or corn 
syrup, fruits. 
Honey, invert sug¬ 
ar, fruits. 


Super.—A receptacle in which bees store surplus 
honey; so called because placed “over” the 
hive. 


Supersedure.—The rearing of a new queen to suc¬ 
ceed or supersede the old queen, when her fer¬ 
tility or egg-laying power begins to fail. The 
old queen either departs with a swarm or is 
put to death. 

Surplus or surplus honey.—Honey over and above 
what the bees need for their own use, and which 
the beekeeper takes from them; honey stored 
elsewhere than in the brood-combs. 

Surplus apartment.—The apartment in which sur¬ 
plus honey is stored. 

Swarm.—A large number of bees with a queen 
leaving the mother colony to find new lodgings 
and found a new colony. 


Swarm-catcher.—A net placed at the entrance of 
a hive, a basket at the end of a pole, or any 
other device intended to secure a swarm as it 
leaves the hive or afterward. 


Swarming season.—The period of the year when 
swarms usually issue. 

Syrian bees.—They were first brought to the 
United States from Palestine in 1880. In size 
and color they resemble Italian bees but they 
swarm excessively, and are relatively of little 
value. 



940 


BEEKEEPERS’ DICTIONARY 


Tarsonemus woodi.- —A destructive parasite (Isle 
of Wight disease) that finds its way into the 
breathing pores or spiracles of honeybees. At 
present confined to Europe. 

Tarsus.— -The five terminal segments of a bee’s leg 
are called the tarsi; one of these segments is a 
tarsus. 

Tested queen. —A queen whose progeny show she 
has mated with a drone of her own race. 

Thin-super foundation. —Comb foundation running 
about 12 square feet to the pound. 

Thorax. —The middle part of a bee between the 
head and abdomen, to which the wings and 
legs are attached. 

Tibia.— The fourth joint of an insect’s leg, be¬ 
tween the femur and tarsi. 

Tiering up. —Adding supers on the top of a hive 
to receive the incoming honey. 

Transferring.- —Ordinarily applied to the process 
of changing bees and combs from common boxes 
to movable-frame hives. 

Transformations. —-See 1 ‘Bee Metamorphoses’ ’ ; also 
“Development of Bees’’ in the body of this 
work. 

Transposition process. —Taking a young larva from 
a worker-cell and placing it in a queen-cell cup. 

Travel-stain. —The darkened appearance upon the 
surface of comb honey when left long upon the 
hive. 

Trigona. —A genus of stingless bees in South 
America and Asia. Some species bite furiously. 

Tunisian bee. —A black race, natives of northern 
Africa; very cross, and much given to swarming; 
sometimes called Punic. The bees are bad pro- 
polizers, nervous and, from a commercial point 
of view, undesirable. 

Uncapping-knife.— See “Honey-knife.’ ’ 

Unripe honey. —Honey which has not been left in 
the care of bees long enough to be thickened 
until it contains less than 25 per cent of water. 

Unsealed brood. —-Brood not yet sealed over by 
the bees. In a general way eggs are often in¬ 
cluded with larvae under the term “unsealed 
brood.’’ See “Brood’’ and also “Bee Meta¬ 
morphoses.’’ 

Vinegar, —A sour liquid made by the alcoholic 
and subsequent acetous fermentation of any 
product containing a sugar in practical quanti¬ 
ties. Obviously, vinegar can be made from 
honey, by properly diluting it. 

Virgin comb.— Comb which has been used for 
honey only once, and never for brood. 

Virgin queen. —An unfecundated queen. 

Vitamine. —An accessory food substance very nec¬ 
essary to health and growth in all animal life. 
Vitamines are divided into three groups, Fat- 


soluble A, Water-soluble B and Water-soluble 
C. The first occurs in comb honey, but no 
vitamines of any class have been found so far 
in any amount in extracted honey. 

Wax-extractor.—An appliance for rendering wax 
by heat, or by heat and pressure. 

Wax moth.—See “Bee Moth.’’ 

Wax-pocket.—The receptacles on the under side of 
the abdomen wherein the bees secrete their wax. 

Wax-press.—A press in which the wax is squeezed 
out of the heated combs. 

Wax-tube fastener.—A tube for applying a fine 
stream of melted wax along the edge of a sheet 
of foundation to cement it to the top-bar of a 
brood frame or the top of a section. 

Wean.—To cease giving the highly concentrated 
food that is first fed to larvae, and to give coar¬ 
ser food. A worker larva is weaned when three 
days old. 

Wedding excursion or wedding flight.—The flight 
of the queen when five days old or older, to 
mate with the drone in the air. 

Wild bees.—Bees living in hollow trees or other 
abodes not prepared for them by man. Strict¬ 
ly speaking, they are no wilder than bees in 
hives. 

Windbreaks.—Either specially constructed fences 
or barriers composed of growing trees to reduce 
the force of the wind. 

Wintering.—The care of bees during winter. 

Wired frames.-—These are brood frames having 
wires stretched across them, either vertically 
or horizontally, for the purpose of holding the 
comb foundation and later the comb solidly in 
position. See “Comb Foundation’’ in the body 
of this work. 

Wiring frames.-—The act of stringing wires 
through holes in brood frames to hold founda¬ 
tion in place. 

Wood-base foundation.—A thin veneer of wood 
covered on each side with shallow cell walls of 
beeswax having the same general appearance 
of the surface of comb foundation. 

Worker.—A female bee whose organs of reproduc¬ 
tion are undeveloped; well named “worker,’’ 
because workers do all the work of the colony 
except layiilg the eggs. 

Worker comb.—Comb having cells which measure 
five to the inch, in which workers may be 
reared, and honey or pollen stored. See “Hon¬ 
eycomb.’ ’ 

Worker egg.—A fertilized egg laid by a queen bee, 
which may produce either a worker or a queen. 

Xylocopa.—Often called carpenter bees because 
they excavate with their powerful jaws a chan¬ 
nel a foot in length in solid wood. They much 
resemble bumblebees. 


INDEX 


A 

A B C of Bee Culture, How to be Read. 

A B C of Beekeeping... 

Absconding by Colonies, Small.15, 

Checked by Clipping. 

for Want of Pood. 

in the Spring. 

Prevented by Clipping. 

Swarms .13-16, 

Swarms, Freaks of. 

Acreage of Plants Necessary to Take Care of 

Colony of Bees. 

Adams & Myers’ Extracting Outfit. 


Adulteration, Kinds of...16, 

of Honey .16- 


of Honey, Not Now Common. 

of Honey with Invert Sugar Syrup. . 
Adult Bee Diseases. See Diseases of Bees. 


Advertising Honey . 

After-swarming .19, 

Methods to Prevent. .-. . . 

Prevented by Cell-cutting. 

After-swarms .792- 

Number of . 

Age of Bees.20, 


of Drones . 

of Queens . 

Albinos . 

Alexander Honey Strainer. 

Method of Increase. 

Plan of Uniting...854, 

Treatment of European Foul Brood.... 


Alfalfa, as Pasture and Soiling. 

Authorities on ... 

Blossom, Color of . 

Cutting Before Bloom. 

Cultivation of .28, 

Distribution in United States.23, 

Flowers, 'When Pollinated. 

General Discussion of.21- 

Habitats of .21. 

Hay, Stacking .27, 

Hay, Value of .31, 

History of . 

Honey . 

Honey, Color of . 


Honey Darker in Southern California... 

Honey, First and Second Crop. 

in the Rockies... 

in the West., 

Inoculation .29, 

Nectarless in the East. 

Other Crops with. 

Pollination .33, 

Reliable Crop . 

Seeding . 

Soil, Good or Bad. 

Species of . 

Suitable Condition for. 

When to Cut.31, 

Alfilerilla . 

Alighting-board, Part of Entrance.. 

Alimentary Canal . 

of Bee . 

of Bee Illustrated . 


Alley Drone Traps . 289, 

Alsike Clover. See Clover. 

Clover as a Honey Plant, . . 

Pollination of ...... • 193, 


Aluminum Combs .215, 216 

American Foul Brood. See Foul Brood, Amer¬ 
ican, under Head of Foul Brood. 

Anatomy of the Bee.35- 45 

Anger of Bees.45- 49 

of Bees Affected by Shrubbery.49- 53 

of Bees Depends on Source of Honey... 49 

Angry Bees, How to Know. 48 

Antenna Cleaner . 659 

Ants, Enemies of Bees. 298 

in Florida .51, 52 

in the North and in the South. 49 

More Troublesome in South. 51 

More Troublesome in Warm Climate.... 50 

Nests of, in Trees. 51 

Nests of, to Destroy. 50 

to Keep Under Control.51- 53 

Aphides, Cause of Dysentery. 291 

Aphis, a Source of Honeydew.493, 494 

Apiary .53- 75 

Arrangement of Hives in.70, 71 

Hive-stands in . 65 

Important, Shrubbery in.49, 56- 58 

Location for . 53 

Publishers’ . 69 

Shade for .59- 61 

Apis Dorsata . 717 

Apple Pollination . 409 

Arrangement of Brood, Pollen and Honey. ... 95 

Artichokes . 790 

Artificial Comb Honey Does Not Exist. 492 

Comb Honey, So-called. 226 

Fertilization .75, 76 

Heat . 77, 78 

Heat for Wintering. 77 

Pasturage . 78 

Pasturage Only Partially Recognized. . . . 509 

Swarming .79, 81 

Swarming, Distinguished from Increase. 81 

Swarming, How Performed.79- 81 

Swarms . 815 

Aster .81- 84 

Honey, Chiefly from Five Species. 82 

Honey for Wintering . 82 

Honey, Quality of . 82 

Automatic Hiving of Swarms.801, 802 

Automatic Reversible Extractor.343- 346 

Automobile for Out-apiary Work.642, 643 

B 

Baby Nuclei . 695 

Backlot Beekeeping . .'. .84- 87 

Bait-sections . 239 

Balling of a Queen, What to Do. 542 

Banat Bees . 715 

Barrel Hoops to Prevent Slipping. 88 

Barrels .. ....87- 89 

for Holding Honey, Size of. 87 

for Shipping Honey Not Satisfactory... 89 

How to Paraffin or Wax. 88 

How to Prepare for Honey.87, 88 

or Square Cans. 89 

Removing Granulated Honey from. 89 

to Test for Leaks. 88 

Bartlett’s Original Four-Colony Winter Case.. 899 

Basswood .89- 91 

Cultivation of . 91 

for the Making of Sections . 91 

Honey, Quality of. 90 

Honey, Yields of . 9Q 


4 

5 

16 

14 

15 

16 

14 

803 

14 

78 

340 

17 

19 

17 

18 

592 

20 

20 

19 

794 

19 

21 

21 

21 

715 

337 

854 

855 

375 

33 

35 

23 

32 

29 

26 

394 

35 

22 

28 

32 

21 

22 

26 

26 

27 

25 

23 

30 

25 

30 

34 

25 

30 

29 

21 

28 

32 

35 

300 

43 

40 

43 

290 

194 

194 




























































































































942 


INDEX 


Rapid Grower . 

Species of . 

Variable Source of Honey. 

Baume Hydrometer .. 

Bee, All Parts of .38, 

Anatomy of .35- 

and Fruit Culture . 

Behavior .92- 

Oellar, Dysentery in. 

Cellars. See Wintering in Cellars. 

Cuckoo . 

Dress or Clothing for Beekeepers... 859, 

Escape, Use of, in Bee-hunting.100- 

Escape Board, How to Put on.244, 

Escapes in Extracting. 

Escapes, Porter . 

Escapes, Taking Off Comb Honey... 243, 


Flowers, More Red and Blue Than Yel¬ 


low or White . 

Gloves .11, 

Glue . 

How It Sucks Up Honey. 

Hunting .97- 

Hunting Box, to Use.. 

Hunting, Climbers for.99, 

Hunting, Defined. 

Hunting, Does It Pay ?. .. 

Hunting, Equipment for.97, 


Hunting, Making Cross-lines. 

Hunting, Special Box for. 

Hunting, When It Can Be Practiced.... 
Moth. See Moth Miller. 

Moth, Destroyed by Burning Sulphur... 
Moth, Destroyed by Carbon Bisulphide.. 
Moth, Not a Serious Pest to Modern Bee¬ 
keepers . 

Moth, Pupa . 

Moth, Troublesome in Some of the South¬ 
ern States among the Box-hive Men.. . 


Moths, Two Species of. 599, 

Paralysis, Bees Immune to. 

Paralysis in Australia. 

Paralysis Symptoms .275, 

Paralysis, Treatment of. 

Sectional View of. 

Shipping Without Combs.746- 

Smoker . 


Smoker and Bee Veil a Protection. 

Smokers as a Means of Control. 

Space . 

Space Above or Below Brood-frame. 

Space and Its Relation to Modern 

Hive .378, 

Space, Discovery of, by Langstroth. . . . 
.378, 457, 


Space, Size of.105, 

Space Under Brood-frame. 

Sting Poison . 

Stings and Rheumatism. 

Temperament, How to Know. 

Territory, Moral Rights of.647, 

Tree, How to Locate.97- 

Trees . 

Trees, Menace to Queen-breeders. 

Veil . . . .'... 

Young, Behavior of.92, 

Beebread . 

Bees Accused of Scattering Blight. 

Age of .20, 

Albinos . 

Alibi for'. 

Alimentary Canal of. 

Amount of Cold They Can Stand. 


Amount of Honey They Can Carry. .886, 
and Farming. See Farmer Beekeeper. 

and Fruit-Growing .106, 

and Honey in Cities and Towns.... 777, 
and Poultry .107, 


and Queens, Early Hours of. 93 

and School-teaching . 106 

and Truck-gardening . 108 

Anger of . 45 

Attacking Fruit . Ill 

Banat . 715 

Beginning with. See Beginning with Bees. 

Behavior of, in Collecting Pollen. 659 

Black or German. 713 

Capable of Standing a Light Freeze for 

Short Time . 914 

Carniolans . 714 

Cliff . 765 

Compound Eye of.347, 348 

Congestion of, Cause of Swarming. . .805, 806 

Congestion of, in Brood-nest. 807 

Cross, To Know. 48 

Cyprians . 715 

Dead, Having Odor of American Foul 

Brood . 378 

Development of. See Development of 
Bees. 

Distance They Fly.361, 362 

Drifting .282, 283 

Drumming While Transferring.842, 843 

Easily Handled When Understood. 575 

Eastern, Cross . 550 

East Indian . 716 

Egyptian . 715 

Exonerated by Jury. 114 

Favorable Time for Handling.783, 784 

Few or Many.682, 683 

Field, How Influence Swarming.... 805, 806 

First Pollen for . 93 

Flying Out on Chilly Days Toward Winter 914 

Gentleness of . 47 

Giant Bees of India. 717 

Good-natured in Swarm. 792 

Holy Land . 715 

How and Where to Buy. 121 

How Made Cross. 47 

How They Can Warm Themselves by 

Exercise . 839 

How They Communicate. 726 

How They Deposit the Nectar.. 94 

How They Do Their Own Ventilating... 862 
How They Find Their Way Back to Hive 655 

How They Ripen Honey . 94 

How They Seem to Work According to a 

Plan . 707 

How to Get Them Off the Combs. 584 

How to Get Them Out of Bee-trees With¬ 
out Mutilating the Tree.100- 102 

How to Get Them Out of Building. .100- 102 

How to Handle, Rules for.783, 784 

in Cities and Towns.84- 87 

in Pound Packages.122- 125 

Intelligence of . 725 

Kept from Time Immemorial. 1 

Larva of .268, 269 

Legs Illustrated . 41 

Legs of . 38 

Like Mankind .48, 723 

Male. See Drones. 

Manipulating .12, 13 

Many Species of . 5 

Misrepresented . 5 

Mouth Parts of. 6 

Nervous System of.36- 45 

Not Always in a Towering Rage. 46 

Not a Nuisance in Themselves.. 108-111, 560 
Not Cause of Fire Blight nor Pear 

Blight .360, 361 

Not Injurious to Sound Fruit.561, 562 

Not True Hibernators.926- 928 

Number of Trips Made in a Day. 887 

Number to a Colony.5, 165, 887 

Number to the Pound.886, 887 


92 

89 

90 

463 

39 

45 

395 

97 

292 

766 

860 

102 

587 

323 

545 

244 

681 

416 

5 

37 

103 

98 

100 

97 

102 

98 

99 

98 

97 

614 

616 

599 

612 

599 

600 

277 

277 

276 

276 

36 

748 

11 

3 

2 

105 

106 

379 

554 

106 

106 

785 

786 

580 

648 

99 

13 

103 

11 

93 

97 

359 

21 

715 

360 

40 

927 

887 

107 

778 

108 





























































































































INDEX 


on Cellar Floor. 

on Outside of Winter Cluster. 

on Shares ....115, 

Resting Periods of. 

See Italian Bees. 

Shutting in a Hive During Winter in 

Cellar . 

Smothered hy Closed Entrance. 

Solitary . 

Solitary, Collecting Pollen. 

Sometimes a Nuisance in Fruit Drying. . 

Stingless .116- 

Strain of, Relation to Swarming. 

Strains of, Immune to Disease. 

Surpass All Other Insects as Pollinators. 

Syrians . 

That Sting Worst. 

Their Love of Home. 

Three Kinds of in a Hive. 

Tiny East Indian . 

to Enter Supers, Comb Honey.239, 

Tongue Illustrated . 

Too Many in a Locality. See Overstocking. 

Tunisians . 

Two Kinds . 

Unwarranted Fear of Them. 


versus Birds .113- 

versus Fruit-grower . 

When Become Angry. 

When Cross.47, 


When Preparing to Swarm. 

When Sting Remarkably. 

When to Put in and Take Out of Cellars 

Wild by Nature, in Law. 

Wild, Where Located . 

Wintering in a Warm Room. 

Worker .. 

Worker in Two Divisions. 

Worker, Their Duties . 

Young, after Emerging . 

Young, Their Work .147, 

Beekeeper Farmer. See Farmer Beekeeper. 

Beekeepers, Number of, in United States . . . . 


Room for More in United States. 

Specialist . 

Beekeeping, a Recreation for Women. 

as an Exclusive Business.769, 

as a Sole Means of Livelihood.769, 

as a Vocation and as an Avocation. .104, 

Bird’s-eye View of. 

for Pleasure .84-86, 

for Professional Men . 

for Women . ....103- 

in Cities and Towns.84- 

in Cities and Towns Profitable. 

in Olden Days. 

in Suburban Towns and Cities. . . . 777, 


Industry Pushed Forward by the Great 

War . 

Industry, Scope and Character of. 

Migratory. See Migratory Beekeeping. 

Not Hazardous nor Dangerous.. 

Old Way of. 

on Farms . 

on Shares. See Bees on Shares. 

Pleasurable Pastime..'. 

Restful Hobby . 

Territory in the U. S. 568- 

Beeswax, Furniture Polishes from. 

in Shoe Polishes. 

in the Arts. 

Beginning with Bees.118- 

Beginning Small with Bees. 

Behavior of Bees.92- 

of Bees in Collecting Pollen. 

of Bees in Swarming. 

of the Larval Bee.. 

Bellflower. See Campanilla, 


943 


Bell, Ringing to Stop Swarming. 15 

Bell, Ringing When Can is Full. 341 

Bicycle for Bringing Back Swarms. 798 

Bicycle Pants-guards, Holding Trousers when 

Among the Bees. 860 

Bingham Smoker . 755 

Bird’s-eye View of Beekeeping. 5 

Birds, Not Bees, Attacking Fruit.113, 114 

Biting of Stingless Bees. 118 

Black Bees ■. 713 

Black Brood. See Foul Brood. 

Black Gum . 126 

Black Sage . 735 

Bokhara. See Sweet Clover. 

Boomhower Knife-scraping Table. 246 

Borage .•.126, 127 

Borrowing . 732 

Bottling Honey.127- 136 

Honey by the Carload.132- 135 

on a Large Scale.131-135 

on a Small Scale. 128 

Bottom-board, Bee-space . 106 

Box Hives .6, 7, 136- 139 

How to Move in Sacks. 841 

Brace-combs. See Thick-top Frames under 
Frames. 

Brace-combs and Burr-combs Avoided by 

Thick-top Frames . 380 

Breeding, Cost of in Honey. 145 

Heavy on Stores. 143 

in a Story and a Half. 236 

in Two Stories. 449 

Queens, Requirements for. 139 

Queens, Where to Get. 140 

Stimulated by Giving a Super of Honey. 169 

Stock .139, 140 

Stock to Reduce Swarming. 808 

Brood and Brood-rearing.140, 149 

and its Relation to Swarming.794, 805 

Capped Over, What Happens. 270 

Chambers Double, for Swarm Control.808, 809 

Cost of in Honey. 145 

Daily Growth of . 146 

Dead, Determined at Entrance. 273 

Dead, from Drone-laying Queens. 378 

Development of.145- 147 

Disease. See Foul Brood. 

Diseases, Sequence of . 374 

Drone . 144 

Emerging, for Weak Colonies. 170 

Frames .8, 9 

How it Should be Placed During Extract¬ 
ing . 320 

How to Distinguish from Capped Honey. 140 

Indication of Colony.140, 141, 143 

Manipulation to Control Swarming.. 808, 809 

Nest, Crowded, Cause of Swarming. 807 

Nest Well Filled with Brood for Comb 

Honey .. . . 235 

Placing Above in Extracting. 319 

Rearing, Decreasing in the Fall. 141 

Rearing During Midwinter. 144 

Rearing, Importance of Plenty of Stores. 169 

Rearing in the South. 144 

Rearing in the Spring. 166 

Rearing in Two Stories. 449 

Rearing in Two Stories for Comb Hon¬ 
ey .235, 236 

Rearing, Pollen Necessary for.169, 663 

Rearing Slowing Down after the Honey 

Flow . 897 

Rearing Stimulated by Shallow Extract- 

ing-supers . 236 

Rearing Temperature . 78 

Rearing, to Insure a Crop.166, 167 

Rearing Too Early . 143 

Rearing, Water Necessary-for. 868 

Jtemoval for Swarm Control. 812 


924 

928 

116 

94 

924 

861 

5 

659 

562 

118 

808 

277 

680 

715 

785 

13 

5 

716 

241 

39 

715 

5 

575 

115 

114 

47 

48 

272 

48 

922 

557 

97 

77 

5 

6 

5 

A47 

148 

1 

3 

1 

104 

770 

770 

105 

5 

104 

84 

105 

87 

87 

1 

778 

2 

1 

575 

7 

348 

87 

86 

571 

870 

870 

870 

126 

119 

97 

659 

96 

93 































































































































944 


INDEX 


Spreading .. 

Starved or Neglected . 

Worker and Drone—To Distinguish 


Brushing Combs .321, 

Buckbush . 

Buckeye Hive, Construction of.453, 

Buckeye Reversible Extractors.344- 

Buckwheat .148- 

Amount of Seed per Acre. 

as a Honey Plant.150- 


Culture of . 

Fertilizer for . 

Flow Stopping Suddenly.. 

Harvesting . 

History of . 

Honey .:. 

Pollination of. 

Seed Bed . 

Species of .. 

Uses of. 

Varieties of . 

Yield of . 

Yield per Acre . 

Building Up Colonies.165- 

for Early Flow.. 

Colonies for Early Summer. 

Plans for . 

Portable, on Wheels. 


Buildings .156- 

Permanent for Extracting Plant. 

Permanent or Portable. 

Portable .162- 


Ventilation and Windows of. 

Bulk Comb Honey. 

Bulk Comb Honey, Objections to. 

Bumblebee Brood . 

Nest Destroyed by Mice. 

Parasitic ., . . 

Queen . 

Queen, Egg-laying of . 

Bumblebees .171- 

and Flower Pollination . 

and Red Clover . 

Having Longer Tongues Than Honeybees 

in New Zealand . 

Life History of . 

Sladen on . 

Species of . 

Varieties of .. 

Bureau of Entomology, What it is Doing for 

Beekeeping ... 

Burr and Brace Combs Avoided by Thick-top 

Frames . 

Burr Combs. See Thick-top Frames under 
Head of Frames. 

Buttel-Reepen on Playflights. 

Buying Bees ...121- 

C 

Cage to Set Over Colony That is Being Rob¬ 
bed .729, 

Cages for Mailing and Introducing Queen 533, 
Cages for Queens. See Introducing. 

California Sunflower . 

Calories in Honey. 

Canvpanilla .'.. 

Honey . 

Pink . 

Canada Thistle . 

Candied Honey. See Granulated Honey. 


Candy for Bees.178, 

for Bees in the Cellar. 

Hard, for Winter Use. 

Soft, How to Make.....178, 

Candying of Honey, to Prevent.128- 

Cane Sugar . 

Cans for Honey. See Extracted Honey. 

Improperly Boxed .312, 


Second-hand. How to Clean. 313 

Cape May Warbler. 113 

Capped Brood and Capped Honey, To Distin¬ 
guish . 140 

Capping-melters .335, 336 

Cappings, Difference in . 95 

Cappings of Honeycomb, Not Air-tight. 488 

Card Indexes for Keeping Records of Hives.. 720 

Carload, Bottling. See Bottling Honey. 

Carload Shipments of Bees.741- 743 

Carniolans ..'. 714 

Carniolans. See Races of Bees. 

Carpenter Bees. See Solitary Bees. 

Carpet Grass .180, 181 

Other Species of . 181 

Where Grown . 181 

Carriers for Hives in Cellars . 923 

Cartons for Comb Honey.228, 229 

Casteel on How Pollen is Unloaded. 93 

on Pollen-Gathering .662, 663 

on “Wax Pinchers” . 871 

Catnip . 181. 182 

Catsclaw .182, 183 

Catsclaw, Where it Grows. 183 

Caucasians . 714 

Caucasians. See Races of Bees. 

Caution, Regarding Feeding Back. 357 

Caution, Tiering Up Supers. 241 

Cell in Embryology.266, 267 

Cell, Cutting for Prevention of Swarming.... 19 

Cellar, Arrangement of Hives in. 921 

Authors’ .920, 921 

Bees, Preferably Young . 919 

Dead Bees on Floor. 924 

Disturbance, Occasional Not Harmful... 924 

How to Build. 920 

Temperatures, Variable, Bad . 919 

Under a House . 924 

Ventilation.861, 916, 921, 924 

When to Put Bees in. 922 

When to Take Bees Out of. 922 

When to Winter in. 924 

Wintering. See Wintering in Cellars. 
Wintering, Some Things to Remember.923- 926 

Cellars, Dampness in, Bad. 919 

Importance of Being Frost-proof for Win¬ 
tering . 917 

Inspection of Bees in.921, 922 

See Wintering in Cellars. 

Cells, an Indication of Swarming. 815 

Destroying for Swarm Control. 817 

Destroying for Swarm Control, Miller 

on .813, 814 

Grafting ’. . 688 

How Young Queens Will Destroy. . . .700. 701 

Pecularity of .698, 699 

Preceding Swarming . 791 

Queen. See Queens and Queen-rearing. 
Supersedure and Swarming Distinguished 815 

Symptom of Swarming.. ... 791 

Census Figures on Bees and Honey Too Low 

. 777, 778 


.* 1 1 ° 

Report Showing Beekeeping on Farms.. 776 
United States Not Accurate Relating to 


Bees . 775 

Chickens and Bees.107, 108 

Chunk Honey . 224 

Chunk Honey. See Bulk Comb Honey under 
the Head of Comb Honey. 

City Beekeeping .85, 87 

Climbers for Bee-hunting . 99 - 100 

Clipping. See Queens. 

Queens’ Wings .704- 705 

to Prevent Absconding .14, 19 

Clover .183- 203 

Alsike, as a Honey Plant. 194 

Alsike, Culture of . 196 

Alsike, Curing . 196 


771 

377 

142 

323 

148 

454 

346 

156 

155 

153 

154 

155 

151 

155 

149 

154 

149 

154 

148 

156 

155 

154 

155 

170 

167 

167 

161 

160 

165 

165 

156 

164 

159 

224 

225 

173 

177 

176 

175 

175 

177 

171 

171 

681 

171 

172 

177 

171 

174 

4 

380 

655 

123 

730 

535 

790 

472 

177 

178 

177 

178 

179 

926 

180 

179 

130 

180 

313 




























































































































INDEX 


945 


.Msike, Future of . 197 

Alsike, Poisonous to Horses. 197 

Alsike, Replacing Red. 195 

Alsike Seeding . 196 

Alsike, Where Grown. 189 

Crimson . 200 

Crimson, as a Honey Plant. 200 

Crimson, Culture of . 202 

Crimson, Honey. 203 

Crimson, Plowing Under. 203 

Crimson, Seeding . 202 

Crimson, with Buckwheat. 202 

Crimson, with Corn. 203 

How Affected by Pollination. 187 

Hubam .832- 835 

Importance of Lime for.183- 185 

Number of Species of. 183 

on New Soils. 4 

Putting Nitrogen in the Soil. 184 

Red .198, 199 

Red, Affected by Moisture. 200 

Red, Giving Way to Alsike. 197 

Red, Varied by Soil Conditions. 200 

Sweet .818- 832 

Sweet, White Annual.832- 835 

Variable Yielder of Honey. 190 

When it Yields Honey.188, 189 

White . 185 

White, Nectar Secretion in. 188 

White, Where Best.190, 191 

Cluster of Bees, Activity in. 839 

Cluster of Bees During Winter, How Affected 

by Disturbance .. 837 

Cocoons, Spinning of . 92 

Cold, Amount Bees Can Stand. 927 

Colonies Building up. See Building up Colo¬ 
nies. 

Equalizing Strength in Spring.170, 775 

How to Handle. 578 

Strong for Comb Honey. 233 

Strong, Less Likely to Swarm. 811 

Strong, Necessary for a Crop. 254 

Weak, Caused by Poor Season. 254 

When to Buy.124, 125 

Colony Condition, How It May Be Learned 

Without Opening the Hive.584- 586 

Determining Condition of, Without Look¬ 
ing in . 271 

How It Seems to Work on a Plan. 707 

How to Open.12, 13, 579 

Number of Bees in.5, 887 

of Bees, Manipulating. 12, 13, 575- 588 

Profits . 682 

Queenless or Not, How to Determine.... 541 

Strength in Spring. 166 

When Putting up a Good Defense Against 

Robbers . 731 

Color, Alfalfa Honey. 23 

Color of Honey. See Honey and its Color. 

Colors of Honey.469, 470 

Comb and Extracted Honey at the Same Time 

. 238, 239 

and Extracted Honey Compared .... 225, 307 

Building and Honey-ripening. 95 

Building Pitch for Comb Honey. 234 

Building, Variation in. 95 

Foundation .9, 10. 203- 224 

Foundation Adulterated . 870 

Foundation, Correct Bases. 204 

Foundation Eliminating Drones. 207 

Foundation Fastened to Top-bar. 219 

Foundation Fastener . 545 

Foundation, Fastening in Sections.. 219, 223 

Foundation Filling the Section. 224 

Foundation Flat-plate Machine. 206 

Foundation, Improved . 544 

Foundation in Economic Uses. 208 

Foundation in Relation to Sections. 207 


Foundation, Invention of.203, 543, 544 

Foundation Made in Large Factories... 207 
Foundation, Miter-Box for . 224 


Foundation Not to be Spaced Too Far 

Apart . 317 

Foundation Rolls .203, 204 

Foundation Rolls Using Type. 204 

Foundation Starters versus Full Sheets . . 223 
Foundation, Stretching Without Support. 209 
Foundation Supported by Wires.... 209- 213 

Foundation, Three-ply .870, 930, 931 

Foundation Touching all Four Sides of a 


Section . 224 

Foundation, Van Deusen . 204 

Foundation, Vandevort . 204 

Foundation, Weed Sheeted. 206 

Foundation, What It Has Accomplished. . 207 

Foundation, What Weight to Use. 208 

Foundation with Exact Angles.204, 205 

Foundation with Paper Midrib. 215 

Foundation with Wood Base. 215 

Honey, Appliances for.226- 233 

Honey, Artificial So-called . 497 

Honey, Bait Sections. 239 

Honey, Barber Method of Producing... 237 

Honey, Bulk . 224 

Honey, Comb-building, Pitch for. 234 

Honey, Definition of . 224 

Honey, Divided in Four Classes. 421 

Honey, Fed Back, Liable to Granulate.. 357 

Honey, Feeding Back for.356, 357 

Honey, Flavor of . 225 

Honey Grading, Importance of. 422 

Honey Grading Rules.423- 425 

Honey Granulated, What to Do With it. . 


Honey Granulating, to Stop. 248 

Honey, How to Keep. 248 

Honey, How to Ship in Carlots. 752 

Honey, How to Ship in Small Lots.. 751, 752 

Honey, How to Take Off. 243 

Honey, Importance of Shallow Supers of 
Honey Over the Brood-nest. 236 


Honey, Importance of Stores for Breeding 233 
Honey, Importance of Strong Colonies for 233 
Honey, Importance of Well-filled Brood- 


nest . 235 

Honey in Carlots Broken Down. 753 

Honey, Keeping for a Better Market. . . . 248 
Honey, Most of It Shipped Not Graded.. 421 
Honey Not Manufactured, Why?.226, 492, 497 
Honey Production, Importance of Breed¬ 
ing in Two Stories. 235 

Honey, Sections for. 226 

Honey Sections, Scraping.245, 246 

Honey, Shipping Cases for. 749, 751 

Honey Supers, Bees Refusing to Enter. . 

-’. 239, 240 

Honey Supers, Close of Season.... 241, 242 

Honey Supers, Tiering Up.240, 241 

Honey, To Produce.233- 248 

Honey versus Extracted Honey. 225 

How Bees Build.491, 492 

Number of Inches in Langstroth Frame. . 252 

Worker for Swarm Control. 810 

Worker or Drone During Swarming.... 792 
Combless Bees. See Beginning with Bees. 

Combs .248- 255 

Before the Invention of Foundation.... 249 

Built Irregularly in the Hive. 7 

Built to Bottom-bar by Reversing. 723 

Burr. See Thick-top Frames under Head 
of Frames. 


Carrying to the Extractor. 324 

Empty for Swarming. 795 

Empty, Importance of . 249 

Fitting into Frames in Transferring. . . . 843 
Good, Good Investment. 249 






















































































































946 


INDEX 


How Bees Build Without Aid. 248 

How to Fasten in Frames in Transferring 843 

How to Free of Bees. 584 

How to Make the Bees Build Worker. . . 252 

Importance of Good. 168 

Importance of Good Fastening. 251 

Indestructible . 215 

of Aluminum .215, 216 

or Foundation for Swarms. 802 

Poor, Costly Investment. 249 

Poor, Economic Waste of.249- 251 

to be Rendered.872- 883 

to Free from Bees in Extracting. . . .321- 323 
Congestion of Bees in Brood-nest Cause of 

Swarming . 807 

Contract Bees on Shares.115, 116 

Contraction .252- 255 

Caused by Poor Season.253, 254 

Excessive, Poor Season. 253 

of the 8 -frame Hive, Further. 254 

Theory of. 252, 253 

Coping or Thickening of the Walls or Top. . . 489 

Coral-berry . 148 

Corks, to Insert. 130 

Corn Syrup in Honey. 17 

Corolla Tubes of Red Clover Affected by Mois¬ 
ture . 200 

Cotton .255- 260 

as a Honey Plant .257, 258 

Asiatic . 261 

Belt . 256 

Honey, Flavor of . 259 

Honey Flow Run. 259 

Insect Visitors of . 260 

in the Southwest. 260 

Long Staple and Short Staple. 256 

Nectaries .256, 257 

Pollination of . 259 

Species of . 255 

Covers of Hives.442- 444 

Coveyou on Cause of Swarming. 805 

Coveyou’s Plan of Swarm Control. 808 

Crimson Clover. See Clover. 

Crops Dependent on Good Wintering. .. .167- 170 
Crops Dependent on Strong Colonies .... 254, 255 

Cross Bees and Effect of Shrubbery.49- 53 

Bees, Condition for . 47 

Bees, How to Know. 48 

Fertilization . 672 

Crossing Between Different Species. 681 

Cucumbers .261, 262 

in Greenhouses . 262 

See Fruit Blossoms, subhead, “Pollina¬ 
tion of Cucumbers.’’ 

Cyprian and Holy Land Bees. 550 

D 

Dadant on Frame Spacing. 768 

Daisy. See Asters. 

Dandelion . .'. . . .263- 266 

as a Forage Plant for Cattle. 266 

Full Blossom . 265 

Honey, Quality of . 265 

Other Name for. 263 

Pollen in the Honey Plant. ....263, 264 

Danger in Buying Bees.121, 122 

Dark and Strong-flavored Honey Excellent for 

Vinegar . 864 

Dead Brood from Drone-laying Queens or Lay¬ 
ing Workers . 378 

Decisions Relating to Bees. 557 

Demaree Plan of Swarm Control.319, 320, 815- 817 
Demaree Plan of Swarm Control. See Swarm¬ 
ing. 

Demuth’s Automatic Feeder. 926 

Demuth’s Plan of Wintering with Hive Bodies 

or Supers .. , . .... 905 


Deserts for the Mating of Queens. 76 

Development of Bees.266- 271 

Dextrin, Mainly in Sucrose. 271 

Dextrin. See Honey, also page 271. 

Dextrose . 271 

Dextrose in Glucose. 417 

Diagnosing at the Entrance, How to Save Time 275 

Colonies..271- 275 

Colonies Defined . 271 

Colonies Without Opening. 584 

Diseases of Bees . 274 

Dysentery .274 

Inclination to Swarm. 272 

of Colony in Winter. 274 

of Foul Brood by Experts. 378 

Queenless Colony by Appearances. 707 

Diarrhea among Bees. See Dysentery. 

Disappearing Disease of Bees.281, 282 

Disease Probably Caused by Nosema Apis 282: 

Disease, Similar to Isle of Wight Disease 281 

Disease, Isle of Wight. 277 

May .. 282' 

Diseases of Bees... .275- 282 

How to Avoid . 275 

of Bees, Two Classes. 275 

of Brood. See Foul Brood. 

Distance Bees Can Fly.361, 362 

Distance Bees Fly. See Flight of Bees. 

Distribution of Goldenrod.420, 421 

Dividing . 282: 

Dividing Distinguished from Artificial Swarm¬ 
ing and Increase . 282: 

Divisible Brood-chamber Hive a Failure.... 546 
Division-boards, Making Out of a Comb.... 900) 


Domestic Economy of the Hive. See Bee Be¬ 


havior, Brood and Brood-rearing; also 
Development of Bees. 

Doolittle Method of Rearing Queens.... 688, 689 

Doolittle Wide Frames for Sections. 227 

Double-walled Hives .451- 455 

Drifting .282, 283 

After Bees Are Put Out of Cellars. 923 

as a Result of Playflight. 283 

Bees, Why Not St\mg. 283 

Defined . 282 

What Takes Bees Out of the Cellar. . . . 283 

Drone Brood . 144 

Combs, Size of .488, 489 

Does He Have One Parent?. 285 

Eggs, Found in Large Cells. 283 

Excluders . 288- 290 

Laying Queens .287, 704 

Drones .283- 290 

Age of . 21 

Behavior of . 96 

Cost of Rearing Many. 286 

Cost of Rearing Many. See Drone Brood 
and Brood-rearing, also Combs with 
Drone-cells. 

Destruction of, in Fall. 287 

Eliminated by Foundation. 207 

Excluding Undesirable for Mating. 76 

for Breeding . 139 

from Drone Layers . 287 

from Unfertilized Eggs . 651 

from Worker Bees. 286 

Going Out with Swarm. 792 

Influence of, on Swarming. 804 

Rearing Out of Season. 286 

Reproductive Organs of. 44 

Restraining Undesirable . 288 

Sexual Maturity of . 284 

with Heads of Different Colors. 288 

Dysentery .290- 292 

a Cause of Spring Dwindling. 772 

Cause of .290, 291 

Caused by Aphides . 291 

Cured by Warm Weather Outdoors ,.291, 292 






















































































































INDEX 


947 


Determined by Entrance Diagnosis. 274 

in Bee Cellars . 292 

Prevention of . 291 

See Spring Management; also Wintering 
in Cellars. 

Symptoms of . 290 

Warm Weather a Cure for. 772 

Dzierzon and Parthenogenesis. 651 

Author of ‘‘Rational Beekeeping” and 

of the ‘‘Dzierzon Theory”.293, 294 

Dr. John .292- 294 

Inventor of Movable Combs but Not In¬ 
ventor of Practical Movable Frames.. 293 

on Orientation of Bees. 655 

Theory .295, 296, 651 

Theory Attacked by Dickel. 294 

Theory, Recent Proof of. 296 


E 


East Indian Honeybee..'. . . 716 

Egg, How It Can Produce Queen or Worker. . 698 

Laying, Decreasing . 141 

Laying in Combs Influenced by Several 

Factors . 96 

Laying, Maximum .*. 165 

Laying, Queens Vary in. 6 

of the Honeybee.267, 268 

Eggs, Drone and Worker, How Determined.. 96 

How Formed . 45 

How the Two Kinds are Laid at Will.706, 707 

How to Find. 140 

in Several Cells . 96 

Number Queen Can Lay. 6 

of Drones, Found in Large Cells. 283 

Producing Both Queens and Workers... 7 


See Brood and Brood-rearing. 

Showing Presence of Queen. 

Unimpregnated of Queen and Hatched... 
. 285, 286 


Egyptians . 715 

Eight vs. Ten Frame Hives. 253 

Electric Bell During Extracting. 341 


Electric Thermometer to Determine Tempera¬ 


ture . 837 

Electrical Current for Wire-imbedding.. .217, 218 

Electrical Wire Imbedding.217, 218 

Elementary Beekeeping. See A B C of Bee¬ 
keeping and Beginning with Bees. 

Elwood on Hives. 439 

Embryology of Bees. 266 

Embryology of Bees. See Development of Bees. 

Enemies of Bees.297- 299 

of Bees Among the Birds..... 297 

The Worst for the Beekeepers. 299 

Entrance Alighting-board . 300 

Blocks .301, 302 

Diagnosing .272, 273 

Diagnosis, How to Save Time. 275 

Diagnosis. See Diagnosing Colonies. 

Guard ..289, 290 

Guards. See Drones. 

Guards to Prevent Swarming. 19 

Means Determining Condition of Colony. 272 

of Modern Dovetailed Hive. 303 

Showing Disease. 274 

Size of, in Winter. 30* 

Swarm Catcher . 801 

Temperature in the Cellars. 918 

Usually at the Bottom . 299 


Entrances Cleaning, from Dead Bees in the 


Spring ... 77 3 

for Supers in Honey Production. :. 304 

Indoor Wintering . 304 

Keeping Grass from.72, 300 

Made up of One or More Holes for Win¬ 
tering .901, 902 

of the Dead Colonies, Importance of Clos¬ 


ing in the Spring. 774 

Plurality of . 303 

Proof Against Mice. 303 

Size of, for Wintering in Cellar and Out¬ 
doors . 861 

Size of, in Summer. 301 

to Hives .299-304 

Upper, in the Production of Honey. 304 

Very Small in Winter. 302 

Enzymes in Honey. 467 

Enzymes in Invert Sugar. 547 

Equalizing Strength of Colonies in Spring... 170 

Escape-boards, Ventilated. 323 

Escape-boards, How to Put On. 587 

Eucalyptus .305, 306 

Honey, Quality of . 306 

in Australia . 306 

in California . 306 

Species of . 305 

Excluders, Drone and Queen.288- 290 

Excluders for Extracting . 318 

for Swarm Control . 809 

Exhibits of Live Bees. See Honey Exhibits. 

Extension Men Preaching Lime. 185 

Extracted Honey .307- 315 

Always Pure . 309 

Better When Capped Over. 308 

Cheaper Than Comb. 9 

Clarifying by Gravity Method.337, 338 

Distinguished from Strained Honey. 307 

Glass Bottles for . 314 

Heating Before Canning.338- 340 

How to Keep. 309 

Improperly Boxed .312, 313 

Method of Clarifying. 326 

Packages for . 312 

Pails for . 314 

Produced, Big Force Necessary. 315 

Stored in Galvanized Cans. 309 

Taken Before It Is Capped Over.. . 308 

versus Comb Honey . 307 

When to Remove from the Hives. 320 

Extracting .315- 341 

and the Control of Swarming. 319 

Building. See Buildings. 

Capping-melters for .335, 336 

Carrying Combs During. 324 

Confinement of Queen Below.319, 320 

Equipment, Plans for . 338 

for a Small Apiary.325- 327 

Hives to Use for.. 316 

Hoffman Frames Adapted for. 318 

Honey .9, 10 

Honey-pumps for .330, 331 

House . 325 

House. See Buildings. 

House, Small .158, 159 

How Far to Space the Frames. 316 

Large Power Outfits for.328- 347 

Large Scale, Locating Equipment. 331 

Outfit for Large Producers.328- 341 

Outfit for Smali Producers. 325 

Putting on Supers for. 317 

Small Outfit for. 327 

Straining Honey for. 337 

to Get the Bees off the Combs.321- 323 

Uncapping the Combs in a Large Way.. 


Extractor, Central Pivot Reversing.342- 345 

Choosing for a Large Producer..’. . 330 

Cowan Reversible . . 342 

Friction Drive for. 346 

Honey, Invention of. 543 

How It Should be Set Up.325, -326 

Novice, Non-reversing . 342 

Root Multiple Reversing . 342 

Extractors, Automatic Reversing.343- 346 

Buckeye ..344- 346 



























































































































948 


INDEX 


by Peabody .. .. 341 

First . 341 

Importance of Large Over Small. 347 

Principles of . 341 

Eye, Compound . 347, 348 

F 

Fabre’s Observations on Parthenogenesis.... 296 
Failure of Crops Due to Excessive Contrac¬ 
tion .253, 254 

Fairs, Exhibits at. See Honey Exhibits. 

Farmer Beekeepers . 348 

Farmerette Bee-suits .859, 860 

Fasteners for Comb Foundation.220- 223 

Fastening Foundation in Brood-frames and 

Sections .219- 223 

Feeder, Advantage of Boardman. 354 

Alexander . 352 

Automatic .169, 926 

Boardman . 351 

Doolittle . 353 

Friction-top Pail . 352 

Miller . 353 

Pepper Box . j . 351 

Various Forms of Construction.350- 353 

Feeding and Feeders. 349 

at Night to Avoid Robbers. 356 

Back .356, 357 

Bees During Winter . 926 

Effective for Two Purposes. 349 

Granulated Sugar Best for. 349 

for Winter .354, 355 

for Winter, When . 354 

How to Make a Syrup for. 350 

in Freezing Weather. 355 

in Spring . 355 

in Spring to be Avoided. 356 

in the Spring versus Feeding in Fall..355, 356 
Out Unfinished Sections or Wet Ex- 

tracting-combs . 732 

Outdoors . 357 

Outdoors, Disadvantages of . 358 

Outdoors, How to Do It. 358 

Outdoors to Circumvent Robbers. 731 

Outdoors versus Feeding in the Hives . . 


to Stimulate Brood-rearing. 353 

Female, True . 6 

Females Undeveloped . 5 

Fence. See Comb Honey. 

Fences for Sections.231 ; 233 

Fences for Windbreaks..912- 914 

Fertile Workers. See Laying Workers. 
Fertilization of Flowers by Bees. See Polli¬ 
nation, Fruit Bloom, Buckwheat, Alfalfa. 

Fertilization of Queens, Artificial. 75 

Figwort . 359 

Filling Square Cans . 341 

Fire Blight .359- 361 

Caused by Bugs and Sucking Insects. . . . 360 

Caused by Leaf Hoppers. 359 

Caused by Plant Life. 360 

Nature of . 359 

Not Caused by Bees.360, 361 

When It Occurs . 359 

Fireweed. See Willow-herb. 

Fixed Frames. See Frames, Self-spacing, Par¬ 
ticularly Hoffman Frames. 


Flavor of Extracted Honey Not Quite Equal 

to Flavor of Comb. 307 

Flight of Bees. 361, 362 

of Bees, Range of . 362 

of Bees Varies According to Conditions. 362 
of Orientation. See Playflights of Young 
Bees. 

Flowers, Forms and Organs of . 671 

food Chambers. See Comb Honey to Produce j 
also Wintering in Cellar. 


Foul Brood .363- 378 

American . 363 

American and European Confusing Symp¬ 
toms . 372, 373 

American. Carried to Other Hives. 365 

American, Confined Mainly to Sealed Cells 363 

American, Distinguished by Tongues 

Pointing Upward . 365 

American, Drugs for it. 370 

American, Fall Treatment. 370 

American, McEvoy Modification of Treat¬ 
ment . 366 

American, Odor of . 365 

American, Pinhole Perforations. 365 

American, Quinby Treatment. 366 

American, Roping Test . 364 

American, Shaking Treatment as Modi¬ 
fied by Phillips .367- 369 

American, Symptoms .363- 365 

American, Treatment and Cure.366- 369 

Detected at Entrance. 274 

European, Alexander Treatment. 375 

European, and the Relation of an Early 

Honey Flow . 376 

European, Differentiated from American 

.-. 370- 372 

European, House’s Modification of Treat¬ 
ment . 375 

European, Miller’s Treatment. 376 

European, Symptoms of .371- 373 

European, Treatment of .374, 375 

Expert Diagnosis of . 378 

Laws, Fundamental Features of. 563 

Laws in Minnesota. 563 

Laws, States Having.562, 563 

Sequence of Brood Diseases. 374 

Two Diseases .. 363 

Worst Enemy of Bees. 299 

Foundation Having Wires Incorporated in it 

. 929, 930 

Improved by Weed, Root and Blanchard. 544 

Indispensable . 10 

Invention of . 543 

Laminated .930, 931 

Narrow Strips for Swarms. 803 

See Comb Foundation. 

Three-ply .930, 931 

Fowls’ Method of Bottling Honey.129, 130 

Fowls on Cause of Swarming. 805 

Frames .,.378- 380 

Bee-space All Around. 105 

Brood . 8 

Closed-end .445- 447 

Closed-end, Danzenbaker . 382 

Closed-end, Quinby .381, 382 

Distance Spaced Apart 317, 381, 582, 767, 768 

for Hives . 445 

How to Handle .12, 13 

Improved Hoffman . 383 

Langstroth, in Dimensions Why Better 

Than Other Frames.441, 442 

Langstroth, More Practical Than Any 

Other .378, 379 

Langstroth’s Invention of. 378, 379, 543 

Movable, What They Have Accomplished 2 
Number of Ways to Manipulate.... 581, 582 

Reversible .722, 723 

Self-spacing .381- 385 

Self-spacing, for Small Beekeepers. 386 

Shallower and Deeper Than Langstroth. 442 

Size and Shape of. 379 

Square versus Shallow or Oblong... 440, 441 

Thick-top . .....379, 380 

to Manipulate. See Frames and Manipu¬ 
lation of Colonies. 

Wiring. See Wiring Frames. 

Friction Drive for Extractors. 346 


Top Pail for Feeding. 352 

















































































































INDEX 


949 


Top Pails . 

Fructose. See Honey. 

Fruit Bloom, Pollination of. 

Blossom Honey Relatively Small in Quan¬ 
tity . 

Blossoms . 386- 

Blossoms, Spraying with Poison.387- 

Blossoms, When Poisonous Sprays Are 

to he Applied. 

Growing and Beekeeping.. 106, 107, 111- 

How Damaged by Bees.Ill- 

Important, Dependent Upon Pollination. . 
Furniture Polishes of Beeswax. 

G 

Gallberry .415, 

Honey, Quality of . 

Where Grown . 

Gardening and Bees. 

Gentleness of Bees. 

German Bees . 

Gerstung on the Cause of Swarming. 

Giant Bees of India. 

Glass Packages for Extracted Honey. 

Glass Packages of Honey. See Bottling Honey. 


Gloves, Bee .11, 

Recommended to Beginner When First 

Handling Bees . 

When Can he Discarded. 

Glucose .417, 

Detection of . 

Determined by Polarization. 

in Honey ... 

Goldenrod .418- 


A Favorite of the Honeybees. 

Species of . 

Honey, Quality of . 

Good Candy . 

Good Seasons Returning . 

Government Examination of Foul Brood 


Experts in Fruit Case. 

on Adulteration . 

Grading by Pictures. 

Comb Honey .421- 

of Comb Honey, Importance of. 

Rules for Comb Honey.......423- 

Rules Illustrated . 

Grafting Cells for Queen-rearing.689- 

Granulated Comb Honey, What to Do With It 

. 246, 

Granulated Honey .427- 

Honey, Cutting Up Into Bricks.432- 

Dayton’s Outfit for Liquefying. 

Educating the Public to. 

Heating to Liquefy. 

How to Market.431- 


in Oyster Pails . 

Liquefying in a Wash-boiler. 

Pouder’s Method of Liquefying.... 429- 

Removing from Barrels. 

Root Airline Spread. 

Selling in Paper Bags. 

to Get Out of Combs. 

Two Ways of Melting. 

Granulation, Cause of . 

Freaks of . 

of Fed-back Honey . 

Prevented by Heating. 

Science of . 

Test of Purity . 

Grape Sugar . 

Grass in Front of Entrances. 

Grass, Keeping Away from Entrances. 

Gravity Method of Clarifying Honey. 

Groceries, How to Boost Sales of Honey in.. 

Guards, Ready to Repel Robbers. 

Gum, Black . 


H 

Habits of Plants. 673 

Handling Bees.575- 588 

Handling Bees. See Manipulation of Colonies; 
Frames, Self-spacing; Anger of Bees; also 
Stings, and Hives. 

Hats, Collapsible for Use of Veils. 856 

Hauling Bees. See Moving Bees; also Ship¬ 
ping Bees. 

Hawk’s Experiments on Determining Vita- 

mines in Honey .864- 866 

Hawk on Honey as a Food. 471 

Heartsease .437, 438 

Heat. See Artificial Heat. 

Heat, How the Bees Generate It.838, 839 

Heating Honey During Extracting.338- 340 

Heddon’s Divisible Brood-chamber Hive a 

Failure . 546 

Heddon’s Method of Preventing After-swarm¬ 
ing . 19 

Help in the Apiary. 684 

Hermaphrodite Bees . 438 

Hibernate? Do Bees.926- 928 

Hibernation of Bees Exploited in the Ameri¬ 
can Bee Journal . 927 

Hired Help in the Apiary. 684 

Hive, Baby, Unsatisfactory.15, 16 

Bodies .7, 8 

Bodies for Comb and Extracted Honey.. 8 

Buckeye, Construction of.453, 454 

Carriers . 923 

Heddon’s Divisible Brood-chamber a Fail¬ 
ure . 546 

How to Open.12, 13 

Making .438- 440 

Modified Dadant . 448 

Observatory, Advertising Value of..499- 501 

on Scale . 139 

Quinby . 382 

Requisites of a Good. 439 

Stands .55- 67 

Thirteen-frame Langstroth . 448 

Twelve-frame Langstroth . 448 

Tool . 11 

Tool, Great Convenience of. 577 

Tool, How to Use.577, 578 

Hives .440- 454 

Arrangement of, in Apiary.70, 71 

Aspinwall, for Non-swarming. 545 

Based on Langstroth’s Dimensions .. 442, 443 
Box. See Box Hives. 

Covers for .442- 444 

Dadant . 447 

Danzenbaker . 446 

Debeauvoy . 458 

Defined . 440 

Della Rocca . 455 

Dimensions of . 440 

Double-walled . 545 

Double-walled or Chaff.451- 455 

Double-walled, Wintering in. 898 

Eight or Ten Frame Langstroth. 449 

Eight versus Ten Frame. 253 

Evolution of .455- 458 

Heddon . 447 

How Bees Can Keep Them Cool Under 

Extreme Circumstances .862, 863 

How to Open. 579 

Huber’s Leaf . 456 

Jumbo . 448 

Large or Small. 316 

Lock Cornering of. 545 

Log Gums. See Box Hives. 

Long-idea .449- 451 

of Langstroth Dimensions . 439 

Prokopovitsch . 457 

Shallower and Deeper Than Langstroth. 442 
Size of, Influence on Swarms. 804 


314 

391 

386 

414 

389 

390 

114 

114 

681 

870 

416 

416 

415 

108 

47 

713 

805 

717 

314 

416 

577 

13 

418 

466 

467 

17 

420 

420 

418 

421 

178 

255 

378 

115 

18 

425 

426 

422 

425 

426 

691 

247 

436 

435 

429 

435 

428 

435 

434 

428 

431 

89 

435 

432 

431 

131 

427 

427 

357 

428 

427 

427 

271 

300 

72 

337 

593 

731 

126 





























































































































950 


INDEX 


Small, Encouraging Swarming.15, 

Stewarton . 

Ten-frame of Extra Depth. 

to Use for Extracting. 

Two Stories for Breeding Purposes.... 

with Square Edges . 

Swarms. See Swarms Hiving. 

Hodgson Ventilated Escape-hoards. 

Hoffman Frames .383, 

Frames Adapted to Extracting. 

Frames, How to Manipulate. 

Julius, on Frame-spacing. 

Holly. 

Holly, American . 

Holtermann’s Method of Carrying Colonies in¬ 
to the Cellar... 

Holy Land and Cyprian Bees. 

Holy Lands and Syrians. 

Holy Lands and Syrians. See Italian Bees. 


Honey .458- 

Acidity . 

Adapted to Persons of Sedentary Habits 

Adulteration of .16- 

Alfalfa .22, 

American and Hawaiian . 

Among the Carbohydrate Foods. 

Amount the Bees Can Carry.886, 

Analysis, Discovery of. 

Analysis, Moisture . 

Analysis of .462- 

and Bread Easily Digested. 

and Its Colors.469, 

Annual Production in U. S. 

as a Food.3, 470- 

as a Food with Bread. 

as an Element of Food. 

Ash in .. . .. 

Baked Beans ... 


Better Than Ordinary Granulated Sugar 
Bottling. See Bottling Honey. 

Bread ... 

Browne’s Anilin Acetate Test. 

Business of Beekeeping, What It Could 

be Made to Do. 

Buyers, Two Classes. 

Cakes Keep Longer Than Cakes Made 

with Sugar . 

Calories in . 

Caramels . • . 

Cell Walls, Thickness of. ... .. 


Cereal Coffee . 

Clarifying .337- 

Color of . 

Color Tests . 

Composition of .460, 


Concentrated Sweet . 

Containing Mineral Matter. 

Cookies . 

Darker, Going into Baking. 

Detection of Commercial Glucose in... . 

Dextrin in . 

Dextrose and Levulose in. 

Easily Assimilated Food. 

Enzymes in . 

Exhibits .497- 

Exhibits, How They Refute Comb Honey 

Canards . 

Exhibits, Live Bee Demonstrations at 501- 
Exhibits, Live Bees Necessary Part of.. 

Exhibits of Educational Value. 

Exhibits, Varied Designs.498, 

Extracted, Cheaper . 

for Cooking Purposes . 

from Cotton . 

Graham Biscuits . 

Granulated, Affected by Cold. 

Granulated. See Granulated Honey. 
Granulation, to Prevent.128- 


Hawk, Philip B-, on. 471 

Heating in Glass Tanks. 132 

House. See Extracting Houses and Build¬ 
ings. 

How the Bees Ripen. 94 

How to Analyze .462- 469 

in Brood While on the Hive. 309 

in Supers, to Determine Without Pulling 

Hive Apart .585, 586 

Jumbles ... 479 

Lund’s Test of . 468 

Makes Better Baked Foods Than Sugar 473 
Methods of Analysis of. See Honey, Ana¬ 
lysis of. 

Not Adulterated Now. 17 

on Commission. See Marketing Honey. 

Peddling .504- 507 

Peddling at Groceries. 507 

Peddling Made Easy. 504 

Physical Characteristics of.461, 462 

Physical Properties of.458, 459 

Plants .507- 519 

Plants, Acreage Necessary for Colony of 

Bees . 78 

Plants Dependent Upon Weather. 508 

Plants, Geographical Distribution of.... 507 
Plants, Importance of Thoro Knowledge 

of . 507 

Plants, List of the Most Important. .510- 519 
Plants, Suitable for Artificial Pasturage 78 
Plants Variable in Different Seasons... 508 

Plants Variable in Different Soils. 508 

Polarizations . 465 

Pollen in . 460 

Pounds to the Gallon. 770 

Prices Sagging After War. 2 

Protein in . 466 

Pump, Invention of-. 544 

Pumps, for Extracting.330, 331 

Pumps in Bottling . 135 

Recipes .473- 482 

Remedies . 481 

Requiring Less Soda in Cooking. 473 

Ripening of . 94, 95 

Selling in Connection with Live Bee Dem¬ 
onstrations .501- 503 

Several Blends for Bottling.133, 134 

Should Not be Extracted from the Brood- 

nest to Feed. 349 

Specific Gravity of. 770 

Stores for Breeding . 169 

Strainer . 337 

Sucrose in . . . .. 465 

Taffy . 481 

Taken by Centrifugal Force. 307 

Trading, for Other Commodities. 505 

Two Ways of Melting.■.. 131 

Undetermined Matter in . 466 

Value of, Produced in United States.... 2 

versus Sugar for Wintering. 926 

Vinegar .863, 864 

Vitamines in . 472 

Vitamines in. See Vitamines in Honey. 

Honeybee and Fruit Culture. 395 

Honeybees. See Bees. 

Honeybee’s Legs Highly Specialized. 661 

Honeycomb .483- 492 

Cappings Not Air-tight. 488 

Cells, Thicker at the Top. 489 

Construction of .484- 486 

How Bees Build .491, 492 

Made from Wax Scales Under Bodies of 

Bees . 483 

Natural-built Not Uniform....'. 488 

Number of Cells to the Inch. 486 

Honeydew .492- 496 

Honey, Amount Produced. 493 

Composition of .493- 495 


16 

457 

447 

316 

449 

442 

323 

384 

318 

583 

768 

458 

458 

925 

550 

715 

462 

465 

471 

19 

23 

460 

459 

887 

469 

464 

469 

866 

470 

2 

472 

471 

2 

464 

480 

471 

479 

460 

4 

128 

473 

472 

481 

482 

479 

339 

459 

468 

461 

3 

471 

478 

3 

466 

464 

465 

471 

467 

504 

497 

503 

499 

497 

499 

9 

473 

259 

479 

426 

130 



























































































































INDEX 


951 


How the Quality Varies...... 495 

Mainly from Plant Lice. 493 

Not a Suitable Food for Wintering. 924 

Sometimes from Other Sources Than In¬ 
dexed .496, 497 

Source of . 492 

Honeys, Classifications of.459, 460 

Honeys, Flavors of . 307 

Horehound . 519 

Horsemint .519, 520 

Horsemint, Where Grown. 520 

Horses When Badly Stung, What to Do..780, 781 

House-apiary.72- 75 

Arrangement of Hives in..73, 74 

Cross Colonies in.. 74 

for Wintering . 74 

How to Construct. 73 

See Apiary. 

Very Necessary . 73 

House’s Modification of Alexander’s Treat¬ 
ment . 375 

How Italians Introduce Among Blacks. 526 

Huajilla . 521 

Hubam, Advantages Over Regular White Sweet 

Clover .832- 835 

Clover, Rapidity of Growth.832- 834 

Clover. See Sweet Clover, White Annual. 

Its Greatest Value as a Turn-under Crop 834 

Original Home in Alabama. 832 

Huber, Francois .521- 525 

Huber’s Discovery of the Source of Wax.... 524 
Great Discoveries in Regard to the Queen 524 

Letters . 523 

Observation Hive . 524 

Study of the Honeycomb. 524 

Hughes, H. D., on Sweet Clover. 829 

Humblebees. See Bumblebees. 

Hunting-box, How to Use.'.. 98 

Hybrids .525, 526 

Not Immune to European Foul Brood 

Like Italians . 525 

Objection to . . 525 

of Carniolans and Cyprians with Italians 526 

of Italians and Blacks. 525 

Hydrometer Necessary in Vinegar-making... 864 

I 

Imbedding Wires in Comb Foundation ... 216, 217 

Increase .527- 529 

Basic Principle of the Alexander Method . 528 

by Alexander Method. 527 

by Dividing a Colony up Into Nuclei... 629 
Defined from the Standpoint of the Honey 

Producer ./. 527 

Indian Wheat, an Important Pollen Plant of 

the Desert . 531 

Inoculation of Alfalfa Soil.29, 30 

Inspectors .529- 531 

Pay of . 530 

Qualifications of . 529 

Inspector’s Duty of Giving Instructions, as 

Well as Cleaning up Disease. 529, 530 

Introducing .531- 543 

and the Relation of Colony Odors and 

Queen Odors . 532 

Basic Principles of . 533 

California Way of . 540 

Conditions Favorable for . ....532, 533 

Cage, Smith’s .537, 538 

Cages Variously Constructed.533- 538 

Direct Method of . 541 

Miller Smoke Method for.538, 539 

Queen-cells Instead of Virgins. 694 

Simmins Fasting Method of. 541 

Sure Way of... 540 

to Laying Workers Difficult. 566 

Virgin Queens ..542, 693 

When Bees Ball Queen. 542 


Inventions Relating to Bee Culture.543- 546 

Inventions, More Important Ones. 543 

Invert Sugar .546, 547 

How Prepared .546, 547 

Syrup for Adulterating . 18 

Syrup Similar to Honey. 547 

Isle of Wight Disease.277- 280 

Disease, Caused by Parasites.278, 279 

Disease. See Diseases of Bees. 

Disease, Symptoms . 277 

Disease, Why Started.. 277 

Italian Bees.547- 550 

Bees, Location of Yellow Bands. 549 

Hybrids . 547 

Hybrids, Variable . 549 

Superior to Any Other Race. 547 

Test of Purity of. 548 

Italianizing .550, 551 

Italianizing, How Best to Accomplish It. . . . 551 

Italians, Four and Five Banded.549, 550 

Italians, Three Yellow Bands Considered a 

Test of Purity . 548 

J 

Jars and Bottles for Extracting. 314 

Jelly, Royal . 699 

Jumbo Hives . 448 

K 

Kegs for Shipping Honey. 87 


King Birds, Destructive of Queens and Bees. 297 
Knives for Uncapping. See Uncapping Knives 


and Extracting. 

L 

Labels for Honey. 552 

Labels, Law as to.135, 136 

Labor Saved by Entrance Diagnosis. 275 

Langstroth, A. I. Root’s Personal Recollec¬ 
tions of . 555, 556 

a Minister of the Gospel. 554 

as a Writer Took a High Place. 554 

Death of .554, 555 

Frame, Number of Inches in. 252 

Lorenzo Lorraine .552- 556 

Langstroth’s Dimensions, Argument in Fa¬ 
vor of . 441 

Distressing Head Trouble. 554 

Early Fondness for Insect Life. 554 

Early Training... 552 

Great Invention of the Bee-space. 105 

Hive Most Popular. 554 

Invention of Movable Frames. 

.378, 379, 543, 554 

Opinion of Sage Honey. 738 

Original Hive. 441 

Larva, Behavior of . 92 

Development of . 146 

of the Honeybee .268, 269 

Larvae. See Brood and Brood-rearing; Be¬ 
havior of Bees, and Development of 
Bees. 

Law as to Labels. 135 

Co'mmon, Favorable to Bees. 559 

Common, Relating to Swarms. 557 

Pure Food . 17 

Relating to Bees.556- 566 

Relating to Bees Based on Common Law 557 

Relating to Shipment of Bees. 561 

Relating to Bees in Trees.557, 558 

Relating to Foul Brood. 562 

Relating to Labels. 552 

Relating to Location of Bees. 558 

Relating to Ownership in Bees. 557 

Laying Workers . 565, 566 

Cause of . 565 

Difficult to Introduce to a Colony Having 

Such . 566 

How to Detect . 566 





















































































































952 INDEX 


How to Get Rid of. 565 

See Drones. 

Legal Decision on Bees Injuring Fruit. . .114, 115 

Legal Responsibility of Beekeepers.109- 114 

Legislation Against Spraying at the Wrong 

Time .390, 391 

Legs of the Bee.41, 659- 662 

Legs of Bees, What They Perform in Wax.. 871 

Legumes, Pollination of. 394 

Levulose. See Honey and Honey Analysis. 

Lima Bean .566, 567 

Lima Bean, Important Honey Source in South¬ 
ern California . 567 

Lime for Clovers .183- 185 

Lime. See Alfalfa and Clover. 

Linden. See Basswood. 

List of Important Honey Plants.511- 519 

Live-bee Demonstration, How to Make.. 502, 503 
Live-bee Demonstration. See Honey Exhibits. 

Live Bees, Helping to Sell Honey. 633 

Localities, How They Differ so Far as Bee¬ 
keeping Practices Are Concerned. 568 

Locality .567- 571 

Factors That Influence . 568 

How It Modifies Bee Manipulation. 568 

Its Effect on Swarming. 807 

Locations, Failing . 646 

in United States Variously Compared.568- 571 

Locust .571, 572 

Log Gums, Passing of . 137 

Log Hives . 136- 139 

Logwood . 573 

Logwood, One of Important Honey Trees of 

the Tropics . 573 

Long-idea Hives .449- 451 

M 

Manchineel . 588 

Mangrove Affected by the Big Freeze of 1894 574 

Black .574, 575 

Important Source of Honey in Southern 

Florida . 575 

Various Species of . 574 

Manipulating Colony of Bees.12, 13 

Manipulation Facilities by Proper Tools.... 577 

of Bees Dependent Somewhat on Weath¬ 
er Conditions . 576 

of Colonies .575- 588 

of Colonies, How to Avoid Being Stung 

. 783, 784 

Manum’s Device . 799 

Manure for Winter Covering. 77 

Manzanita . 588 

Maple . 588 

Marigold . 589 

Marketing Honey .589- 593 

Honey Along the Roadside. 592 

Honey at a Less Price. 590 

Honey in a Large Way. 590 

Honey Thru Commission Houses. 591 

Thru Honey Exchanges Where in Exist¬ 
ence .. 590 

Mason Jars and Jelly Tumblers for Extracted 

Honey . 315 

Mating Hives in Queen-rearing.694, 695 

of Queen and Drone.284, 285 

of Queen and Drone. See Drones. 

May Disease . 282 

Mesquite . . . ..593- 595 

Honey, Quality of . 595 

in the Hawaiian Islands. 595 

One of the Main Honey Plants of Texas 594 

Rapid Spread of . 594 

Species of . 593 

Two Blooming Periods of. 594 

Metamorphosis of Bees. See Development of 
Bees. 

Methods Preventing After-swarming. 20 


Mice Destructive of Bees. 297 

Mice. See Entrances. 

Migratory Beekeeping . 596 

by Small Boats . 745 

in Bean Fields . 567 

in California . 596 

Milkweed .596- 599 

Climbing or Blue Vine. 599 

Common . 597 

Pollen Masses on Bees’ Legs. 598 

Where Distributed . 597 

Miller on Cell-killing for Swarm Control. 813, 814 
Miller’s Smoker Method of Introducing.. 538, 539 

Miter-box for Cutting Comb Foundation. 224 

Modern Beekeeping versus Old.137, 138 

Equipment, What It Has Done for Bee¬ 
keeping . 2 

Hives .7, 8 

Moisture, Why Forms on the Inside of Hive.. 908 
Mosquito Hawks Very Destructive at Some 

Seasons of Year in Florida. 299 

Moth Miller .599- 616 

Miller Eggs. 607 

Miller, Fumigation of . 614 

Miller, Habits of . 605 

Miller, How to Control. 614 

Miller in Combs When Stored Away from 

Bees . 601 

Miller in High Altitudes. 601 

Miller Larvae . 610 

Miller, Life History of. 612 

Miller Mating and Oviposition. 607 

Miller, Natural Enemies of. 612 

Miller Origin and Distribution. 605 

Miller Sometimes a Blessing in Disguise 

. 602, 603 

Worm Galleries .608, 609 

Worms, How They Burrow into Brood- 

frames .613- 615 

Worms, How They Destroy Comb Foun¬ 
dation . 611 

Mother Earth, Temperature of. 917 

Mouth Parts of Bees.6, 39 

Moving Bees .616- 625 

Bees after Being Put into a Sack. 621 

Bees by Automobile Truck or Horse- 

drawn Wagon.168, 621, 622 

Bees by Boat . 619 

Bees Long Distance by Express.... 623, 624 

Bees, Preparing for .619- 621 

Bees Several Miles. 619 

Bees Short Distances Not Practicable.616, 617 

Bees to Outyards and Back Again. 618 

Bees, When . 622 

Bees Without Shutting Them in Hive... 622 
Mustard . 624 

N 

Nectar .626, 627 

Abundant from Oranges . 639 

Chemical Characteristics of . 627 

Correlated with Character of Soil. 508 

Plow Bees Extract Water from. 869 

How Deposited in Cells. 94 

How Gathered by Bee. 37 

Secretion in Clovers . 188 

Nectaries of Cotton.256, 257 

Neighbors, Getting on the Right Side of.. 109, 126 

Nervous System of Honeybee. 45 

Newspaper Plan of Uniting. 853 

Nosema Apis, Not Cause of Isle of Wight Dis¬ 
ease . 278 

Nosema Apis, Probable Cause of Disappearing 

Disease . 282 

Nuclei .627- 631 

Absconding .15, 16 

for Purpose of Instruction. 628 

Forming .695- 697 

















































































































INDEX 


953 


Forming for Increase. 

Forming, Problem for Beginners. 

Full Size or Baby, for Mating Queens.694, 

How to Feed. 

Large for Queen-rearing Superior to 

Small Nuclei . 

Somerford’s Method of Forming. 

Used for One of Two Purposes. 

Very Small, Require Watchful Care. 

Nucleus Defined .627, 

Nuisance, Bees a. See Bees Not a Nuisance. 
Nursery Cage for Cells and Virgins. 

O 

Observatory Hives .632- 

for Increasing the Sale of Honey. 

Huber’s . 

Importance of Having Means of Ventila¬ 
tion . 

in Public Schools for Purpose of Instruc¬ 


tion . 

Maintenance and Operation. 

of Arthur C. Miller Type.633- 

of Great Educational Value. 

of Usual Type. 

Origin of . 

Odor in Queen Introducing. 

Orange .637- 

Development of, in California.639, 

Honey in California, Quality of.639, 

in Florida .637, 


Nectar Abundant in California. 

When in Bloom in Southern California.. 

Order of Reading. 

Ordinances Declaring Bees a Nuisance Uncon- 

constitutional .560, 

Orientation Flights. See Playflights of Young 
Bees. 

Out-apiaries .640- 

Care of Automobiles for. 

Distance Between . 

Failing Locations of . 

General Management of . 

Hauling Bees and Bee Supplies to and 


from .642, 

Helpers for . 

Number of Colonies in.640, 

Rent for . 

Wintering Bees at. 


Out apiary Business Caution. 

Extension . 

Location Dependent upon Conditions . . . 

Scaling a Hive at. 

Outdoor Feeding. See Feeding Outdoors. 


Overstocking .646- 

Overstocking and Priority Rights. 

P 

Package Bees, Buying .122- 

How Released . 

See Shipping Bees. 

Sending by Express .746- 

Pails for Feeding. 

Palmetto .648- 


Honey, Quality . 

Scrub ... 

Two Kinds . 

When it Begins to Bloom.. 
Paper for Midrib in Foundation 


Paper Winter Cases.903, 

Paralysis of Bees.275, 


Parasite, Cause of Isle of Wight Disease 278, 

Parasites of Bees. 

Parasites of Bees. See Isle of Wight Disease, 


under Disease of Bees. 

Parasitic Bees . 

Parthenogenesis .651, 

as Shown in Dzierzon Theory.295, 


Occurring in Many Other Orders of Both 


Plants and Animals . 652 

Who Discovered . 651 

Partridge Pea . 652 

Blooming Period . 652 

Honey, Quality . 652 

Pasturage. See Artificial Pasturage. 

Patent-right Vendors . 653 

Patents, Impossibility of Securing Fundamen¬ 
tal, in Bee Culture. 546 

in Bee Culture . 546 


in Bee Culture Generally of Little Value 653 
Relating to Bee Culture. See Inventions 
Relating to Bee Culture. 

Peddling Honey. See Honey-peddling; also Ex¬ 
tracted Honey and Marketing Honey. 


Pennyroyal . 653 

Pennyroyal Honey, Quality of. 653 

Pepperbush .653, 654 

Pepper Tree . 654 

Perforated Zinc . 288 

Perforated Zinc. See Drones; also Extracting. 
Peterson Capping-Melter for Granulated Comb 

Honey .; . . . 247 

Phacelia . 654 

Phillips on American Foul Brood. 367 

Pickled Brood. See Foul Brood, subhead Sac- 
brood. 

Plant Lice, Important Source of Honeydew.. 493 

Plant Life Divided in Two Classes. 667 

Plants, Flowering . 667 

Pollination, Fertilization Occurring after 671 

Producing Pollen .509- 511 

Yielding Nectar .511- 519 

Playflights, Cause of Drifting . 283 

Mistaken for Robbing.655, 656, 733 

of Young Bees. 655 

Poison of Bee-sting . 785 

of Sting as a Remedial Agent. 785 

Sac of Honeybee. 40 

Poisonous Honey, Death and Sickness from.. 658 

from Mountain Laurel .656, 657 

from Soapberry. 658 

from Yellow Jessamine.657, 658 

in North Carolina .656, 657 

in United States . 656 

Xenophon’s Description of. 656 

Pollen, Artificial, Sometimes Needed in Spring 

Management . 773, 774 

Baskets .660- 662 

Baskets, How They Are Loaded. 663 

Behavior of Bees in Collecting.659- 663 

Brushes . 659 

Early from Willows . 889 

First of the Season. 93 

for Bumblebees . 172 

Forced into Supers by Shallow Hives. . . . 667 

Gathered by Bees.5, 6 

Grains .658, 659 

Highly Nutritious Food. 658 

How Unloaded in Cells. 93 

in Combs During Winter. 924 

in Section Boxes. 667 

Masses in Milkweed.598, 663 

Necessary for Brood-rearing. 169 

Sometimes Called Beebread. 97 

Substitutes for .664- 66 

Substitutes in the Spring.773, 774 

Pollination by Bees. 4 

by Beetles . 678 

by Birds . 677 

by Insects . 677 

by Moths . 679 

by Water . 677 

by Wind . 676 

Cross .672, 681 

Effect upon Clover. 187 

Farmers Discovering . 4 


628 

629 

695 

630 

695 

630 

628 

628 

628 

693 

637 

633 

524 

637 

633 

636 

635 

632 

633 

632 

532 

640 

640 

640 

638 

639 

640 

4 

561 

646 

645 

641 

646 

644 

643 

644 

641 

644 

645 

646 

683 

642 

646 

648 

647 

125 

124 

748 

352 

650 

649 

650 

649 

650 

215 

904 

276 

279 

297 

766 

652 

296 

























































































































954 


INDEX 


Important for Certain Fruit 


of Alfalfa .33, 

of Almonds . 

of Alsike .193, 

of Apples . 


of Berry Plants. 

of Blueberries and Huckleberries. 

of Buckwheat . 

of Cherries . 

of Cone Trees. 

of Cotton . 

of Cranberries . 

of Cucumbers .77, 262, 

of Flowering Plants. 

of Flowers .667- 

of Flowers, Plant Life Divided in Two 

Classes . 

of Fruit Bloom. See Fruit Bloom, 
of Fruit Blossoms, General Conclusion.. 

.413, 

of Fruit Trees. 

of Gooseberries . 

of Legumes . 

of Peaches . 

of Plums . .. 

of Prunes . 

of Quinces . 

of Raspberries and Blackberries. 

of Strawberries . 

of Tomatoes . 

Organs of the Flower. 

Origin of Seed. 

Plants Adapted to. 

Separation of Stamens and Pistils. 

Pollinators, Bees Sui-pass All Other Insects as 


Poor Seasons, Result of Contraction.253, 

Poppleton on Bee Paralysis. 

Portable Extracting-house . 

Poultry and Bees.107, 

Pound of Bees, Number in.886, 

Pound of Bees. See Beginning with Bees. 

Power Extracting Outfit.329- 

Prevention of Swarming. 


Prevention of Swarming. See Swarming, Pre¬ 
vention of. 

Prickly Pear . 

Priority Rights ... 

Priority Rights. See Overstocking. 

Producers, Large. Buy Their Queens. 

Profit Dependent upon Number of Colonies. . . 

. 682, 

Profit on a Single Colony. 


Profits, Average . 

in Bees .682- 

in Bees on Farm. 

Propolis .5, 684- 


Base of Antiseptic Preparation. 

Defined . 

How Gathered and Used . 

in Hive Dependent on Race of Bees. . . . 

Known to the Ancients. 

Sometimes a Nuisance.684- 

Unnecessary in Modern Bee Culture. 

Use for .684, 

When Gathered . 

Pupa of Honeybee.. 

Pure Food Law . 

Purple Sage . 

Pussy Willow .. 


Q 

Quadruple Wintering Cases.900- 

Queen .697- 

After Leaving Cell. 

Age of . 


Amount of Spermatozoa That She Re¬ 
ceives at Mating . 

and Drone Mating .284, 


and Retinue ....... 697 

Barriers in the Way of.810, 811 

Bee, Only One. 6 

Cage Candy .178, 179 

Cages. See Introducing. 

Cells and Their Relation to Swarming.. 79 

Cells an Indication of Swarming. 815 

Cells, Symptom of Swarming. 791 

Clipping for Swarm Control.795, 796 

Development of Baby. 698 

Eggs She Can Lay. 6 

Excluders .288, 290, 545 

Excluders in Extracting. 318 

from Same Egg that Produces a Worker 7 

How Old Can be Fertilized. 704 

How Soon Lays after Mating. 703 

How to Find. 581 

Indicated by Eggs...-. 141 

Influence of, on Swarming. 810 

Like a Worker. 5 

Meeting Drone More Than Once. 703 

Most Important Member of the Hive. ... 95 

Not Always Necessary to Find. 583 

Odor of .95, 708 

on Wedding Trip.6, 7 

Only Perfect Female. 295 

Overcareful in Spreading Brood. 771 

Preceding or Following Swarm. 792 

Rearing .686- 697 

Rearing, Cell Cups for, Doolittle. 688 

Rearing, Cells or Virgins. 694 

Rearing, Colonies for Cell-building.. 691- 692 

Rearing, Conditions Favorable for. 687 

Rearing, Doolittle Method. 688 

Rearing, Forming Nuclei, Baby Size. 695- 697 

Rearing, Grafting Cells for.689- 691 

Rearing in a Large Way. 689 

Rearing in a Small Way. 688 

Rearing in Swarm Control. 816 

Rearing, Large or Small Nuclei for. .694, 695 

Rearing, Mating Hives for. 694 

Rearing, Nursery Cages for.692, 693 

Rearing, Use of Drone Trap. 551 

Rearing, When One Can Afford to Buy 

Queens . 686 

Rearing, Wooden Cell Cups for....689- 691 

Register Card for'Record Work. 721 

Removing, for Swarm Control.815, 816 

Shifting, to Reduce Swarming. 809 

Temperament of . 95 

True Female . . . .. 6 

Virgin . 702 

Virgin, More Nervous. 96 

When Balled, What to Do. 542 

When It Flies Away. 542 

with Drone Organs Attached. 703 

Young, About to Emerge. 699 

Queenless Colony, How to Detect from Appear¬ 
ances . 707 

Queenless Colony’s Cry of Distress. 707 

Queen’s Ability to Lay Drone and Worker 
Eggs at Will, Berlepsch on “The Dzier- 

zon Theory’’ . 295 

Behavior While Sealed.699, 700 

Presence, Detecting, in Diagnosing. 273 

Presence Determined at Entrance. 273 

Reproductive Organs. 46 

Stings .‘. 708 

Voices Variable . 701 

Voluntary Control of Sex of Eggs. 652 

Wings, Shall They be Clipped?.704, 705 

Queens .697- 709 

Age of . 6 

Behavior of .95, 96 

Buy or Rear. 686 

Capable of Laying Two Kinds of Eggs.. 697 

Drone Layers.287, 704 

Emerging and Affect on Swarm. 793 


681 

34 

405 

194 

409 

398 

402 

149 

405 

670 

259 

402 

397 

671 

681 

667 

414 

107 

401 

394 

407 

403 

404 

412 

401 

399 

398 

671 

669 

669 

674 

680 

254 

276 

160 

108 

887 

346 

19 

682 

647 

686 

683 

682 

682 

684 

349 

686 

686 

684 

93 

685 

685 

686 

686 

685 

685 

270 

17 

735 

889 

902 

709 

700 

21 

703 

285 




































































































































INDEX 


955 


Fertilization of .75, 

for Breeding .139, 


for Breeding, Value of. 

foT Breeding Purposes, How to Select.. 

for Breeding, Where to Get. 

Good, Importance of. 

How They Lay Two Kinds of Eggs. 

How They Receive Their Food. 

How to Secure' Pure Mating. 

in After-swarming . 

Mating Artificially . 

Mating in a Greenhouse. 

Mating on Deserts. 

Most Important Personages. 

on Cake of Ice. 

Piping of . 

Plurality in After-swarming. 

Plurality of, in Swarming. 

Plurality of, Not Tolerated in Colony. . . 

Rivalry of . 

Royal Jelly for Baby. 

Shifting, in Swarm Control. 

Undersized or Imperfectly Developed... 

Vagaries of . 

Value of and How to Determine. 

When Take Wedding Flight. 

When They Will be Accepted in a Colony 

Young, How They Destroy Cells. 

Young or Old, Cause of Swarming. 

Quinby and Box Hives. 

Believer in Populous Colonies. 

Inventor of the Bee-smoker. 

Life of.709- 

Successful in Management of Box Hives 

in Early Days. 

Quinby’s Benevolent Spirit Toward Others.. 

Books . 

Early Shipment of Honey to New York. . 
Invention of the Quinby Hive and Closed- 
end Frame . 

R 

Rabbitbrush . 

Races of Bees.713- 

Albinos, Italian . 

Banat . 

Black or German Bees. 

Carniolans . 

Caucasians . 

Eastern . 

East Indian . 

Egyptians . 

Giant Bees of India. 

Holy Lands and Syrians. 

Tiny East Indian Honeybee. 

Tunisians . 

Rain During Fruit Bloom Destructive to Bees 


and Bloom .387, 

Raspberry, Distribution of.717, 

Raspberry, Preferring Northern Woodlands.. 

Rats Feeding on Honey. 

Rats, How to Destroy. 

Recipes for Honey Cooking.473- 

Record-keeping of Hives.719- 


on Hive . 

on Wood Tablets . 

with Book . f . 

with Card Indexes . 

with Loose-leaf Book. 

with Slate . 

Red Clover Affected by Moisture. 

and Bumblebees. 

Dependent upon Bees. 

Refrigerator Cars for Shipping Bees. 

Remedial Measures for Swarm Control. See 
Swarming, Prevention of. 

Reproductive Organs of Drone. 

Reproductive System of Queen.45, 


Reproduction, Sexual . 673 

Reproduction, Vegetative . 672 

Requeening during Swarming.816, 817 

Resting Periods of Bees. 94 

Reversible Frames.722, 723 

Reversing Automatically. 544 

Defined . 722 

Theory of. 722 

Rheumatism and Bee-stings . 786 

Ripening of Honey.94, 95 

Roadside Selling of Honey. 592 

Robbed and Robbing Colonies Exchanging 

Places .. 730 

Robber Cages .729, 730 

Robbers, How to Know. 727 

Robbing . 723- 733 

Caution to Beginners . 732 

Confused with Playflights. 656 

Defined . 723 

Habit When Once Formed. 727 

How Started . 47 

How to Stop.728- 730 

if Not Stopped. 732 

of Nuclei or Weak Colonies. 727 

Passion for . 723 

Tendency Overcome by Outdoor Feeding. 731 
Use of Small Wire Cage to Set Over Col¬ 
ony . 729 

Rocky Mountain Bee Plant. 733 

Rolls for Making Comb Foundation.203, 204 

Root Granulated Honey. 435 

Smoker . 755, 756 

Uncapping-can . 326 

Root’s Personal Recollections of Langstroth.. 


Roping of Foul Brood, American. 368 

Royal Jelly for Baby Queens. 699 

Royal Palm . 651 

Running on Swarm Control. 320 

S 

Sacbrood .376, 377 

Cause of . 377 

See Foul Brood. 

Sacking Bees for Moving. 621 

Sage .734- 738 

Different Varieties of .734- 736 

Honey, Quality of . 737 

Important Honey Plant in California .... 734 
Langstroth’s Description of the Honey.. 738 

Three Species Most Valuable. 734 

Destroyed by Stockmen. 737 

Distribution of, in California. 737 

Other Species of. 738 

Sainfoin . 738 

Sales of Honey, How May be Boosted. 592 

Sams, C. L. 138 

Scale Hive . 739 

at Out-apiary . 646 

Importance of . 739 

Scholz Candy . 178 


Sealed Brood. See Brood and Brood-rearing. 
Scouts Preceding Swarms. See Absconding 
Swarms; also Swarming. 

Second Swarm. See After-swarming. 


Section Holders for Sections. 230 

Honey. See Comb Honey. 

Scraping . 245 

Sections and Separators. 9 

Bait . 239 

Bees Refusing to Enter.239, 240 

Cartons for . 228 

Devices for Holding.229- 232 

Glassed . 228 

Made of Basswood . 91 

Plain and Beeway .231, 332 


See Comb Honey. Appliances for; and 
Hives. 


76 

140 

140 

139 

140 

139 

705 

96 

526 

19 

76 

76 

76 

697 

927 

793 

794 

19 

531 

700 

699 

809 

697 

96 

688 

702 

533 

700 

804 

139 

710 

710 

713 

710 

712 

712 

1 

710 

713 

717 

715 

715 

713 

714 

714 

715 

716 

715 

717 

715 

716 

715 

414 

718 

718 

865 

719 

482 

722 

721 

721 

719 

720 

720 

721 

200 

171 

395 

744 

44 

46 
































































































































956 


INDEX 


Tall versus Square.227, 228 

Unfinished, What to Do with. 243 

When to Put on. 234 

Sectional Honey Box, Development of. 545 

Seeding Alfalfa .30, 31 

Self-spacing Devices, Various Styles of.. 384, 385 

Self-spacing Frames, Advantages of. 386 

Frames. See Frames, Self-spacing, and 
Hives. 

Hoffman .383, 384 

Selling Honey in a Retail Way. 591, 592 

Honey in Connection with Live-bee Dem¬ 
onstrations .501-503, 592, 633 


Honey. See Bottling Honey, Extracted 
Honey, Comb Honey, Marketing Hon¬ 
ey, Shipping Cases and Specialty in 


Bees. 

Honey Thru the Groceries. 593 

Honey to Reliable Concerns with a Rat¬ 
ing Important . 591 

Separators for Comb Honey. 9 

for Sections .230, 231 

See Comb Honey, Appliances for. 

Sex, Origin of, in Plants. 667 

Sexual Maturity of Drones. 284 

Shade and its Influence on Swarming. 811 

for Apiaries . 59- 61 

for Hives. See Apiary. 

for Swarm Control. 811 

Shaken Swarms . 80 

Shaking Treatment for American Foul Brood 367 

Shallow Extracting-supers for Stimulative 

Brood-rearing . 236 

Shallow Supers of Honey for Wintering. 926 

Shipments of Bees in Carlots, How to Pre¬ 
pare .741- 743 

Shipping Bees .740- 749 

Bees by Boat. 745 

Bees in Carlots from North to South... 740 
Bees in Carlots, Importance of Spraying 

Bees . 743 

Bees in Refrigerator Cars. 744 

Bees Long Distance by Express.623, 624 

Bees without Combs.746- 748 

Cases for Comb Honey.749- 753 

Cases, Home-made, Objections to. 751 

Cases Made of Corrugated Paper. 751 

Cases, Poorly Designed. 749 

Cases with Corrugated Paper in Bottom. 750 

Comb Honey in Carlots . 752 

Comb Ploney in Carlots, Importance of 

Bracing Well . 753 

Shook Swarms Swarming. 80 

Shook Swarming. See Artificial Swarming. 

Shrubbery in Apiaries.49, 56, 58 

Simmins’ Fasting Method of Introducing.... 541 

Simplicity Feeder . 351 

Skep .753, 754 

Skep. See Hives, Evolution of. 

Skunks, Enemies of Bees. 297 

Sladen on Bumblebees. 177 

Smith’s Introducing Cage.537, 538 

Smoke and Smokers.754- 760 

Using Too Much . 759 

the Value of, in Handling Bees. 755 

Abuses of . 757 

Smoker, Bee .•. 11 

First Invented by Quinby. 755 

Fuel for .756, 757 

How to Use.12, 757- 759 

Improved by Bingham and Root. 755 

Invention of . 543 

Soils for Clover. 189 

Soils Made Adapted to Clover. 4 

Solar Wax Extractor.871, 872 

Solitary Bees . 760- 766 

and Flower Pollination. 760 

for Collecting Pollen . 659 


Habits of Nest-building Bees. 763 

Host Bees and Guest Bees. 763 

in Two Groups. 760 

Long-tongued . 762 

Parasitic . 766 

Short-tongued Variety . 760 

Somerford’s Method of Forming Nuclei. 630 

Sourwood .766, 767 

Enormous Yielder under Certain Condi¬ 
tions .-.. 767 

in the South . 767 

Sometimes Confused with Black Gum. ... 767 

Where Found . 766, 767 

Spacing Frames .381, 767, 768 

Space, Bee. See Bee-space. 

Spacing of Combs, Dadant on. 811 

Spanish Needles .768, 769 

in Indiana . 769 

Swamp . 769 

Specialist Beekeepers . 1 

Beekeepers, Where Located. 770 

Beekeeping, Requirements for. 770 

Specialty in Bees.769, 770 

Species of Alfalfa. 21 

of Bees . 5 

of Stingless Bees. 116 

Specific Gravity of Honey. 770 

Spermatozoa of Drones. 45 

Spermatozoa Received at Mating. 703 

Spiders, Enemies of Bees. 298 

Spikeweed . 770 

Spray Pump for Controlling Swarms. 800 

Spraying Bees in Carload Shipments to Keep 

Them Cool . 743 

Destructive to the Brood. See Fruit Blos¬ 
soms. 

for the Codling Moth.390, 391 

Fruit Trees. See Fruit Blossoms. 

Spray Poisoning, Financial Loss to Beekeep¬ 
ers Due to. 389 

Spray Poisoning, Symptoms of. 389 

Spreading Brood . 771 

Danger in . 771 

Largely Abandoned . 771 

When it Can Be Practiced. 771 

Spring Dwindling .771- 773 

Cause of . 772 

Caused Sometimes by Bad Food. 772 

in the North Same as Winter Dwindling 

in California . 772 

Not a Disease. 771 

Reduced by Packing. .. 773 

Remedy for . 7 73 

Sometimes Due to Dysentery. 772 

Spring Management .773- 775 

Closing the Entrances of Dead Colonies. . 774 

Equalizing Colonies . 775 

Importance of Examining Colonies. 773 

Not Necessary if Colony is Well-fed and 

Well-housed . 773 

Use of Paper-wrapped Combs. 774 

Warmly Housing When Taken from the 

Cellar . 774 

Starters versus Full Sheets. 223 

Starved or Neglected Brood. 376 

States of the Whole Country Variously Com¬ 
pared for the Keeping of Bees.568- 571 

States Having Foul Brood Laws. 562 

Statistics Concerning the Bee and Honey 

Business .775- 778 

Steam for Bottling Honey. 132 

Sting. Barbs of . 787 

How It Works into the Flesh. 785 

Illustrated . 42 

Mechanical Construction of.786, 787 

of the Bee.39, 40 

Poison . 785 

Poison, Odor of. 785 



























































































































INDEX 


957 


Stinging, Cause of .47- 

Stinging of Horses and Cattle.109- 

Stingless Bees .116- 

How They Bite. 

Where Found .. 

Stings .778- 

and Rheumatism . 

as a Remedial Agent. 


Elimination of, by Modern Appliances. . 
Fear of, Keeping Persons Out of Bee¬ 
keeping . 

Few, Received by the Practical Beekeeper 

' Hollow Construction of. 

How Avoided ....12, 13, 580, 779, 783, 
How One May Become Comparatively 

Immune to . 

Importance of Removing Immediately.. 
Not Always Prevented by Smoke. ...... 

of Queen . 

Operating after Separated from the Bees 

Proper Way to Remove.779, 

Remedies for . 

Severe, What to Do in Emergencies.780, 

Veils as a Protection Against.778, 

Stores for Brood-rearing . 

Good or Bad in the Cellars. 

Natural, versus Sugar for Wintering... 
Should be Abundant for Production of 

Extracted Honey . 

Strain of Bees Immune to Disease. 

Straining Honey during Extracting. 


Straw Skeps .753, 

Stung, Rules for Avoiding Being.783, 


Success or Failure Dependent upon Proper 

Manipulation of Colonies. 

Sucrose . 

Sucrose Converted into Invert Sugar. 

Sugar, Beet and Cane Compared. 

Cane . 

from a Chemical Standpoint. 

Granulated . 

Sucrose . 

Various Kinds of. 

Sumac Honey, Quality of. 

Sumac, Species of . 

Sunflower, Species of . 

Sunflower, Wild, of Florida. 

Super Springs . 

Super T for Sections. 


Supers Comb Honey, Tiering Up.240, 

Early Work in, for Swarm Control. 

for Plain Sections.232, 

in Extracting, Freeing of Bees. 323, 


Shifting from One Colony to Another.241, 

When and How to Put on... .. 

Supersedure Cells Distinguished from Swarm¬ 
ing Cells . 

Supersedure of Queens Defined. 

Swarm Accompanied by Some Drones. 


Acompanied by Young Queen. 

Catcher .800, 

Catcher, Automatic . 

Cluster on a Limb.796, 

Control by Removal of Queen. 

Control, Coveyou’s Plan. 

Control in Extracting.319, 


Control of Importance, Worker Comb... 
Control, Queen-excluders for. 


Control, Ventilation for. 

from Supersedure Cells. 

Hook . 

How to Hive.796- 

Prime .791) 

Prime, with Young Queen. 

Swarming .790- 


After. See After-swarming. 

and Queen-cells . 

Artificial . 


Artificial, When Practicable. 79 

Bag . 798 

Bees Good-natured . 792 

Box . 12 

Cause of .803- 807 

Cells Distinguished from Supersedure 

Cells . 815 

Controlled by Clipping. 795, 796 

Controlled by Early Work in Supers... 812 
Controlled by Large or Small Hives.... 808 
Controlled by Manipulation of Brood- 

chambers .808,. 809 

Controlled by Removal of Brood. 815 

Controlled by Shade. 811 

Controlled by Strong Colonies. 811 

Demaree Plan of Controlling.815- 817 

Device, Manum’s . 799 

Devices . 798- 801 

Events Leading up to. 791 

Factors That Influence. 794 

from Lack of Stores. 794 

How Affected by Honey Flow. 794 

How Started . 96 

Inclination, Detecting . 272 

Indicated by Piping .. 793 

Influence of Age of Queens. 804 

Influence of Drones. 804 

Influence of, Hereditary. 804 

Influence of Size of Hives. 804 

Influenced by Field Bees.805, 806 

Influenced by Locality . 807 

Influenced by Queen. 810 

Influenced by Removal of Brood. 812 

Influenced by Room for Ripening Nectar 812 
Influenced by Sealed Honey in Brood-nest 811 

Influenced by Young Bees. 805 

Loss from . 795 

Natural Method of Reproduction. 803 

Necessary Evil .19, 795 

One Factor Always Present.806, 807 

Out . 803 

Out, How to Check. 803 

Plurality of Queens in. 794 

Preparation for . 795 

Prevented hy Destroying Queen-cells 813, 814 

Prevention of .795, 796, 807- 814 

Reduced by Shifting Queen. 809 

Remedial Measures .814- 817 

Season . 794 

Symptoms of . 791 

Tendency Reduced by Breeding Stock.. 808 

Various Kinds Defined.790, 791 

When Occurs . 795 

Swarms, Absconding. See Absconding Swarms. 

After . 792- 794 

Brought Down by Bells. 15 

Bushel Basket for . 800 

Buying of Farmers. 121 

Checked with Clipping Queen. 803 

Clustering on Unusual Places.14, 15 

Controlled by Removal of Queen. 815 

Controlled by Spray Pump. 800 

from Hunger . 791 

Going to the Woods. 13 

Inaccessible to Get. 797 

on Combs or Foundation.802, 803 

Proportion of Old and Young Bees. 792 

Second. See After-swarming. 

Shaken Artificially . 80 

to Bring from a Distance. 798 

What to Hive on. 802, 803 

When They Break Cluster. 792 

Sweet Clover .818- 832 

Abundant in Canada and the New Eng¬ 
land States . 821 

Also Known as Bokhara Clover. 818 

as Cover Crop. 830 

as Excellent Pasture . 824 


49 

111 

118 

118 

117 

788 

786 

785 

2 

778 

3 

787 

784 

782 

779 

786 

708 

787 

780 

780 

781 

779 

145 

919 

926 

315 

277 

337 

754 

784 

575 

180 

546 

788 

180 

788 

788 

180 

788 

789 

788 

790 

790 

230 

229 

241 

812 

233 

324 

242 

236 

815 

790 

792 

793 

801 

801 

797 

816 

808 

320 

810 

809 

810 

791 

800 

801 

792 

794 

818 

79 

79 




































































































































958 


INDEX 


as Honey Plant . 

as Soil Improver. 

Cumarin in . 

for Hog Pasture . 

Good Seed Bed for. 

Growing for Seed. 

Has Strong Odor and Bitter Taste Due 

to Cumarin . 

Honey . .. 

How Much to Sow. 

Improving Run-down Land. 

in Alabama and Mississippi. 

in Limestone Hills of Kentucky. 

in North-Central States. 

in the West.. 

Inoculation . 

More Virtues of . 

Scarifying Machine . 

Second Year Growth . 

Seed, Making Germinate. 

Small Yellow . 

Soils Suitable for . 

Sowing with Oats... 

Species of . 

Straw after Thrashing. 


Summary . 

to Seed . 

Valuable for Hay.825, 

White . 

Wide Distribution of . 

White Annual .832- 


White Annual, Discovered by Professor 
Hughes of the Iowa Experiment Sta¬ 
tion . 

White Annual, Rapidity of Growth. .832- 
Syrup for Feeding. See Feeding and Feeders. 
Syrup, How to Make.. 

T 

Tarsonemus Woodi, Cause of Isle of Wight 


Disease .279, 

Teaching and Beekeeping. 

Temper of Bees During Swarming. 

Temper of Bees. See Anger of Bees. 

Temperature .835-' 

at Entrance in Cellars. 


at Right Point in a Bee-Cellar Important 
During Winter, How Affected by Disturb¬ 
ance . 

Electric Thermometers . 

Experiment Conducted by Phillips and 

Demuth . 

for Brood-rearing .. 

How Affected by Good and Bad Stores. . 
How Bees Keep it Down in Hot Weather 

How Bees Raise or Lower It.838, 

Important Part in the Bottling of Honey 

in Cellars, Variable, Bad. 

in Cluster during Winter Variable., 836- 

of Cellar . 

of Cluster .810, 836-839, 

of Colony, Various Observers Have Been 

Deceived in . 

of Winter Cluster When It is Quietest.. 
One of the Most Important Factors in Bee 

Culture . 

Point When Bees Raise It During Winter 


to Arrest Granulation. 

Territory for Bees, Moral Rights of.647, 

Theory, Gerstung’s, on Swarming. 

Tiering Up .240, 

Tiering Up, Caution Concerning. 

Titi, Species of . 

Titi Honey, Quality of . 

Thick-top Frames .379, 

Thistles, Canada . 

Tin Cans Improperly Boxed.312, 

Tiny East Indian Honeybee. 


T Supers for Sections. 229 

Tongue of Bee, How It Works. 37 

Tongue of Bee Illustrated. 39 

Tools for Bee Work.11, 576- 579 

Tracheal System of Bee. 36 

Tracheal System of Bee Infected by Parasites 

. 278, 279 

Trailer for Out-Apiary Work. 643 

Transferring .840- 845 

Defined . 840 

Drumming for . 842 

Elton Warner Method. 844 

Heddon Short Way of. 844 

Plow Done . 841 

How to Fasten Combs in Frames. 843 

Sams, C. L. on.841, 842 

Tools Necessary for . 841 

Putting Combs into Frames. 843 

When . 840 

Without Using Old Combs. 844 

Travel-stain. See Comb Honey. 

Trees, Hollow, Bees Found There. 13 

Tulip Tree .845- 848 

Distribution of .846, 847 

Early Bloomer . 847 

Flower of . 846 

Honey . 847 

Other Names for . 845 

Phillips on . 847 

Tunisians . 715 

Tupelo .126, 848- 852 

Black .848, 849 

Honey of . 848 

Ploney, Where Sold. 848 

Other Names for . 848 

Species of. 848 

White .■. 848 

Tupelos, Black and White Found in Swamp 

Lands of Virginia and Florida.851 

Tupelos in Apalachicola Regions of Florida.. 851 

U 

Uncapping-box, Townsend’s . 334 

Can, Root . 326 

Combs in a Large Way.332- 334 

Knife . 545 

Knife, Heated by Steam. 545 

Knife, Root . 327 

Knives and Uncapping Equipment for 

Extracting .332, 333 

United States Census on Bees Better Than a 

Guess . 777 

Relating to Bees Misleading. 775 

Report Showing Beekeeping on Farms.. . 776 

Uniting, Alexander Plan.773, 854, 855 

Alexander Plans Modified. 855 

Bees .852- 855 

Bees, Defined . 852 

Before Bees Are Set Out of the Cellar. . 774 

Difficulty in . 852 

How It May Cause Fighting Among the 

Bees . 852 

How to Prevent Bees in Same Yard from 

Going Back . 853 

in the Spring. 854 

Newspaper Plan of..... . 853 

of New Swarms. 853 

Out-apiary Bees . 852 

to Cure Spring Dwindling. 773 

Unspaced Frames, How to Handle. 581 

V 

Van Deusen’s Reversible Frames. 722 

Vegetative Reproduction . 572 

Veil, Bee . n 

How to Get Along Without. 858 

Warmus and Gloves Combined. 859 

Veils .•.855- 860 


820 

823 

819 

824 

827 

830 

819 

820 

829 

823 

822 

822 

821 

822 

828 

830 

829 

826 

828 

818 

819 

827 

818 

828 

831 

826 

826 

818 

819 

835 

832 

834 

350 

280 

106 

792 

839 

918 

836 

837 

837 

837 

78 

838 

835 

839 

836 

919 

839 

923 

918 

837 

838 

835 

839 

248 

648 

805 

241 

241 

839 

840 

380 

178 

313 

716 




























































































































INDEX 


959 


and Clothing Suitable for Women... 858- 

Convenient if Not a Necessity. 

Indestructible . 

Made of Wire Cloth. 

Objections to . 

of Brussels-netting and Silk Tulle.. 856, 
Various Methods of Fastening to Waist 

. 856, 

Variously Constructed . 856- 

Ventilating, How Bees Do Their Own. 

Ventilation .. . .860- 

and Swarming . 

at Entrances Usually Sufficient. 

How Bees Obtain it Under Extreme Cir¬ 
cumstances .862, 

in Swarm Control . 

of Bee Cellars .861, 921, 

of Supers During Hot Weather.860, 

Ventilators, Sub-earth .. 

Vinegar Making, Hydrometer for. 

Dark, Strong-flavored Honey, Excellent. 

Honey .863, 

Honey, Color and Flavor of. 

How to Make . 

How to Mix Honey and Water to Make. . 

Virgin Queens, Introducing . 

Virgin Queens, Why It is Difficult to Introduce 

Vitamines, Anti-scorbutic . 

Experiments on Rats . 

Fat-soluble A. 

in Comb Honey. 3, 867, 

in Honey .472, 864- 

in Honey, Hawk’s Experiments. 

Necessary to Some Foods... 

Water-soluble B . 

Water-soluble C ... 


W 

Wasps, Destructive to Bees. 

Water for Bees .868, 

for Bees, Necessary in Brood-rearing. . . . 

How Bees Extract from Nectar. 

How to Give to Bees. 

Wax .869- 


Beeswax and Other Waxes. 

Bees Bleaching . 

Cleaning from Utensils. 

Comb Foundation from . 

Compound for Comb Foundation. 

Extractor, Solar .871, 

Glands of Bee . 

How Bees Make. 

How to Detect Adulteration. 

Pinchers on Bees. 

Polishes . 

Press, Double .881- 

Press, Double, with Two Screws in Place 

of Large Press . 

Press, Hatch . 

Press, Hot Water.874-877, 880- 

Presses, How to Use.876- 

Presses, Steam . 

Rendering . 

Rendering from Old Combs.872- 

Rendering in Large Quantities.881- 

Rendering, Old-fashioned Way of...872, 

Scales from Honeybee.483, 

Scales, How Bees Remove. 

Scales Secreted During Swarming Time. . 

Substances Classed as Such.869, 

Worms, How to Detect Presence of. 600, 
Worms. See Moth Miller. 

Weather Affecting Clover. 

Weather Conditions and How They Affect 

Temper of Bees . 

Wedding Flight of Queen and Drone. 

. 6 , 7, 284, 285, 

Weight of Bees . 886 - 


White Clover. See Clover. 

Holly. See Gallberry. 

Sage . 736 

Wood. See Tulip Tree. 

White, Dr., on Sacbrood. 377 

Why Women Should Keep Bees. 104 

Why Women Should Not Keep Bees. 103 

Wild Cherry . 888 

Wild Sunflower. See Sunflower. 

Willow .888- 890 

Doolittle on . 890 

Early Blooming . 889 

Pussy . 889 

Willow-herb .890- 894 

Distribution of. 890 

Effect of Cool Nights on. 893 

Honey . 893 

Honey Flow from. 892 

in Michigan Forests . 891 

Propagation of . 893 

Quality of Honey of. 894 

Windbreak . 897 

Windbreaks for Apiaries .61- 64 

for Wintering, Importance of.908- 913 

Made up of Panels. 910 

Natural . 910 

Wing, Clipping to Prevent Absconding. 14 

Winter Case for Four Colonies, Bartlett’s 

Original . 899 

Case, Four-colony . 901 

Case, Four-colony, Bartlett’s . 901 

Case, Four-colony, Holtermann’s . 901 

Cases, Importance of Fastening Down 

Covers. 902 

Cases of Paper, Inexpensive.903, 904 

Cases, Packing Material for. 902 

Cases, Quadruple, Objections to. 903 

Cellar, Running’s . 915 

Cellar, How to Build. 920 

Cellars, Running’s Specification.... 915, 916 

Diagnosis . 274 

Dwindling, Due to Lack of Pollen. 772 

Dwindling in California. 772 

Entrances . 301 

Entrances with One or More Holes in 

Place of Slots .901, 902 

Feeding . 354 / 355 

in Semi-tropical Countries . 772 

Nests . 912 , 913 

Nests, Letting Bees Form. 911 

Sleep of Bees. 926 - 928 

Stores, Natural versus Sugar Stores.... 914 

Stores, Quality and Quantity of. 914 

Temperature for Cluster of Bees... 836- 839 

Windbreaks for .908- 914 

Wintering . 894 

and its Relation to Crop.,.167, 170 

at Out-apiary . 645 

Bees in a Warm Room. 77 

Bees Under a Shed. 900 

Entrance Contraction in. 900 

Importance of Bottom Packing. 898 

Importance of Cellars Being Frost-proof 

for . 917 

in California . 929 

in Cellars . 915 . 926 

in Cellars in the South. 916 

in Cellars, Some Things to Remember.923- 926 

in Cellars, Where Preferable. 895 

in Double-walled Hives. 898 

in Greenhouses . 77 

in Semi-tropical Climates.928, 929 

in Single-walled Hives, Demuth’s Plan 

of .905- 907 

in Single-walled Hives Outdoors, Unsafe 897 

in Southern States. 928 

in Tenement or Quadruple Cases. 900 


Moisture, Why Forms on Inside of the 


860 

855 

857 

857 

855 

857 

858 

859 

862 

863 

861 

860 

863 

810 

924 

861 

921 

864 

864 

864 

863 

863 

864 

693 

542 

867 

865 

864 

868 

868 

864’ 

864 

864 

864 

299 

869 

868 

869 

869 

886 

870 

885 

886 

870 

870 

872 

38 

871 

885 

871 

870 

883 

881 

876 

883 

880 

875 

871 

884 

884 

873 

871 

871 

871 

870 

601 

189 

580 

702 

888 
































































































































900 


INDEX 


Hive . 908 

on Aster Honey . 82 

Outdoors, Porous Cushions or Sealed 

Covers . 908 

Outdoors, Recapitulation of. 907 

Outdoors, Where Preferable.895, 896 

Shallow Supers of Honey for. 926 

Two Methods Discussed.895, 896 

Two-story Langstroth Hives in Quadruple 

Cases . 902 

Using Artificial Heat. 77 

with Little Packing. 898 

Wire Excluders .288- 290 

Wires Imbedded by Electricity.217, 218 

Wiring Foundation .929- 931 

Wiring, Different Methods .209- 213 

Frames .209-213, 929, 930 

Horizontally, How Introduced. 380 

Value of . 209 

Why it Should he Attached to Brood- 

frames . 930 

Women as Beekeepers. See Beekeeping for 
Women. 

Women Beekeepers . 103 

How They Can Keep Bees.103, 104 


Wood Base for Comb Foundation. 215 

Wood Splint for Support in Foundation. 214 

Worker and Drone Brood, to Distinguish.... 142 

Bees, Age of . 21 

Bees, Their Duties . 5 

Bees, Two Divisions of. 6 

Combs, How to Make Bees Build. 252 

Combs. See Combs. 

Workers, How They Feed Queens. 96 

Workers, Laying. See Laying Workers. 


X 

Xenophon on Poisonous Honey. See Poisonous 


Honey. 

Xylocopa . 932 

Y 

Yellow Poplar. See Tulip Tree. 

Yellow Sweet Clover. See Sweet Clover. 

Yolk of the Queen’s Egg. 269 


Z 

Zinc, Perforated. See Drones, Extracted Hon¬ 
ey, and Swarming. 












































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